One Survivor Remembers; The Powerful Story of Gerta Weissman

1. The documentary we watched today enveloped the grievances and nightmares faced by a young girl during the Holocaust. No doubt, anytime one hears of the Holocaust a shiver is sent down their spine. One particular scene from the documentary was exceptionally powerful to me. The excruciating three month journey through freezing, starved, and dehydrated conditions known as the death march was the last part Gerta and her friends would have to bear before liberation. The part that got to me most through the death march scenes, was when Gerta's dear friend, Ilze, was approaching her last breaths. She said these words to Gerta just before she died, "I'm angry at no one, and I hope no one is angry at me." How, when someone has just been exposed to so much hatred, and has been faced with so many wrong-doings, can they say they are not mad at anyone? Not even the Nazis, the ones who killed her and her family, had implanted their hatred into her soul.
     Another scene that struck me as powerful, although more disturbing, was when Gerta described the frozen conditions during the death march by saying that woman who didn't have the proper foot wear ". . .broke their toes off like twigs." As I said in my other blogs, a person can read and learn about the Holocaust as much as they like, but no man or woman can fully understand the experiences hundreds of thousands of people went through.

2. Though the video didn't say much of how the Nazis dehumanized the Jews, it gave us a few examples. One way they dehumanized them was by forcing them to live in ghettos, separated from the town, Gerta was lucky though, her home stayed her home, though she was confined to living only in the basement. Also, they were dehumanized by being forced to do labor, by having their heads shaved, and by being separated from their families. Gerta Weissman overcame dehumanization partly by imagination, and partly by an SS woman who cared for her and the other girls while they were forced to labor at a factory. In the story Gerta says something along the lines of, "If you were blessed with imagination you could survive." She told a story saying that throughout her time during the Holocaust she would imagine different things, different memories, and let them take her to a world where she could ignore the cold wind on her bones or ignore the ferocious growl coming from her stomach. There was a person though too, she was an SS officer who was in charge at the labor factory. Gerta recalls her as her first hope in the world, for she saw that not all Germans were cruel and evil. Gerta says that she most likely would not have made it through the war, if this SS officer had not entered her life.

3.  I believe that if I were in Gerta Weissman's place, I would dream of myself dancing. I would think about the movement, the freedom and each breath that I take when I dance. I would also sing. In a time when I can't move where I want, and I can't speak unless spoken to, I would imagine myself doing just those things and expressing myself through song and dance. I would also imagine my friend and I, doing the many crazy things that we do. I think this memory would trigger fantasies of laughter. These things are the types of things that keep me happy, that keep my mood elevated, so that is why I would think of them.
     From watching the documentary, I realized how many things I take for granted. How a simple thing, that I have become accustomed to, a thing that I have thought myself entitled to, can be become something so scarce that I have to work for it and fight for it is thought-provoking. For instance, food is something that I get every day, that I eat in plentiful amounts and push away when it is not satisfying to me. If I were put into Gerta's shoes, I would not get food everyday, I would eat tiny portions, so as to have enough for the next day, and I would have to eat whatever it was, whether it was cold, revolting, or stale. Another thing I no doubt take for granted, is my family. Hearing the stories of Gerta and her family, of her having to live with being the last of anyone she knew breaks my heart. It's like starting life over again, only the past haunts you all the time. When compared to the victims of the Holocaust, my whole life is taken for granted.

4.  In today's world, genocide still occurs. For the most recent examples, I see the genocide in Darfur and works of the Taliban. In these specific genocides, the Janjaweed target the Darfurians, and the Taliban, similar to the Nazis, target anyone who is not an Islamic Extremist (anyone who isn't like them). There are certain ways that we can prevent different genocides. We can advocate in our community and send letters to political leaders to express the need to put the cause as a higher priority. The problem with Darfur is that since it has been going on for so long it has been pushed to the side. If enough people bring the cause up, they would have no choice but to bring it back up into discussion.

5.  In the film, Gerta dedicates her survival to a few people. The first is the SS officer mentioned earlier, the one who monitored the factory where Gerta was assigned. The second person is her father. Two things in particular that he told Gerta kept her from dying twice. When Gerta was having suicidal thoughts, she was brought back to the stern voice of her father telling her that it is cowardly for one to take their own life. The other time was when he demanded Gerta to wear her ski boots that summer day, the day he secretly knew they would be taken to the camps. This demand saved Gerta's life while on the death march, keeping her warm and keeping her feet from being exposed. Her other hero was Kurt Klein, who was first described as this, "He looked like God to me." He was the man who brought her officially to safety, and a year or so later, was the man who wed her. We can make the world a better place by taking a step back once in awhile and seeing what we can do to help the people around us. If we look into the souls of others and realize how lucky we are, we can simply say one thing or do one thing that can change a person's day, month, or lifetime. We don't need to be like Kurt Klein to be brave or to make a difference, we just have to find a second in our day to make the world a better place.

Death Marches Blog #5

     When looking through the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, I thought about what I had read in my book, that I wanted to know more about. In Annexed, by Sharon Dogar, Peter van Pels is forced on a death march from Auschwitz in 1944. Dogar only spent very little time talking about the death marches, but I'm realizing that they were actually a big part of the Holocaust. In 1944 and 1945 Nazi soldiers were instructed to evacuate camps and bring them to other sub-camps for three different reasons. One was because the enemy was coming, and they didn't want survivors to be able to tell their stories. The second was because they believed that it was necessary for them to have prisoners in order to maintain production of weapons. The third was because some leaders believed that they could use prisoners as hostages to bargain for peace in the West that would allow the Nazi regime to survive. Thousands and thousands of people died during the death marches, some lasted a day on the march, some lasted a week, while others lasted two whole months.
     Barbara Marton Farkas was in her mid-twenties when she was forced on a death march from Gross-Rosen camp in Germany. She describes the experience similar to Peter, describing how the camp was evacuated, how the men and women were shot if they didn't keep up, and the scarce resources that were provided. In an interview conducted by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Barbara recounts the conditions like this, ". . .getting out from the train on the camp and eating green leaves, and no water. And then we start to have a lot, a lot of lice because we didn't have water to drink, not to wash ourself." Although Peter's story didn't go into such detail, the death marches were all fairly similar. Peter was forced to walk from Auschwitz to Mauthausen. Dogar writes, "We sleep where we fall. In the morning we leave the dead where they are. Frozen and curled in their blanket of frost." (315) Peter, Barbara, and thousands of other prisoners, were forced on these marches of no mercy. We read stories about the Holocaust, and realize that people actually went through the horrors. However, when we read personal encounters of those horrors, which are still so vivid after 50 or some years, we realize how scarring and awful the Holocaust truly was.

Emil & Karl Blog #4

     For this blog, I want to compare two very different characters, from two very different books, to see their similarities from living through the times of the Holocaust. I want to compare Karl, the protagonist from the book Emil & Karl, and Peter, the protagonist in the book Annexed. Karl and Peter are both children living sometime during the Holocaust. Karl however, is not a Jew. A big trait that the two boys have in common is their independence. Throughout the stories both boys face much tragedy in their lives and overcome them abnormally quickly. I think it was so quick due to the circumstances of fear and the instinct to keep ones self alive. Soon enough, the boys are on their own and fending for themselves. Karl is leading Emil around to save them from being captured, and Peter is bargaining and being sneaky in order to stay alive in Auschwitz. Their motivations in everything they do is to stay alive. It's a natural instinct in each of these boys and without it they would not have made it even as far as they had. I think another intention which is not ever exactly said, is to stay alive in honor of their families. Both of the boys are the last left in their families and don't really have any reason why they should stay alive. So my question was, why did they still fend for their lives? I think they wanted to be a reminder one day, to people all over the world, of what horrors occurred during the Holocaust, in and out of the Nazis' hands. During the story, a conflict faced by both boys is not having a safe place to live. From the beginning of the Holocaust no person could ever be truly safe. Peter has the annex, but when in it, they can't be fully secure. This is very similar in Emil and Karl. The two boys can hide in a cellar, but they won't ever be fully secure when danger is right above their heads. As these comparisons are showing, every body's Holocaust experiences were different, yet remarkably similar.

Emil and Karl Blog #3

     I started my second book club book today called Emil and Karl by Yankev Glatshteyn. The story starts out with a heart-wrenching scene in which Karl, a nine year old boy, has his mother torn from his arms after his house is infiltrated by three men. Since Karl's mother was his only link to family, Karl had learned at a young age to fend for himself. He knew that it was a matter of time before the men who captured his mom came back and captured him as well, so Karl fled his home and ran to Emil's house. Emil and his mother had not wanted Karl to interact with their family anymore, for they were Jews and knew they would be hurt and taunted for being seen around superior races. The part that I read tonight stopped right as Karl knocked on Emil's door, but based on the information given about Emil's disconnection with Karl, I predict that Emil may not allow him to enter despite Karl's horrific day.
    
     The protagonist in the story is Karl. Having no family other than his mother, Karl was raised as an independent and brave boy. All on his own, his character has to make the decision to leave his home at the age of nine. He did things that many adults would not have been able to do under the circumstances that he faced. Karl is also very smart and has his own unique beliefs. When his friend Emil was being harassed and made fun of for being a "filthy Jew," (17) Karl stuck up for him even when every other person was taunting him. I wonder how Karl's beliefs are so different from all other children at such a young age. I think some of it had to do with his mother who was an extremely open minded person. When Emil's family chose to separate themselves from Karl, she told him that he could hang out with whatever type of people he wanted to. You can tell that this was a type of person not very common to Austria during this time.

     Overall the story takes place in Vienna, Austria during WWII. The story starts in Karl's apartment where he lived with his mother. The apartment seemed fairly small in size and was fully furnished with beds, chairs, tables, and decorations such as vases and the most important decoration; a picture of Karl's father that hangs proud in the bedroom. The building of Emil's apartment is described as a dark building that seems a little creepy. There's the school that the boys go to, but not much information is given about its appearance or location. Yankev Glatshteyn doesn't bother spending much time describing details of settings, but instead takes time capturing the emotions and traits of his characters.

     So far the most extreme conflict in the story is that Karl's mother has been captured by men. Where these men come from has not yet been stated in the book, but I predict that they are either Nazis taking her away because she was communicating with Jews, or because she was possibly protecting Jews from Nazis. Another conflict is between Karl and Emil. As I stated before, Emil has attempted to separate himself from Karl completely in order to keep his family safe from harm. Karl was trying to mend his friendship with Emil, while Emil continued to disconnect from him. These conflicts ultimately evolve from the conflict of anti-Semitism. Although Karl is not a Jew, the story illustrates the war in the mind of a young Christian boy, a side that is not often portrayed when it comes to Holocaust stories.

     I'm curious to know how the story will continue to play out. I did, after all, stop at what could be a pivotal point in the two boys' relationship.

Night; Blog #2

     In class today, we read an excerpt from Night by Ellie Wiesel. The narrator was Mr. Wiesel himself, telling the story of his experiences during the Holocaust.  The part of the story we read about discussed what it was like in the train cars that lead to different camps. This one in particular, was headed toward Birkenau. Eighty people were crammed into one very small train car. There is one woman, Mrs. Schӓcter, who began hallucinating of a blazing fire that she saw constantly out the train car opening. She screamed of it night and day, her mind losing touch with the world. When the train got to its destination, the passengers found that the woman was right. A fire was in fact burning outside, and bright flames rose from a chimney. The place that they had arrived was Birkenau, one of the best known concentration camps during the Holocaust.  How was this woman able to hallucinate and predict these flames, before she had seen the actual camp?
     I wonder if when the fire was actually seen, people still believed Auschwitz to have "good conditions." (27) In the story, on page 28, Ellie Wiesel recounts what he smelled that night. He says, "In the air, the smell of burning flesh." Based on the conditions of the Holocaust, and the smell of bodies burning, I can infer that many of the people in that train car will be burned in that very fire; that they will be stripped of their dignity just before death, and stand naked in front of everybody. I also am inferring that Mrs. Schӓcter was among those people; that or she was shot. I think this because there was no “room” in the Holocaust for ill or mental people. A thought that saddens me asks how Ellie Wiesel knew the smell of flesh previous to the Holocaust. Could the conditions in his hometown have made him exposed to such things at a young age?

     As Mr. Wiesel had put it, "We had arrived," (28) but I'm afraid most of them were only arriving to the end.

    
   

Annexed Blog #1

     My first book club book is an emotional novel by Sharon Dogar named Annexed. The protagonist of the story is Peter Van Pels, a sixteen year old Jewish boy, who is forced to live in a confined annex with Anne Frank and her family. The story begins with a saddening scene. It starts with Peter running from a siren coming from one of the Nazi vans. He is running to his girlfriend's house and gets over her fence just in time for the siren not to reach him. Before Peter is able to get into her house, the Nazis from that van abduct her whole family, leaving Peter angry and questioning life. The beginning of the story illustrates the two families moving into the annex. The author introduces the relationships between Peter and his housemates, including his hatred for Anne Frank. The story has an interesting conflict, thoughtful characters, and a saddening setting.
     The story has two conflicts, person-against-society and person-against-person. Peter's main problem is the Holocaust. All of the conflicts in the story relate back to this specific conflict. The reason he has to live in the annex is because of the Holocaust, the reason his girlfriend was taken away by Nazis is because of the Holocaust, etc. The other conflict is Anne Frank. He hates her due to her presumptuous and ostentatious personality. It agitates Peter to the fullest extent. In the story, the protagonist is faced with many problems.
     The main character as said before is Peter. He is an average teenage boy who feels and acts the same way a normal teenager would. He feels lust for Liese, his girlfriend that has just been captured with her family by Nazi soldiers. He feels angst against his parents: his father a strict, yet friendly man, and his mother very loving, but sometimes ignorant. Living in the annex along with his family are the Franks. There is Anne, who, as said before enjoys being the center of attention and is Peter's antagonist. There is Mr. Frank, a wise sounding man who doesn’t get tempered often. Also his wife, Mrs. Frank, who is much stricter and very short-tempered. Anne's sister, Margot, is a flat character; she seems to be a quiet girl. So far the characters of the story remain a little flat. I predict a lot of character change in the future since there are eight people living in one very small annex together.
     The story takes place in Amsterdam toward the end of the summer in 1942. The story takes place during World War II at the start of the Holocaust. The families live in an annex with about four rooms, each very small. There is a kitchen, a bedroom or two, a bathroom, an attic type, and some hallways. Peter's "room," consists of a bed and a dresser which lie under the staircase that leads to the attic. There is no privacy, no quiet, and no comfort. Most rooms are multi-purpose rooms, so they can make use of every inch they have.
     The story takes on a thoughtful approach to the mind of a teenage boy living through the Holocaust. So far I enjoy it thoroughly and I look forward to continuing and reaching the climax.

Love Affair by Copeland; my "feel good" song

  As I laid on my bed staring up at the ceiling, deep in thought, I listened to Love Affair by Copeland and dissected the lyrics. Whenever I listen to this song I get into that "feel good" mood, and I go into a different world. The music from the piano and violin combined with the lyrics of this song make it my favorite. The chorus is my favorite, where he sings in a hushed, sincere voice, "just let me run where I want to run. Just let me love who I want." The power of music is truly incredible, it lets me feel anything I want to. Definitely listen to the song and just close your eyes while listening to the lyrics. I hope it gives you the same feeling it gives me!

Flower Garden by Shirley Jackson

Flower Garden by Shirley Jackson is a short story that explores all different depths of social norms, racial discrimination, and women in society. The mysterious friendship of Mrs. Winning and Mrs. MacLane leaves the reader guessing what will happen next. Mrs. Winning is introduced as someone who seems to be the perfect friend and one who would challenge social norms, but turns into a pumpous and arrogant woman. Mrs. MacLane, a character who just seems perfect, challenges social norms in the story and is looked down upon for doing so. The story shows both "the perfect house wife" side to woman of the stories time period and also the gossipy, nasty side to these women.

When thinking about the assignment as I read the story, I noticed two elements; person-against-society and open-ending. Society in the stories time period is very austere and restricting. Mrs. MacLane was one to ignore the social-norms and do things the way she believed they should be done. The biggest example for this is by her asking a black man to help her with her garden and allowing his son to become friends with her son. In the society at this time, doing just this was extremely frowned upon. Her consequence was being ignored and avoided by neighbors and towns people who had previously been so nice to her before. She struggled with her society and trying to figure out what was so wrong with what she had been doing.

The story ends with a big open-ending/cliffhanger. The last lines in the story are, "Mrs. MacLane waved and called out, 'hello!' Mrs. Winning swung around without speaking and started, with great dignity, back up the hill toward the old Winning house." The ending leaves the reader wanting to know more; wanting questions to be answered. For instance, was Billy trying to get something from the MacLane's? Was Mrs. MacLane ever going to move back to New York? Had Mrs. Winning completely turned against her old friend? Not only does the story end with these questions, it ends with a total character growth from Mrs. Winning. The story leaves you thinking about her character and how one person could have changed so drastically in that fairly small amount of time.

I think any author's goal is to keep the reader interested and wanting more, and that is exactly what Shirley Jackson did with this story.

Query; Week of February 13th

How can we find happiness in simple acts of love or kindness?
By Sam Balka

In our generation, life passes us by without realizing the affect we can have on someone’s day. This Friday, February 17th, happens to be Random Acts of Kindness Day, in which people all over use a simple action such as a smile or holding the door to do the right thing. The ability to find happiness in a small act of kindness is determined by the way we look at life. Dale Carnegie says, “You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world’s happiness now… Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a life time.” Carnegie expresses the difference or impression a small act of kindness can make. While we focus on simplicity this year, we have to think about being selfless and finding joy in the small things.

At Newtown Friends, we learn values that will follow us through our lives. One of the values taught here is to always care for your peers and for your community. There are many things you can do to make a difference in the community.

1. Pick up a piece of trash outside
2. Offer someone help when they look in need
3. Hold the door for someone
4. Smile when your eyes meet someone else’s
5. Ask someone to sit with you at the lunch table
6. Say good morning, good afternoon, or just say hi

I put together a quick video to show you how one small act can brighten someone’s day and inspire another’s.


This week’s query is, “How can we find happiness in a simple act of love or kindness?”

My Fish and There Friends

Hello,
Today, I bought a fish... it multiplied to 9 fish. So before I forget, here are the names:
Green Fish- Clay
Tea House Blue Fish- Ashton
Yellow Fish- Ming Co
Lite Blue Fish- Brittany
Blue Fish- Hariari
Red Fish- Shanaynay
White Fish- Pat
Black Fish- Deena
Orange Fish- Lucas

The newlywed couple they surround live by the names of Donna and Eric. When you see my friends, please feel free to feed them. Thank you and enjoy my friends, Clay, Ashton, Ming Co, Brittany, Hariari, Shanaynay, Pat, Deena, and Lucas.

Enjoy October,
Balka

Simplicity Thoughts

The idea I picked up on from the packet was that simplicity is to keep a clear and concise manner. The idea was having a cleared mind and letting yourself reflect upon life and not worry about the franticness of life. When I think of simplicity this is often what comes to mind; allowing ourselves to take a break and look around at what our lives look like. Wisdomcommons.org says, “Simplicity means centering on that which is important and letting go of the rest.” In this day and age life is crazy and has a lot going on. This makes it important to stop and think about what really matters.

I picked up on this mostly because I felt I could connect to it. I’ve noticed a lot more now that I’m getting older that a moment to stop and think is precious. I feel as though sometimes I have too much going on and too many thoughts running through my head that I just need to step aside from where I am and think. I did this in Bear Creek quite a few times, where I simply sat or walked by myself and thought of what my life was like and what I could do to better create happiness. I found these times helpful and needed. I learned that simplicity is not only about simple objects; but simple moments.

When I first thought about simplicity in our school it didn’t make sense to me. We were getting new things all the time and it’s hard to get children to think simply. Learning more about it, I realized there was something that just a moment of silence could bring that made a room peaceful. Duane Elgin, author of a book about simplicity states, “Soulful simplicity is more concerned with consciously tasting life in its unadorned richness…” This illustrates that simplicity is the ability to look around and enjoy the life around you. Simplicity to me is the chance to stop, think, and breathe.

What I Believe

I believe in the beauty of life and that our happiness is in our own hands. I believe that being yourself can create this happiness, whether people approve of who you are or not. I believe in fate however, where we choose our own road to follow but are unable to choose the road blocks ahead. The first time I experienced realizing the real, true beauty of life was on the Ben Franklin Bridge, coming back from the shore when I was 11. It was night time and lights of Philadelphia flashed past. As I looked out my window, I felt something pass over me. It was a feeling where I just saw beauty in each light and realized how absolutely lucky I was to be alive and living the fantastic life I was living. The feeling actually even brought a tear from my eye; it was one of those completely sappy moments no one wants to admit. However, at that point nothing inspired me more than the beautifully lit city.

From a young age I learned the following lesson: you are who you are, and there is no one or nothing that can change that. Being a dancer, I had to deal with a bunch of taunts and remarks from my classmates who at the time were unable to look past their beliefs and into mine. No doubt the things they said got me down, and made me feel absolutely crappy, but I learned that I was being myself and that's all I wanted to do. At the time, me being strong and taking what people said but not analyzing it gave me the ablitily to be who I am, and no one could ask for more.

I think my mom has to do with a lot of my beliefs. When I was having hard times with kids in my grade she was the one to give me advice and tell me just to be myself and nothing more. She never forced a belief on me but instead taught me the value in one's self. There is a broad influential group of people who have shaped my beliefs: disease patients. It seems slightly weird but whenever I see someone I know battling a life terminating disease I think, if there really is a God, that people pray to, why would he allow people to die painful deaths? Now I also believe that people have the right to believe in whatever they want, but this did make me think. I decided that whether there is a God or not, fate determines people's "road blocks."

In my life so far, I have not had any experiences in which my beliefs have changed, but I have had situations where I had to test myself with my beliefs and realize that sometimes it's easier said than done. Whether what I believe is to change in the future (which I'm sure it will) or not, I will still have something to believe in and that right there gives me the oppurtunity to be whoever I want to be.