As I reflect on our studies on the Holocaust, my beginning knowledge on it and my knowledge at the end is unfathomable. My view on the world and history has changed immensely, as I do perceive people more on how they act and how they are, instead of how Hitler saw the Jews, just for being different from him because of their religion. I recall in the Life is Beautiful how the wife, Dora, chose to go to the concentration camp with her family, although she was not forced to because she was not Jewish. The Germans were splitting up families for no reason, and although the film was fiction, it was very brave of Dora to join her family to go to the concentration camp. The film also brought me to understand on how hard it must’ve been to keep spirits high, and to manipulate one's child, as Guido did with his son, Joshua, and make them believe that everything would be alright. In the film, Guido had his son believe that for them to get out of the concentration camp, they had to earn 1,000 points. To win 1,000 points, you would have to complete task, such as doing labor, and eating all of your food without speaking. In addition, the winner at the end would win a real tank. At the end of the movie, Guido gets shot by one of the German soldiers and dies, and the Jews get liberated, and when Joshua walks into the open, he sees a real tank with an American solider driving. As Joshua hops into the tank, they start to ride down this road, and Joshua sees his mother, and the story is concluded.
This experience of the Holocaust affect me on an emotional level. Before this experience I did not know much about the Holocaust I just had heard of horrible man named Adolf Hitler and the genocide he had created. After reading the book Night and after the documentaries and films that we watched I've been slapped by reality. I've been dwelling a lot on my own as well, about how people could have so much hatred on the people who are their neighbors. Just ordinary people that have so much hatred. I'm just so confused how people could just back stab their neighbors as soon as a new political party rose. Ordinary people turning into monsters you don't see that everyday. I've taken away so many things from this unit. I think the thing that just draws me the most from in this unit is to never forget. So many innocent people died just because of what they practiced and what they look like. So the least I can do is memorialize them by never forgetting what happened to them....
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