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.