Reading Response

1. Valeria Pollard
UWRT 1102-013
Wertz-Orbaugh
Peter Suedfeld, Helen Paterson, Erin Soriano, and Samantha Suvic worked together to
obtain data and create conclusions through the results of this data. According to the article
“Lethal Stereostypes: Hair and Eye Color as Survival Characteristics During the Holocaust,” the
survival rate of any individual during the Holocaust was based off appearance. This article states,
“The psychosocial stereotyping of Jews, as parasites upon or infections within society, the
essence of corruption and evil, was elaborated in a list of socially undesirable and sometimes
mutually contradictory characteristics” (2369). This quote demonstrates how the authors argue
that the deaths of the Holocaust were based on physical appearance. Any person with dark-
colored hair and/or eyes was determined to be a Jew. Anybody that was portrayed as a Jew was
murdered during the Holocaust. The results that helped Peter, Helen, Erin, and Samantha come
to a conclusion came from questionnaires given to Holocaust survivors residing across the world
including the United States and Canada. The control group for the statistics of the questionnaire
were Jews that stayed in the United States during the Holocaust. The questionnaire asked for sex,
age, hair color, eye color, and the survival outcome. The results came out to concur with the
ideas of the four authors. The results showed that hair and eye color influenced the survival of
the human beings involved in the Holocaust. The people with light hair color and light eye color
had a higher survival percentage than the people with dark hair color and dark eye color. This
article is very informative and interesting, but it misses some key ideas.
To begin with, the article is correct and persuasive. It is true that lethal stereotypes
occurred in the time that Hitler ruled Nazi Germany. Hitler believed in Darwin’s Theory of

2. Evolution and incorporated it into his ideals and concepts, so Hitler began to get rid of what he
believed to have been, “the weaker race.” I believe all the facts and opinions provided in the
article concur with my own opinions. Of course, the Jews that appeared to have light-colored
hair and eyes would have a higher survival rate. Anyone that looked like the inferior, Hitler
would automatically order his troops to execute. I completely agree with everything the article
states, but some things could have been added to the article to make it more powerful and
persuasive.
However, the article does not show the other side of the argument. For a person to have a
strong opinion on a matter, they must be given the two sides of an argument. This article could
have included the Hitler’s ideas. The authors should have included Hitler’s reasons to produce
mass murders of the Jewish community. Also, the purpose of the article could have been
clarified. The conclusion talks about the effects of stereotypes in warfare and prosecution. This
idea is good, but only one example is given. The authors could have included more examples to
cohere with their purpose of the article. If these ideas were given, the reader would acknowledge
that Hitler’s idea were inhumane, and they would have felt stronger about the upsets of lethal
stereotypes.
Even though there were a couple things that could have been added to the article to make
it more informative, most of the article was very persuasive. The authors did a good job to prove
the credibility of the studies conducted. They provided how the studies were conducted, and they
also provided the list of people and professors that checked these studies for credibility and
efficiency. The arguments in this article were well presented and demonstrated and very similar
to my personal opinions.