One Survivor Remembers Blog

Today in class we watched a video about Gerda Weissmann and her experience of the Holocaust. The scene that was most powerful to me was when she was explaining the split of her family. Her brother was sent to fight, her father was sent to work, and her and her mother were separated very early in her captivity by Germans. Out of all of that, the thing that I am still thinking about is when all the others girls that were separated from their mothers were put on a truck, and Gerda’s mother was going the other way her mother said, “Where to,” Gerda replied, “I don’t know,” after this she jumped off the cart to go with her mother but a man there quickly picked her up and put her back on the cart saying, “Your too young to die.” I think that all of this stuck to me because if that was me I wouldn’t want to live with myself. The message that I think the scene offers is that we shouldn’t take family for grant net and because when you want them the most they may not be there. The Nazi’s dehumanized Jews by shaving boys and girls hair. They also gave them numbers and so that they wouldn’t have a name. I think the Gerda overcame the dehumanization with the help of the pictures of her mother, father, and brother that she put in her boots. Also I think that her friends that she had and that she made helped her to be strong. Also I think that Fruetcluder helped her by saving her life while working in the factory. If everything were taken away from me I think that I would fantasize about my family, friends, my dogs, school and my house. I think what we all take for granted is a nice house with a bed, food, school, family, clothes, and freedom. I think that Muslims would be the ones most targeted by prejudice as a result of the tragedy of 9/11. Muslims have been singled out for extra security in airports, mosques that have been damaged, and all Muslim people are treated like criminals. The problem is that acts of terrorism continue and the majority of terrorist are Muslim. People have a natural fear relating to Muslims because of the terrorist acts. To stop this prejudice people need to become more educated as to the fundamental good performed by the vast majority of Muslims and to realize that the terrorists are the minority. I think the heros in this film are Suse Klons, Kurt Klein, and Fruetcluder the women that was in charge of them at the factory. I think that Suse was really hopeful because she became an older sister to Gerda and was there with her the whole until the end. I think that Kurt Klein was a hero because he was her liberator who later became her husband. Kurt was the light at the end of the tunnel that she had been waiting 6 years for. Fruetcluder I think was a hero because like Gerda said, “She turned out to be the hope, inspiration, and the knowledge that perhaps not all Germans were bad. She was a decent, wonderful, warm caring human being. Her looks completely blight from what was underneath the door.” I think that to Gerda this meant that she could make it till the end. If she had anyone else has their supervisor I don’t think Gerda would have made it. I think that to make the world a better place we need good leader ship and equality between everyone. We need to be able to help one another in a time of need and not discriminate because of what someone wears, someones beliefs, and what someone looks like.