Blog Post #5-David

When I look back on The Holocaust museum I think about all that I have learned. I learned about the history of The Holocaust and the Jewish people as a whole. I learned that since Jesus’s death Jews have been blamed for many things. Things like diseases, natural disasters, wars, and deaths of people. They were portrayed as an evil group of people that only looked to destroy. It says that The Holocaust museum is not an answer it is a question. I think that the question is why have Jewish people been persecuted for so long. My answer is that after the crucifixion of Jesus in the fir4st century by Jewish people. Jewish people have been easy to blame for all sorts of problems. Especially to people that believe that Jesus was the son of God. People thought, to kill the son of God Jewish people must be evil. This made it easier to make up lies about Jewish people. It also led people to think that Jewish people were evil and corrupted society. While watching the movie life is beautiful it made me think about lots of things. It made me grateful for the fortunate life that I have been given. It also made me think about how amazing the father was in protecting his kids. He did everything he could to protect his son until the very end. He even sacrificed his life to make sure his son would be okay. That showed the dedication guido had to make sure his son could live. That was what really stuck with me from watching that movie.

Mimi-Blog Post #5

The Holocaust and The Armenian Genocide was a traumatic experience for everyone who went through, and I can't compare any of my life with that experience but I can feel for the victim's theses Genocides, and I wish them well and a good life. I think people that can comment such a horrible act have mental problems or had a traumatizing childhood that made them kill thousands of people who just wanted to live in a different country with a family. Elie Wiesel said in his Nobel Peace Prize speech

“It frightens me because I wonder: do I have the right to represent the multitudes who have perished? Do I have the right to accept this great honor on their behalf? ... I do not. That would be presumptuous. No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions”

I appreciate what he said about you don't know what the dead want/wanted and I do not want to speak for them. I always hate when people guess what the others wishes are, and I feel bad for the people who have to make medical decisions for their family or friends. The Holocaust was a grave issue, but I think everyone should know what it is a know this can not happen again to anyone in the world.

During the time that we were studying the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide we have learned many different things including the true horror of what really happened. I would say the part that really showed me what really happened what the documentary of One Survivor Remembers. This is told by a survivor of the Holocaust which is definitely a source that truly knows what happened. Also the movie of Life is Beautiful really moved me. Even though this is fiction it still has some parts that are true. Also there could have been a family that was split up and it was a very sad story. The first time I watched it it did bring me to tears and I would be very surprised if it didn’t bring the first timers to tears as well. After Reading Night by Elie Wiesel, and hearing his story and what pain he went through, it has really made me more educated and made me think that how could anybody put a kid through losing his family, making him lose his faith, and walk in the freezing cold with about nothing out. This proves that there are some very strong people in life because if I heard this from someone else I wouldn’t believe them. These things also change my view on humanity. For example how could anybody put someone, no matter what age, through what the jews went through during the Holocaust. We are all human and we should all be treated the same no matter what race religion or sexuality you are.

Sydney Blog #5

Learning about the Holocaust was very eye opening. To learn about the number of people who were affected was very hard. Going to the museum really gave me a visual sense of how small the train cars were that had 80 plus people crammed into them. The representation of the gas chamber and the crematorium was not only devastating to look at but unbelievable. Listening to one survivor remembers was very emotional as well as hard to imagine something so horrible could happen. Listening and reading about the Holocaust really changed my my perspective of how certain things in history played out. In the beguiling of this unit I was not fairly knowledgeable about the Holocaust and what it intailed. Hearing Gerda Wiesman share her story and then watching Life Is Beautiful gave me two views on the Holocaust. The movie has more of a playful side as the father referred to the concentrateion camp as a game for his son. He told him that in order to win he has to hide while in reality that’s what kept him alive. Gerda’s story was very heartbreaking and straight forward. All of these pieces brought together display a horrible time in history that will hopefully never occur again and the people who managed to make it through.

Isabel - Blog Post #5

I think the way reading and learning about genocide over the past few weeks has changed me is it made me slightly question the goodness of humanity. It’s really sad to think that there are so many people who would willingly participate in something like the Holocaust or the Armenian Genocide. Night did a really good job in making me have more empathy towards everything that happened, as it was in first person and made it easier to connect to the events that took place. Elie Wiesel’s acceptance speech was extremely inspiring, and it was very moving and selfless to have him dedicate the award to all victims of the Holocaust.

Life is Beautiful also helped connect more emotions to everything, and it made it seem more realistic. I think the way Life is Beautiful helped to connect emotions is that it's more relatable than the other stories we learned about. It started out just like a normal cliché romance movie (the type that we've all seen before), but it became a tragedy. Many of us can relate to the happy family part in the beginning, so to see it get that sad so fast was heartbreaking. Overall, learning about the holocaust has been a very sad yet interesting experience.