...philosopher Socrates lived and breathed for justice. He ironically died for unjust reasons of course but he still lived for what was right. Two thousand four hundred years after his death however, the Nazis managed to destroy the very essence of justice, and life, for millions of their victims. In Auschwitz, as with all concentration camps, justice was non-existent. There are very important things missing from Auschwitz that Socrates would have considered essential for justice to exist. Let us start by confirming above all things that the main point of punishment is a consequence of wrong doing: the degree of punishment agreeing with the degree of crime (hopefully but not always the case). That is the basic idea of justice in my mind. For Primo Levi and twelve million others of the Nazi’s victims in the concentration camps, this was most certainly not the case. Yes the Nazi’s did have political and criminal prisoners that somewhat earned their spot there but the large majority of the prisoners never did anything wrong whatsoever. This is the first and most clear way in which justice was destroyed. Their crime was existing, whether they Jewish, gypsy, handicap, or what have you. On top of that, the crimes against humanity that the Nazis committed were so horrible, so grotesque and unspeakable, that the only deserving victims of such treatment were the ones responsible for it. Socrates stated "Happiness surely does not consist in being delivered from evils, but in never having them." (Gorgias)...
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...Survival in Auschwitz In the book Survival in Auschwitz, the author Primo Levi illustrates the hardships himself and others endured during the capture of Jews in 1943. Originally titled If This Is a Man, Levi expresses captivating images and vivid emotions of his experience of inhumane treatment. The memories indicate the intense and extreme situations all Jews suffered in the totalitarian state of Nazi control. Levi learns an immense amount of survival tactics in order to breathe every waking day of his new life. The weak were tested physically and emotionally as the path of death was effortless, while the road to survival seemed impossible and unachievable. Throughout the narrative, Primo transforms from an apathetic victim to a progressive survivor in the German concentration camp at Auschwitz. The concept of black marketing, knowledge in chemistry and his spirituality all contributed toward the survival of Primo Levi and others in Auschwitz. According to Primo Levi, illegality, deceit, infidelity and sin were all relevant in the concentration camp. These characteristics made up Auschwitz and were used as necessities in order to survive such horrid conditions. Those who were captured and sent to German camps quickly noticed that this was a place where happiness was extinct. Little pieces of bread, shoes or soup bowls were perceived as rather large when consumed and used by other prisoners. The smallest amount of food attracted any inmates, creating trust issues...
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...The Gray Zone by Primo Levi – Summary In the chapter, the gray zone, the author Primo Levi describes the human relationships inside the Lager. In describing the gray zone, Levi discusses the different roles of prisoners assigned by the Nazi. The prisoners that did the work were seen as being more privileged which at the end of the day helped them get more food and live better. Therefore, the concept of the gray zone is analyzing the difference between the privileged and the non-privileged in the Lager. The difference can be seen by the tasks that the prisoners carried out, for example, one of the groups were seen as, “Low ranking functionaries... sweepers, kettle washers, night watchmen, bed smoothers... checkers of lice and scabies, messengers, interpreters, assistants’ assistants. In general, these people poor devils like ourselves, who worked full time like everyone else but who for an extra half liter of soup were willing to carry out these and other ‘tertiary’ functions.” This group was seen as harmless and not much different than the underprivileged. The other group of prisoners in the Lager was seen as the enemies to their own people. They were referred to as the Kapos who were “free to commit the worst atrocities on their subject as punishment for any transgressions, or even without any motive whatsoever: until the end of 1943 it was not unusual for a prisoner to be beaten to death by a Kapo without the latter having to fear any sanctions.” The prisoners that became...
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...PART I Night In 1941 Ellie lived in Transylvanian, there he studied Talmud and other Jewish studies, such as Kabbalah. After learning with Moshe the Beadle, the Hungarians evacuated all foreign Jews as-well with Moshe. Moshe was able to escape and returned several months later, and explained the brutal treatment that they encountered, but most people did not believe him. 1944 the Nazis gained power in Hungry, and all Jews were crowded into a small ghetto. After a while the Nazis started to deport all the Jews in the ghetto to Auschwitz. On the train the Jews were packed in, with almost no air to breathe, everyone was thirsty and hungry. After some days of traveling the Jews arrived in Czech, and a German officer takes over the train. The officer warned everyone that to give of their valuables or get shot. The train doors were then nailed to prevent people from escaping. Madame Schächter, was the first person to go crazy on the train, she starts to yell about a fire, which is not there. After some time a few boys beat her to silent as her son watches in fear, but the next night she started to yell once again. The Jews arrive in Auschwitz, but it was not as they have been told. They were told although it is a labor camp; the families will be kept as one. As the train traveled through the barb wire they see chimneys of smoke, and there is terrible smell, which they later find out that it is human flesh. The camp that they arrived in is the processing camp for Auschwitz. At Birkenau...
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...entirely inappropriate in another group of countries. However Levis has being able to success turns on its ability to create a global strategy that does not strangle in local initiative. It is a delicate balancing act, one that often means giving foreign managers the freedom needed to adjust their tactics to meet the changing tastes of their home markets. Levi always tries to minimize the degree to which culture prevents them from producing standardized promotional campaigns. This is because of the benefits of economies of scale and the higher quality that can be obtained for a single advert than for a multiplicity of local adverts. International Marketing Management Levis Strauss & Co. University College Dublin 3 Culture can also be a barrier in relation to the suitability of the product in particular local markets. Countries differ in their tastes and fashions may create the need for adaptation. For example, in Islamic countries females are discouraged from wearing tight fitting dress. Likewise, Japanese consumers prefer tighter fitting jeans than the American counterparts. It is therefore evident that fit, design and style of jeans need to be adapted to meet the requirements of the local buyers. The appropriate colors to use both in the product and the promotional materials also have cultural dimensions. For example, the white color is associated with death in China but black is the color of death in Europe. Levi Strauss when setting up its own direct sales force found that...
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...time working inside, and this was most probably the reason he survived till the Red Army freed the camp in 1945 (Levi,...
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...LEVI STRAUSS JAPAN K.K. CASE REPORT TIME CONTEXT : May 1993 POINT OF VIEW : Mr. A. John Chappell President and Representative Director MAIN PROBLEM: Levi Strauss Japan K.K. is faced with the dilemma of shrinkage of jeans market. It appeared that after two years of shrinkage (1990, 1991) the market contracted further in 1992. SECONDARY PROBLEMS: 1. Part of the shrinkage of the market can be attributed to the very selective way of choosing retail outlet and sales agents of Levi Strauss Japan K.K. 2. Another cause of market shrinkage is due to the specialization of competitors mainly on women’s jean that brought the industry to a stiff competition. 3. In the side of Japan government, another factor detrimental to the company’s market size is its imposed policy like lowering birth rate and demographic shift to older population which Levi Strauss needs to cope. COMPANY OBJECTIVES: To increase market share of Levi Strauss Japan K.K. from 16% to 20% by the year 1995 and continuously produce quality products that never goes out of style. AREAS OF CONSIDERATION: SWOT ANALYSIS: STRENGTHS 1. Levi Strauss Japan K.K. has an established name in the jeans industry since it had been in operations last 1971. It has been known with its quality product that never goes out of style. 2. LSJ employed a similar strategy to Levi Strauss in the US emphasizing heavy advertising spending. Since 1976, LSJ spent...
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...double-spaced, with standard 1” margins, and good use of the text/s or film/s discussed, indicate and identify quotations in the accepted academic way (which I or the Writing Lab will be glad to make clear if necessary) without resort to unnecessary foot- or endnotes. Note that you also have the option of writing on an idea of your own as long as you deal with a work on the syllabus and run it by me first, and that you may expand your presentation, if you have given one. 1. “Primo Levi entitles his first book If This Is a Man (Si questo e un uomo), but it became well known and read widely in translation from the Italian as Survival in Auschwitz aspects of the book.” Discuss. 2. Discuss the possible significance in the narrative as a whole of the episode in Elie Wiesel’s Night (pp. 58-9 in the Hill and Wang edition) where Elie finds his Kapo Idek having sex with a young woman in the empty warehouse. 3. In the last three paragraphs of Chapter 13 of Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi describes a man called Kuhn praying aloud, “thanking God that he has not been chosen” in “the great selection of October 1944.” In the title story of This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen Tadek writes of “naked, sweat drenched men” crowding the barrack aisles, and “directly beneath me [. . .] a rabbi” reading from a Hebrew prayer book and “wailing loudly, monotonously” (Penguin, p. 31). Compare the perspectives in these two scenes and the tone and attitudes of each narrator...
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...1. How does their story of survival compare to that of Primo Levi? 2. Why do you think Art Spiegelman draws the characters of his book as mice, cats, pig etc.? 3. Maus 4. What was Vladek like? 5. Vladek is an older person with a very précised in what he want and he son see this as being annoying. He feels you need to be aware of everything. He does not trust people specially his second wife Mala. He has hearth problems and he is diabetic. Sometime he used his sickness to his advantage. 6. During the Holocaust, he exhibited a spectacular resourcefulness, work ethic, and presence of mind that often enabled him to secure food, shelter, and safety for himself and his family. He was a shrewd businessman, and in the most troubling times he saved everything of use. In 1978, he still saves everything and tries to exchange those things that he no longer needs. Once so resourceful and competent, he is still constantly working on small projects, some of which he is incapable of completing. Vladek's personality is largely dominated by his Holocaust experiences. 7. What do we know of his life before the holocaust? 8. He was a happy bachelor living his life in the small city of Czestochowa. He used to sell textiles. Vladek was organized person his apartment was small but organized. He met Anja and soon he felt in love with her. When Anja take him to her house to meet her parent, he checks her clothes to see what kind of wife she will be. To his surprise she...
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...I craned my neck from my comfy bed to look at the rain-splattered window. The sky was sorrow, covered with an ebony blanket, not a single glittery beads or shining emerald could be seen. Then my gaze flicked on the alarm clock beside me. 0330 was the number plastered on the plastic surface of the square alarm clock with red lights. “Papa should be here” I uttered the words with my little child voice. As I laid myself in a fetal position, holding close to my chest the picture-perfect moment captured by the piece of paper, was my beloved family. Mummy was wearing a vermillion dress that showed her slender figure smiling timidly with her eyes closed as daddy land a kiss on her forehead, standing handsomely with the black tuxedo. I stood in the middle, focusing on the camera with my eyes widen as big as I could as I feared that the flash of the camera make me blinked my glistened jovial eyes. Out of the blue, I heard footsteps coming from downstairs and before I could move, the light from outside loomed into my bedroom as he door has a slither opening. I ran towards the door with my small steps and the seconds I hold the knob, there standing in front of me was my father. “I’m sorry dear, I should read you a bedtime story now” he said with a penitent smile, holding me inside his embrace. Sunlight kissed my eyelids and soon my retinas started accustomed to the piercing ray of the eye of heaven. The tranquil ambiance filled my bedroom as I land my gaze to the lush green leaves...
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...case, problems can occur due to ethical and cultural barriers in global expansion. In this paper, I will attempt to show some of what a global organization and a cultural issue that affects their interactions outside the United States by identifying and comparing some of these cultural differences. One company that faces these cultural issues daily is Levis Strauss and Company. Levi Strauss and Company is a large American company found in 1853 and it well known for its denim line. Currently Levis Strauss and Co. has operations in over 110 countries with over half of its corporate revenues coming from outside the United States. In American history, we have all heard complaints of companies in the garment industry hiring underage employees outside the United States and poor working conditions. Levis Strauss and Company has not been left out of these accusations. In the United States, child labor is considered unethical and illegal. Levis Strauss and Companies has established a “Worldwide Code of Business Conduct” along with its “Global Anti-bribery and Anti-Corruption Policy” (Levis Strauss and CO., n d). Within Levis Strauss and Companies “Worldwide Code of Business Conduct it states” These...
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...Why Choose to Go On Living? Even in the most terrible conditions imaginable, suffering is not meaningless, and one can choose to endure circumstance through discovering purpose. The idea that anyone could have survived the brutal conditions endured within the concentration camps during the holocaust is somewhat inconceivable, and yet, we have first-hand accounts from survivors of what took place within these prisons. Throughout the writings and memoirs of these individuals we discover the nuances and underpinnings of what camp life was like. In the book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Psychologist Victor Frankl describes his experiences in the Nazi death camps and implies that his wife symbolizes love and purpose. This essay will give four instances from the book that will explain the ways in which the author shows his wife as a symbol for love and purpose, and in the process citing the book, as well as academic sources. The first instance in which his wife symbolizes love in the novel is shown by Frankl’s revelation of the true meaning of love. As noted by Wünschmann, “Concentration camp incarceration was equivalent to 'social death'; the prisoners were physically isolated from society and, if released, carried a lasting stigma.” (578). Frankl experienced this as he writes about his day-to-day life being a prisoner in concentration camps. He writes about the thoughts of his wife which in turn brought up strong feelings of love and helped him to push through the day. Frankl notes...
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...The conditions that Levi faced at Auschwitz and how he handles shows the struggle of the basic survival instinct. The entrance sign that was at Auschwitz had the phrase on it “Arbeit Macht Frei” which roughly translates to “work will set you free.” This phrase has been seen in almost every documentary about Auschwitz. It was to inspire hope in the arriving prisoners, but it was nothing more than a lie to keep them motivated to work. Near the end of Levis days at Auschwitz, he and the remaining prisoners are left to fend for themselves as the Soviets approach. It was the winter season and with conditions rapidly deteriorating at the camp, many began to die from illness. When scene, however, easily depicts the main theme of survival from Levis...
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...Alexia Gonzalez Political Science 4823: The Holocaust/ the Shoah Final Paper December 12, 2013 The Comparative Analysis of the Holocaust Ethnic cleansing and genocide are considered to coexist in a spectrum of assaults on nations or religio-ethnic groups. These threats were more prominent during the 20th century which caused massive violations of human rights and jeopardized the overall security of humans. Determinants of ethnic cleansing and genocide root from socio-political factors influenced by deeply embedded ideologies which are manifested by political leaders of specific regime types. During World War II, German authorities targeted Jews and other minority groups like the gypsies and Pols due to their perceived racial inferiority. The German ideology in attempt to eradicate these auxiliary groups led to the conflict known as the Shoah. The Shoah is the biblical word meaning destruction and it is the standard Hebrew term for the murder of European Jewry. The Shoah was the systematic, bureaucratic and state sponsored persecution of six million Jews. Comparable to other ethnic based genocides, Germans believed they were racially superior and that Jews were inferior; and deemed a threat to the “German racial community” resulting in their mass murder. Various interpretations of the Shoah has given rise to similar attitudes and opinions regarding its historical events. The Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database, is one of the largest resources of its kind which includes...
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...distant from existing customers, products, and channels” Finally, the fourth cause is the talent bench shortfall that is “a lack of leaders and staff with the skills and capabilities required for strategy execution” Authors emphasize that these causes are mainly within management control since they result from “a choice about strategy or organizational design” They point out that awareness and understanding of these causes assist companies in avoiding the growth stalls. In addition, the article demonstrates few practices that some companies use to predict and prevent the problem. The article provides examples of companies that have faced the crisis. For instance, the premium position captivity reason was among the main factors causing Levi Strauss to lose its share of market. The company failed to note changes in customer preferences and demand. As a result, companies responsive to a new customer demand successfully entered the market and gained ground. Next, 3M fell into the innovation management breakdown trap when they decided to launch new products in the market. Almost every company in the world...
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