Recently, we've been talking about the Holocaust and WWII. Friday, Mrs.Bruton came in our class and gave us a lecture on the history of theHolocaust. Mrs. Bruton showed us a short movie about people who actually survived and went through the dreadful times. In the movie, there was a lady, Rosa, that talked about how she got sent all over the place. Her parents both died and her siblings got killed when people came to inspect their houses. She was the only person in her family who lived. The guards told her and a group of people to go somewhere and they'd come back to get them later on, but they never did. Rosa was very lucky because during that time, a break like that was very rare. Rosa survived and is still living today.
Could you ever imagine going through something that scary?
What would you do if you were a little kid all by yourself at a "death camp"?
How would you react to taking your clothes off in front of guards or having to shave your head?
Haley
Pictures taken from:
1. http://shamash.org/holocaust/photos/images/maidan01.jpg - shoes collected from victims at Maidanek
2. http://shamash.org/holocaust/photos/images/Auschw01.jpg - glasses collected from victims at Auschwitz
14 comments:
If I was alive during the time of the Holocaust and forced to live in a death camp I would be mortified. The hardships and the things the people had to do let alone see were beyond ridiculous. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what a child would have felt like to live during that time. Children were separated from their parents and possibly even brothers and sisters. They had little food and had to work under poor conditions that could even make a little child tired. I know that if I were alive during that time I would follow everything the guards ordered me to do know matter the circumstance. The only thing that I would strive to do, would be to say alive as long as possible, even if that meant shaving my head or even undressing in front of guards. I am very grateful that the Holocaust did not happen during my time. I would give props for anyone who was ever affected by the Holocaust or Hitler and if you were one of the few to come out alive your story would be worth more then any written text book.
-Katie
I could never imagine going through something as scary as all of the Jews had to go through during the Holocaust. Recently whenever I've been scared about an upcoming test or something and I start complaining about it, I try to stop myself. Being nervous for a test doesn't even compare to being nervous for your life! It makes me feel guilty to be worried about something so minor. Honestly I don't know what I would have done if I were a little kid at a death camp. I try to think what I would do, but I just can't. I don't think anyone can really say what they would do or how they would feel if they were put in that situation because we never have been. Compared to some of the other things they were forced to do, it seems like taking your clothes off and shaving your head would be the least bothersome. I'm not saying that it's no big deal or anything because it definitly is. I know it would make me feel very self consious, as I'm sure many of them must have felt too.
Elizabeth O.
I think that it would be humiliating to have to take you clothes off in front of guards. Being a child alone in a death camp would be frightening. You would live every day, the few that you have, in fear. I would try to find someone that I could go to if I needed help and I would try to make a plan to escape because as a child that would be easier because you're smaller.
Julianne D.
Growing up jewish i've learned alot about the holocaust and i don't think i could ever imagine what they had to go through especially at this age. i consider myself to be mature but living by myself through the holocaust would require too much. Undressing in front of the guards would be embarrasing and strange. i wouldn't mind shaving my head but the fact that i was being forced to by the nazi's makes it mean something else.
-Andy Langberg
If I were Rosa, I would be permanantly scarred from this terrible event in history. I think I wouldve rather killed myself then be put through that. What the Nazi soldiers did was disgusting to the himan race and I dont think anyone should ever go through that. I think I wouldve rather been a child then an adult because as a child you couldnt grasp the full effect of what was going on and that wouldve been more peaceful to me.
-Hilary
I don't believe that I can begin to understand what Rosa was feeling. I have never had a near death experience, seen masses of dead people, let alone one dead person. I am sure that as a little kid, or my age now, I would be extremely scared. I like to know what is going on all the time. Not knowing what I was doing and not even knowing where I was would make me very stressed. Rosa mentioned that she had to undress in front of a bunch of guards and then shave her head. I would not like to do either of these, but there wasn't an option.
Rosa's life in the death camps was obviously a life changing experience. She said in the video that she didn't like to talk about her time in the death camp, but she felt it was important to the younger generations to hear her story before all of the survivors die.
At Covington, we had a few Holocaust survivors come and talk to us in either our 7th or 8th grade year. Each speaker was crying or fighting back tears. It was one of the most impactful speeches/assemblies I have been to. The only thing I remember hearing was the story of one man. He described the camp and tried to describe the putrid smell, he told of the daily routines, the fear of showering and not knowing if it will be your last, and of the tall smoke stacks from the crematoriums. Of course no matter how much he described it, it will never be the same.
Megan M.
Going through the ordeal of the Holocaust would have been unbearable. Being excluded and profiled everywhere is unacceptable and immoral. Just because the groups of people have different beliefs, it doesn’t give one or the other the right to kill the other. If I was a little kid at a death camp, I would try every moment I had to escape to freedom. If I had to take my clothes off and shave my head in front of guards, I would do what ever I could to make them feel guilty for their actions and hope they are held accountable for there actions.
Jared P.
My 8th grade class and I went to visit the Holocaust Musuem on a field trip and I couldnt believe I saw some of the things I did. We saw a lot of pictures where people were in line with the gaurds next to them and some with out their clothes. I think that what these Nazi soldiers did was totally out of line, and I know that this event has forever changed the many lives of the people in those camps and that were effected either by themselves being involved or some loved ones. I could never imagine what those people went through. I dont think I could live that way.
Nicole M.
If i went through the death camp as a little kid by myself i would be horrified. I wouldn't know what to do and would be to afraid to mess things up. I would probably be very timid and scared. I would hate to have to take of my clothes in front of the gaurds and also have my head shaved. If i survived the death camp and no one else in my family did, i don't know if i would want to be alive. you are pretty much stuck by yourself for the rest of your life with no one to help you.
Josh St.
I don't think i would even be a strong enough person to make it to a dealth camp let alone survive one. The beyond tragic experiences portrayed in the movie would cease my desire to live if i knew it would be ina world where innocent baby infants were flung into the air and fired at ending their life in such an inhumane manner before their lives even began. I could also never phathom surving these excruciating events without a stong family behind me, and even more having to be a mother or older sibling and being strong for them when there is no hope. I am also a very strong willed and spoken young lady and it would be so difficult for me to have to take orders from total strangers and work for no money and be treated like dirt for no reason and not say anything about it. The victums of the Holocaust are truly heros for no human should ever have to go through the experiences they did, but they did it and still manage to have faith in man kind and no be a total synic to the world which to me is beyond miracle.
Kristin T.
I think that if I was forced to relocate to a death camp, I wouldn't be very happy. I think that it could quite be one of the most depressing things ever. Your surrounded by men speaking a foreign language, who are screaming at you and you have no idea why...... Scary.
If I needed to undress in front of strangers, or shave my head, I would be embarrassed more then anything.
If I was alone, I think that the experience would impact me for the rest of my life. The stuff that went on inside those camps wasn't okay, or right.
Sean T.
I think that no one could ever really understand what the Holocaust really was like. To me, it's one of those things that only the people who were subjected to it can ever understand.
If I was ever a kid in a death camp, I dont think I'd have the will to go on for very long. Knowing myself, I wouldnt have liked being disrespected, but my fighting spirit would have been killed by hunger, fear and dehydration. I hate undressing in front of people in the locker room. To be forced to undress in front for guards would make me spite them even more. If anything at all, my last intention in my life would be to die before anyone could get any use out of me. I would not allow myself to be subjected to violence, and being mistreated and degraded just because some Nazi guards thought it was "funny" or "right" to do so.
Overall, I award great courage to those who survived, because it's one thing that, if I could ever understand, I would never be able to do myself. I still cant imagine what it had to be like. I've read books and text books, I've seen video after video about the holocaust, I've interveiwed survivors and my half-grandpa was one survivor from Warsaw, yet I still cant believe what people, people like my friends and myself, had to go through.
-Abbie
I would not be able to imagine going through such a horrible experience. If I was a little kid by myself at a death camp, I am not sure exactly what I woul do. The adrenaline would force me to do decisions that I would not thinking of doing in a normal situation. I could not even think about what it would be like to be a little child without my parents in a deathi camp. Odds are, because I am a "little kid" I would sit there and cry, and wait for someone to find me.
I would gladly take my clothes off in front of a guard because they have my life in my hands, and I would do whatever I have to to stay alive. I would feel embarassed, but as long as it would have the potential to save my life, I would do it. I feel the same way about having my head shaved. It is a demoralizing and dehumanizing act that I would do, but I would not feel good about it. These are the things I think I would do, but since I am not in the situation, I am not sure what I would do and how I would react exactly.
Kevin S.
If I were forced into a concentration camp I would do everything I could to stay alive. I would not, however, sacrifice my pride so that the Nazis would let me live. I would let them kill me and not give them the pleasure of knowing that they can control me. I would not be happy about living in the concentration camp and I would try to escape so I can move to a safe place. I would not be scared of death because I would be fueled by hatred towards the Nazis. I would try to fight back against the Nazis if they were beating or dehumanitizing me in any way. I would not stand for anybody having complete control over me, and let me life and my efforts be sacrificed to end the Nazi existance. If I were inprisoned in a concentration camp, most likely I would die.
Phil S.
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