Blog #6 - Gerda Weissmann

Our Survivor Remembers was an educational and also very touching film about a girl named Gerda Weissmann, a Jewish girl living in the time of the Holocaust. Although Gerda and her family tried to hide from the German Nazis, one by one the Weissmann family was torn apart from each other. First, her brother, Author, whom she was very close to, was forced to register to a labor camp. Similar to her brother, Gerda’s father was forced to leave her and her mother to go to a camp. Soon after, German officers deported Gerda and her mother. When arriving to their destination, Gerda soon figured out that she and her mother would be going to different places, separating her family completely.

There were many powerful scenes in this film, but one that stood out for me was when Gerda and her friend, Ilze were walking in the Death March. During the Death March, Ilze fell very ill and knew her end was near. Before dying, she said, “I’m angry at no one, and I hope no one’s angry at me.” This stood out to be because she didn’t have any hate towards the German Nazis even though they tortured her tremendously. This showed me that even if people do horrible things, they can still be forgiven. Another scene, that stood out to me was when Gerda jumped out of the back of the truck to be with her mother. Unfortunately, she wasn’t successful and was forced back onto the truck. The man said, “You’re too young to die.” From that, you can infer that her mother was probably being taken to a death camp such as Auschwitz to be killed. I think this was important because although the main goal of Nazis’ were to kill all the Jews, they didn’t want them to be useless, but get something out of them first. Although that was usually the case, when the officer said this, I didn’t take it in that way, it made me feel that he actually cared for Gerda and didn’t want to see her die.

During the Holocaust, the dehumanization of Jews was an important thing for the Germans to make them seem in control and make the Jews self-esteem go down. Some examples were making them sleep on the ground, not feeding them, and being mentally and physically violent to them. While in a slave labor factory, Gerda meet a woman there that proved to her that not all Germans were cruel and mean. This gave Gerda hope that maybe there were other Germans like her. Also, Gerda’s imagination helped her get through the long death march.

If everything were taken away from me, I would fantasize the good times that I spent talking and laughing with my family. Also, I would miss the dinners my mom makes for me every night. Before learning about the Holocaust, I didn’t realize how much is taken for granted. The Jews in the camps would give anything to see the family members just for a few minutes, while I have mostly all day to be with mine. You don’t realize how important someone or something is to you, until it’s gone.

Persecution today many not be as big like the Holocaust was, but it is still just as important. One example is bullying, bullying definitely isn’t persecution in a way such as the Holocaust, but is still a topic that shouldn’t be forgotten. Bullying usually affects kids and teens, making their self-esteem go down and making them feel not important to society. Bullying in today’s world shares the same effects to Jews being dehumanized by German officers. Similar to Jews being persecuted by German Nazis, the people of Darfur are being persecuted by militias from Sudan. The people of Darfur are being forced from their homes and killing them, just like the Jews. To help prevent persecution from occurring over and over in history, we can start by beginning to stop caring that people are different than others, and except everyone whether they’re like you or not. Also, you could go to the president or leader of your country to get help and make it more worldwide.

In this film, the heroes were Gerda’s friends and some kind officers. They were able give her inspiration to keep going and not to give up. When Gerda jumped off the truck to be with her mother, the officer stopped her and forced her back on the truck saying he thought she was ‘too young to die.’ For me this was a slight foreshadowing that made me feel like the officer saved her life because he knew something good was going to come out of it. Also, another officer saved Gerda’s life by making forcing her to work. Although this doesn’t sound like it was saving her, it did because if the officers found Gerda lying in the barrack sick, they would have taken her to a death camp to be killed. During the death march, Gerda survived because of her courage, but also from the support and hope she received from her friends. Her friends made her realize she shouldn’t give up and made her strive to keep going until the end. The last hero in the film was the man she met at the end of the death march. If Gerda wasn’t standing were she was at the moment when the man saw her, she probably wouldn’t have survived, and would have died sooner, similar to all the other women. He gave her the will to keep going. This film taught me that even if you’re in a bad time, you just need to dig deep and find the strength to keep going. No matter what the situation, you can always get through it if you have the courage and hope.

Blog #5 - If I Should Die Before I Wake

In the book If I Should Die Before I Wake, Chana and her family are forced to move into the Lodz Ghetto. After spending a few weeks in the ghetto, Chana begins to realize her initial feelings about the ghetto were correct, it was horrible. The living conditions were terrible and soon after arriving, food became scarce. “In the ghetto we had no need for a calendar. Our lives were divided into periods based on the distribution of food,” Sara Plagier, also living in a ghetto, wrote in her diary. During the Holocaust, the lack of food didn’t just happen in ghettos, it happened to everyone, whether people were Jewish or not. A boy named Dawid Sierakowiak, wrote, “All I care is that there is soup in my workshop.” During the Holocaust, people did many things to get food that they probably wouldn’t have done otherwise. Chana and her family, including everyone else, knew how important food was, and how they should ration it out. As a gift for his Bar Mitzvah, Chaim Kozienicki, a Jewish boy living during the Holocaust, received half a loaf of bread to eat from his parents. Since Chaim knew how long it probably took for his parents to save it from themselves to give to him, he didn’t want to eat it.

Before moving to the ghetto, Chana’s father was killed by Nazi officers. Chana didn’t have the extra support from her father while living in the ghetto. Even though Chana and her family were able to get along without her father, they didn’t have his added encouragement to be brave. Similar to Chana, Karolina Dresler, a girl living in the time of the Holocaust, also lost her father before moving into hiding with her family. Many Jewish people during the Holocaust were either separated or had family members die in their life.

Blog #4 - If I Should Die Before I Wake

In the books Annexed and If I Should Die Before I Wake, the two protagonists are Jewish teenagers growing up in an environment that don’t appreciate them for who they are. In Annexed, Peter is forced to go into hiding with his family to try and save his life. Unlike Peter, Chana in If I Should Die Before I Wake, is already known by officers and forced to live in the Lodz Ghetto with her family.

Although Peter and Chana live in two different environments, they are actually very similar. They both are struggling to survive both within and outside of themselves. Peter is struggling on the inside because he was confused whether he was going to get caught or not. Although this was a big problem, he had a bigger one, his love life. Peter was upset about the fact that he was stuck in the Annex instead of the outside world, unable to do all the things that he wished to do. He was especially upset because he never ‘made love’ to anyone yet. When Peter first arrived in the Annex, he was depressed because he recently learned that his girlfriend, Liese, was taken to a camp. Soon after arriving in the Annex, he became confused for his feelings for Liese because of Anne. Even though Peter is focused a lot on love, he cares passionately about his family.

Unlike Peter, Chana isn’t interested in love, but more on staying alive and surviving with her family. Since officers recently killed Chana’s father and her baby sister was sent away in hope of a better life, Chana is holding on to everything that she has left. Similar to Peter, Chana wishes none of this was happening and that it could just all stop.

In the end, I think that Peter and Chana both want most is to survive. Neither of them wish to think about the fact that they could die, but instead the possibility that they could live. I think that if they knew they were going to die, they would want a quick easy death, instead of a long, painful, and tragic one. They would want to get the suffering over quickly, similar to every other Jewish person.

Blog #3 - If I Should Die Before I Wake

In the beginning of If I Should Die Before I Wake, the main character, Hilary, is waking up in an unfamiliar Jewish hospital, after a terrible motorcycle accident she was recently in. Although she was being treated and taken care of, Hilary didn’t like the fact that people in the hospital thought of her in a certain way before meeting her. Since Hilary is part of a neo-Nazi gang in her neighborhood, she proudly wears an armband, letting everyone see who she is really. “They think they know me, know all about me,” Hilary thinks, “they don’t know crap.” Whenever Hilary goes places, people probably make assumptions about her, similar to the hospital. Unlike Hilary, her mother isn’t like her at all, but kind and loving. Her mother wishes that Hilary wasn’t part of the neo-Nazi gang and was still the sweet young girl that she used to be.

While in the hospital, Hilary is suddenly transported into a life that is not her own, but instead, a young Jewish girl, Chana’s life. What Hilary went into wasn’t just an ordinary dream, but instead was actually living the life and feeling emotions that came with the different situations. Chana and her friend were walking to school, when a couple officers stopped them and forced them to work hour after hour, scrubbing floors on their hands and knees. Both Chana’s mother and neighbor were forced to scrub floors too. After being allowed to go home, she spotted her father being tormented by other officers because he couldn’t do what they were asking. Although the officers learned that her father had a heart condition, it didn’t make them any more caring, instead, they made Chana do it in replace of her father. Since her father couldn’t do easy labor like digging, the officers probably thought that he would be no use in other labor jobs, so they shot him without any emotion at all.

The whole transported into another life is very mysterious, how did it happen? Was it an effect of the accident Hilary was recently in? Is it a dream? A fantasy? Hilary is very confused with the whole situation and doesn’t really know what to think of it. One minute she is in the hospital and the next she’s in Chana’s world. The two times Hilary has transported, the last person she saw was Grandmaw. Is Grandmaw the cause of these mysterious happenings? Are these dreams trying to teach Hilary a life lesson? In one of President Obama’s many speeches, he stated, “…the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through the eyes of those who are different from us…” I think this is relevant to the situation Hilary is in. Hilary is seeing life in a different point of view, the life Chana lives.

So far in the story, the two protagonists are Hilary and Chana. The two girls both live two very different lives. Hilary hates Jewish people and thinks all of them should die where as Chana is a Jewish girl, wishing that none of this was happening. Will Hilary ever learn to accept Jewish people and realize they aren’t that bad?

Blog #2 - Annexed

So far in the book, Peter is getting a realization of what life is going to be like stuck in the Annex. In the beginning of the story, Peter couldn’t stand Anne at all, but slowly he’s coming to realize that Anne, isn’t all that bad. They even dressed up and did a skit for their families to liven up their moods. Peter no longer thinks of Anne, as a clumsy know it all, 13 year old girl like he did when they first met, but more or less a friend. Even though I know how this is going to end, I think mostly anyone can infer that Peter and Anne will become even closer than they are now. Also, you can infer that them and their families are eventually going to get caught and sent to a concentration camp. Although no one mentions or talks about how they will be caught, they never talk about having a bright future and how excited they will be when they get out of the Annex. Even though they don’t talk about it much, you can infer that they are always thinking about it in the back of their minds. I think they are trying to pretend that it isn’t going to happen until the moment comes. Even though I think they know they are going to get caught, do they really? Do they ever think of their future beyond the walls of the Annex? Happy or dreadful?

Night by Elie Wiesel

Today in class, we read a passage from the book Night, by Elie Wiesel. It was about a person traveling in a freight train that was eventually going to Auschwitz, Poland. The freight car was dark and cramped, making it almost unbearable for the many people that were stuffed in the freight car to survive. Everyone who was in the car didn’t have the right qualities to work in labor camps, so they were being sent to concentration camps to die. Mostly everyone in the freight car were silent because of the lack of water, making the thirst become ‘intolerable.’ We do not know who the narrator of the book is, but they and everyone else in the car were clearly very irritated with one woman named, Mrs. Schächter.

Throughout the passage, Mrs. Schächter often yelled of ‘fire’ and ‘flames’. At first, people are worried about her and wonder if she is okay, but eventually they get very annoyed. At one point, some of the men gagged and strike Mrs. Schächter to make her stop screaming. Even before the narrator says that they think why Mrs. Schächter is yelling, you can infer why even before. In the very beginning of the passage, the person described how much everyone longed for a glass of water and how ‘intolerable’ their longing was. Similar to needing water, the feeling of having the flames of fire lick onto your skin, burning you, making you scream out in agony can make you have an ‘intolerable’ type of feeling. Even though you can infer things, it doesn’t mean they’re necessarily correct. Was Mrs. Schächter really that that thirsty, or was it that she could see into the future and knew that people would be burned to death lter? Or was just an old lady who lost her mind? Although, there are some topics that you truly don’t know if the inference is correct or not, you can make a very clear inference of what the rest of the story is going to be about.

Blog #1 - Annexed

In the beginning of Annexed, the main character, Peter, is making the most of the last few hours he has left outside in the fresh air. Later that day, Peter knows that he will have to go to the Annex to hide from Nazis’ who are trying to capture him and his family. While walking to his girlfriend, Liese’s house, he can only watch when he sees her and her family escaping from officers. Eventually sometime after watching Liese’s escape, Peter makes his way to the Annex where he will spend the next two years in mostly silence, never being able to feel the warmth of the sunlight or a shiver from a cool breeze.

The protagonist and narrator in Annexed is a Jewish 15 year old, Peter van Pels. He recently moved into the Annex with his family and another Jewish family, the Franks, to hide from the Nazis’. For the first few days, all Peter does is sleep, sulk, and think about Liese. Peter isn’t happy that he has to stay in the Annex with the Franks, and especially can’t stand their daughter Anne. Anne is the type of person who isn’t afraid to speak her mind no matter what she’s thinking of. Living with an overly confident Anne, drives Peter insane; she never has something kind to say to him. Whenever she speaks to him, it's either her being rude or indignant.

A problem in the story is that Peter, his family, and the Frank family have to hide in the Annex to try and keep hidden from the Nazis. Peter wishes that his life could be like before, not having to worry every second of the day if someone will capture and take him to a Death Camp. Also, Anne doesn’t help living in the Annex any better for Peter. It seems that everything Anne does, irritates Peter some how. Since living in the Annex allowed Peter to have more free time to think, the only thing he thinks about is Liese. He thinks about her all the time and knows that he probably would ever be able to see her again.