Blog #5- Isabel

his study has gave me a whole new view on the Holocaust. I was enlightened to what the Holocaust entailed, including the torture, not just physically, but emotionally, like when a loved one was lost. In the video, Life is Beautiful , I realized how hard it must have been to be separated from your family during the war, or if you were lucky enough to be in the same camp, to make sure that person, or people were still alive, and to protect them. On the other hand, in Night, even though Elie tries to look out for his father, by the end, it’s every man for himself. In order to survive, it becomes extremely hard to watch out for other people, even if they are your closest loved one. These texts have given me a new realization of the Holocaust. It is hard to believe it happened in the twentieth century, not in medieval times, as Elie Wiesel said in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. The 1940s, were relatively not that long ago. It is also heartbreaking to think that the Americans did not step in sooner. The whole study was very emotionally harsh and challenging to get through, but it is very important to learn about this time in History, because in some parts of the world, History is repeating itself. As Elie Wiesel stated in his Nobel peace prize acceptance speech, there are places of the world, where genocide is happening. Watching the films, and reading the texts, made me realize, the struggle these people had to go through, and the trauma that would live with them forever. The Bravery was unfathomable, as well as the will to keep on going. The will to keep going was stronger than the will to die. The bravery that the wife, Dora showed in Life is Beautiful, was incredibly admirable. Even though she was not Jewish, she asked to go on the train to the concentration camp, so that she would not be separated from her husband and son. Her love was too great to separate them, which I thought was moving and inspiring. When hearing about the part of the Aryans teaching the children from a very young age, a elementary school age, about how Adolf Hitler was a great man, was astonishing to me. It was unimaginable, children younger than me, learning about how a horrible man, was great. It gave me a new viewing on the Holocaust.