The two thiefs with Jesus. Were they Jews or Gentiles?

I would assume, that since they were in Jerusalem, that they would be Jews. The chances of them being a non-Jew are slim, but possible. The scripture does not specify, but one could speculate that the thief that asked Jesus to remember him was familiar with (Luke 23:39-43) Jesus since he said that "he did nothing wrong".

Also the thief that cursed Jesus said, "Aren't you the Christ? (v. 39)" The Roman soldiers called him the "king of the Jews (v.36)."

Only a Jew, or someone that knew Jewish religion/culture well, would know what a Messiah/Christ was. As for why the rush? It was passover.

They wanted to get back to the festivities. See John 19:31-33.

The canonical gospels do not specify. There is a tradition, supported by the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, that one of the thieves had been baptized. He may have been a Jew before, though not necessarily.

He is the "good thief", who asked forgiveness of Jesus in Luke. The other is said to have railed against Jesus (though Matthew and Mark say that both did). He may well have been a Jew, since much of the mockery concerned his claim to be King of the Jews, but it's not certain.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.