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.

If I should die before I wake Blog #5

The article that I will be comparing my book t, is a dairy of an anonymous Jewish girl that was taken to the Lodz Ghetto. This dairy was found in 1945 after the allies liberated Lodz. They do not know the name of the girl that wrote the dairy because only a portion of the diary was found, and what was found had no identifiable marks. What they do know is that it was written by a girl in the February and March in 1942 timeframe. Because of historians reading the dairy they know that she had a 17-year-old sister and a 16-year-old brother. In reading the book I know that Chana and this girl were at the Lodz Ghetto at the same time. Like Chana in my book If I should die before I wake this girl talks about the food shortage, how her life has changed, and the factories. Both girls talk about how hungry they are and they can’t get it off their mind. They both also talk about the significance of the fence, and how it separates them from the rest of the world. They both hope for freedom and dream of the days before Hitler and the German invasion. They wonder if they will be able to return to the life that now seems to be a dream.

If I should die before I wake Blog #4

My two books were Boy in the Stripped Pajamas and If I should die before I wake. These two books are similar because both take place during the Holocaust and both books reveal the realities Jews experienced during the years under Nazi control. In the book If I should die before I wake there are two protagonists; Hilary with her anti-Semitism attitude and Chana who struggled to survive the loss of her family and friends. In Boy in the Striped Pajamas there are two protagonists as well; Bruno with his naive outlook and Shmuel a 10 year old, living his life in a death camp. You can connect Chana and Shmuel because they were both Jewish and were living under Nazi control. Chana in the Lodz Ghetto and Shmuel in Auschwitz. You can also connect Hilary and Bruno because they were both naive in their beliefs about Jewish life. Hilary had a lack of understanding about the impact Hitler and the Nazi’s had with killing millions of Jews. While Bruno was completely oblivious as to why Shmuel and the other Jews were at Auschwitz. I look forwarded to reading more of my book to see if the protagonist will have more in common.

If I should die before I wake Blog #3

Today in class we were put into our new book clubs. The book I am now reading is If I die before I wake by Han Nolan. The book is about two teenage girls named Hilary and Chana. Hilary, who hates Jews, is in a Jewish hospital because of a motor cycling accident that she got into coming home from her Aryan Warriors meeting. Chana, a Jewish girl, is struggling to survive the Lodz Ghetto. Hillary often finds herself going in and out of living Chana and her own life because of a coma. There are two settings in the story. The first is in a Jewish Hospital that Hilary was taken to after the motorcycle accident. The second setting in the story takes place in the Lodz Ghetto, in Poland. Hilary, although in a coma, continues to generate hateful remarks about the Jews but she recognizes the irony of her being in a Jewish Hospital and Jewish doctors who are working to save her life. Hilary's problem in the story is that even though she hates Jews, she finds herself in a Jewish hospital and sees herself continually transporting between her life and Chana's. Chana's problem in the story is that she is living in a Ghetto and losing family and friends quickly. Another problem is that at any point in time the Nazis could come and take her family to a death camp. Chana is also struggling with the harsh accommodations that they have to live with. Will Hilary get better and live only one life or will she stay in the state that she is in. Another question that I have is whether or not Chana will be able to survive the life that she has recently been put into.

Boy in the Stripped Pajamas Blog 2

Today I read more of the book The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas and Bruno and Gretel noticed that the children aren’t just children. There are small and big boys, grandfathers and fathers. They wonder where they are and what is going on. They know they aren’t in a nice place. Where are the women and girls? There were high fences with barbed wire and low flat houses. Bruno and Gretel think the houses are modern and that their father wouldn’t like them. They learned that the country had farm animals and that they grow food, but Gretel and Bruno didn’t see any animals or food growing. Bruno and Gretel kept watching the people on the other side of the fence. They saw groups of people some working, and others talking. There was a group getting yelled out by a soldier. Some had bandages and crutches. They lived close together. Bruno and Gretel wonder why their father would take a job in such a nasty place with so many neighbors. Gretel doesn’t want to play with them because they are dirty. As Bruno continues to watch the people he notices that they all have the same clothes on, a pair of striped pajamas with a grey striped cap on their heads. Bruno’s father left Berlin a few days before the rest of the family and no one had seen him yet. Bruno noticed that when they boarded the train in Berlin all the trains pointed in the same direction this seemed strange to him. Bruno hears his father talking outside the house and later that evening he knocks on the door of his father’s office in the house to speak to his father. They talked about the move and Bruno tells him how he doesn’t like it and how he wants to go home. Bruno is very honest and pushes his father. His father tells him that he needs to know what to keep his mouth shut and follow orders. Bruno continues to ask him about the move and asked his father if he did something bad at his work why else would the fury send you to a place like this. Bruno’s father tells him he doesn’t understand. Bruno still challenges his father until his father has had enough and tells Bruno to go to his room and that he will have to accept things. On his way out, Bruno asks his father about the people outside, he said that they aren’t people. As he leaves, his father calls him back. Bruno remembers and puts his feet together, shot his right arm in the air and “Heil Hitler”. Because of this I can infer that Bruno’s father is leading Bruno to be a Nazi. But I wonder why Bruno’s father has yet to explain their beliefs and political stand point.

Boy in the Stripped Pajamas Blog 1

The beginning of the book starts off with Bruno returning home from school to Maria, the family’s maid, packing his things. Bruno thinks that he is being sent away and his mother lets him know that the whole family is moving for the foreseeable future, not just him. His mother explains that they need to move because of his father’s important job. Bruno is not sure what his father’s job is but knows that the fury had big things in mind for him. His father, works got the Fury, his sister Gretel who is three years older than him and his mother as well as their maid, cook and Lars are all moving and will hopefully return home someday. Bruno also asks his mother how far they will be moving because he doesn’t want to leave his friends, Karl, Daniel and Martin. His mother lets him know that they will be moving quite a bit away for their home. Bruno loved his home in Berlin, it was big and his grandparents lived nearby. There was a banister that he loved the best. Bruno and his family arrive at their new home and Bruno’s eyes open wide and his mouth opens like the letter O. Everything looks different. His new house was small and stood all by itself and he couldn’t see any other houses which to him meant there would be no new friends. Bruno didn’t see streets, or fruit stands, either like they did at home. He tells his mother that he thinks the move is a bad idea and they should go home. There are three more maids in the house, not just Maria. There was also an old man who prepared the vegetables and waited on them during dinner. They whisper and seem angry. Bruno doesn’t understand what the foreseeable future means and doesn’t understand why they just can’t leave and go home to Berlin. He even asked Maria what she thought. He is frustrated by his father’s job and how it forces them to move. Bruno goes over to the window and looks out and feels cold and unsafe. Bruno goes to Gretel’s room and asks her if she knows what the foreseeable future means; she says it mean that they will only be there a few weeks. She agrees with him that their new home isn’t very nice. She tells him the name of the house is Out-With. Bruno goes back to his room again and looks out the window, Gretel follows him. He tells her that the other children don’t look friendly. Gretel not sure what children he is talking about but tells him she wants to see them. He shows her and she agrees with him.

"Night"

When reading "Night" I think that it is about Jews that are being kidnapped to be put to work by Hitler, because when Mrs. Schachters said, “’Jews, look!’” and “’From the moment on you are under the authority of the German Army….If anyone goes missing, you will all be shot, like dogs.’” Before reading "Night" my understanding of the Holocaust was that all Jews were sent right to a concentration camp and killed in the gas chambers. They weren’t?