Free Write 3-26-13

For many reasons, I am ready to move out of my parents' house. For the most part, I have got my life going pretty well and it is time for me to start thinking about that anyway. There is one thing that is really, really pushing me to move out though... the dirty bathroom. One of my biggest pet peeves is to have a dirty bathroom. Having to share my bathroom with two brothers, ages 9 and 15, is such a pain to me. They aren't disgusting, they could be much worse, but they could also be so much more clean. Every little thing gets to me in a bathroom, I feel like it should just be such a clean place. It drives me absolutely crazy when they leave stuff cluttered on the cabinets and bottles without lids on them. It also makes me crazy to see the toothpaste tube squeezed right in the middle and the cap popped open. When my brothers do try to clean the bathroom, they leave streaks on the mirror and on the granite counter top; I can't stand it! Maybe I'm a little too obsessed with my bathroom, but I can't help it. It has always bothered me to share a bathroom with anyone. I like things to be very organized and in place, especially in the bathroom. The thing that bothers me most about my brothers sharing a bathroom is that, when they bathe, they leave their dirty clothes in the floor. Every single day I find myself picking up after them because they just leave it all behind! When I do move out and have my own bathroom, I guarantee my bathroom will be one of the cleanest you have ever seen. :)
                                                

Warsaw Ghetto Video Response

Watching the video on the Warsaw Ghetto was very disturbing. The video was made to show what the Germans wanted people think the Jews went through on a day to day basis in the ghetto, but in reality, it was much worse. They staged many scenes with the Jews acting more content and comfortable in their environment than they were sure to be. The film makers would have many takes of scene to try and make it look as realistic as they could. They even filmed the Jews walking down the streets who seemed not to care at all that they were walking over and around dead bodies; they were everywhere. It is impossible to watch something like that and not feel completely sick at your stomach. From shootings to starving, people were dying so rapidly that it was unreal. There was no food to spare, no nourishment at all. These people were so thin that they looked like they could just fall over any minute, and so many of them did. When the Germans finally removed the deceased bodies from the streets, they would carelessly pick them up and throw them in to a wooden box. The Germans took mass amounts of dead bodies to a big “grave” and just dumped the corpses on top of each other, piling with no limits. Each of these bodies was like skin and bones, nothing to them. Staging scenes throughout the ghetto was simply a way for the Germans to cover up evidence of all that was going on behind the scenes. I cannot even begin to imagine how the Jews living in the ghetto felt. The fact that one human could even do these things to another is so sickening. The video definitely opened my eyes even more to what ghettos in the holocaust were like. I cannot even begin to imagine being one of the survivors and looking back on these videos.

Holocaust Testimonies

Joseph Morton was born July 11, 1924 in Lodz, Poland. Joseph and his family grew up in a small apartment with 6 children who all shared a room with their parents. His father was a Tailor, while his mother stayed at home cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the family. There were 5 sons, and 1 daughter, Joseph being the oldest of all 6. When Joseph began hearing of Hitler, he became very scared for him and his family. Before he knew it, his family was taken and dumped in a ghetto, where his father was made a policeman. The ghetto was closed shortly after in. Their beds were filled with lice and there was no form of nurture to anyone. The Jews were given yellow bracelets to wear to identify themselves. When this ghetto was closed, his family was reunited on a cattle wagon that took them to Germany. When they arrived to Germany, later in 1944, the Germans began making strict orders and separating all of the people in the wagons. Unfortunately, Joseph lost everyone except for his father, one brother, and a male cousin. They were sent off as workers to pour concrete, work on railroads and airports, and do many other tough jobs. This camp was also closed not long after due to too many deaths. At this time, Joseph was 20 years old and being moved to a different camp. He later caught an illness and was separated in to a group called the “sick Jews,” who were not expected to live. Fortunately, Joseph survived all of these tough times. He and his family were liberated by an American Army, and while he was too sick to remember the whole process, Joseph, his brother, his father, and his cousin were sent to a DP Camp in Canada and eventually made it back to the US where they were united with their whole family! Joseph described his way of survival as strictly luck.

“I was so sick when I was liberated I couldn’t even celebrate because I was out of it.”

“Being in the ghetto, the starvation was very tremendous.”

Edith Coliver was born July 26, 1922 in Karlsruhe, Germany, and raised in San Fancisco. She remembers her childhood being very peaceful and coming from a middle class family. While she remembered being very active in her Jewish culture, until things began to change in 1938, starting in the public school that she had attended. The Germans had stopped allowing Jewish children to attend the school. Her father made the decision to take the family away because he knew there was a war coming. When they returned to Germany, her family filed for her to get a Visa to make it out of Germany to America. Edith’s family stayed with her in New York for about four weeks, and then relocated to San Francisco. Not long after, Edith was moved back to Germany, she wanted to be a part of the Nuremberg Trials. Edith describes her way of survival being that her family was able to make it out of Germany before the killing started.

“I was in a gang, an upscale gang.”

“After Liberation, many more Jews died because their system could not accept food in to it.”

Free Write 3-5-13

I'm currently sitting class, and wondering if people have just lost their minds, or like to freeze when it is this cold outside. It is 34 degrees outside and there is a girl sitting in front of me wearing a skirt. I'm not sure what went through her mind this morning, but it obviously wasn't very much common sense. I do not have any idea why she would want to wear a skirt on such a cold, gloomy day. Maybe it's just me, but I much prefer to wear a skrit on a warm, sunny day! She may have a good reason to wear a skirt and I just don't it, but it really does not impress me that she has. I'm over here in a sweater and jeans, trying to keep a little bit of my body heat. She's obviously not too worried about that. It would make sense to wear a skirt with leggings, maybe, or tights; even boots. But no... that's not what she was thinking. Its still winter, lady, cover up.