Free Write 11

My goodness the last few days have been worrysome. Its started on friday when I was waken up by a call from school saying I should drop one of my classes or risk failing it. This especially frustrates me because all I did is not study for one of two tests and now I'm risking my GPA. I've done the math since and have learned that if I do okay on the next three tests I can squeak by with a C.... I'll try for the B from now on. After that this one girl who I barely know took a liking to me on saturday and texted my phone into oblivion. To sum it up there; she's weird. Things were starting to get a lot smoother though when I went to pizza inn with my parents on sunday night and I saw my church friends there. We talked for a short time then I went back to my parents table and was ready to devoure out pizza. I didn't get very far when a old friend who I'd had a falling out with messaged me and appolgized. I don't know what sparked that but I can't complain though it did take away my appetite at the time. Since then I've been reunited with another friend and am also playing basketball on a team this summer. All in all I had a lot to think about this weekend. It may have been little things, but to a freshmen they're not that little. Now all I have to do is worry about my grades... Oh goodness my grades.

The Ghetto Response

The Ghetto

                The Ghetto was a chilling narrative of what life was like in the Warsaw ghetto during the Holocaust. The film included testimonies from survivors, film taken by the Germans for propaganda, and even an interview with one of the German photographers. The main source of the film is a film reel found deep in a chamber with other films. Its purpose is believed to have been to distort the ghetto life for people on the outside and show that the Jewish people had it good and were not being mistreated. The Germans were still in the editing process when the film was last edited and they left many scenes of the horrible treatment and conditions the Jewish people lived in. This film is a prime example of how the Germans documented almost everything during this time very well through video. One thing that is documented very well in this one is the street conditions. Left on the reel were dozens of scenes of people walking past dead bodies. These dead bodies generally appeared to be a result of starvation or some other illness due to lack of food. Also there were lots of people on the verge of death in the streets. Men, women, elderly, and children all were starving and on the verge of death in the Warsaw ghetto. The food situation was difficult to say the least for the Jewish people. There wasn’t enough food inside the ghetto walls for its inhabitants and people smuggling food in were often shot after the food was confiscated. It was out of the ordinary for children to try to smuggle food into the ghetto, which makes it even more gruesome when you think about the punishment for smuggling, death. Sickness and death truly seemed to be the only theme of this film and of the ghetto.

Edith Coliver Testimony 1

Holocaust Testimony

Edith Coliver

                Edith Coliver at the time of the interview was a 77 year old, Jewish, and German native. The interview was conducted in her home in San Francisco, California. Her European experiences during the 1930s and 1940s were actually a lot easier than they could have been. Both of her parents were several generation Germans and good, strong Jewish followers. Her father was a banker and had enough to live a good life. She lived in a kosher house in Karshuhe, Germany. They even had a cook that had served them for three generations. Edith partook in sports such as track and field. She was a part of a club called The League of German Jews. While at a track meet she once apologized to the Jewish men with beard for not being properly dressed. She says one of the men replied "it’s aright as long as you have good legs." As comical as that might sound it reminds me just how silly the anti-Semitism was at this time. The Jewish people were treated as though they were different when really they were just like you and I and even gave silly responses such as that one. She was about eighth or ninth grade when the anti-Semitism really set in. In school she had a Racial Science class where they learned about the idea of a perfect Arian. She said there was also a terrible joke going around her part. After a man would be taken away by the SS an officer would show up a few days later and call out to the wife and say "widow so-and-so!..." implying that her husband was now dead. Her accounts of this doesn't go much farther as she switches gears to her family moving to America and eventually ending up in San Francisco where she had family. Upon arrival at port 35 the immigration agent saw her with her accordion and prompted her to play it. "So I play God Bless America and the customs agent cried and all the people down the pier, our relatives, cried" she says. This story again reminds me how as people we aren't so different. Even this German girl just arriving in the country can share a moment with the Americans that have never been to Germany or even Europe. Here in America she attends Berkeley and stays in an international house. She loves it there but it is taken away during her tenure there. She the moves east and tries to find work in Washington DC. There she works for a senator. Eventually she finds herself in Europe at the trials. This is where the allies convicted the axis forces of war crimes. There were also war crimes that were also convicted by the allies. Apparently the axis could not be prosecuted for crimes that the allies committed too. Edith Coliver died on December 27, 2002 of pancreatic cancer. She was 79. That is just two years after this interview took place.

"it’s aright as long as you have good legs." Example of how light hearted and normal things were before the Holocaust.

"So I play God Bless America and the customs agent cried and all the people down the pier, our relatives, cried"

David Abrams Testimony 2

Holocaust Testimony

David Abrams

                David Abrams of Dej, Romania was born in 1928 on December 8^th. His original name before coming to America was Abraham. At the time of the interview he lived in Brooklyn, New York and was 69 years old. David had a very modest but good childhood in Dej. He had three or four sisters and three brothers. He was the oldest of the brothers and the youngest of the sisters. His father was a baker and was very religious. Anti-Semitism started in their tiny town around about 1941-42. Like everything else about the Holocaust it started out very gradually and didn’t always seem out of the ordinary compared to what had already happened. It went from just being picked on while on the way home to his father being beaten for not displaying a flag on a nation holiday. Soon they weren’t allowed to own the bakery that earned them their food and money. In about 1943 he and his family were taken away to live in a Jewish ghetto. The ghetto wasn’t like most of the “poster child” ghettos from the Holocaust; it was really just a forest where they were left. They stayed in this ghetto for about a month in the spring time. When they left the ghetto they were taken straight to Auschwitz by train. At Auschwitz he was separated from his family and wouldn’t be reunited with any of them until after the war. He was only at this camp for a short time until being moved on to Mauthausen and then to Gusen. While at these work camps his work mostly consisted of moving large rocks. He survived mostly by sheer luck and being only 15 or 16 years old. In one instance he was admitted to the hospital at the camp for a leg infection. During that time the kids his age were assigned to do extremely hard work where many of them died. Once the death marches started his guards were ordered to kill them but didn’t and just kept them walking. Once he was liberated he was taken to a hospital where he was nursed back to health. After that he was all on his own. He went into a DP camp and eventually found his way home where he was eventually reunited with his sisters.

“…there was a holocaust, I was there, I survived, and I’m here now to testify about it.”

“Zachor” –Always remember what happened

“Al tishkach” –Never forget

Free Write 10

I could no tbe anymore tired this morning. I should be in bed right now or at the very least out getting a job. To me this seems like the lame part of college. The grind of the "gen eds" where you come to school with one thing in mind (your major) but go to classes that have 4-5 different things in mind. It is a necessary yet stuoid part of college. Unfortunately I'm so tired I can't keep a simple thought going so we're switching gears! Yesterday I went to the gym to dominate some highschool kids at basketball. That never happened. Fronm the moment I took my first shot I was off and of course this lead to getting ignored when I stood in the paint waiting for the ball so I could turn and do a simple hook. Unfortunately all 6 of my points came off of rebounds and loose balls. I was pissed and frustrated beyond belief. Its needless to say after the pick up game I resorted to trick shots so it would at least be understandable if I missed. I feel that my lack of performance was due to just being tired and not displaying any energy. Next week I'll be bringing the pain when I go and play. I just can't stand getting showed up by people that aren't on my level. That sounds really cocky and bad but deep down its atrue in all of us.