An End to Intolerance

Transcription

1 The Holocaust/ Genocide Project An End to Intolerance June, Years After Liberation: How Far Have We Come?

2 Introduction & What s New Editors- in- Chief Lance Shapiro, Tim Douglas Technical Editor Justin Steinberg Art Editor Julia Goodman Senior Editors Kim Barba, Tara Dolan, Erin Flanagan, Ruth Morrongiello, Katelyn Pulling, Rachel Tydings, Caroline Laverriere, Harry Lisabeth, Caryn Urbanczyk Section Editors Katie Ake, Dan Butler, Spencer Ewell, Peter Finocchiaro, Amanda Hamburger, Scott Kaufman, Paige Koster, Jock Pflug, Herman Singh Project Mentor Gideon Goldstein, Israel Project Coordinator Honey Kern, USA Contributing Schools and Organizations Auschwitz-Birkenau Muzeum, Oswiecim, Poland Blue Ridge High School; Lakeside, Arizona Boston College, Massachusetts Boston Latin School, Massachusetts Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania Cold Spring Harbor High School; Cold Spring Harbor, New York Committee on Conscience; USHMM, Washington, D.C. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies; Gratz College, Penn. From Memory to Peace, an Arab-Jewish Initiative, Israel Ghetto Fighters House, Israel Heinrich Boell Gesamtschule; Köeln, Germany Holocaust Center- Temple Judea; Manhasset, New York Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Nassau County, N.Y. International School of Prague; Prague, Czech Republic Jewish Holocaust Museum; Melbourne, Australia John Hopkins University, Maryland Lakeview School District; Battle Creek, Michigan Oliver Street School; Newark, New Jersey Rochester Institute of Technology, New York School 689, Moscow, Russia School of Foreign Service; Georgetown University, Washington D.C. Schreiber High School; Port Washington, New York Science High School; Newark, New Jersey Sequoya Middle School; Holtsville, New York Simon Wiesenthal Center; Museum of Tolerance, Israel STAND: Students Taking Action Now St. John s University, New York St. Paul s Anglican Grammar School; Warragul, Australia United Nations, New York United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C. Wallenberg Foundation of New Jersey, USA Wanganui Secondary College; Victoria, Australia Wissahickon Middle School, Pennsylvania 2Yad Vashem; Jerusalem, Israel Kristen Aliano Melissa Allen Krikor Angacian Sevan Angacian Victoria Angelo Judy Barr Leonie Barrett Jennifer Bernardes Greg Berney Jackie Birzon Caroline Bodi Lewis Bodi Maria Bogdanovskia Ali Bressler Rachel Broderick Dan Butler Matt Capetola Keith Casadei Wes Chisolm Kathleen Chu Mathew Church Doug Ciampa Seamus Clune John Crane Nicole Crom Janna D Ambrisi Sofia de Guzman Will Deitch Amanda Del Balso Laura DeLaurentis Gunter Demnig Carrie Dennis Samantha DeWarf Tara Dolan T.J. Dowling Damien Eddy David Eitel Charles Ellsworth Harry Ettlinger Brian Farber Britanny Fede Peter Finocchiaro Elise Fishelson Charles Fishman Christine Fleming Ashley Foxen Judi Freeman Andrew Gabriele Lillian Gewirtzman Danica Gibson Bailey Ginsberg Gloria Glantz Contributors and Staff Ester Golan Sarah Golub Kelsey Grich Jumanah Hassan Neil Hesse Lydia Hickin Daryin Hummel Jeff Hurst Nastia Ikonnikova Brittany Kalten Scott Kaufman Damon Kirwin Orli Kleiner Swenja Knopf Colby Kossoy Paige Koster Tatiana Kosterova Michael Kuchta Alicia LaGuardia David Lau Caroline Laverriere Michelle Lawlor Kim Leidner Margaret Lincoln Harry Lisabeth Joe Locicero Chelsea Macco Hopie Mason Kayla McAndrew Colin McGeough Kelly McGrath Dr. Rafael Medoff Bayard Megear Victor Minachin Natasha Mir Jaya Misra Jackie Mitchell Heather Morante N. Morante Kelly Moynihan Jonathan Newmark Helen Nightingale Katia Nikitina Galina Novichkova Shaina Nuko Mary O Connor Avery Ornstein Peter Ottaviano Alexander Ovchinnikov Andrea Paloian Svetlana Panarina Olivia Paquette Chelsea Peters Judy Peterson Georgina Petty Marissa Prianti Brooke Pyper Ashwin Ramachandran Eva Riccardi Stefan Röder Jennifer Roeske Lisa Rogoff Katia Romanstova Lauren Rottkamp Andrian Salvatore Amy Sanjanwala Andrew Sanjanwala Katia Savkova Andrea Scarcella Jutta Schaffarczyk Cam Schnier Becky Scully Boris Seincher Yigal Shachar Lauren Sharan Yuri Shaskov Kristie Shearing Brian Siegel Rachel Silber Madeliene Sim Annabeth Simpson Herman Singh Elizaveta Sklyshkina Athina Soohoo Rachel Straus Haley Stutchin Daria Suklyshkina Matt Sunshine Peter Swerz Towny Swiggett Rachel Tydings Natalia Uglava Caryn Urbanczyk Clare Vagnini Casey Van de Walle Victoria Vogel Lloyd Volk Teddy Waldo Liz Wiener Elie Wiesel Barbara Wind Marisa Wodkovsky Sarah Yewdell Evelina Zarkh Jacob On The Cover: Children liberated in Auschwitz camp baring their arms tattooed with their number Courtesy of The Ghetto Fighters House, Israel and The Auschwitz-Birkenau Muzeum; Oswiecim, Poland

3 What s New? 4. Letter from the Editors 5. A Message from the HGP Mentor Survivors Speak 6. Holocaust Years Later: Remembering the Holocaust 10. The Liberator 11. From Memory to Peace 13. Just a Holocaust Escapee 14. About Gloria Glantz 16. A Child Survived 17. The Holocaust Through the Eyes of a British Citizen 18. Annie Can t Remember 19. A Remarkable Experience: A Meeting with Irving Roth In the Schools 20. Journal Entries 22. Letter from my Grandfather 23. My Visit to Theresienstadt (Terezin) 25. Hungary was the Only Land I Knew 26. Stumbling Over History 27. Marking the Holocaust 28. The Flower Shop 30. My Friend, Anne 31. Courage to Care: Exhibit in Australia 34. Night Introduction & What s New Volume 13 June 2005 Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York, USA ALL MATERIALS CONTAINED WITHIN ARE COPYRIGHT AETI AETI 2005 Human Rights and Genocide 43. Killing of Innocence 45. Terrorism in Beslan Affects Russian Students 47. Caught in the Crossfire 48. The War in Kashmir 49. The Undemocratic Democracy of Turkey 53. A Call to Action for Darfur 54. Peace in Sudan and the Darfur Conflict 56. Not This Time: Taking a Stand Against Genocide in Darfur Global Education 57. Israeli Poet Shares his Poems with the HGP Table of Contents 60. Jewish Holocaust Centre Report: From Australia 62. New Museum Hopes to Put an End to Intolerance 63. Marlon Brando s Holocaust Connection 64. Museum s Traveling Exhibitions Program Years Later: Remembering Liberation 68. Distortions of the Truth about the Holocaust 69. The Last Months of Auschwitz 70. Truth of Life 71. Vistula-Oder Operation of the Soviet Army 72. Soviet Army Liberates Auschwitz a Week Early 74. Remembering Pope John Paul II Student Reviews 75. Black Elk Speaks 76. Gentlehands 77. The Cage 78. The Wave 79. Remembering Rwanda 80. Hotel Rwanda 81. The Story of a Life 82. The Plot Against America 83. The Long Way Home 84. Nesse Godin: Holocaust Survivor Online 85. Alumni Podium Alumni Podium Creative Impressions 90. Morning On The Terrace 90. The Last Tool 91. Renee s Bathingsuit 91. The Ravine 91. The Window 92. Sara s Doll 92. The Sky 93. I Remember 94. Lonely People 94. A Silent Tribute 95. Nebulous 95. Alone 3

4 Introduction & What s New Dear Readers, In its thirteenth year of publication, the Holocaust/Genocide Project (HGP) remains a massive international, educational project, one that continues grows with every year. Students the world over have contributed to make An End to Intolerance a reality. This year, our magazine has grown from seventy-two pages to over ninety pages! Though the central medium through which the HGP sends out our message of tolerance, this magazine is by no means the only way the HGP tries to reach out to the global community. With the help of the Israel Education and Resource Network, we independently continue bringing our project to the Internet. We also host an active, password-protected discussion forum which contains curriculum for teachers and students. From our website: any visitor has at his or her fingertips a great deal of information pertaining to both our project, as well as access to the websites of countless other organizations dedicated to spreading awareness about the Holocaust, genocide, human rights, and tolerance. This year our magazine s theme is 60 Years after Liberation: How Far Have We Come? We celebrate the progress that has been made in working to curb the hateful power of intolerance and reflect on the long road ahead on the path to putting an end to intolerance. In the last 60 years, advances have certainly been made in raising awareness about the atrocities that occurred in Europe before and during the Second World War, but as long as there are tragedies like the genocide taking place right now in the Sudan, our mission will remain an incomplete one. This magazine would not have been possible without the Herculean efforts of our supporters, teachers, and students who have, over the past thirteen years, given their time and effort, with utmost devotion, to make An End to Intolerance a reality. We, the editors, extend our gratitude to everyone who has helped this grass roots project grow and spread its message, of empathy and action against narrow-mindedness and hate, to people around the world. Student Editors of An End to Intolerance Cold Spring Harbor High School 82 Turkey Lane, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA, Tel: (631) Fax: (631) coldspring@igc.org Web site: 4 4

5 What s New... Introduction & What s New A message from the HGP Mentor, Gideon Goldstein, Israel Dear Friends, This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of many victims from the physical horrors of the Holocaust. In the public eye, this freedom was encapsulated in the commemoration ceremonies for the liberation of the Auschwitz camps. The importance of the public lessons of the Holocaust seems to grow as time goes by and yet, it is conceived as remote as ever. This year, the United Nations General Assembly convened for a special session. The words of Professor Elie Wiesel to that session clearly voiced on side of the paradox: Those who survived Auschwitz now advocate hope, not despair; generosity, not rancor or bi erness; not violence but gratitude. Involvement, not indifference. Indifference helps the aggressor, not his victims. And what is memory if not a noble and necessary response to and against indifference? But will the world ever learn? We, the participants of the Holocaust Genocide Project are committed to ascertaining that the world should, can, and will learn. In that context, I would like to share with you a fact that I was partially ignorant of until this year and to which I have since devoted much time to learn. I did not know that five brave individuals were able to escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau. The story I had learned of this year was the flight of two of these: Rudolf Vrba (born as Walter Rosenberg) and Fred Wetzler. They had escaped to tell the world what was going on inside the Nazi extermination machine. They had escaped to warn of the preparations being made for the annihilation of the Jewish community of Hungary. Yet, the world then, refused to learn. Despite Vrba s and Wetzler s accounts and their warnings, the allies had refrained from bombing the railroad tracks leading to Auschwitz, and the Jewish leadership in the Nazi controlled communities was reluctant to advise the potential victims of their awaited fate. The Hungarian Jews were led to the slaughter. The HGP commitment to learning the lessons of the Holocaust sometimes requires that we rethink our processes. Over the last year we have examined our work closely and thought that our efforts will be better served if we considered moving our project to a new home, a home that would provide us with more independence to do things we could not have done before. The decision was arrived at in the summer of The Holocaust/Genocide Project has moved its website and forum to our own servers. We believe that this move will give us the opportunity to provide our participants with more focused attention. As these lines are written, the transition has been successfully completed, and those of you visiting us will see no difference in the way our web-site and forum looks and behaves. The difference is in the atmosphere. We are happy to be able to share that with you. This is where we need your help. We are asking all our friends to assist us in gaining new contacts, bringing in new schools, students, and teachers. Help us spread the word the HGP has spread its wings would you please come, fly with us. 5

6 Survivors Speak Holocaust By Bailey Ginsberg, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York The following two excerpts are taken, with her family s permission, from Hidden Treasure, the Poetry and Prose of Bailey Laurel Ginsberg, compiled by B. L. Ginsberg and published by AuthorHouse. Bailey, at age 15, died suddenly in a tragic accident. A vibrant, beloved, talented student at our school, Bailey wrote these two pieces in February, Her father s introduction reads, Bailey s interest in the Holocaust was more than a common school assignment or even a family connection. In this essay, created February 12, 2002, she decides to take an unusual approach to the assignment. A second version follows immediately after this and was written the following day. My grandma didn t get a number tattooed on her arm. She was never reunited with her family. She didn t write a novel on her life. In fact, she doesn t even like to talk about it at all. Growing up, my mother and her sister and brother weren t told her story, even though both their parents had experienced it. It wasn t until my mom married my dad that my grandmother began to open up to him only. It was already obvious to me that it hurt her, but how could it not? I already knew that her childhood had been lost. I understood her avoidance of the topic. My problem was that I couldn t truly understand her experience, or rather her. Each time I read or hear another account of the horrific events of the Holocaust, I have the same reaction. I don t want to be considered apathetic toward the topic, because it baffles me each time I try to comprehend the events that transpired. But it always seems to me that the stories are the same. In almost every past year, I have had, at one point or another, an essay to write on the Holocaust, specifically my grandmother. I had my second grade picture book, my fifth grade storybook, a sixth grade presentation, and an eighth grade paper in reaction to The Cage; each one has been a different viewpoint of the same thing. This year, when I was presented with the topic, I reflected on a way to attack it. I needed a new way to describe what happened to my grandmother that would make it both enticing and sad for the reader, and factual and meaningful to me. I was at a loss. As much as my grandmother and her life mean to me, the more I read of others experiences, the more they seem to blend together in my mind. How can I possibly make my grandmother s history into an interesting essay topic, different from those I had read? I could tell about the man she met at the beginning of the war, who she found again at the end and married. I could tell about the day she tried to escape. I could tell about her anguish and disbelief of things that were happening to her people. But, I feel like we have heard them all before. And, the more I am required to write about it, the less special her story becomes. I would rather reflect on the effects of the Holocaust on my life. I want to show that it didn t only change my grandmother, but, in a way, it affected me. To this day, I have always had mixed feeling about my grandmother. Granted I love her, and she loves me, but I have a hard time accepting her beliefs. The Holocaust changed her. 6 That is prevalent in her opinionated personality and her views on life. Through her heavy Hungarian accent and lack of English education, her fear of war can still be heard. Naturally, she fears the prejudice against Jews, though she hardly experiences it now. I wonder though, if maybe her fear of persecution has made her prejudiced herself. It seems to me that when around her you re constantly being judged. The persecution of the Jewish people only makes her think Jews to be even more superior for withstanding it. Maybe she is right, maybe not. I think the fact that she was able to keep her faith in her religion during the most terrible of times, makes her believe that everyone else should have a deep faith as she. I do not. I don t like the idea of religion, but I do believe in G-d. I don t like the idea of prayers, but at times I feel the need to pray. I haven t told this my grandmother because I don t want to see her reaction. The most confusing thing about my grandmother is her critical nature. I believe that the Holocaust has done this to her. It made her believe that everyone who was not tortured during it, everyone who was not Jewish, was wrong. I believe that she thinks everyone who deviates from normal is sinful. This idea seems even harsher coming from her than from the Nazis. I have always believed in the saying, You don t know until you ve walked a mile in their shoes and I have always thought about not judging something unless it happened to me directly. It happened to my grandmother. She walked in those shoes; she experienced the other side; she has been there. Why, then, can she still hate what she doesn t know? How can she be so oblivious to the fact that what she is doing is exactly what she is afraid of? I understand her passion for the Jewish religion. I understand that she is the most comfortable with those like herself, and I can understand why she might be intolerant of someone who is not of that faith entering into our family, but not hateful. I don t talk to her about this; in fact I haven t mentioned it to anyone. It s a difficult thing to describe without being hurtful, sounding ignorant, or resentful of my family. Sometimes I think that my grandmother has a right to act the way she does. Sometimes I think she is right. After all, I look at how she has suffered, and then it seems like she knows better, almost like she has earned it. Maybe I have not walked a mile in her shoes and therefore I don t understand. But, I think I do. I like to think I understand her, I like to believe I understand the world but I cannot. As much as I can t fathom someone thinking the way she does, I cannot seem to grasp the thoughts of people during this war. The Holocaust didn t only change my grandmother and me. It altered the world. It didn t only harden her to prejudice. It caused the world to be apathetic. The war was not responsible for only confusing me. The Holocaust bewildered us all. That is why I hate it. I don t hate it because it hurt my family, I am not resentful of it only because it needlessly murdered millions of my people. I hate it mostly because it hurt me.

7 Survivors Speak So my topic this year wasn t like the others. It didn t talk about a specific day that stood out in my grandmother s mind. It didn t ramble on about my grandmother s anger and disbelief. I wrote about me. The way the Holocaust made me think about things, namely about my grandmother. Maybe this was just another one of my essay topics that I can add to my list in my next years with this topic. Maybe, but maybe not. It interested me more than just telling her story would have done. Her story was a great one, a monumental one, and maybe it could have been exciting to read it; but, my point of view, I feel was more unique to write. bits and pieces, starting from when it began. She was only fifteen years old when the war truly took over her life, the same age as I am now. She worked each day on the farm in Czechoslovakia with her mother and aunts and uncles. Her father had died when she was only three, making her their first and last child. Zoltan was a man, about twelve years older than she, who lived on a farm in her village. Every day he asked for her hand in marriage and each time she had the same response: I wouldn t marry you if you were the last man on earth! How was she to know that was what he would become? Holocaust, second version written 2/13/02 My grandmother doesn t have a number tattooed on her arm; she was never reunited with her family, and she hasn t written a novel describing her pain during the Holocaust. But to me, her story is more touching and far more clear in my mind than any other I will hear or any book I can read. Learning about the Holocaust and the millions brutally murdered, tortured and persecuted isn t quite the same. Reading the stories of other people s experiences still cannot fully hit home. The one story that invokes the most pain in me is my grandmother s. I have read The Cage: the story of Ruth Sender, and Night: Elie Wiesel s tale, and as baffling as their stories are to think about, by grandma s is even more confusing to me. Even the most descriptive, well-written book about her life couldn t make others feel the way I do when I hear it. It is far easier to picture the horrible life of someone you have not met and sympathize with their anguish, but it is entirely different when it has happened to someone close to you. My grandmother does not like to talk about her experience; I don t think I have ever been told her story directly. In fact, my mother and her brother and sister were never told either, even though they were raised by parents who both lived through the horrible event. It wasn t until my mother married my father that my grandmother finally opened up, but only to him. Somehow, I find this attitude of avoiding the topic more reasonable and more meaningful than those who find a way to tell the world what has happened. I like to think of her childhood as a secret, only entrusted to a special few. Through her heavy Hungarian accent and her lack of a childhood English education her pain is prevalent. She tells her story in 7

8 Survivors Speak The war seemed to start abruptly to her, beginning when she was ripped from her farm and carted away from her mother. She never said goodbye and apart from her dreams, she never saw her again. She was dragged immediately into a camp where she, along with many others of her faith were tortured, starved and worked to near death. These times are still blurry in her mind but she remembers how slowly each day went by. Every morning she wished it could be over, she prayed in Hebrew that this war would end, and she always kept her faith. Her religion and her G-d were all she had left and even though her life could be taken from her any moment, her hope could not. She labored in this camp and one other like it for four years; each day growing weaker, and closer to execution. One day she made a decision; she took a risk that saved her life. On this day she played the odds and her luck was miraculous. She had been sent to the warehouse. This warehouse, however, was not a building for the storage of goods; it was for the storage of Jews. It was known throughout the camp that this was where the loads of people were sent before their execution. This warehouse was a death chamber that was soon to be filled with gas. My grandmother was ordered there by the guards. While others accepted this coming death she searched for some way out. At the far end of this room was a door. It was early in the morning and surely this door could not be unlocked, and if it was, opening it could mean instant death. What did she have to lose; maybe a few more hours at the most? She turned the knob. Squinting into the sun she realized immediately where she was. She had opened a door into the place where the prisoners were lined up each morning to be counted. Thinking quickly she shut the door behind her and struggled to get into the line with the others. They were all kneeling with their heads facing toward the ground. The other prisoners were reluctant to let her squeeze in. They believed they would be caught and shot shortly after. Someone shifted to make room for her and she assumed the same groveling position as the rest. It was now, after she had escaped, that fear overwhelmed her. The guards were counting; they knew the number of people there were supposed to be. The guard inched closer. What would happen when they realized that they had one too many? He was now only a few people away and my grandmother was silently saying every prayer she knew, trying to save herself. Just then a commotion erupted on the far side of the camp and all guards were summoned. My grandmother was saved. All prisoners were ordered back into the barracks where she learned that the warehouse had just been gassed. That day she felt she was the luckiest person alive, and I believe that she was. She remembers being at the camp only a short period longer, or maybe the time just flew by quickly in her mind. Either way, she remembers the end. She was liberated by an American invasion and taken by the Red Cross to recovery camps. There she met Zoltan again. He had found her through the programs set up in these camps designed to reunite relatives. He had searched for her again. With everyone and everything she loved taken from her, Zoltan was the only familiar face. It was a face she loved to see. It seemed to her that he was indeed the last man on earth and she married him for that. Zoltan, my grandfather, took her with him to Ellis Island. Her name was changed there from Bourish to Barbara. They fled from Europe to the United States where they started a new family to replace all those that they had lost. The Holocaust changed my grandmother. It made her scared and more critical of others. Fear of what happened causes her to believe in the horrors that people are capable of creating. Although some people speak of losing their faith in religion and denouncing their G-D after what had occurred, grandmother s faith grew. She is more religious today than she was before the war. She doesn t talk about what happened to her but I can see it in her eyes, hear it in her voice and I know it s on her mind from just being near her. The pain that she endured is not easily forgotten and it shouldn t be. I m glad she found the courage to tell us her story because it affected me almost as much as it did her. She was my age when the torture began and her family was taken from her. I cannot even imagine that type of hardship and I admire her endurance after that. I have slept near her, almost sixty years later, and I have seen her shaking in the night. I have awoken at times to her yelling in her sleep. But, after hearing her story, none of this seems unnatural. I am amazed just at the fact that she survived. 8 8

9 Survivors Speak 60 Years Later: Remembering the Holocaust (On January 24, 2005, the General Assembly of the United Nations held a special session to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and the 60 th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor, spoke to the gathered dignitaries. With his permission, we reprint Elie Wiesel s speech here.) United Nations, January 24, 2005 Mr President of the general assembly, my friend Mr Secretary General, Foreign Ministers, Ambassadors, excellencies, fellow survivors, friends : The man who stands before you this morning feels deeply privileged. A teacher and writer, he speaks and writes as a witness to a crime committed in the heart of European Christendom and civilization by a brutal dictatorial régime a crime of unprecedented cruelty in which all segments of government participated. When speaking about that era of darkness, the witness encounters difficulties. His words become obstacles rather than vehicles; he writes not with words but against words. For there are no words to describe what the victims felt when death was the norm and life a miracle. Still whether you know it or not, his memory is part of yours. I speak to you as a son of an ancient people, the only people of Antiquity to have survived Antiquity, the Jewish people which, throughout much of its history, has endured exile and oppression yet has never given up hope of redemption. As a young adolescent, he saw what no human being should have to see: the triumph of political fanaticism and ideological hatred for those who were different. He saw multitudes of human beings humiliated, isolated, tormented, tortured and murdered. They were overwhelmingly Jews but there were others. And those who committed these crimes were not vulgar underworld thugs but men with high government, academic, industrial and medical positions in Germany. In recent years, that nation has become a true democracy. But the question remains open: In those dark years, what motivated so many brilliant and committed public servants to invent such horrors? By its scope and magnitude, by its sheer weight of numbers, by the impact of so much humiliation and pain, in spite of being the most documented tragedy in the annals of history, Auschwitz still defies language and understanding. Let me evoke those times: Babies used as target practice by SS men Adolescents condemned never to grow old Parents watching their children thrown into burning pits Immense solitude engulfing an entire people Infinite immense despair haunting our days and our dreams sixty years later dreams When did what we so poorly call the Holocaust begin? In 1938, during Crystal Night? In 1939 perhaps, when a German ship, the St Louis, with more than a thousand German Jewish refugees aboard, was turned back from America s shores? Or was it when the first massacres occurred in Babi Yar? -By Elie Wiesel We still ask: What was Auschwitz: an end or a beginning, an apocalyptic consequence of centuries-old bigotry and hatred, or was it the final convulsion of demonic forces in human nature? A creation parallel to God s a world with its own antinomian United Nations of people of different nationalities, traditions, cultures, socio-economic spheres, philosophical disciplines, speaking many languages, clinging to a variety of faiths and memories. They were grown ups or young but inside that world there were no children and no grandparents; they had already perished. As I have said many times: Not all victims were Jewish, but all Jews were victims. For the first time in recorded history to be became a crime. Their birth became their death sentence. Correction: Jewish children were condemned to die even before they were born. What the enemy sought to attain was to put an end to Jewish history; what he wanted was a new world implacably, irrevocably devoid of Jews. Hence Auschwitz, Ponar, Treblinka, Belzec, Chelmno and Sobibor: dark factories of death erected for the Final Solution. Killers came there to kill and victims to die. That was Auschwitz, an executioner s ideal of a kingdom of absolute evil and malediction with its princes and beggars, philosophers and theologians, politicians and artists, a place where to lose a piece of bread meant moving a step closer to deal, and a smile from a friend another day of promise. 9

10 Survivors Speak At the time, the witness tried to understand; he still does not: how was such calculated evil, such bottomless and pointless cruelty possible? Had Creation gone mad? Had God covered His face? A religious person cannot conceive of Auschwitz either with or without God. But what about man? How could intelligent, educated or simple law abiding citizens fire machine guns at hundreds of children and their parents, and in the evening enjoy a cadence by Schiller, a partita by Bach? Turning point or watershed, that tremendous catastrophe which has traumatized History has forever changed man s perception of his or her responsibility towards his fellow human being. The sad, terrible fact is that it could have been prevented. Had the Western nations intervened when Hitler occupied Czechoslovakia and Austria; had America accepted more Jewish refugees from Europe; had Britain allowed more Jews to return to their ancestral land; had the Allies bombed the railways leading to Birkenau, at the time when ten thousand Hungarian Jews, men, women and infants, were assassinated day after day, our tragedy might have been avoided, its scope surely diminished. This shameful indifference we must remember, just as we must remember to thank the few heroic individuals who, like Raoul Wallenberg, risked their lives to save Jews. We shall also always remember the Armies that liberated Europe and the soldiers that liberated the death-camps, the Americans in Buchenwald, the Russians in Auschwitz and the British in Belsen. But for many victims they all came too late. That we must also remember. When the American Third Army liberated Buchenwald, there was no joy in our heart: only pain. We did not sing, we did not celebrate. We had just enough strength to recite the Kaddish. And now, sixty years later, you who represent the entire world community, listen to the words of the witness. Like Jeremiah and Job, we could have cried and cursed be the days dominated by injustice and violence. But we could have chosen vengeance. We did not. We could have chosen hate. We did not. Hatred is degrading and vengeance demeaning. They are diseases. Their history is dominated by death. The Jewish witness speaks of his people s suffering as a warning. He sounds the alarm so as to prevent these things being done to others. Had the world listened to our testimonies, the tragedies of Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Dafour might have been avoided. Oh yes, the witness knows that for the dead it is too late; for them, abandoned by God and betrayed by humanity, victory came much too late. But it is not too late for today s children, ours and yours. It is for their sake alone that we bear witness. It is for their sake that we are duty- bound to denounce anti-semitism, bigotry, racism, and religious or ethnic hatred. Those who today preach and practice the cult of death, using suicide terrorism, the scourge of this new century, must be condemned for crimes against humanity. Suffering confers no privileges; it is what one does with suffering that matters. Yes, that the past is in the present, but the future is still in our hands. Remember: those who survived Auschwitz advocate hope, not despair; generosity, not rancor or bitterness; gratitude, not violence. We must be engaged, we must reject indifference as an option. Indifference always helps the aggressor, never his victims. And what is memory if not a noble and necessary response to and against indifference? But will the world ever learn? The Liberator What he saw he has not forgo en. The country that skirted the camp was drenched with a red light: light of first leaves light of early morning darkness. What he saw he saw. Sprinkled with quicklime, the image dissolved, but his eyes held the white aurora. There was a faint hiss when his boot scraped the rim, a watery crackling as if something in his wrist had begun to escape. Thirty-six years later, his throat constricts, memory floods his chest. --From The Death Mazurka (Texas Tech University Press, 1989). Used by permission of Charles Fishman

11 Survivors Speak From Memory to Peace A Voyage to Auschwitz With Christians, Muslims, Druze, Bedouin and Jews from Israel and France The group called From Memory to Peace was started by Father Emile Shoufani as a way of creating understanding and tolerance between Jews and Arabs. In May 2003, 125 Israeli Arabs and 130 Israeli Jews traveled to Poland together for a fourday tour to Auschwitz. Ester Golan was one of the Jewish participants of From Memory to Peace and has described the experience for us. Born in Silesia, Germany, she came to Scotland on a Kindertransport in 1939, immigrated to Palestine in 1945, and eight years ago, settled in Jerusalem. Her brother went to Palestine in 1937, her grandmother to Portugal, and her younger sister, ages nine, to London. Ester s parents remained in Berlin, as they couldnot find a country that would give them refuge. They perished in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. Ester writes: Father Shoufani and his Jewish partner, Ruth Bar-Shalev, introduced the project From Memory to Peace, based on the work of the philosopher Emanuel Levinas, Encounter with the Other. When you encounter the Other, you take responsibility for him or her and share the pain that lies deep down. You grow with this experience, and it brings about change. You are no longer the same person afterwards.after a great deal of thought, I made up my mind to join the group. Monday early morning: we arrived in Kattowitz and were divided into six buses of mixed groups of Jews, Christians, Moslems, and Druze, each with a guide from Yad Vashem. A visit to the once-jewish quarter in Krakow, the ghetto and in the evening, the first meeting together with the group of 200 Christians and Muslims from France and Belgium took place in the Tempel of Krakow. Tuesday: Birkenau. Amidst a lot of greenery, walking along the railway lines, the guide did his best to convey some basic information. Personal testimony, including mine, is what everyone wanted to hear. Eyes blink; tears flow as the story unfolds. Jews and Arabs, survivors and second generation, all of them sharing the pain, trying to imagine, who were the people decades ago in the boxcars shunted on these rails, going rusty today. Did they look like you and me? Why, oh why were they brought here? What was their crime? To be Jewish, was that a crime? Unbelieving, we listen and try to comprehend the incomprehensible. We moved onto a hillock of stones in the middle of a swampland where the ashes of the gassed and burned people were dumped. The entire group of 400 assemble to hear the Yiskor and El Ma aleh Rachamim being recited. We went on to Auschwitz to visit the museum... Wednesday: Birkenau. In small groups we enter one of the barracks to listen to survivors testimony. Was my mother in one of these barracks? How did she cope? Who was lying next to her? What were her last thoughts? I was not there to support her. My mother, a heroine, had parted from her three children and her own mother; she had found ways to send us away so that we should live. Here is where she found her death. In my heart she was alive. I could not breath anymore and had to run outside. Arms embraced me. I cried on somebody s shoulder. It was one of the Arabs who supported me when I sobbed uncontrollably. That is when I was interviewed by the crew from BBC. Later, we moved along a path that my mother might have walked on, alone and abandoned while all the world let it Ester Golan second from left happened an remained silent. I read my poem, The Connecting Path. It was soon time for all of us, 400 people, Arabs and Jews, many walking hand in hand, to move along the ramp for the closing ceremony. Muslims and Christians were reading out aloud the names of relatives of the Jewish participants, including the names of my parents. On leaving, candles were lit along the railway lines. I asked myself what I had hoped to find there in the darkest corner on earth. Engrossed in my thoughts, I walked back to the bus without turning back. Life carries on. I tried to concentrate on the future. The evil resounded from all directions. They had tried to strip the people of their last vestige of humanity, down to their last hair. They were not even granted a decent funeral, but gassed, burned and their ashes thrown to the winds. But they could only do this to their bodies, not their souls. 11

12 Survivors Speak Maybe it was necessary for us to go into the darkness in the company of the Other to find a ray of light and mutual respect for each other. It sometimes took my breath away. But I was never alone. There was always somebody there for me. Memory for Peace has given me much more than I ever expected. It was a new way of healing old wounds. Let us stay in the Connecting Path which connects my mother s world with mine, the past with the present and leads us towards a better future. As Father Shoufani repeatedly said, We have to grow from within. We all grew, each in his or her own way. We all changed. That is what it was all about. -Ester Golan home page: The connecting path Shalom my dear mother 60 years ago you walked on this path to your death alone and abandoned, While all the world remained silent. Mother, in your heart your carried you husband, our beloved father Who had lain at your feet in Theresienstadt, yet you could not bury him, for that was not allowed. I herewith cover you with the earth from Mount Herzl. Earth from the path, which connects your world with mine. Earth from the Connecting Path that was opened this year on Yom Hashoa. A path that connects the cemetery of soldiers who fell in the land, that you dreamed of to live in. The path on which the young generation said: Give us the past and we will build the future. Earth from the land that your children, grandchildren, Great-grandchildren and their children live in. Earth from the land we buried my grandson, Who fell in action a year ago on Yom Hashoa, While I was at a conference in Yad Vashem Looking for ways how best to remember you. This earth will be the path that connects the past with the present. But this path will also lead us into the future as you wrote to me: Because there is a future, there is hope. (Prov. 23/18) There is a path of hope, A path of hope for peace Mother you are the Connecting Path. Your daughter Ester While walking on the path That connects Auschwitz with Jerusalem, Your world with my world, The path of hope for peace Auschwitz-Birkenau 2003

13 Survivors Speak Just a Holocaust Escapee By Jennifer Bernardes, Science High School, Newark, New Jersey In February 2002, twelve year old Leonie Barrett and I, adopted seventy seven year old Harry Ettlinger, a survivor of the Holocaust. We were the first to do so in New Jersey. He had been recommended by the Holocaust Council of MetroWest and our Newark s Oliver Street School teachers Bobbie Winokur and MaryLou Genovino. Born into the Jewish faith, Harry s parents, brothers and he left Germany just before Kristallnacht in He had graduated from nearby Newark s East Side High School in 1944 and returned to Europe as an American soldier during World War II. From the day we met him, we have spent time in oneon-one interviews at Oliver Street School, filmed sessions at the Jewish Community Campus of MetroWest, lunched in our homes, and toured to the places where Harry lived in Newark and nearby Irvington. That was just a start. Harry, my mother Fatimah, and I traveled to Yardley, Pennsylvania, where we met one of his sons, Paul, and his three grandchildren. In April of that year, Leonie and I were invited with him to a Passover Seder in a nearby college. We experienced this Jewish custom firsthand, and thus were able to attain an even greater appreciation for the Jewish religion. During that month, Mrs. Winokur, Leonie, Harry, and I were speakers at the city-sponsored Yom Hashoah service held at the Grace Episcopal Church in Newark. Close to 500 people attended. During that year and 2003, we were featured in the MetroWest sponsored Jewish News, which has a circulation of 40,000. Harry is Co-Chair of the Wallenberg Foundation of New Jersey. It is an interfaith, all volunteer organization, which recognizes a very select group of Middle School and High School Students who emulate the legendary Raoul Wallenberg. Unbeknownst to Harry, the selection Committee recognized Leonie and me as Wallenberg Finalists in In the spring of 2003, sponsored by Michael Rubell, son of an Auschwitz death camp survivor, our Oliver Street School visited the U.S. Holocaust Museum and Lincoln Memorial in Washington. All of my classmates and I were given different identification passes for a Holocaust survivor or victim. Mine was for a Hanne Hirsch from Karlsruhe, Harry s birthplace. That opened up an international news event, since in 1937 she had moved into the 4th floor of the Ettlinger Family building, while Harry lived there on the 2nd floor. Hanne, now Hanne Liebmann and Harry talked over the phone the next day. They became VIPs at the Museum s 10th anniversary celebration. They, her husband Max, Leonie and I became the center of an article by the wellknown columnist, George Wills. Hanne and Harry gave a talk to our class, shown on New Jersey s Television News channel. Among the many happenings from that reunion was the contact between Harry and the daughters of the American couple, who had vouched for Harry and his family back in In 2003, Harry s contact in city hall arranged for Newark Mayor Sharpe James to issue a letter of recommendation for our entry into the esteemed Newark Science High School. Leonie and I are now enrolled there. Later that year, Harry hosted a visit at his home for Sister Rose Thering, Mrs. Winokur and Genovino, MetroWest Holocaust Directors Barbara Wind and Rose Valland, the Liebmann s, us, and our mothers. Sister Rose is known internationally for her work to bring Jews and Christians together. Around that same period, Harry arranged for our Congressmen to enter us into the Congressional Record. I shall never forget the presentation by my Congressman Menendez in his Jersey City office. Born into an affluent family, whose history dates back hundreds of years, Harry and other German Jews were subject to ever increasing discrimination under the Nazi government. By the boycott of the city s population, the eighty-five year old Ettlinger family elegant woman s fashion store came to end in With no hope of any income and the darkening outlook, his parents and those of all their friends looked to settle in another country. Few door were open. By the fickle finger of fate, they had come unknowingly to the nearby American consulate on that day in April 1938, after which this country would no longer accept applications for emigration. The approval of that application led to their arrival in New York in mid-october. In 1940 the family moved to Newark. After graduating from high school, he joined the U.S. Army in August 1944 and was sent to Europe during the later stages of the Battle of the 13

14 Survivors Speak Bulge. On his 19th birthday, Harry was left behind, while his eight buddies joined the 99th Infantry Division. All were either killed or wounded in action. Harry always talks about what a lucky man he is. From the end of the war until mid-1946, he, as a U.S Army sergeant, was assigned to ferret out stolen works of art from a vast museum and library collection stored in two German salt mines. He is very proud of that effort. He earned several degrees in Engineering and Business Administration. In his 45-year career, he started work on commercial products, and then switched to aerospace parts and systems. Before his retirement in 1992, his company promoted him out of Engineering into a Program Manager position for the guidance system on the Trident Submarine launched nuclear deterrent missile. Since his retirement, Harry has been extremely active in many organizations and has received many special honors. He is an Honorary State Commander for the Jewish War Veterans, was a Senior Citizen of the Year for Parsippany for his work on the Wallenberg sculpture dedicated in that town, and received a special commendation from the commanding Admiral of the Fleet Ballistic Program. His is an avid player in the game of Bridge, where he has reached the Life Master level. He belongs to other fraternal, Senior citizen and veterans organizations. He has been an active member of the MetroWest Holocaust Council. But his most rewarding involvement is his co-chairmanship of the Wallenberg Foundation of New Jersey. It is probably now one of the most active groups, which honors Raoul Wallenberg, the legendary hero of the 20th Century. Harry was married for nearly fifty years to Newark born Mimi Goldman. She passed away last August after many years with Diabetes. They have two sons, Dr. Robert Ettlinger and the above mentioned Paul Ettlinger, and the recently married daughter Amy. Robert recently became a father to a daughter. Harry has become a part of my extended family. He is like another grandfather to me, since I rarely see my mother s father, who still lives on a small farm in Brazil. In June 2003, Harry was the guest speaker at Leonie s and my graduation. We could not have been more honored to have someone so close and dear to speak at our very own graduation. To this day, every time we see Harry, it seems like a story right out of our childhood anthologies. The joy and blessings of what we have done seems to spiral outward and touch people, which we would have never dreamed possible. About Gloria Glantz Gloria Glantz was born in a small town, Wegrow, in Poland, in1939, to a very loving, large family which included many uncles aunts, cousins, two older brothers, and grandparents. To save her life, her parents enlisted the help of a simple, righteous Christian family, who sheltered her through the entire war. In her lifetime Gloria has lived in four countries, so her journey to America was a very circuitous and unusual one. In her professional life as a teacher she had the opportunity to affect the lives of children. After winning a fellowship to study the Holocaust and Resistance, she made it her mission to see that the Shoah is not forgotten. She is on the Educational Committee at the Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Nassau County, and works with other Holocaust Institutions and school districts as a docent, workshop presenter, speaker and course instructor. Her courses, Perspectives on the Holocaust and Teaching Toward a More Tolerant Community led to her becoming the recipient of The Spirit of Anne Frank Outstanding Educator Award in Recently she had the opportunity to pursue one of her vital interests. Joining a group of other survivors at the Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Nassau County in a writing course afforded her the opportunity to dig deeply into her memories, and bring them to the surface. Under the guidance of a very able and sensitive teacher, and with the help of constructive criticism of her peers, she was able to revisit some of her experiences and create written testimony in prose and poetry. The survivors are hoping they will be able to publish the group s writings. (11/24/03 first draft) Flashlights I found a very unusual use for flashlight when teaching my ESL children geographical directions. I would darken the room and use the beam of a flashlight to point up, down and across. The students would have to tell me if I was going N or S or E or W to get to a particular place. The kids loved it. But as I recall flashlights in my long ago distant life, they evoke terror, not love.. Flashlights were handy in 1943, for making Jewish children feel special, and for making them feel wanted. Wanted for what? You might use their curly hair to stuff mattresses; To use their fat for making soap; To fan the flames of the crematoria at Treblinka and Auschwitz; Their little bodies were wanted for target practice, to be thrown in the air and shot at Yes, wanted, as Gucia was wanted The banging on the door was not a knocking, it was relentless, loud pounding in the middle of the night. Four-year old Gucia was fast asleep under her warm down comforter, her perineh, a remnant of her other unmentionable home, long ago. The beautifully draped Holy Mother above her bed, a picture of her son, Jesus, hanging in the opposite wall, his long hair crowning the gentle face, in the same room, while the cross bearing him was

15 Survivors Speak in the kitchen area. Seemingly so well protected by all that was holy. The merciless banging finally ceased as an unfamiliar language took over. And now two gigantic men, who seemed as tall as a tree, were directing a lit flashlight on the child s head. The tops of their leather boots were at her eye level. One of the men passed the light thoroughly over her black curly hair, her nose, her sleeping face. Then the other, holding her chin, roughly turned her head. She was wide-awake now. He shined the light into her sleep-deprived eyes. Her hand, still warm from being under the cover, began to rub her eyes, as her rhythmic breathing seemed to cease. But her heart was beating so rapidly Gucia was sure it was audible. Jude! Jude! The shrill voice shouted. Whatever did that mean? Only the presence of her Matka standing there in her worn, green, long-sleeved, frayed pajamas kept her from crying out. Actually, the child was so choked up inside, she could not make her throat utter a sound! Gucia, moya kochana, show these soldiers how you say your prayers. Matka, shivering, seemed to be pleading. Gucia wasn t moving quickly enough. Schnell! Mach schnell! One of the booted men briskly pulled the cover off her, as she lay there curled up with her knees to her chest. He grabbed her shoulders, and suddenly she was standing barefoot on the icy floor. For a split second she caught a glimpse of Jesus Kristus, his long hair, his faint smile and familiar face had always been a comfort to her before. Matka repeated herself softly, forcing a faint smile, and looking directly into Gucia s disbelieving eyes. Gucia, show them how well you can say your prayers Her little toe hit against the gray pail standing at the foot of her bed. It was her toilet, so she wouldn t have to go outside in the night frost. She would have welcomed that at this moment. A third time her Matka said something, this time to the soldiers She s Christian, you ll see my granddaughter Gucia s trembling knees thumped down on the icy wood floor. Her chubby palms touched each other. Her dark, crossed eyes roamed the beautifully draped, serene face above her bed, that face seemed to calm her. Before praying one prayer, she pre- prayed Please, let my voice come out Then she began, tentatively, slowly, but audibly Matka Boska The men shut the flashlight, snapped their heels together, and walked out. They found no Juden in that house on that night. The flashlight had been useless. Summer 04 assignment, May 15 What Song Did You Sing, Mother? What song did you sing mother, When you left me. When you walked with my brothers? You walked, you ran to the beating of the whip. As you hung your striped pajamas on the hook, Did your thoughts wander to your Gitele at all, And with the smallest hope that she was not going into this eternal night, That perhaps she will go on, mitigate a bit, this brutish hell? Did you scratch the wall with your gentle fingers, Till the blood oozed out, Did you comfort your children, your husband? Did you sing the Kaddish in advance, for yourself and for them? Ai lu, lu, you sang, To a child, to your children Ai lu, lu, to a roomful, to a people, Never to wake from this eternal final, nightmare sleep Your voice could soften any heart. Your melody, soothe any beating, grieving breast The trill of it, the crisp, clean thrill of it Did the salty tears invade your throat as well, As the gas silently sneaked into the shower room, The body, the throat. For the children of Israel, you could no longer manage a melody, With fumes of hate and bestiality making home there. Your black upsweep, swept up, now turned to white, Soft, as your voice was soft, Floating, as your image floats, Through the poisoned clouds of remnants of a people Cleansed by the memory of your melody. -Gloria Glantz 15

16 Survivors Speak A Child Survived An interview with Holocaust survivor Ruvin Srulevich Baron By Maria Bogdanovskia, International School of Prague, Czech Republic My grandfather, Ruvin Srulevich Baron, was a child during the Holocaust. I knew that he remembered what happened. What I did not know was the horrendous truth about what he and his family had to go through. Ruvin Srulevich Baron, born in 1932, is a survivor who was sent to a Ghetto when he was a child. Now he lives in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He told me that the Romanians cooperated with Germans and helped to exterminate Jews. His family lived close to Romania, in Moldavia. Baron was eight years old in 1941 when he first heard from his parents that Jews were hunted. This was not such an important message to a child of his age. He remembers that he did not pay much attention. It was not a custom in their family, as he explained to me, to tell such things to children. When I asked Baron about the information he received during the war, he explained that his family learned more about the Holocaust later. Jews knew about discrimination of Jews even before the war started. They found out that Jews were hunted not only in Germany, but also in other countries of Europe. This information was passed mainly through rumors and through the media. Later, German planes started dropping Anti-Semitic leaflets on towns. He received all the information from his parents. The Holocaust in Romania began in July The Romans were Germany s ally, so they also began to send all Jew to ghettos. Police came to Jewish house and ordered them to come outside and to line up in rows. People did not know what was going on, or what is going to happen; grabbing their valuables, they left their homes. No one knew what was happening. We were taken in an unknown direction and treated as a herd. The soldiers who guarded our convoy did not talk to us or answer any questions. This situation caused panic and fear. The soldiers gave us neither food nor water. They were violent and aggressive. Soon the first rumours of murder and death appeared in the crowd. People were killed for falling behind, drinking or sometimes without any reason. People were not allowed to stop at all. Some people suggested that they might be used as labor workers. But most of them were getting ready to be exiled or to die. The soldiers killed many Jews on their way. Jews were taken to a place near a small town, Bershed. They were placed in a barn for animals and in the night his family decided to flee. The guards were incompetent and did not notice. Baron and his relatives went to live in Bershad were there were other Jews. The ghetto was there. The houses were cleared for the Jews. Because of the low hygiene many people died. As Mr. Baron emphasized, they were happy to be alive and to have a roof over their heads. Many Jews traded their belongings with the Ukrainians who lived closeby for food. The Jews in this ghetto were in a Romanian ghetto; they knew that the Germans killed the Jews in their ghettos. In 1944, after three years in the ghetto, the Soviet soldiers came to liberate the Jews. In their village there was no battle; apparently the Romanians left when the end of the war was evident. The Soviet soldier took me by the hand and gave me candies and some money. Some people decided to stay in that town, but we went home. However, when we came back, our house had been destroyed. There were many abandoned houses, and we settled in one of them. The Jews were treated as victims. Have I ever talked about it before? No, what was the point? Thanks to teacher John P. Crane. This is a star that all Jews were supposed to wear so that they could be easily recognized

17 Survivors Speak The Holocaust Through the Eyes of a British Citizen By Lydia Hickin, International School of Prague, Czech Republic When I began my interview project, I instinctively chose my great-grandmother, Mrs. Muriel Smith, as my initial interviewee, since she is the oldest in my family. Although when I brought up the subject of the Holocaust with her she responded with What was the Holocaust? Was it when all the Jews were burnt and put in an open grave? The given response made me question whether she would be a candidate worthwhile interviewing. Mrs. Smith made some inquiries as to whom I could talk with within her local community and gave me the number of Mrs. Barbara Sevior. Mrs. Barbara Sevior lived in Alcester, Warwickshire, England during World War II. She was born on December 7, 1921, which made her eighteen at the beginning of World War II. During the war she worked as a secretary at the Enfield Cycle Company and was living with her father and sister, since her mother passed away in Her brother had been called to serve his duty in the Navy. I began by asking her how she was first informed of the realities of the Holocaust. Through the misconception of the intentions of my interview project, my grandmother had given Mrs. Sevior the impression that I needed information on the Holocaust, rather than her personal response; this came as a blessing in disguise. She had done some research and started to list the events of the Holocaust. While reading, she came across the date 1933 and informed me that it signified the start of the most violent persecution of the Jews. She stated that this date surprised her. This automatically told me that she was not informed of the great anti-semitism the Jews received prior to World War II. She believed that the Jews began to be discriminated against during the years of the Second World War. I then asked her if she was told anything about the Holocaust during World War II in the media. She told me that she did not own a wireless (radio) until her brother returned from the Navy. Therefore, the forms of media available to her were the newspaper and weekly newsbulletins at the cinema. She expressed her disinterest in the newspaper, given her age, but preceded to tell me that her father read the newspaper. I then instinctively asked whether her father informed her of the atrocities of the Holocaust, but she did not appear to recall her father informing her. She then proceeded to tell me, At the cinema, newsbulletins were shown of the death camps, and we knew that Jews were being sent by the train load and everybody hated what Hitler was doing. When asked if people openly talked about the Holocaust, she could not remember, although she did respond with a very valuable point. Although we felt for the Jews, there was nothing we could do. We were more concerned with our own business, since we did not how the war would turn out; we were deprived of food and blackouts were frequent. Above is a picture of Alcester High Street, Warwickshire. This is where Mrs Barbara was during World War II, and lives today. I asked if she had ever heard her family talking about the Holocaust. Her response was personal; she informed me that her family life was not fully functional, since her mother had just passed away and her grandmother had to visit frequently to do what were considered motherly chores, such as cooking and cleaning. Therefore, she did not indulge in large family conversations in which her father would talk of current events. Her response set me back, and to avoid dredging up upsetting memories, I asked the question of whether she had met a Holocaust survivor. She responded with No. But I would have liked to. At the time I was informed of the Holocaust, it did not register with me as it would have with the older generation. I would liked to have the opportunity to at least hear their stories and offer some support. Our interview was cut short due to time restrictions with Mrs. Sevior s schedule; therefore the interview was postponed for a couple of hours. When Mrs. Sevior and I reconvened she told me that she must not have been much help to me, and during the time since our initial interview, she had thought endlessly about what else she could tell me and or what she had forgotten to mention. One thing the hours apart had allowed her to recall was a conversation between her boss and another colleague. I remember hearing my boss, Mr. Graham Grant, talking with another colleague about how Hitler was burning many Jews and 17

18 Survivors Speak doing awful things to them. Although I do not remember the exact details or many instances in which this matter was spoke about. As I ve said before we were more concerned for our welfare. Mrs. Sevior was then thanked again for her co-operation throughout the whole process, and our interview was brought to a close. In conclusion some might find this interview surprising since a major subject in history managed to be hidden behind the scenes to some extent. One can understand that the average man or woman of Mrs. Sevior s era was more concerned with their personal welfare; such as would their brother or father return home safely from battle; would we win the war and where would our next meal come from - rather than how the Jews were suffering. Since they did not return to school after the War, they would not have been educated with the events of the Holocaust, unless they underwent private study at a later date. Therefore it remains as a gap in their knowledge. This was highlighted when Mrs. Sevior stated that she was surprised at the information she had researched. Annie Can t Remember Annie remembers nothing. She remembers not a thing. She knows her name, where she put her cell phone, the current president but nothing else. Annie has anise stars in the irises of her eyes Her granddaughter put them there With sparkle paint from a tube on pink construction paper she brought from nursery school to draw Annie s face to remind her to smile. Annie is learning English She conjugates verbs Sometimes in German I survived, I am surviving, I shall survive (Lebensraumbitte) She decided to live... for her grandfather who ordered her to. Annie wears a number under her sleeve On her arm... with a triangle... fading yellow, Which she tried to remove, but forgot, and it stuck... to her skin... for good even when she forgets to remember... to forget Annie can t remember being called Chanele By a woman... with anise eyes... who plaited her braids In the eves of yesteryear... before lighting the Sabbath candles or the man who sat proudly on his Passover pillow-throne before the knock on the door came when he ordered her to live Annie can t remember The ditch in at the rail stop In Birkenau Lager where little babies held upside down were exhaling bubbles under the rain-water Annie wears the beauty of the lavender sunrise Behind a windowless room of somewhere she forgot And the crimson sunset behind the forgotten smoke-stacks Annie has anise stars inside her irises and a beautific smile as she conjugates the verb I have survived... I am surviving... I shall survive. -Lillian Gewirtzman, survivor Holocaust Memorial and Education Center Of Nassau County, New York

19 Survivors Speak A Remarkable Experience: A Meeting with Irving Roth By Dan Butler, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York On Tuesday, January 4 th, 2005, 10 th graders of three English classes accompanied by our teachers, Mrs. Kern and Mr. Murphy, traveled to Temple Judea in Manhasset, Long Island where there is a Holocaust Center. We went to meet a Holocaust survivor named Irving Roth, the Director of the Center. Little did we know that this experience would change all of us. We stepped inside the synagogue to meet Irving, who quickly took us inside a small room with a screen and a slide projector. I expected to find an old man, who was not very lively, and who showed practically no emotion. This was not the case. Irving had a spark, which kept all of us interested. He frequently consulted with the students, and we had the feeling that we actually had a part in his presentation. On the walls of the room, there were about fifteen paintings which looked like they came out of a storybook. The artist of these paintings had been in the Lodz ghetto and drew these paintings in the ghetto and in Auschwitz. These child-like drawings showed life in the ghetto, but in a sort of satirical fashion. For example, one picture showed a woman and a lot of children living in a shoe, like the old nursery rhyme. Yet this picture was meant to show the terrible living conditions in the Lodz Ghetto. It was very interesting, and memorable. Irving told us that if the artist had drawn real life in the ghetto, the book would have been confiscated and burned. Irving then began to explain to us the background of World War II, and how Hitler rose to power. He explained a burning question to us, which I know I have wondered for a long time. How did all these people go along with Hitler s radical ideas? Irving explained that the Germans were so mad at the rest of the world for imposing the Treaty of Versailles on them, that they wanted to get to power. Hitler promised the people world power, and they went along with it. After his presentation, we moved from the small room into a large area, the Holocaust Educational Center, which was filled with artwork. As I looked at the artwork, I wondered how much it cost for all these amazing pictures and sculptures to be done. In fact, I actually asked Irving: Who did this artwork? He responded by announcing to everyone that all of this great artwork was done by students, some younger than myself. Whether it was collages, murals, or sculptures, all of the artwork was amazing. After we took fifteen minutes to admire the art and look at the Holocaust history on the walls, we sat down and listened to the most fascinating story, Irving Roth s life story. He began by explaining his childhood in Czechoslovakia, and how he used to play soccer in the park with his friends every day after school. He was the best fullback in the entire school. But one day, after Hitler started coming to power, his friends would not allow him to play soccer any more because he was Jewish. His teachers would treat him differently. It seemed as if everyone except his Jewish community viewed him as an outsider. He then moved to a Jewish community, and he was later taken to Auschwitz. He was immediately separated from his parents, before even arriving at the death camp. After taking a three-day train ride, with no windows or exits, he arrived at Auschwitz. His grandparents were immediately separated from Irving and his brother, and he figures that they were killed. Irving explained that Auschwitz was terrible. At one point, he was down to 70 pounds at the age of 16. In February, 1945, in Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Irving and his brother were separated during a selection, and Irving never saw his brother again. When Irving was later rescued, he did not return home for a while. He eventually returned home, and began to search for family members. He found his parents, who were in Budapest. They avoided the war totally; they were hidden by friends and were never sent to Auschwitz. Irving Roth s new book, written with Edward Roth, is titled Bondi s Brother, named after the brother whom Irving never saw again. The meeting with Irving Roth was an unforgettable experience which shed new light on the Holocaust for myself as well as fellow students. To order Bondi s Brother, write to Shoah Educational Enterprise, 14 Gordon Drive, Williston Park, New York, USA Price per book: $18 US plus shipping, $2.US. 19

20 June 24, 2004 In The Schools Journal Entries By Rachel Tydings, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York I think today was the hardest day I have had in Poland during this trip so far. We visited the concentration camps Auschwitz-Birkenau. Auschwitz was the smaller camp, originally made for prisoners of war, and Birkenau was the larger extermination camp (there was still extermination occurring in Auschwitz as well). The bus ride was long from our hotel in Krakow. We woke up early as usual, and I fell asleep as soon as I sat in my seat. But the bus ride was different than our other bus rides, even different than the bus ride to our first extermination camp, Treblinka. You could tell in people s faces that we were all just a little nervous and scared about what we were going to see. I couldn t sleep. All I did was listen to music and look out the window at the endless miles of green forest. As we neared the camp, the roads got narrower and bumpier. As I saw signs pointing the way to Auschwitz, my stomach began churning in knots. About ten minutes before arriving to the camp, Allan, one of our three group leaders, put a CD on over the sound system of the bus that played slow and mournful Hebrew music. He wanted to get us into the mood ; well, I definitely was already there. It was unbelievable that I was actually there. I mean, I have read probably over fifty books about the Holocaust, watched so many movies, and heard so many stories. But today, I saw it first hand. I witnessed the real thing. It probably was the weirdest thing walking through those gates that read, Work Makes you Free in German and then walking out of them. Almost all of the people that walked through that gate, never walked out. But I walked in and out craziness. The museum that was set up in one of the former barracks was really difficult to see. We walked in room after room that contained personal belongings of the prisoners. The first room contained tons and tons of human hair that was cut off when the prisoners first arrived to the camp. My stomach churned louder. There were pieces of hair still in braids or buns. Some of my friends around me started crying. I realized this was going to be a very long day. The next few rooms had suitcases, pots and pans, and other objects and belongings that the Jews brought with them on their journey to a new home. They were told to label their suitcases very clearly so that it would be easier to find them when they were finished with check-in and showering those suitcases never made it back to their owners. The next room was a long hallway with thousands of shoes piled on each other behind plated glass. Women s, men s, children s and even babies shoes were piled high. It was the last room that finally set me off and started my unstoppable hysterics. When I saw the case filled with toothbrushes, combs, and shaving brushes, all I could think of was daddy. It was always our little thing that I would watch him shave in the morning when I was a little girl. Memories of my dad just flooded my mind and I began to get so upset that there were probably thousands of other little girls just like me who looked up to their fathers who were now murdered. My stomach churned again and again. When we went into the gas chambers Auschwitz, I felt as if I were going to vomit everywhere. I was standing in a place where thousands, if not millions of people were murdered less than seventy years ago. Everything about killing makes me nauseous. I just don t understand how a person could do this to another person.

21 In The Schools Photos by Rachel Tydings The gas chamber was two rooms one room for the gassing and the other room that contained the ovens where the workers burned the bodies. I really could not believe my eyes. Birkenau was huge, massive, and bigger than I ever expected. When they brought us up to one of the watchtowers at the front of the camp to see a bird s eye view, all I saw was row after row of barracks on acres and acres of land. Of course I had seen Birkenau in pictures in textbooks or in Holocaust related materials the famous railroad tracks with the brick building behind it. I stood on those railroad tracks, one of the freakiest things ever. When we got to Birkenau, we had a Polish tour guide who told us a story about a boy who got into a fight with his mother on the train rolling into Birkenau. When the mother and son were separated after stepping off the train, he yelled to her, I hope I never see you again! (words I know I have definitely said to my parents at times when I ve gotten really upset at them). It just so happens that the boy got his wish and his mother was gassed later that afternoon. The gas chambers at the camp were mostly all destroyed because the Germans, when realizing that the camp would soon be liberated in 1945, tried to destroy the remains of the camp. However, it was still so hard to see. The tour guide showed us one of the bathrooms that the prisoners used. The bathroom contained rows of wooden structures containing holes to use---not toilet paper, no soap, no nothing. We ended our day with a ceremony atop one of the remains of gas chamber #2. The group stood in a circle holding the Israeli flag and sang Hatikvah. It was ironic that here I was singing the national anthem of Israel atop a place where millions of Jews were killed. Here I was showing how proud I was of my Jewish identity in a place where that identity was trying to be destroyed. 21

22 In The Schools Letter from my Grandfather By Caroline Bodi, Cold Spring Harbor High School Dear Caroline, You asked if I had any personal information regarding the Holocaust. I have two firsthand accounts told by survivors. The first of these was told to me by one of my college students, who later became a colleague in the research department of a major communications center. Sam was born into an upper middle class Jewish family living in a Polish town of about 30,000 persons. His father Lewis Bodi Papa Lew and Sara Bodi Sally was prosperous by local standards. He owned a factory which manufactured roofing or tar paper. The family (father, mother, Sam, and a younger sister) lived comfortably and could afford a cook and a housekeeper. Sam attended the public schools and the language spoken at home was Polish. The town had no history of anti-semitism. Sam was about 14 years old when the Russians from the East and the Germans from the West invaded Poland. The Germans soon began rounding up the town s Jews. Sam and his mother were sent to a work camp. His father and sister were sent elsewhere, never to be heard from again. Each day, Sam and his mother were sent out on work assignments, such as fieldwork, roadwork, and street sweeping, along with other tasks. Each evening they returned to the camp. This went on for four years. One evening while returning to the camp, they met by chance their former cook. The good soul, who always had great affection for Sam s family told them not to return to the camp, but rather to wait until it was dark and to then go to her home. Her home had a root cellar beneath the house in which it was stored various types of produce. Sam and his mother were hidden in the root cellar for almost a year and a half, coming out only after dark for exercise. Their benefactor saw to their basic needs. Only the cook s family knew of the arrangement. Had the secret been discovered, she and her family, Sam and his mother would have been killed. With the surrender of Germany, Sam and his mother were sent to a Displaced Persons camp, from which they emigrated to Brooklyn. Somewhere along the line, Sam met Sidi, who had been in a concentration camp and was from Hungary. They married. Her concentration camp serial number was tattooed on her forearm where it remains to this day. Sam and his mother never forgot the person who saved their lives and has returned to Poland to visit their savior and her family. My other firsthand account of a Holocaust survivor is much grimmer. After I had taught at Brooklyn College (where I had Sam as a student) after receiving my doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, I spent seven years in solid state research in the private sector. I then returned to the academic world to become Vice President and Provost at a unit of the City University of New York. There I became acquainted with Dr. Raphael N., who was the college physician. Like Sam, he grew up in Poland. He was a few years older than Sam. Being young and healthy, he was assigned work that was advantageous to the oppressors. He worked at a death camp. It was his job and the only means of survival to extract from the teeth of gas chamber victims gold and silver prior to the burning of the corpses in the ovens. He also arrived at a displaced persons camp after being liberated. He was the only survivor of his family. America gave him the opportunity to restore dignity to his life, becoming a medical doctor. Your grandfather, Lewis Bodi Little can be added here which can enlarge the scope and human degradation of this historic episode, a side of man which stands in opposition to cultural progress following the Dark Ages. While world and ethnic rivalries are constant factors in all of recorded history, the Holocaust will forever stand as the man-made disaster that eclipses all natural disasters for the affected areas and numbers of victims. Much has been written of the mechanisms of the Holocaust the round up and transporting of Jews, Slavic peoples, Gypsies, and German dissidents to concentration camps

23 and death factories but the number of survivors and their firsthand accounts of their trials are rapidly diminishing. It is for this reason that the Holocaust memorials and museums have been established here and abroad, and it is also for this reason that any In The Schools account found from those times should be heard by the public so as to ensure that all remain aware of what has happened in the past, in order to realize the importance of preventing and stopping any horrible acts in the present. My Visit to Theresienstadt (Terezin) By Jonathan Newmark, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York I stepped off the crowded bus after an hour s drive through the Czech country side, coming from Prague. I arrived in the quiet town of Terezin, home to a few coffee shops, run down buildings, and the former Terezin concentration camp, which was located in an 18th century fortress. From the dusty parking lot, where I had arrived, I could see not too far in the distance what looked like an old, weathered military fortress. The vacant parking lot was lined with a few stands selling disposable cameras and books on the Holocaust. I walked for about five minutes on a path lined with trees and flowers. To my left was the National Cemetery lined with numerous tombstones and a large cross. Further in the distance, I could see an even larger Jewish star commemorating those who were murdered during the second world war. The cemetery was filled with the remains of people who had died in Terezin. The remains had been recovered and identified from mass graves on the site. The cemetery was also home to the ashes of 52 prisoners executed at the end of the war. I arrived at the front gates of the camp where 140,000 innocent human beings had passed before me. There was a museum at the gates exhibiting Czech military artifacts from the 18th and 19th centuries for Terezin was used as a military base for most of its history. It was ironic to see that where the Czech military had once been glorified, thousands of Czech citizens had been sent into slavery and tortured to death. The whole structure of the camp was impressive, marked with early European architecture. By just looking at my serene surroundings, I would have never guessed what the camp had been used for in the recent past. I joined a tour group, led by a former prisoner of the camp. The guide was a gentle old man in his eighties. His deep Czech accent made it hard for me to understand the soft, humble words that came out of his mouth. He took us first to the guards living quarters, which was called the Administration Courtyard. There was a line of spacious, but musty rooms, each with a furnace. Most of the buildings were made out of stone, which by now were filled with cracks and overcome with erosion. The buildings were a yellowish color or a reddish brick color. As we traveled through the courtyard, the horrific past of this camp became more apparent. When I looked down the courtyard, I saw a large, arched sign, painted with the phrase that had so much meaning. It was an ironic phrase that had perhaps kept the prisoners courageous, and straining for life. The sign read Arbeit Macht Frei meaning, work makes you free. After traveling through the Administration Courtyard, we had reached the prisoners barracks. The barracks were seemingly untouched since the liberation of the camp in Each room, about the size of a school classroom, could hold as many as thirty people. The rooms had no electricity or running water. There was a three level bunk bed, made out of wood and hay, which all the prisoners uncomfortably had to share. During the winter, the rooms would become freezing cold. Across from the bed was a wall lined with cubbies that would be used by the prisoners to hold their very few belongings, consisting of a tin cup and their striped uniforms. Arrival of a Transport of Dutch Jews in the Theresienstadt Ghetto Czechoslovakia, February 1944 The guide then brought us to the dimly lit medical room where a Jewish physician would try to treat the sick with infected equipment and very few supplies. There were a few small, hard cots in the room. Around the corner from this room was a room with its ceiling covered with shower heads. There were drains on the bottom of the tiled floor. At first I thought to myself that this must be the gas chamber. The guide informed us that there were no gas chambers in Terezin; however, these showers were almost identical to the gas chambers in concentration camps such as 23

24 In The Schools Auschwitz. Prisoners would shower in this room upon entering the camp. The next stop on the tour was the isolation chamber. The chambers were on either side of a narrow corridor with only one or two light bulbs hanging overhead. Each 4x4 room held a political prisoner, either from the former Czechoslovakian government, or from resistance groups across the country. A prisoner would be kept in one of the rooms only with a small barred window at the very top of one of the cold stone walls for fresh air. Each chamber had a thick door with a large lock, preventing any chance escape. Being isolated in these rooms by themselves was torture enough for the prisoners. We were then led through a small, dark tunnel through a hill. Immediately on the other side was a ditch about the size of a swimming pool. The guide had told us that, in fact, it was a swimming pool. I was curious as to why there was a swimming pool in a concentration camp. The guide informed us that for their own enjoyment, S.S. Guard s would throw two prisoners in the pool, each armed with a wooden club. The prisoner s would have to fight to their death, like 20th century gladiators. If they did not fight, both of them would be executed. This part of the camp was the most chilling of all. It was hard to believe that a human being could be as cruel as to make one man take another s life to save his own. If a man could not swim, he would drown to death in the pool. To the left of the swimming pool was a hill which was used as the guards target range. Their targets were prisoners from the camp. The guards would make their captives run across the hill while they would try to shoot them. These innocent men would act as human targets. The hill was now covered in green grass. On this sunny day, the hill seemed rather calm, and serene, whereas, just sixty years ago, men were literally running for their lives, escaping the deadly bullets of a Nazi rifle. The last area of the camp that we traveled to was the execution grounds. A wooden gallows stood right in front of us. Our guide solemnly explained how he had built this structure that had put so many of his fellow prisoners to death. Twenty six hundred people died within the walls of Terezin during the Second World War. Thousands more had been deported to other locations where they had been put to death. My tour was over but there was still more to see in the Jewish Ghetto Museum, located in the town of Terezin. The town had been made into a ghetto during the war, which was home to more than 140,000 Jews. Terezin was thought of as the model ghetto, the site of the Red Cross inspection in It was known as the model ghetto because of the high number of artists and intellectuals residing there during the war. The museum was filled with artifacts of the ghetto and the concentration camp. The exhibit that caught my eye the most was about the children of the Terezin ghetto. There had been 15,000 children in Terezin during the Nazi occupation. Unfortunately, only around 100 of them survived to see the end of the war. Children had kept their spirits alive by creating artwork of their surroundings, no matter how bad things had gotten. They drew pictures of the camp barracks where they had stayed, the hardships of ghetto daily life, Nazi soldiers, and their families among many other things. The children had also written a number of poems. Although most of the children died during the Holocaust, their poems will live on forever. One of the poems written by Hanus Hachenburg, a child in Terezin in 1944 described life in the camp: That bit of filth in dirty walls, and all around barbed wire, and 30,000 souls who sleep, who once will wake, and once will see, their own blood spilled. There are people today who still think that the Holocaust never occurred. The concentration camp and the ghetto at Terezin are proof of what had gone on under Nazi control during the Second World War. Spending just a few hours in Terezin, I experienced more of the Holocaust than I ever had reading books or watching movies. The survivors of the Holocaust say that we need to educate as many people as possible for the welfare of our future. One trip to this concentration camp would demonstrate to someone the appalling cruelties of Nazi domination. That might just be enough to prevent another Holocaust if we seriously think about history and what is happening in the world today

25 Hungary was the only land I knew. I had spent my whole childhood there, as had my parents before me, and theirs before them. My intent was to grow up in Hungary, get married and start a family of my own so that they could grow to love that beautiful country. However, all of that changed when Hitler and the Nazis occupied Hungary. Being Jewish made me very frightened. Would I be deported to Auschwitz? Would I live through this terrible war? Would I ever get to start a family? All of these thoughts and more popped into my head. I thought for a long time about what to do. The thought of hiding crossed my mind, but to no avail. Then, by a twist of fate, my life was saved instantaneously. I was walking down the street talking to my friend, when a man approached us. Thinking he was a Nazi, attracted by my Jewish Star, I froze in place. Thankfully, he was not. He whispered very softly in my ear as he handed me some sort of paper. This will most likely save your life. Take off the star. I looked down at the paper and was amazed to see a Swedish passport. My thought was, This is a trick, but that was quickly discarded. Why would a man give me a passport as a trick? It just did not make sense. Then, from somewhere in the crowd, I heard a women say, That is Raoul Wallenberg. I had heard that name, and I knew that it was not a trick. Raoul was no ordinary man; he was a savior in my eyes. He was a Swedish Ambassador who handed out Swedish passports so that as many Jews as possible could avoid deportation. How was it that I was one of the lucky ones? I was so overjoyed, but I had to remain discreet. There could be Nazis watching. After thankfully receiving my passport, I casually headed back to my house. What should I do? I had escaped the Nazis so far, but what s to say they won t soon find out what Raoul is doing? I decided my best bet would be to travel to Sweden. I had some extra cash saved away in my cupboard. I could use that to pay for my expenses. If that didn t pay for it all, I still had my family watch, In The Schools Hungary was the Only Land I Knew Creative Writing by Jackie Mitchell, Wissahickon Middle School, Pennsylvania, USA which was pure gold and worth a substantial sum. Now I had to financial aspects figured out, but how was I supposed to get to Sweden? I pondered over this question one thousand times in my head, yet no one answer was clear to me. But then I had a momentary lapse of judgment, I did not have to leave the land I loved so much. I had the passport; it proves that I am Swedish. So, why do I have to leave? I don t. Sure, staying had its risks, but so did leaving. If I stayed, I would know my life, and I would know the surroundings I was in. If I leave, I need to learn all about a new country. At the time, that did not seem very appealing. If I had known what lay ahead, I surely would have left. But I didn t, so I stayed. Staying cost me everything, except my life. Raoul Wallenberg Courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives 25

26 In The Schools Stumbling Over History By Boris Seincher, Heinrich-Boell-Gesamtschule, Koeln, Germany What are you thinking about while walking through your city? Some people think about the events to come; others are deeply involved in conversations. I have always been curious about people going to and fro. I try to imagine what could be going on in their heads. I even learned to read their minds just by glancing at their faces. This man, carrying a bunch of roses, is concerned about his wife. Will she be pleased with his present or not? And the woman over there, walking as heavily as if she was lugging a ton of stones she is just disappointed with her life. It cannot be anything else. The German artist Gunter Demnig makes all these different people think about the same thing as they step on his work: 4 inch by 4 inch concrete cubes with brass name plates attached on top to remind us of the people who were deported and killed by the Nazi regime not only Jews, but also Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, Christians, Communists and all other victims of fascism. The sculptor calls these stones Stumbling Stones, because their metal surface is visible on the ground, so you definitely notice that you are stepping on something different and you are halted in your walk. Since 1993, Gunter Demnig, aged 58, has devoted himself to building these decentralized monuments to the past. Today there are over stones in Germany mapping out the horror of this genocide, reminding passers-by of the victims who, otherwise, could still be living in the houses in front of which the stones are now to be found. The artist alone decides, with the patrons, where the memorials are laid after the sponsors have carried out extensive historical research, often with local documentation centres. The patrons bear the cost of $100. and donate the memorials to the town or city. The first 250 stones were a donation to the city of Cologne by the sculptor himself. Though he clearly understands that it is impossible to mark all the more than 6 million places where Jews and other persecuted people lived before 1933 throughout Europe, he nevertheless tries to make us remember as many of them as he can: whole families whose lives were taken after the deportation from their homes; each individual person, young or old, with his or her name; the date and place of birth; the known or the probable year and place of death. I decided to take some photos of the Stumbling Stones in the city of Cologne for this article. It seemed easy as I thought that I knew pretty well where to find them. An error, as I was to learn later. After several hours of unsuccessful walking and looking for these small memorials I had to give up the idea. On my way home I dropped by the Rathaus, the town hall. This building stands right in the centre of where the Jewish Community was located in Cologne in the Middle Ages, so I hoped to find some stones there. Here, too, I failed. Disappointed, I started for home. Suddenly I understood: this is quite symbolic if you think you will definitely see a memorial stone but you cannot find it, it means there are too many victims and therefore the dimensions of the catastrophe become clear. Let me put it the other way around if you saw these small memorial stones everywhere you went, sooner or later you would not notice them anymore, which would rather destroy the idea. Not everywhere is his work welcomed. Not everyone understands the meaning of the shining stones they trip over. But something is clear: Demnig is doing a very important job. Because of his work, people stop thinking about their everyday problems which seem unimportant and trivial considering the problems those people had, more than sixty years ago, as they were walking down the same street Laying memorial stones in Cologne, November 2004

27 In The Schools Marking the Holocaust A person is forgotten when his or her name is forgotten! By Stefan Röder, Heinrich-Boell-Gesamtschule, Koeln, Germany The artist Gunter Demnig was born in Berlin and moved to Cologne in It was a deliberate decision even when the rest of his family stayed in Berlin. One of his reasons for moving was that in the eighties Cologne was a city where many other conceptual artists like him lived. It was here in Cologne that he started his commemorative art projects for which today he is well-known nation-wide and internationally. After school his plans had been quite different. He wanted to become a pilot and was even accepted to train with the German national airline, a chance only few applicants would get. Given that career opportunity, however, he decided promptly to look in a totally different direction: he wanted to become an artist. Demnig told us that when his parents were informed of that decision they where speechless but did not force him to change his mind again. He took up his studies to become a teacher of art. He never received any grants but financed college by working at different jobs. Eventually he was teaching at Kassel Art College and also worked as a stone restorer but never gave up his art projects. In 1990, Demnig started his first commemorative project in the city of Cologne. He used paint to mark the way that Roma and Sinti had to walk from their camp in the city to the railway station from where they were deported in 1940, a trail of suffering. Twenty-one brass plaques, let into the pavement, remind us of this first organized ethnic deportation that took place in the Nazi-time in Cologne. The idea for the memorial stones was born when he was laying the metal plaque in a popular neighbourhood in the city centre and was addressed by a lady who, 50 years before, had been a resident in this part of the city. She insisted that there had not been any gypsies living there. As the artist explained to us it was then that he understood how people at that time lived together in their neighbourhoods without knowing or questioning anybody s ethnicity or denomination. Jews, Communists, Christians they were simply local people and neighbours and it was still possible that they were later deported without anybody resisting. The interview with the artist Demnig wanted to bring the names of the victims back to the citizens minds. First, he intended to attach plaques of commemoration on the facades of the houses where they had lived. But the present owners might not have given permission and so he had to come up with something different. Now stones with the names of the victims on them are let in into the ground: If you see one of these stones you stop and bend to read the name and the message written on it. So you bow in front of the name and the person in a gesture of respect, Demnig told us. The stones are laid in a public place in front of houses where the deported lived. As the local authorities permit the laying of the stones, private residents cannot intervene and stop the project. Today in 2005, Demnig has laid more than 5,000 stones in more than 70 German towns and cities. It is only rarely that the authorities do not grant their consent as, until now, in Munich. The project is not restricted to Germany, either. Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Vienna and Salzburg want to 27

28 In The Schools have memorial stones. This program will run as long as Demnig s back and his knees do not give up, he jokes. Certainly he does not want to open a factory for mass production but wants to continue crafting each stone individually. These stones, called Stumbling Stones (Stolpersteine), are often financed by people who order them for their family members but also by local residents who want to commemorate the dead who would once have been their fellow-citizens. Occasionally, the project is criticized because people literally step on the stones with the dead person s name thus insulting them, according to the critics. But Demnig counters: If people walk over the brass, it gets polished and it stays clean even longer! He points out that there are Christian churches where the people actually walk on gravestones beneath which you have real graves. If I have to stop my work, the Vatican has to close St. Peter s Cathedral! The Jewish Central Committee in Germany approves the project. Demnig was told once that according to Jewish belief the soul of a dead person only goes to heaven when there is a final resting place with a gravestone. This would mean that there are still thousands of souls in Auschwitz and other places because the victims could never be buried. The stones are not a substitute for the graves but they allow the souls of the persons who are remembered to finally rest. We asked Demnig if he was happy about the fact that many young people, often students like us, are interested in his work and he answered that the background of his work was no reason for being happy. But, he added, he was happy about the commitment of school classes with whom he cooperates quite very often. Dealing with the theme in this way you will get a totally different understanding for history and it helps not to forget about these events and to prevent them from happening again, said Demnig to us at the end. A person is forgotten when his or her name is forgotten! And Demnig will continue his project. On 27 January, 2005, the 60 th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp in Auschwitz, Gunter Demnig was awarded The Obermayer German Jewish History Award in Berlin. The Flower Shop By Swenja Knopf, Heinrich-Boell-Gesamtschule, Koeln, Germany Hi gran! Lisa entered the small kitchen of the old house. You know that stone, don t you? The girl hung her jacket carefully into the closet. Which stone are you talking about? the old woman answered in a quiet voice. That small, shiny stone in the pavement in front of the house next door. It looks golden and there is some writing on it. Lisa sat down at the kitchen table. Something clearly bothered her. Oh yes, I know which stone you mean. It is meant to remind us of the man who had lived there about seventy years ago. It s important to remember, don t you think? No I don t! Surprised, the old woman looked closely at her granddaughter And why not? The girl hesitated. Have you ever read the words on it? Her grandmother looked questioningly. The young girl continued, killed in Auschwitz he was a victim of the Nazi regime, wasn t he? A shadow crossed the old woman s face. Sadly she answered, Yes, he was. What exactly is it that you do not like about the stone? Suddenly her voice sounded weary and now Lisa noticed how her grandmother s silver hair framed her face. I don t know. I just always have a bad feeling whenever I pass it. Her voice became stronger. I am forced, every day, to think of those cruelties committed in the concentration camps. Each step I walk on this street and beyond is overshadowed by these terrible memories and they don t go away. She swallowed

29 In The Schools hard. Her eyes were fixed on the table. You know, she made a pause again. I just think it is not fair that every day begins with such sad thoughts, each time that I pass the stone in the morning, and ends with them when I come home in the evening. Constantly, I am reminded of what the Nazis did and not only that! She looked straight into her grandmother s eyes. When I am outside, in front of the house, people look at me reproachfully or in an accusing way, as if they wanted to say, Your family saw the awful things which happened to this man and they did not do anything to help him but I am not responsible for those crimes and neither did I not do anything. I was not even born then! No, you are not to blame for these things. She looked at her granddaughter with tenderness. But the whole world gives me this feeling. A few weeks ago I saw an episode from the American serial Gilmore Girls. Mother and daughter wanted to travel to Germany and told granny about it. You know how she reacted? She said, Have you ever met a Nazi before? I guess I haven t but wait, I think I know at least one. All countries associate Germany with Nazis, although it is more than seventy years later now and I don t have anything to do with that time. Lisa said this in a pained voice and was almost shouting. I understand your feelings, the old woman agreed. But don t you think this man nevertheless deserves this last recognition? I mean he, like all those victims, never did get the honour of a real funeral like everybody else who was killed in the death camps in those days. However, they all deserve to be remembered. Nobody blames you for anything, darling. I am sure that you just imagine these questionings. Otherwise, you would know that these accusations are wrong and ridiculous, too. I know you feel uncomfortable being faced with these facts of our history so often and you would rather distance yourself from that time. But this is exactly the wrong way to deal with it. Nowadays I meet so many people who downplay the extent of that tragedy and who think that other countries did a lot of terrible things, too, like fighting cruel wars or dropping the atomic bomb; how still today there are generations of victims who suffer from cancer or other long-term effects and who die dreadful deaths as a result. But this is not the point. You should not feel responsible for that man s death because you have nothing to do with it, but the Nazis did. However, these crimes are a part of German history and reality. They are the result of propaganda, false promises and misleading the German people. Today people have to know what happened and that it was terrible and must never happen again. These stones are symbols and show our respect for the victims! After a few minutes Lisa responded, I never saw it from that point of view. You are right. But what about the victims who do not have stones? How can more than six million stones be made that s just impossible. Of course, it s impossible to make so many stones but, for me, the gaps between different stones symbolize the huge number of victims who do not have one and they remind us of them, the old woman replied. Astonished, Lisa eyed her grandmother. She had never seen her as emotional. Carefully she asked, Did you know that man? I was just ten years old when they took him. He owned the flower shop at the end of the street. Her eyes looked into the emptiness. I was often at his shop and loved it like all the other children. The man liked us and being there was so much fun. On the day they took him, nobody dared do anything because everybody was afraid of the Nazis. So many people lost their families and so many were killed. A thing like this must never, never happen again 29

30 In The Schools My Friend, Anne By Orli Kleiner, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York Note: The following essay discusses Anne Frank and her horrific plight as a Jew during the Holocaust. To escape death, she hid in the attic of her father s office with her family. I wrote this essay as if I were Anne Frank s friend and loyal companion, hence the essay s casual tone: What would it have been like for me? The environment is almost impossible to contemplate. I wonder if I would have been as strong as my friend, Anne. She had the strength of a mighty elephant, and yet she was only a young girl. However, the difference between a young girl and a young girl fighting for survival is great. I visited the house of my friend, Anne, in Amsterdam, Holland, much as I would visit the houses of my other friends who are alive today. I walked through her room and admired her wall decorations: advertisements from magazines of the 1940s. We were such good friends that she even allowed me to read her diary. In fact, she was as close to many people as she was to me, for there was a crowd congregating around the small, faded book in the glass case. Her room was very small. It served the purposes of life well: sleeping and breathing. Eating, of course, took place in the kitchen of miniscule size compared with modern kitchens. Anne s kitchen was hardly a place in which to carry out the daily rituals of eating with one s family. Who was she to complain? She was happy enough knowing that she had her most prized possessions: her life, and her diary. The windows were always closed when she lived there. If anyone dared to open them, especially in daylight, Anne s family and their companions would be discovered and killed. She lived in silence for a matter of years, while some of my classmates luxuriate in socialization and are unable to sustain a quiet state for more than five minutes. I marvel sometimes at how she could remain that quiet and still keep a firm hold on her sanity. The staircase to the small and dusty attic was extremely narrow and squeaky. Of course, the wood was in better condition when Anne was alive. Having to climb those stairs daily must have been a struggle for the few people who were chosen to bring food and other necessities to Anne and her company. Truly, they were prisoners of war. A small bookcase, not very high, concealed the entrance to Anne s home, and only a few knew that, if they slid it to the left, it moved easily, as a front door might if I were to open one at another friend s house, despite its load of books. The bearers of food were required to move these shelves of knowledge to deliver sustenance to Anne. I hope for Anne s sake that these kind people brought food that she enjoyed, for there was no other choice when one was hiding from death. Anne was very strong, but others, strangers, were as weak and as cowardly as she was strong. One day, Anne was taken from her home by uniformed men. Someone, probably spineless jellyfish, informed the authorities of her existence and her whereabouts. They took her to a new residence, a place called Bergen-Belsen, where Anne met others just like her and her family and friends. It held many Jews in one place. Indeed, it was a concentration, not unlike the holds of slave ships, which were filled with slaves forced to sit and stand and lie in awkward positions so that the captain could fit as many slaves on the ship as possible. Such were the conditions where Anne now lived, but worse. As in a bad dream, nothing was what it seemed. What the uniformed men called food was barely enough to sustain even a young child after a day s pointless, fruitless, and futile work. What the uniformed men called a doctor was an insane man drunk with power and ignorance that made him bold enough to inflict pain the likes of which no one had ever thought to exist and for the simple reason that he felt like it. There was no escape. Anne was destined to live in this place called Bergen-Belsen forever, unless, of course, she died, or they killed her first. The former occurred. Hopeless and exhausted, ill with typhus, Anne collapsed. The mighty elephant was brought down by the greater weight of despair and by the greater loss of the will to live. Anything that Anne encountered after dying would be better than what she could ever encounter in the place with the name Bergen-Belsen. This is why I stood in her home in Amsterdam, Holland. My friend, Anne, had died, and I wished to visit her. I was only sixty years too late. She was so like me, in manner, in style, in intellect, in interests, and in Judaism. I am alive, but my friend, Anne, is dead. Spineless Jellyfish is the reason; but it started five years before that, when a country was on its knees. A charismatic man with a twisted look in his eye would be the one to make it rise to its feet, he said, and people believed him. In the end, he made them all fall over and faint in disgust. This was not the Germany that they had bargained for.

31 The Courage to Care exhibition opened at St Paul s Anglican Grammar School on Monday 7 March The opening ceremony was a moving tribute to The righteous among the nations. These were ordinary non-jews, who had the extraordinary courage to risk their own lives to save the Jews from the threat of death or deportation to death camps. As I sit and recall that evening, it is hard to remember the words of the people who spoke. I remember who the speakers were and the topics that they discussed; overwhelmingly, it is the emotion that was engendered in that room that remains. I was not the only teacher who had worked tirelessly that day at the Athletics sports in the heat of summer, rushed home to feed my family, and returned to school again for the opening. Nor was I the only one who felt honoured to be a part of something special. Everyone that I spoke to about that ceremony was touched in some way. One of the survivors who visited our school spoke to me afterwards and said it was the best opening that she had attended. What was it that made it so special? For me, it was the opportunity to hear Danielle Charak and Floris Kalman speak. These ladies had been children during the war, and they unveiled a new exhibit that evening honouring the family that had rescued them. These words were printed on the panel: Charles and Madeleine van den Borren lived with their daughter Marianne, her husband Stafford and their three young children in Brussels. Charles was a distinguished scholar and professor in the field of ancient music. Marianne had contact with the Resistance. The family were freethinkers with strong liberal principles. When the Nazis invaded Belgium Charles resigned from the Conservatorium because he did not want to work under Nazi occupation. Nachman & Rywka Gryfenberg, a Jewish couple had two young daughters, Floris aged 8 and Danielle aged 3. When the Nazi occupiers demanded that all Jews wear the yellow star the family went into hiding. Marianne was asked by her Resistance contacts whether she would hide a Jewish child. When she asked her parents whether they were prepared to run the risk, Charles replied, There is no question. When a child needs protection, we have to be there. Floris Gryfenberg first came to the household but after a few weeks she was transferred to another hiding place and her younger sister Danielle was introduced to the family. Danielle In The Schools Courage to Care Exhibit in Australia Introduction by teacher Judy Barr, St. Paul's Anglican Grammar School, Australia stayed with the Van den Borrens till the end of the war. Although Marianne was to tell Danielle years later that she lived with a knot in her stomach for the entire war, both Floris and Danielle remember a warm, caring and affectionate household. Danielle formed a warm friendship, continuing to this day, with Mickette, Marianne and Stafford s youngest child. The Gryfenberg family survived the war. They came to Australia, the girls married and both now have extended families of their own. Danielle and Floris nominated the Van den Borrens for the Medal of the Righteous at Yad Vashem. At a party in his honour, neighbours and friends said to Charles, We really didn t know what was happening in those terrible years. His reply was, It was our business to know. Floris and Danielle spoke further about their experiences to the audience. They explained that after the war, it was common for people to get on with their lives and to repress all feelings and discussion of that time. It was not until the 1990s that they met other survivors involved with the Holocaust centre in Melbourne and members of the B nai Brith that they became involved with retelling of their experiences. After the ceremony in Europe honouring the Van den Borren family, they were pleased that they had been recognised for their courage. We (the audience) could tell that evening that this new exhibit honouring the family was another major stepping stone for Floris and Danielle, and we felt that we had participated in a tiny part of world history, too. 31

32 In The Schools During the next ten days, the exhibition was attended by hundreds of school children from our own school as well as neighbouring schools. It was also open in the evening for parents and friends to visit. The student groups were given twelve different assignment sheets with questions directing them to different panels. The students read 4-5 panels in detail, answer questions about those and then discuss their answers with the survivors in small groups. The panel describing Oskar Schindler was familiar. His story was told by Steven Spielberg in the movie, Schindler s List. As it stood amongst the other stories, it gave each of them greater significance. Perhaps a movie should be made about each of the other people. Probably they are all worthy. I read the story of Chiune Sugihara with interest. He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania in Hundreds of Jewish refugees stood at the gates of his consulate begging for travel permits to go to Japan. Sugihara sought permission from Tokyo to issue the visas but was denied. He decided to follow his conscience rather than his directives and in one month he issued 6,000 visas. Today 40,000 descendants of those refugees are testimony to his decision. Sugihara was recalled to Tokyo, where he was dismissed from the diplomatic service for disobeying orders. Some of his refugees saw him honoured by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. Posthumously, Japan apologised for his dismissal and paid tribute to his humanitarian deeds. The Courage to Care exhibition is a wonderful tribute to the Van den Borren family, Oskar Schindler, and Chiune Sugihara and many others. I am sure that each person who experiences the exhibition is touched in some way. For some, it may be the story they read. For others, it may be one of the survivors who speaks to them or the yellow star that was worn by a Jew during the war that has an impact. Special thanks must go to the small group of dedicated volunteers, who perpetuate their memory. Simply transporting the exhibition to our school was a huge task. Many volunteers travelled one hundred kilometres in the morning and again at night to help with the groups of students and teachers who attended during the ten day period. Some of them stayed in the local area away from their own families to assist. To all those who helped, we thank you. The following comments were written by Year 9 students in answer to the following questions: What has attending the Courage to Care exhibition helped you to more clearly understand? And How will you use what you have learnt? Adrian Salvatore: Attending Courage to Care exhibition has provided me with a knowledge of what the Jews were going through at the time of the Second World War. I now understand more clearly about the Holocaust and how mean the Germans were to the Jews. It has made me believe even more how bad racism is. I will use this knowledge by telling my family the stories I have been told and pass on to my brother and sister to make them understand what it would have been like to be part of the war. I really like the speakers. Georgina Petty: Before the exhibition I understood a little about the war and the suffering the people endured. To me, watching the movies made me sad but not as sad as I felt today. Not until the two men spoke about what had happened to them, did I realise what had actually happened and what an awful effect it had on people. I felt like I wanted to hear more stories and see more pictures. I felt for the brave people who had saved so many people and that they were truly heroes, because they didn t have to save people; they just did, which to me shows heroism. During the exhibition I didn t want the people to stop talking. I found it very interesting but sad at the same time. There are still many questions I have that are unanswered. I have learnt so much from just listening to the speakers, I now have a clearer understanding and it means so much more to me. I never will take things for granted again. I will use what I have learnt to realise the importance of family and friends and the freedom I have. When I go to complain I will think back to what I know the Jews went through and I will overcome my problems. Because they mean nothing compared to that. Kirstie Shearing: Attending the Courage to Care exhibition has helped me to understand that although we live a happy, peaceful life, other people have/are living a much more devastating and painful life. It has also taught me that although the way people think and act are very different mow to the way they used to be, that something like this can and might happen again. I have also learnt that although there was a lot of evil happening at the time, there were also a lot of people putting themselves in danger to try and help the Jews. They didn t have to do that bye they did anyway. There were also people who didn t do anything. I will try to use what I have leant to help people that have/are being treated unfairly. I hope that if something like that ever happens again, that

33 In The Schools I will have the courage to care. Jacob: The Courage to Care exhibition has helped me to understand the long-term effect that the Holocaust had on people, the way people were affected. Like one man was in the slave camps and another man was a man who helped save the Jews. I will use what I have learnt to teach my children to respect other cultures and to tell them not to make the same mistake so that the Holocaust doesn t happen again. Kelly McGrath: I have been able to get a better idea of how many people were actually affected by these events and what it actually meant to them. I think the most difficult thing to understand is how the German people actually believed that what they were doing to the Jews was the right thing. How could you even imaging something like that being right? As for using what I have learnt, I m not sure exactly, but I want to do something to help the people in other countries who have similar things happening to them. Madeliene Sim: The Courage to Care exhibition has helped me to more clearly understand lots of things. But I can t understand how someone can be so inhumane that they want to kill off a whole race just because they were Jewish. Some of the time they were killed because their GRANDPARENTS were Jewish and that disgusts me! But it has showed me how greatly some people care about others, even complete strangers. I will used what I have leant to act more kindly towards strangers and will do my best to help people in trouble. I will treat others very kindly, as they might have been through something traumatic. Everyone deserves respect, and I knew that before but I never knew how unkind the human race was. It is incredibly petty. We are the only species that kills others because of race! Tell me, how many cows or cats (etc) have you heard of that kill because of an outer difference? Annabeth Simpson I now clearly understand that standing up for what you believe in is very important. It s made me ask myself questions like Could it ever happen in Australia?, Has it actually happened in a way in Australia in the past? It made me realise how it really went down in the Holocaust. All that pain and suffering, everything very inhumane. It s taught me to reject any discrimination in our community, whether it be gender, colour or racial discrimination. Courage to Care was a beautiful exhibition organised really well and has made me be more respectful of people s different beliefs, religions etc. I really enjoyed the exhibition; it touched me. 33

34 In The Schools 10th Graders Respond to Night: A Memoir For thirteen years, this magazine has published students comments about their reading of Elie Wiesel s Holocaust memoir. In this article, students share, with each other, their deep feelings and comments about the book We were outside. The icy wind stung my face. I bit my lips continually to prevent them from freezing. Around me everything was dancing a dance of death. It made my head reel. I was walking in a cemetery, among stiffened corpses, logs of wood. Not a cry of distress, not a groan, nothing but a mass agony, in silence. No one asked anyone else for help. You died because you had to die. There was no fuss. In every stiffened corpse I saw myself. And soon I should not even see them; I should be one of them-a matter of hours. (84-85) and said nothing. Yesterday, I should have sunk my nails into the criminal s flesh. Had I changed so much, then? So quickly? (37) Ellie s father had just politely asked a Gypsy deportee, who was in charge of Elie s group where where the lavatories were. The Gypsy slowly examined Elie s father, then struck him so hard that Elie s father fell to the ground. This confrontation had happened before Elie s eyes, and he did nothing. Elie was furious and thought he would never forgive them for hitting his father. His father had told Elie that it did not hurt, but his father s cheek still bore the red mark of the Gypsy s hand. I believe Elie when he says that he would ve taken action if someone At this point in the book, Elie Wiesel, his father, and the rest of the camp were on the Death March. They were running in the snow, and people were dying all around them. This quote made me sad. Elie Wiesel is talking about his own death, which he believes to be very soon. What a horrible way to die, frozen in the snow, unable to stop the monstrosity and watching everyone else share the same fate. This quote is an important part of the book because it shows some of the struggle Elie and others went through. -Alicia Laguardia We were masters of nature, masters of the world. We had forgotten everything death, fatigue, our natural needs. Stronger than cold or hunger, stronger than the shots and the desire to die, condemned and wandering, mere numbers, we were the only men on earth (83) At this point in Elie Wiesel s book, Night, the SS officers have all of the Jews from the labor camp Buna on a long march through the countryside. They are heading into the heart of Germany in order to escape from the advancing Red Army of the Russians. The thousands of running Jews are both freezing and starving, and the SS officers are shooting anyone who stops. This quotation is a reflection of how Elie Wiesel felt during the march. Elie and his father along with the thousands of others who survived this march felt the same things as Elie was feeling. Their minds were all overtaken by their goal, to just keep going no matter what the consequence. I was so touched by this quotation because of how empowering it is. After all Elie and the other Jews had been through they still had the unshakable will to continue. After reading it I also was filled with a serious self-doubt that if I was in Elie s shoes if I would have been able to keep going. It is because of this that I and many others have such a great admiration of anyone who had the will to survive the horrible conditions of the Holocaust. -Andrew Gabriele He seemed to be telling the truth. Not far from us, flames were leaping up from a ditch, gigantic flames. They were burning something. A lorry drew up at the pit and delivered its load- little children. Babies! Yes, I saw it- saw it with my own eyes those children in the flames. (Is it surprising that I could not sleep after that? Sleep had fled from my eyes.) (30) At this point in the book, Elie Wiesel was first arriving at Auschwitz. He and his father were being led past the ditches that people were being burned in. When Elie saw the children being killed, he began to question humanity and whether or not people could actually allow other people to be killed in that manner. After reading this quotation from Night, I felt sick. When I thought about the Holocaust, I never imagined what they would do to the children; I always assumed they would not be hurt. -Brittany Kalten I did not move. What happened to me? My father had just been struck, before my very eyes, and I had not flickered an eyelid. I had looked on had hurt his father a day earlier. I feel that everything changed once Elie realized what was happening in the concentration camps, and he learned that he could be arbitrarily killed for anything. If Elie had so much as yelled Stop! to the Gypsy, he would ve indubitably been hit and might have been killed. I think instinct also had its effect on Elie. Although Elie loved his father with all his heart, he was concerned with both his father s and his own survival, and was willing to receive the blows as they came without talking back. Taking these beatings without talking back or showing that they re hurting is also a form of resistance. Their Nazi captors want to see the Jews struggling and hurting. Elie, not crying out or attacking this Gypsy was not only wise for his father s and his own survival; it also showed that their Nazi captors weren t getting to them that easily. - Cam Schnier I now took little interest in anything except my daily plate of soup and my crust of stale bread. Bread, soup-these were my whole life. I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time. (50) Elie Wiesel states this soon after his arrival at Buna in his memoir Night. He does not even refer to himself as a man, but as a stomach. How much must he have gone through to lose all emotion- his daily life was marked only by the meager rations of food he received. He had lost all reason for living, except that of habit. Besides the physical abuse and torture he received from the SS officers, he was also struggling with his own body. I can not begin to comprehend what happened in the concentration camps, nor the Holocaust in general. As much as anyone may try to relate to the events that occurred, they can not. When Elie Wiesel describes certain horror-filled days, it s easy to forget all the days in between. Every single day Elie spent in the ghettos, as well as the concentration camps frighten me. To know that tomorrow isn t guaranteed is a very scary thought. I could never imagine myself in his situation, reduced to nothing more than a hollow stomach. -Chelsea Macco

35 In The Schools So now, muster your strength, and don t lose heart. We shall all see the day of liberation. Have faith in life. Above all else, have faith. Drive out despair, and you will keep death away from yourselves. Hell is not for eternity. And now, a prayer or rather, a piece of advice: let there be comradeship among you. We are all brothers, and we are all suffering the same fate. The same smoke floats over all our heads. Help one another. It is the only way to survive The first human words. (38-39) This quote is from when Elie Wiesel and his father first arrive in Auschwitz. They get to their barrack after running and the prisoner in charge makes a small speech to the prisoners. Even though the men are tired from running, they listen to this man s kind words. This speech affects me because it means so much to Elie Wiesel. It was the first human words that were spoken to the prisoners Reacting in fear, several young men forced a gag into her mouth while he little son sat by his mother, crying. (23) When I first read this particular quote, I was left astonished. I myself felt like I was being overcome with a sense of fear that I has never felt before. The words Elie Wiesel used to describe his emotions were truly fantastic. This quote gripped my attention when I read it, and it left a long lasting impact on my brain. I have always known what fear is and I myself have experienced it. When I read this excerpt, I felt like I truly understood what fear meant to the imprisoned Jews in Elie s cattle car. Fear was not just an emotion; it was death. What further surprised me was how Madame Schachter s fellow prisoners reacted to her cries. From this reaction, I could gather a true sense of how the Jews were feeling, and how their fear consumed them to such a barbaric level of humanity. - Jackie Birzon Jealousy consumed us, burned us up like straw. We never thought for a moment of admiring him. Poor hero, committing suicide for a ration of soup! In our thoughts we were murdering him. (57). This scene occurs during an air raid, when a man decides to go outside of his barrack to crawl to the soup. He is so hungry that he is willing to sacrifice his life to fill his stomach. He crawls out while the planes are flying overhead to reach the cauldron. When he reaches the soup, he pulls himself up and kills himself by throwing his head into the soup after seeing his reflection. This scene touched me because before this scene in the book, I thought I could comprehend at least a little, what these people went through. But I realize I can not. I can not imagine anyone living in these conditions. No one can fathom what happened; except for those people who did survive. This man s friends and associates are wishing that he dies, because they want soup and are hungry and very jealous. They begin to care only for themselves, because they can not worry about anyone else. It has become survival of the fittest, may the best men and women live on to face the next day. All of the people there have changed. They all had to change. To us, Elie s book is only words; we can only imagine, not relate to the scenes of horror we read. These people are desperate for hope, for life, and some lose it, and die because of their lost faith. This man thrust himself into the soup at since they had to leave everything behind and face this new horrible life. This quote shows how that even in these tough times of despair, there were still some traces of humanity left in the world. This showed truth to Elie and that words we may hear everyday can mean so much to one person. It gives the men strength in the toughest despair, and that is why this quote meant so much to me. -Christine Fleming And I did not know that in that place, at that moment, I was parting from my mother and Tzipora forever. (27) This quote occurred when men were being sent to the left, and women were being sent to the right. This moment was the first separation and a time of many final goodbyes. When I read this quote, I felt a hollow emptiness. I thought about the people making these commands. I wondered if those people knew that they were separating mothers and children. I questioned if the SS officers had regrets about doing so. I felt disbelief at how the men could rip apart families in a few minutes. Lives once merged quickly torn apart like tissue paper. Also, I was filled with a feeling more extreme than sympathy. I was not as angry as I was sad. The mere thought of losing my own mother depresses me. When I think of it as a reality for someone, I feel emotion that there is no word for. I pitied Elie for his loss and respected him for continuing on with his life. -Elise Fishelson But it was in vain. Our terror was about to burst the sides of the train. Our nerves were at breaking point. Our flesh was creeping. It was as though madness were taking possession of all of us. We could stand it no longer. Some of the young men forced her to sit down, tied her up, and put a gag in her mouth. (23) During this part of the book, the Jews were being transported on a cattle car to Birkenau, a reception center for Auschwitz. A woman named Madame Schachter had been screaming in pure agony trying to warn her fellow prisoners about a fire which she foresaw. She had been screaming frantically, yelling Fire! Fire! Jews, listen to me! I can see a fire! There are huge flames! It is a furnace! his ghostlike reflection. The remainder of the man he once was. All of the people at the camp are only a skeleton of who they once were, after the carpet of security was ripped out from under their feet. They are in a horrible nightmare, where those you love are taken away and friends become enemies. I can imagine pinching myself wishing it was a dream, when it was all a reality. -Jennifer Roeske They were made to dig huge graves. And when they had finished their work, the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion, without haste, they slaughtered their prisoners. Each one had to go up to the hole and present his neck. Babies were thrown into the air and the machine gunners used them as targets. (4) 35

36 In The Schools At this time in the memoir, Night, Elie is recalling the stories that Moshe the Beadle had told the Jews in Sighet about his ordeal. This quote brings forth many different emotions, such as disgust, pity, and sympathy. I cannot imagine having to work in such terrible conditions, digging my own grave; a grave that I would be put into only a short time after my digging was done. I can t believe the horrible treatment these people had to go through and how unfeeling the Gestapo was. The picture that Elie Wiesel paints of the babies being used as targets also made me sick. While I do not know the love one has for their own child, it made me think about seeing my young cousins being killed right before my very eyes. The pain would be too much. This quote made me feel completely sympathetic for all those who were forced to go through this terrible ordeal. The pain of one s own death and the pain of watching the deaths of family members are far too much for anyone to bear. -Kelly Moynihan The Jews were made to get out. They were made to dig huge graves. And when they had finished their work, the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion, without haste, they slaughtered their prisoners. Each one had to go up to the hole and present his neck. Babies were thrown into the air and the machine gunners used them as targets. (4) At this point in the book, Moshe the Beadle is talking to Eliezer about what had happened when all the foreign Jews were expelled from Sighet. The deportees were crammed into cattle cars and after months had passed, life went back to normal in Sighet. Eliezer sees Moshe one day, months later, and learns about what really happened when the foreign Jews were expelled. Moshe tells Eliezer how he had escaped death, unlike most of the rest of them, and how they had to dig their own graves. This is one of many parts of the book that really touched me. Reading this just makes me realize how horrible the lives of these people really were. The Jews had to watch their friends and family be killed, just to be next in line to be murdered themselves. Mothers had to watch their babies be thrown into the air and used for target practice, just because the Gestapo found it amusing. The things that the Jews had to endure throughout the Holocaust were incredible. It showed that their will to live was so much stronger than their will to quit, even though it would have been so much easier for them to give up. - Kelsey Grich I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I had no more tears. And, in the depths of my being, in the recesses of my weakened conscience, could I have searched it, I might perhaps have found something like-free at last! (106) In this part of the book, Elie is explaining how he felt about his father s death. He talks about how his father might have died in his sleep, and was brought straight to the crematorium. I was shocked by Elie s reaction to his father s death. Although it seems harsh, it is understandable why Elie felt this way. His father was dying very slowly beforehand, and Elie had felt a lot of pain for him. He gave up food for his beloved father; he had suffered and watched guards beat him. Elie watched his father suffer, and he saw people neglecting him. All of this wear and tear on one s soul can lead to a feeling of relief at the end. Elie says free at last! with the realization of his father s fate, because the seemingly burdens of his father and his sickness, seem to disappear with his death. This quote illustrates the feelings of many of the Jews who were in the Holocaust. There comes a time when one becomes numb to all feelings except hunger when in a place like the concentration camps. The Nazis did succeed in dehumanizing the Jews. They took away all possessions, beloved lives, food, warmth and family. They took away the initial feeling and reason for life, but some of those Holocaust survivors, found their reason and beat the Holocaust. -Laura DeLaurentis I glanced at my father. How he had changed! His eyes had grown dim. I would have liked to speak to him, but I did not know what to say. (34) At the time, Elie and his father had just arrived at Birkenau, the reception center for Auschwitz. They had just gone through the hot showers and then received their prison clothes. I felt very surprised when I read this because Elie had just arrived at the camp and had no words for his father. I think that he had already started to become brainwashed. Also, Elie was probably too upset and disgusted to talk to his father because he was starting to notice what the experience was doing to his father physically. He could not believe the sight he saw and how old and tired his father looked. -Lauren Rottkamp Babies were thrown into the air and the machine gunners used them as targets. (4) Moshe the Beadle and Elie Wiesel are talking in their synagogue in the ghetto. He is telling Elie horrible stories of Jewish prisoners. All of the Jews in the ghetto do not believe his stories, and they believe that he has gone mad. Elie notices that Moshe the Beadle is not the joyful man that he used to be in Sighet. The image that Moshe the Beadle provides me with is disturbing. It disgusts me how human beings could do such a horrible thing. How could someone slaughter an innocent child? If this occurred, these people had no feelings. How could someone toss a human being into the air like a target? They took the life of someone with a future away and destroyed the lives of the parents. The people who did this had no heart. These sorts of actions also de-humanized the Jewish prisoners, as seen later in this book. After seeing such graphic events, people begin to change. Later in this memoir, people began to go insane from the horrible things that they encountered. People committed suicide and fought with each other. These horrible events that took place during the Holocaust were in-humane and savage. -Lloyd Volk You re lucky to have been brought here so late. This camp is paradise today, compared with what it was like two years ago. Buna was a real hell then. There was no water, no blankets, less soup and bread. At night we slept almost naked, and it was below thirty degrees. The corpses were collected in hundreds every day. The work was hard. Today, this is a little paradise. (66) During this part of the book it was New Year s Day and the SS had just transferred some people to another unit, including Elie. Elie and his fellow prisoners had finished their diminutive portion of soup and the veterans gathered them around and talked about the paradise this camp had become compared to two years ago. I felt this quote was very important for multiple reasons. One reaction I had to this quote was complete shock. How could they ever relate concentration camps to paradise? Paradise is glory, delight, and joy. These camps were the exact opposite to delight. They were filled with hatred and revulsion. This quote shows the horror that the prisoners now endured. They felt that the camp two years ago was so much worse that they dared to relate the camp now as paradise. This quote is important because it clearly states the brutality the Jews had to go through. It touched me because even through the horrific days at these camps, some would fight for their life because they felt not giving up meant more than anything. Some struggled for their life in order to hopefully see lost family or friends again. Others fought to share this experience in order to prevent it from reoccurring. -Michelle Lawlor

37 In The Schools Long live liberty! cried the two adults. But the child was silent. Where is God? Where is He? someone behind me asked. At a sign from the head of the camp the three chairs tipped over. Total silence throughout the camp. On the horizon the sun was setting. Bare your heads! yelled the head of the camp. His voice was raucous. We were weeping. (61) At this time a three prisoners in the camp are being hung for sabotage. What is especially moving about this is that one of the prisoners being hung is a child, the servant of the Oberkapo. The child was loved by all of the prisoners in the camp and was crying. This even made some prisoners question their belief in God. The child was not heavy enough to be killed by the fall, but instead died from slow strangulation while the prisoners were forced to watch. I was moved by this because of the fact that the child was being killed, and for something he may not have even been involved in. The child was also tortured before the execution. The torturing and killing of a small child shows the mercilessness and cruelty of the Nazis. Another thing that moved me was that the prisoners who had endured unfathomable hardships were crying for this child. The murders of other prisoners invoked no sympathy, but this killing caused them to cry. This also weakened Elie Wiesel s and the other prisoners faith in God. -N. Morante I could hear only the violin, and it was as though Juliek s soul were the bow. He was playing his life. The whole of his life was gliding on the strings-his lost hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future. He played as he would never play again. I shall never forget Juliek. How could I forget that concert, given to an audience of dying and dead men! To this day, whenever I hear Beethoven played my eyes close and out of the dark rises the sad, pale face of my Polish friend, as he said farewell on his violin to an audience of dying men. (90) In this quote Elie Wiesel s friend, Juliek, is playing his violin as many people are dying. By the morning, Juliek had died as well. I thought this was so incredibly heartbreaking how this young man spent his last night alive. I felt Elie Wiesel really put in to words how terrible what the Nazis did to these people was. Everyone knows what happened was horrible, but I felt Elie Wiesel really expressed how the Nazis ruined these people s lives and how miserable they must have felt. When I read this I felt sad, but I also felt really mad too. How could people do this to other people? How could they be so cruel? - Nicole Crom I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I had no more tears. And, in the depths of my being, in the recesses of my weakened conscience, could I have searched it, I might perhaps have found something like -free at last! (106) At this time, Elie and his father were in Buchenwald, and his father had become extremely sick. Elie awoke one morning to discover that his father had been taken away to the crematory, and discovered that he was in such an awful condition himself that he was almost glad that the burden of looking after his father had been removed. I was particularly affected by this quote since it shows how dehumanized the Jews were made during the Holocaust. Earlier in the book, Elie had seen a rabbi s son trying to leave his father behind and had been disgusted. Now we saw that even Elie s love for his father could not withstand the torture of the Nazis. Throughout Night, Elie struggled to support his father. The camps had changed Elie so much that when his father s death ultimately arrived, he no longer had any feelings left for him. His conscience, as well as his body, was all but destroyed. -Peter Ottaviano I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I had no more tears. And in the depths if my being, in the recesses of my weakened conscience, could I have searched it, I might perhaps have found something like- free at last! (106) This quote was from Elie Wiesel s narrative thought, the day after he had spoken to his father for the last time. When seeing that there was another invalid in his father s sickbed- knowing full well that he d probably been sent to the crematory when there was still some life in him- these were his feelings. I picked this quote because it struck me with a profound sense of just how dehumanized the Jews of the concentration camps were. That Mr. Wiesel s sole feeling after his father s brutal death was one of dark relief really hammered the message that people were robbed of any human feeling or emotion besides survival. He mentioned that there was some pain in his inability to weep at such a horrible loss, but it was only a minute part of his weakened conscience. My response was terrible awe, that such things we deem unable to be stolen- like compassion and pride and love- could indeed be taken away. The Nazis were able to subjugate the Jews in the death camps to such an extent that they ceased to feel anything for even their most dear of friends and family. They were reduced to bestial animals in that they were moved by nothing but thoughts of how to live to see another day, going to any lengths, even murder, to get even a scrap of food. -Rachel Broderick You don t understand, he said in despair. You can t understand. I have been saved miraculously. I managed to get back here. Where did I get the strength from? I wanted to come back to Sighet to tell you the story of my death. So that you could prepare yourselves while there was still time. To live? I don t attach any importance to my life any more. I m alone. No, I wanted to come back, and to warn you. And see how it is, no one will listen to me. (5) At this time Moshe the Beadle had just escaped from a concentration camp and instead of fleeing for a safe country he returned to his town of Sighet to warn others of the horrible place he had been to. However, Moshe s stories were so horrendous that not a single person would believe him. While reading this I felt that I was pleading with Moshe for the townspeople to believe his story. I had never realized how well the Nazis were able to keep the secret of the concentration camps until now. I understand that even if some people believed that Moshe s stories were true, they kept it secret because the ideas of the camps scared them so much. I believe I would probably have been just as ignorant as the townspeople of Sighet if I were in their situation. The fact that no one will ever allow themselves to believe a horrific truth until they see it with their own eyes relates the memoir, Night, to the world today. -Sofia de Guzman Man raises himself towards God by the questions he asks him, he was fond of repeating. That is the true dialogue. Man questions God and God answers. We can t understand them because they come from the depths of the soul and they stay there until death. You will find the true answers, Eliezer, only within yourself! (2, 3) 37

38 In The Schools In the beginning of this memoir, Eliezer is seeking more knowledge about the cabbala. He goes to Moshe the Beadle and asks him what he knows about it. Since that day, Eliezer and Moshe the Beadle talked frequently, and one day, Moshe says this quote to Eliezer when Moshe sees Eliezer praying. I thought that this quote was very moving and a strong point made by Moshe the Beadle. This quote shows that if you are faithful in God you will be able to find the answers within yourself. I also thought that this quote symbolizes what Eliezer has to do in order to survive the terrible Holocaust and how he has to reach real deep within himself to fight through and battle the horrible temptations of suicide. The temptation of suicide overcame many Jews, but Eliezer stayed strong and fought off the temptation. -Wes Chisholm A piece fell into our wagon. I decided that I would not move. Anyway, I knew I would never have the strength to fight with a dozen savage men! Not far away I noticed an old man dragging himself along on all fours. He was trying to disengage himself from the struggle. He held one hand to his heart. I thought at first he had received a blow to his chest. Then I understood; he had a bit of bread under his shirt. With remarkable speed he drew it out and put it in his mouth. His eyes gleamed; a smile, like a grimace, lit up his dead face. And was immediately extinguished. A shadow had just loomed up near to him. The shadow threw itself upon him. Felled to the ground, stunned with blows, the old man cried: Meir. Meir my boy! Don t you recognize me? I m your father you re hurting me you re killing your father! I ve got some bread for you too for you too. (95-96) At this time, Elie Wiesel and his father are on their way to Buchenwald by train. There is no roof on the train, and outside, it is snowing. The German citizens are having a good time throwing bread into the train and watching the Jews kill each other for the bread. Elie does not try to get any because he knows he is not strong enough to get it from the other Jews. He sits with his father and watches the Jews fight. It is at this time when Elie sees a strong man beat his father to death because his father took some bread. I was disturbed by this quote mainly because of the cruelness of the German citizens. It is sickening to even think that such a large group of people could find pleasure in seeing a group of extremely underfed people killing each other for bread. It shows the collective hatred of the Jews throughout Germany. It is hard to imagine how anyone could enjoy the horrific scene Eli Wiesel describes. -Will Deitch One of our friends, Berkovitz, who had just returned from the capital, told us: The Jews in Budapest are living in an atmosphere of fear and terror. There are anti-semitic incidents every day, in the streets, in the trains. The Fascists are attacking Jewish shops and synagogues. The situation is getting very serious. This News spread like wildfire through Sighet. Soon it was on everyone s lips. But not for long. Optimism soon revived.. Before three days had passed, German army cars had appeared in our streets.(7) This quote takes place in the beginning of Night. It occurs before the Jews became honest with themselves about the horror that was unfolding. It occurs before the Jews were transported to the Ghetto, when they still tried to convince themselves that the Fascists would not harm them. I chose this quote for two reasons. The first reason was because this quote frustrated me. I knew what was going to happen and I knew that the people who believed that the Germans would not hurt them, probably ended up dead. I feel angry at the people who tried to convince themselves that they would be fine. It is especially frustrating because the Jewish people of Sighet were warned about what was happening in Budapest, but still they remained there. Although it is uncertain whether the Jews could have left Sighet, it is frustrating that they didn t even try. The second reason I chose this quote is because it reminded me of an occurrence that happened in my family. My cousin s grandmother, Ruthy, came to America with her wealthy Jewish family. They ended up missing their homeland and decided to return. After returning, they eventually realized the danger they were in, and tried to return to America. Ruthy s father went first and then sent for Ruthy, who was the oldest child. Unfortunately, the rest of Ruthy s family was not allowed to leave. Ruthy and her father never saw them again and were left to live the rest of their life in America, wondering. -Andrea Scarcella I saw them disappear into the distance; my mother was stroking my sister s fair hair, as though to protect her, while I walked on with my father and the other man. And I did not know that in that place, at that moment, I was parting from my mother and Tzipora forever. (27) This scene depicts the separation of Elie Wiesel s family at Birkenau. This quote really made me think and reading it, it ultimately made me feel sad. Elie was never going to see his mother or sister again and he didn t know what would become of them once they were separated. Him being at such a little age and located in a period of mass confusion, I couldn t imagine if I would never see my mother and sister again under the same circumstances. It would be one of the most devastating things that could happen to me. What makes the situation worse is that Elie didn t even know that his mother and sister were getting killed right after their separation. This scene made me really think about what I would do if this happened to me. I never really thought, What would I do if I was separated from my family, never to see them again? It is an experience I couldn t bear to handle and in a situation where Elie s fate was still a mystery, it stuns me that he was able to withstand the separation from his family. This is an upsetting scene which leaves an impact on the reader and makes them think beyond what they normally would. The effect the scene left on me will stay with me forever. -Ashwin Ramachandran He collapsed. His fist was still clenched around a small piece. He tried to carry it to his mouth. But the other one threw himself upon him and snatched it. The old man again whispered something, let out a rattle,and died amid the general indifference. His son searched him, took the bread, and began to devour it. He was not able to get very far. Two men had seen him and hurled themselves upon him. Others joined in. When they withdrew, next to me were two corpses, side by side, the father and son. (96) On the train the Nazis threw a loaf of bread on the train car, to see the Jews fight for a loaf of bread. This was after they have deprived them of food and water for weeks, after evacuating them from a concentration camp, making them run through the snowy, icy, and piercing cold, and finally cramping hundreds of Jews into a train car, which some would eventually die from suffocation, freezing to death, food and water deprivation, or dysentery. I feel that the Nazis were the lowest form of people, enslaving Jews, treating them like dirt and finally degrading them to savage like behavior. They had become inhuman, fighting for a loaf of bread, due to their harsh treatment. When I read this paragraph in Night, by Elie Wiesel, I felt so disgusted and could not imagine the pain they went through. I could not imagine what the Nazis or Jews were thinking at the time; I don t even understand how they found the will to live. I don t even think I could survive being put in a situation like that; the Jews must have been strong and had to have some glimmer of hope, which I would have lost close to the beginning of the book. I find it empowering and a wonderful triumph, since they had survived through so much and never gave up. -Athina Soohoo I ve got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He s the only one who s kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people. (77) These words were spoken by the neighbor of Elie Wiesel in response to rumors that the Russian Red Army was advancing on their location in Buna.

39 In The Schools Many rumors suggested that the Jews would be liberated by the allied forces in concentration camps although they rarely occurred and were often referred to as an injection of morphine. Most, if not all, of the Jews had been dehumanized at this period in time and therefore had lost faith in faith itself. I found it surprising to hear this man speak these words, considering the rest of his fellow Jews (the young Pole in charge of Elie s block and Meir Katz) were making such great strides to keep the morale of their peers high. This led me to believe that this unidentified man was of an older generation who, during his duration at the camp, had experienced many great tragedies during his time in Buna. It displeased me to hear that Hitler, even when defeat loomed around the corner, would make it his duty to eradicate all of the Jews to fulfill his dream. -Bayard Megear The last night in Buna. Yet another last night. The last night home, the last night in the ghetto, the last night in the train, and now, the last night in Buna. How much longer were our lives to be dragged out from one last night to another? (79) This was after Elie had walked from the block to the hospital in order to follow the other prisoners to Buchenwald. It was the last night before Elie was to make the long journey from the camp to the Nazis intended destination. I can only imagine of how helpless Elie felt and how frustrated he was that he could not choose where he was to be in the following days, weeks, or months. During the prisoners internment at the camps, they lived in a state of ignorance of what the Nazis planned to do next. The Nazis could choose to let them live the next day or could nonchalantly choose to torture or murder them, whatever it was they felt like doing. Since this was sometimes the way the Nazis at the camps decided to do things, it always left Elie wondering whether each night would be the last night of his stay someplace, of his captivity, or whether it was the last night he was to live. Realizing that so many had to constantly have that lack of knowledge for such a long period of time, makes me have a clearer perception of what happened during the Holocaust. -Caroline Bodi One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me. (109) This is the last line in the memoir, Night by Elie Weisel. Three days after he was released from the concentration camp, Buchenwald, he became very sick with food poisoning. He spent two weeks in the hospital struggling with life and when he had gotten enough strength, he wanted to see what he looked like. The quote says that Elie had not seen himself since the ghetto, which was before he was sent away to the horrible sufferings in various concentration camps. He had gone about a year and a half without seeing himself in a mirror, and when he finally did look, a body and face that were not his own stared back at him. It must have been incredibly overwhelming for Elie when he saw himself and I am sure he must have been scared by his own reflection. I could not fathom having one perception of my body and face, and wake up one morning to myself one year older, but thinner than I was even three years prior. The realization that what had happened to him in the past two years was not just a bad dream must have been so profound at this moment. -Carrie Dennis Then I remembered something else: his son had seen him losing ground, limping, staggering back to the rear of the column. He had seen him. And he had continued to run on in front, letting the distance between them grow greater. A terrible thought loomed up in my mind: he had wanted to get rid of his father! He had felt that his father was growing weak, he had believed that the end was near and had sought this separation in order to get rid of the burden, to free himself from an encumbrance which could lessen his own chances of survival. (87) This dreadful realization comes into Elie s mind when a friend of his, Rabbi Eliahou, asks him if he had seen any sign of his son. Rabbi Eliahou is under the impression that he and his son lost one another along the forty-two mile death march. The rabbi tells Elie that his son hadn t noticed him lagging behind, unable to run any farther, and had continued to run forward. Elie informs the rabbi that he has not seen his son. Later Elie realizes that he had in fact seen the rabbi s son, and remembers that his son had noticed his father lagging behind, and didn t seem to care. This incident affected me very strongly. With this paragraph, I began to truly understand the magnitude of the desperation that these people must have felt in order to do something so terrible as to abandon their poor, weak father. There are few human bonds stronger than those between father and son, and for this bond to be broken in such a way shows the cruelty, starvation, and overall desperation that his son must have felt for him to feel as if the only way for survival was to abandon his father. I cannot even imagine what measures I would have to be put through in order to do such a thing. The feeling became even stronger when Elie reminisces about how close the Rabbi and his son had been, and how they had stuck together side by side for the previous three years. The extreme dehumanization that the prisoners had undergone also became very apparent in this scene. The terror and destruction of the Nazis became so extreme that a choice had to be made between your life and your family, a choice that should never have to be made. -Casey Van de Walle I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me. (109) Elie was transferred to a hospital for food poisoning after he and the rest of the prisoners were liberated from Buchenwald. After he gained enough strength, he got up to go look at himself in the mirror. Most people my age take mirrors for granted, always looking at themselves, and complaining about bad hair days. We all know what we look like, and can recognize our reflection as our self. Elie had spent more than a year without looking at himself. He was not able to see the changes in his face, to see himself breakdown physically. This quote affected me because Elie was not able to recognize himself, he did not refer to his reflection as himself, rather another person. To Elie, he was no longer a happy child, but an adult who survived the Holocaust. I could not imagine what it would be like not to be able to recognize myself when I would look at a mirror. It was like Elie was another person when he was experiencing the Holocaust. He no longer was himself. -Daryin Hummel Then I remembered something else: his son had seen him losing ground, limping, staggering back to the rear of the column. He had seen him. And he had continued to run on in front, letting the distance between them grow greater. (87) At this time, Elie walked towards Germany in a death march. Elie walked in the freezing climate and in snow, along with his father. Elie s father was one of thousands, to die during the march. During the march, a Rabbi named Eliahou wandered, searching for his son. He was separated from his son during the march because he lagged behind. I was shocked to realize that Rabbi Eliahou s 39

40 In The Schools son had purposely, ran ahead of his father when he struggled to walk on during the march. My first impression of the boy was that he was a careless, selfish, self-centered, impassionate boy who cared nothing for his father. I compared him to Elie, who cared for his father when he was in need. Elie urged his father to continue and keep faith and hope. Elie also shared his small rations with his father. Elie understood that the boy ran ahead of his father as an act of survival. Because Rabbi Eliahou slowed him down during the march and in the concentration camps. I wondered what the boy was thinking, if he felt any guilt. How brutal was the Nazi treatment towards Jews, forcing some of them to leave their most beloved ones behind purposely? -David Lau With every groan of the wheels on the rail, we felt that an abyss was about to open beneath our bodies. (23) Elie Wiesel used this quotation from Night to describe the train ride to the death camps. Madame Schachter had gone crazy with distress. She had been yelling Fire! all night, and the car was weary. I think this is a great piece of writing. It moves me using only a few words. I can paint a mental picture of the train, and of the eighty people dying in a cramped train car. The anxiety that they must have felt is unimaginable. They did not know where they were going or what was going to happen to them. I think that every noise the train made must have made Elie Wiesel s stomach cringe. I get a lot out of this quote. His use of words really captures the terror of the ride and the terror of the Holocaust. -Eva Riccardi What are you, my God, I thought angrily, Compared to this afflicted crowd, proclaiming to You their faith, their anger, their revolt? What does your greatness mean, Lord of the Universe, in the face of all this weakness, this decomposition, and this decay? Why do you still trouble their sick minds, their crippled bodies? (63) This quote is from Elie Wiesel on the eve of Rosh Hashanah. Elie says this right after the traditional prayers on Rosh Hashanah. Elie wonders why God is allowing such hatred and decay to go on. He asks God from the bottom of his heart on Rosh Hashanah eve why his people are dying and nothing is being done about it. I will always remember this quote from Night because the fact that Elie is questioning his own faith really disturbs me. Before Elie and his family went to the concentration camps, Elie dedicated his life to studying the Cabbala and other Jewish manuscripts. But his experience in the concentration camp was so demoralizing that even devout Jews like Elie start to question there own faith. This quote demonstrates how horrible the whole Holocaust really was. I believe that the loss of faith during the Holocaust was almost just as bad as the loss of lives. When a person loses faith in whoever or whatever type of God they believe in, it s like losing a piece of your soul and your individuality. If I was as physically and mentally tormented as some of the Jews during the Holocaust to the point of questioning my faith, I probably would not even feel like living anymore. I would feel like a piece of my soul is missing, and that death is a better option than to continue living and be tortured and deprived of life by the Nazis. That is why this quote from Elie Wiesel affected me so much. This quote proves just how much torment the Jews had to go through. On one of the most important Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah, Elie and the other Jews question their god. Elie Wiesel demonstrates the torture and evil that occurred during the Holocaust in his book, Night. -Herman Singh I could hear only the violin, and it was as though Juliek s soul were the bow. He was playing his life. The whole of his life was gliding on the strings- his lost hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future. He played as he would never play again. (90) This quote from Night, by Elie Wiesel, describes the beautiful sound of a violin that was heard above the screaming of suffering souls. Juliek, a Jewish musician, was forbidden by the SS officers to play the music of Beethoven because Beethoven was a German composer and Juliek, a Jew. At the gates of Gleiwitz, the half dead prisoners tramped each other in their efforts to reach a barrack. The Death March from Poland to Germany had killed so many of the prisoners, and those who were not dead were just barely alive. Eliezer and his father were thrown to the ground as the anxious skeletons stumbled over them. Eliezer realized that Juliek was lying underneath him. Somehow, Juliek managed to get free of the prisoners piling on top of him, and that was when Eliezer heard the beautiful sound of the violin. It was playing a fragment of Beethoven s concerto. This quote really stood out to me. It seemed that the story stood still while Juliek was playing his violin just before he died, almost as a last cry and a prayer to God. It was almost as if his soul was being liberated by the forbidden music that he would play for the last time. Although I don t play the violin, I love music. This scene struck me as so sad. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. When I read this part of the book, I pictured the starving, dehumanized prisoners fighting to get inside the terrible barracks, tramping each other in the effort. I saw people crying, falling, dying, and all the while, Juliek was playing his violin. In a scene of so much death and suffering, the soft and graceful concerto rang out through the piercing winter wind, hoping to reach someone in a last desperate attempt. --Janna D Ambrisi The cherished objects we had brought with us thus far were left behind in the train, and with them, at last, our illusions. (27) This quote takes place at the beginning of the third chapter when Elie has just gotten off the train at the entrance of Auschwitz. It is the last time he sees his mother and sister. I feel that is quote signifies the end of the hopes that Elie had about going to a safe place. It is the beginning of his life at the concentration camp. In the quote he says that they left their belongings on the train with their illusions. By this I think he means that everyone had been trying to keep a positive attitude and telling themselves that they would be fine, and now that they had been brought to this place, all of that had diminished. I found this quote to be kind of depressing, because it was as if all hope had been drained from everyone, especially once they smelled and saw the smoke coming from the crematorium and heard the stories from the people who were already being held there. -Jaya Misra I can t go on This is the end I m going to die here... He dragged me toward the hillock of snow from which emerged human shapes and ragged pieces of blanket. Leave me, he said to me. I can t go on Have mercy on me (100) This quote, which carries a tone of sorrow, comes from the memoir, Night by Elie Wiesel. It is a dialogue between a son and a father. Elie Wiesel and his father have just arrived at the terrible camp of Buchenwald. His father has just asked his son to allow him to die. This scene is depicted so vividly that it sends shivers down one s spine. I believe that Elie Wiesel did this on purpose just to give a taste of what it must have been like for him. Even though we as humans cannot go back in time to witness the atrocities that occurred, the author opens a window from which we can gaze back at what happened. When I read this quote I begin to think what I would do if my father asked mercy from me to die. Each time I see this quote I feel like breaking down and crying because I am so close with my father. I realize I would have no idea what I would do or say if he asked this from me. It is amazing how even at this point Elie Wiesel still wants his father to live even though he knows that by aiding his father he lessens his own chances of survival. I cannot

41 In The Schools say that I would or would not do this and I hope I will never have the chance to see. -Krikor Angacian One day I was able to get up, after gathering all of my strength. I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared at mine, has never left me. (109) This quote takes place a few days after Elie Wiesel had been freed from the concentration camp. At this time, Elie had lived in the ghetto and various concentration camps for almost two years. Throughout this time, bare necessities like warm clothes and enough food had been scarce. Elie s father had died because of the great ordeal. The quote at the top of the page moves me, because it makes me think about how horrible the Holocaust must have been for everyone involved. To think that someone could be starved, for no reason other then their religion, in many ways scares me. It shows how racism is still a major problem in almost every country. This quote also makes me think about the will of man. The Nazis had done everything short of shooting Elie in an attempt to kill him and all who were like him. Elie probably would not be alive today if the Nazis didn t want to use his hair to make pillows and because he could work for free. This quote shows me that Elie refused to let the Nazis get the best of him. Elie Wiesel has more will power than anyone else I know of. -Matt Sunshine Meir. Meir my boy! Don t you recognize me? I m your father you re hurting me you re killing your father! I ve got some bread for you too for you too. (96) This scene occurs when Elie and his father are in a cattle car on their way to Buchenwald. A young man, Meir, sees that an older man has a piece of bread in his hand. Meir then decides to attack the old man for this nourishment. Meir kills the man, who cries out desperately because he is Meir s father. I believe this sad scene epitomizes the dehumanized state of many of the Jewish people. Meir is so fixated on having something to eat that he kills his own father in attempt to eat a small piece of bread. The father s own generous efforts prove to be futile as Meir selfishly goes after the bread and attacks his own father. I cannot fully blame Meir for his actions because of the tremendously stressful conditions surrounding this event. I find the extent of destitute of the persecuted Jews astounding. -Michael Kuchta For part of a second I glimpsed my mother and my sisters moving away to the right. Tzipora held Mother s hand. I saw them disappear into the distance, while I walked on with my father and the other men. And I did not know that in that place, at that moment, I was parting from my mother and Tzipora forever. (27) This quote is stated during the course of the memoir, Night when Elie and his family arrive at Birkenau and when they are forced to be separated. Elie and his father are forced to be separated from Elie s mother and sisters by the SS officers. I think that this quote has affected me somehow because I do not think that I could possibly imagine what it feels like to part from my family. The part of the quote that really touched me was when Elie said that this would be the last time that he would see his mother and Tzipora, even though he did not know it at the time. Saying good-bye to your family without even knowing that you are never going to see them again must be one of the most difficult things in the world to do. It is strange to think that someone you see every day of your life could vanish forever so quickly. It is not only sad, but it is also unlucky that Elie did not get to give his mother and younger sister a proper final good-bye. It is also disheartening to think that this same situation must have occurred with many other Jewish families at the time, not just Elie s family. It is hard to think about one family being separated from another, let alone hundreds or maybe even thousands of families. The ordeal that Elie went through at such a young age is incomparable to the things that normal teenagers today experience. -Natasha Mir One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself on the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me. (109) This quote takes place as the liberation has just occurred, and Elie was looking into a mirror. He had not seen himself in a long time and he is shocked to see what he looks like and that he is still alive. Elie was weak and just trying to come back to life. This quote is describing the dehumanized state of many of the prisoners. The millions of people in the camps were weak and surprised they were alive. I can not even begin to imagine the feeling of starving, freezing, living in bad conditions, and being beaten. This quote is representing all of the horrors of the horrible Holocaust. Elie Wiesel has greatly touched my life because it is his a true story and the details really touch me. Out of all the books I have read in my life this is one of those that really caught me. Sometimes it scares me because I am Jewish and I could have been one of the million people killed or treated horribly. After reading this book I remind myself of how lucky I am to live the great life I live and it helped me to be more appreciative. I think of all of these people and I feel so horrible they had nothing but their stories and the stories were so important because they live on today. I think this book should be required to read because a lot of people do not know what the Holocaust is, and this book shows what really did occur. It is amazing how much we take for granted even little things such as looking in the mirror and enjoying what we see. -Colby Kossoy There were no prayers at his grave. No candles were lit to his memory. His last word was my name. A summons to which I did not respond. I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I had no more tears. And, in the depths of my being, in the recesses of my weaken conscience, could I have searched it, I might perhaps have found something like-free at last! (106) Eliezer Wiesel had woken at dawn on January 29, to see his father had been replaced with a different invalid. Dead or alive his father was taken to the crematory that morning, and Elie knew. He did not physically get upset, but his reaction in this quote was quiet unique. This quote was very difficult for me to read. Elie s father, who was holding on to life through the most unsurpassable situations to get taken away just like that is one of the brutal parts of this book. Even worse than the actual death of Elie s father, were the thoughts going through Elie s mind. These thoughts were an uttermost example of the dehumanization that took place in the concentration camps. Eliezer had said at the end of his quote, free at last! This almost showed that a burden was finally eased off Elie s shoulders. It is hard to imagine that a family member had become a nuisance to your survival. Dehumanization in the concentration camps was devastating. Changing a family person into a selfish person just trying to help themselves and themselves only to survive was what affected me the most in the book. However, who are we to judge the prisoners when we weren t in the same situation? The words, I would have done could never be used by anyone referring to a horrible experience they 41

42 In The Schools never faced, myself included. -Peter Swerz I was putting one foot in front of the other mechanically. I was dragging with me this skeletal body which weighed so much, If only I could have got rid of it! In spite of my efforts not to think about it, I could feel myself as two entities my body and me. I hated it. (81) In this scene, Elie Wiesel is beginning The Death March. He attempts to form an image of what he looks and feels like even though it is impossible to imagine. Elie Wiesel makes a very ironic statement when he says that his skeletal body weighs so much. When Elie Wiesel makes this statement, I feel as though he is referring to much more than just his skeletal body. He is referring to the nightmare that he will have to remember forever. He is referring to the weight that he must now carry for the rest of his life. I cannot imagine what it must be like to have lived through these terrible times. I can t imagine the burden of having to pass on the story of the Holocaust for generations. Elie Wiesel refers to himself as being two entities. I feel that he is humanizing himself with this statement because most of the memoir shows dehumanization. He is identifying himself as Elie Wiesel. He is still a person, even if he is being not being treated like one. If I ever faced a situation such as the one Elie is facing in this scene, it would be tough to consider myself as still being me. I find myself wondering if I would want to be myself after such an ordeal. I wonder if I could ever reach the breaking point where I no longer wanted to be myself. As I read this book and as I read this quote about the Death March, it is hard for me to remember that this is a true story. I must constantly remind myself that this is not a novel. Elie Wiesel actually experienced the horrors that take place in this novel. -Scott Kaufman Suddenly his eyes would become blank, nothing but two open wounds, two pits of terror. (72) At this point in the memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel s camp had just suffered through another long selection. The quote is describing Akiba Drumer, a man who had been picked to be left behind. He had lost all of his faith after he knew he would become a victim of the Nazis. He offered his own neck to the executioner. I remember reading through this part and getting chills because it must have been so horrible to know that you would be dying in a few days. I don t think I would have any strength to live, knowing that I could do nothing about the Nazis decision. Elie s description of Akiba s appearance before he was condemned to death put a terrible picture in my head, one that stayed with me throughout the book. It is horrifying to know how deeply each prisoner was affected by their stay at the concentration camps and to hear how one s eyes could turn into pits of terror. -Victoria Vogel The old man again whispered something, let out a rattle, and died among the general indifference. His son searched him, took the bread, and began to devour it. He was not able to get very far. Two men had seen it and hurled themselves upon him. Others joined in. When they withdrew, next to me were two corpses, side by side, the father and the son. (96). At this time, Elie Wiesel is speaking about the wagon train ride to Buchenwald, after he left the concentration camp at Auschwitz. After the death march, the survivors were then forced on to a freezing cold train, with barely any food or water. An old man found a piece of bread, and was attempting to bring it to his son, for them to share. However, the son attacked his father in order to obtain the bread. Once the son got his ration of bread, other men jumped on him and killed him for the food. After this whole mob scene was complete, a father and son were laying side by side on the ground, killed in the madness. At this time, the Holocaust is coming to an end and the survivors are at their worst. They would do anything to get food, even killing their loved ones. I think that Elie Wiesel demonstrates the madness that was involved in the Holocaust, and what people were driven to. A son actually threw himself upon his own father, killing him, in order to get half a piece of old bread. Seconds later, other men did the exact same thing to him. This excerpt truly shows the dehumanization process that the Nazis put these men and women through. These men and women would do anything for just a little bit more food. Night paints a picture of the Holocaust, that of which I could never imagine. This book shows exactly what Elie Wiesel experienced and the disturbing reality which occurred sixty years ago. -Dan Butler Photos by Student Rachel Tydings

43 Human Rights and Genocide Killing of Innocence By Krikor Angacian, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York Beslan, Russia September 1, 2004 It was a Wednesday and the first day of school for many children in the town of Beslan. In many Russian towns though a blissful occasion, with celebrations this first day of school would be unlike any other. Parents had either just dropped their children off to school or were in the process of doing so. At 9:30 AM local time, two unmarked vehicles pulled up to Beslan Middle School Number One, whose students ages ranged from seven to eighteen years old. Thirty-two men and women piled out of the automobiles in ski masks. A few of these armed assailants had explosive suicide belts. These belts were actually vests that wrapped around the stomach and have straps to hold them up. The vests contain explosives, such as dynamite. If the thought of humans being blown up senselessly is not enough, these vests also contained bolts, screws, and other small metal objects so that when they were detonated, the objects would fly through the air and rip through human flesh. As the police arrived, they began firing on the terrorists. Unfortunately, five of the brave officers died in that shootout, with the trivial reward of killing only one of the many terrorists. The terrorists then rushed into the building, grabbing parents, children, teachers, and passers-by as hostages. In all, the terrorists held approximately 1,300 people captive. Fortunately, a group of the hostages were able to flee during the initial assault. The authorities claimed that the terrorists held only 350 hostages, while in reality it was many more. The terrorists were livid because the authorities were diminishing the number of hostages, so they then proceeded to kill 20 male detainees. Shortly after, the Russian army arrived with all of its special units, including the Alpha Anti-Terrorist Team. The terrorists then moved all the hostages into the gymnasium and began setting bombs in the gym. To further ensure no resistance, the terrorists warned the hostages that if one of the terrorists was killed, fifty hostages would be slain. If one of the terrorists got hurt by the authorities, twenty hostages would be killed. The terrorists made clear that these numbers did not exclude children. The final threat that the terrorists made was if the government should choose to use force against them, they would be forced to blow up the entire school with everyone inside of it. The Russian authorities tried to negotiate but to no avail. Tensions were high both inside and outside the school. September 2, 2004 By this time, hope was starting to fade for the hostages. They had been deprived of water and food in extreme heat for almost forty eight hours. The hostage takers refused to allow medicine to be brought in or for the bodies of the innocent who had been slain to be taken out. To make matters even worse, negotiations with the terrorists had been slowly decaying and the little hope that remained was gradually diminishing. However, this day was not a complete disappointment. Twenty six women and children were released because of the negotiation led by former Ingush President Ruslan Aushev. Mothers were made to choose which one of their many children should accompany them out of the school. At 3:30 in afternoon, two explosions could be heard at the school. The explosions occurred just minutes apart from each other. These explosions were caused by RPG s (rocket propelled grenades) and they were fired by the terrorists. They were attempting to push back Russian military and authorities. The day ended as quietly as it had started. Day two was silent day of suffering for the famished hostages. September 3, 2004 The third and final day of the siege proved to be the most horrific. The terrorists allowed authorities to remove bodies that had begun to decay. At 1:04, while the medical units advanced upon the school, the terrorists shot at them. Two more explosions were heard and two medical workers were killed by stray gunfire. The rest took of the doctors took off without a moment s hesitation. Part of the gymnasium began to crumble, giving an opportunity for many of the hostages to escape. A group of thirty hostages decided to take their chances and attempted to run. Unfortunately, the terrorists began firing upon them. By this point it was total chaos and the Russian army began moving in. 43

44 Human Rights and Genocide There are still some lingering questions about this three day catastrophe. Who were these terrorists? What did they want? Why did they do it this way? Why kill the innocent? Even though the terrorists were believed to be Chechen rebels, this is not the complete truth. It is now known that they were in fact Arabs, Tatars, Kazakhs, Chechens, Uzbeks, and one of them was a resident of Beslan. The authorities now know that they were part of an Islamist terrorist group which supports Chechen independence. The terrorists desires went far beyond independence. Chechnya is a small province in Russia. If children are our future, what are we teaching them? Works Cited: Beslan School Hostage Crisis. Wikipedia 6 December 2004 < Timur Aliev, Simon Ostrovsky, Valery Dzutsev, and Juliet Butler. Eyewitnesses to Evil People September 2004: Steph Smith. Trouble in Russia Scholastic News Senior Edition 11 October 2004: 6 It is still not clear who started firing first and where the explosions came from. One hostage reported that a bomb that was hung insecurely on the basketball hoop fell. Another said that someone tripped over a bomb s wire and triggered the blast. It was a fierce battle between the terrorists and the Russian authorities and there were many casualties on both sides. Civilians, many of whom were fathers of children inside, joined in the fight using their own weapons. The terrorists then detonated all their bombs. What was left of the gymnasium was completely destroyed. Commandos began blowing holes in the walls, hoping for survivors to run through. Three gunmen were found in the basement of the school and eventually were killed along with the hostages they held. One terrorist, who somehow escaped the battle, was beaten by the fathers of the victims. There still were minor skirmishes going on within the school but for the most part the day had ended. The siege was over but the lives of the victims and their families would never be the same. AFTERMATH: Even today, it is still not known exactly how many people were killed. It is said to be 331 civilians and eleven soldiers that died. A woman committed suicide the day she returned home from the tragic event. Many more that were injured that day died in the hospital hours later. Eleven Alpha team members were killed, including the leader of the division

45 Human Rights and Genocide Terrorism in Beslan Affects Russian Students September 1: One Day of My Life By Galina Novichova, age 15, School 689, Moscow, Russia On the 1 of September I got up very early, because I was a little bit nervous about going to the 10 th form. I also wanted to see all my classmates and teachers, whom I missed in summer. I couldn t wait any more, so I took the flowers and went to school. My first school day in the 10 th form was perfect, as my mood, and I guessed that nothing would spoil it. But when I came home and turned on the television, I heard about the tragedy that happened in our country, in the little town named Beslan. A group of terrorists captured the school and took in hostages all people, who were there. As far as I m concerned, the 1st of September is known not only as a Day of Knowledge, but also as a Day of Peace. And it s a blasphemy that in such a day somebody wants to hurt people s hearts and bring grief to the families. I don t know how to prevent the terrorist threat, but I m sure that people must unite and work for the future, for the peace, for the safe life to their children. We must avoid such things that happened in Beslan. International terrorism isn t a thing that can live on our planet. One Day in My Life By Kate Romantsova, age 15, School 689, Moscow, Russia. On 31 August every child, who was big enough for going to school, was a little bit nervous because it was a next step in our life and no one could imagine that such horrible thing would happen I was talking with my mum when the telephone rang. It was my grandmother. She asked me not to go to school on 1 September because it was very dangerous and possibly it would be a terrorist act. I did not pay attention to her words; I believed that nobody would collar school. I was mistaken. I do not remember how I learned about the capture in Beslan, but I know that at that moment I could not say any word, and of course I remembered about grandmother s words. It was terrible. I could not and I cannot understand how lousy and dirty can people be. It is awful that somebody dared an attempt on children s lives. I watched the news and cried, not because it could happen in my school too, but because the numbers of dead people were horrific and because I heard about little baby with two gunshot wounds. People who did this are not people. They are fiends who do not have any soul. They are too dishonest to be buried as humans. Maybe I am too cruel, but who are they? They cannot understand that we are children with our problems. We do not suppose why adults have such big discords. We only understand that on account of their stupid problems, people and children die. We must stop this now or later it will be too late! 45

46 Human Rights and Genocide One Day in My Life By Daria Suklyshkina, Age 15, School 689, Moscow, Russia On the first of September, I woke up and started preparing for school. Honestly, I was not attracted with the perspective to see my classmates, but I forced myself to go and look happy. Being made up and smiling, I went to school. Everything was going OK so I relaxed. The day was not bad; that s why I came home rather satisfied. By the way I have a habit, when I come home I turn the TV on immediately. The picture shown there at every channel shocked me. The newsreader was saying that the group of terrorists captured more than eight hundred of people in Beslan s school. It happened when the school s parade of the First of September had started. Lots of people had gone there with the whole families and were brought to the gym. The children who were near the boiler-room tried to be rescued by jumping through the window, but the terrorists started firing at them. Luckily, most of them escaped but the person who rescued them was shot. In twenty-four hours the terrorists set free the women with kids younger than two years old. They informed that they had spent all this time sitting in a perimeter of the gym with no water and medicine. The captured men had been forced to dismantle the floor for mining and then were shot in front of the kids eyes. For making people sure that it wasn t a joke the terrorists shot some kids and even one of the terrorists. Two days later the siege started. The terrorists tried to survive by covering themselves with kids. Thanks to our military forces most of the terrorists were shot. One of them was found by Beslan s people and torn to pieces. During the siege unfortunately some bombs exploded and many people were burned and some got shrapnel wounds. Trying to help them, most of the grownups of our country went to hospitals to give that people blood transfusions and give money. In our school we also collected some money for Marina Mihailova, the teacher, who is only twenty-four ears old and had more than fifty per cent of her skin burnt. Her father was killed in the accident; he was that boiler who had rescued the kids, and her mother is still afraid to tell it to her. But Marina feels it like every child who had lost his mum or dad or maybe both of them, like a mother who knows or not that her child is dead, like a grandmother who knows that she has no future because all her family will never come home. I will never forget that day. I am sure everyone must remember it, too, not to repeat it in the future. The Holocaust and Terrorism By Galina Novichkova, age 15; School 689, Moscow, Russia The tragedy of the Holocaust is one of the saddest events in the history of the World War II. From 1939 till 1945 in fascist death camps were killed 11.5 million people - 5 million Christians and 6.5 million Jews. Most of these people died on the territory of Poland - they were burnt in stoves, gassed in the chambers, shot, hung, or buried alive. Fascists spared nobody: neither children nor women. Since that time passed 60 years, but people still remember such names as Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec, Maidanec, Sobibor, Birkenau. They can t forget the horrors of the war and millions of dead. Fascism was defeated, but nowadays we can hear about grave profanations, about attempts to justify Adolph Hitler, and all brutalities done by fascists. But there is another force, which in the future can be as dangerous as fascism terrorism. And now, somewhere in mountains, there are people who can organize a terrorist act or take in hostage peaceful inhabitants, as it was on the 1 of September in the Russian town Beslan. Nowadays, the world, a step over the 20 century, has changed. We realize the necessity of fighting with evil that makes us afraid for the lives of our relatives. Death of children or women you can call it any word Holocaust or terrorist attack is the most monstrous and inadmissible thing that can happen in the modern world

47 On December fourth, 2003, the UN held a conference about War Affected Children. Present were a wide variety of students coming from countries all over the world. In a UN lecture hall, large enough to hold eight hundred people, Olara Otunnu and Michelle Morris (two prominent members in an organization dedicated to children and armed conflict) spoke of the plight of young people caught in the middle of adult wars. Eva Olsson also told her story as a Holocaust survivor. The main focus of the event was the conflict in Sudan. The civil war in Sudan has been going on for more than twenty years. The war is between two very different groups of people: the Muslim Northerners and the Christian Southerners. Differences in religion, language, and ethnicity have caused much tension between these peoples. The war intensified in 1989 when a new government, instituted by the northerners was put into place. Southern rebel groups, such as the Sudan People s Liberation Army (SPLA) revolted, and the Northerners fought back. As the two groups fight and raid each others towns, thousands of children, both Muslim and Christian, are caught in the crossfire. Sudan is slowly making progress towards peace, as a permanent truce that was signed by the government of Sudan and southern rebels demonstrates; however, as Sudan moves ahead to a brighter future, its dark past and painful memories will always remain. During the conference some students had the special opportunity of speaking privately with three Sudanese brothers: Michael, 19; James, 21; and Isaiah, 25. When their town was raided in the middle of the night, the three brothers were forced to leave everything behind and flee. Unaccompanied, they, along with many other children, trekked six-hundred miles across the Sahara desert. Eventually they arrived in Ethiopia, where they stayed in a refugee camp. There, half of the child refugees died. For every two weeks they were given just eight pounds of food. Isaiah commented: We had to eat some days and skip others. When Ethiopia was taken over by a new government, all refugees were forced to leave. Through the help of the UN; Michael, James, and Isaiah were brought to America. Currently, they are struggling to support themselves while getting an education at the same time. Much sought-after speaker Eva Human Rights and Genocide Caught in the Crossfire By Jumanah Hassan, Schreiber High School, Port Washington, New York Olsen also shared some of her time with conference participants to speak about how war tore her family apart. When she was just fourteen, her family was arrested and sent to a Nazi death camp. There, most of her family was killed in a gas chamber. She was stripped of all her belongings when she was forced to leave Sweden, left only with the pain and grief of leaving her entire life behind. So traumatized by the tragedies she witnessed, Eva stayed silent for fifty years. Eventually she decided that it was time for her to speak out. Currently Eva is an activist for hope, peace, and tolerance. She regularly gives talks at schools and seminars stressing the need for people to love and accept each other as they are. The problem of war affected children is very real. After listening to the words of Eva and the three Sudanese brothers, it is evident that trauma and grief is universal, not confined to just one ethnicity or race. What was stressed the most by the speakers was the need for tolerance and hope. As Eva commented: We are part of one family, the human family. Only the truth will set us free, and when we re free we can help all mankind. Students from Schreiber High School meet at U.N. with Sudanese brothers -Thanks to Evelina Zarkh 47

48 Human Rights and Genocide The War in Kashmir By Natasha Mir, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York Kashmir, disputed territory in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, is bound on the north by Afghanistan and China, on the east by China, on the south by India, and on the west by Pakistan. Kashmir is famous for its natural beauty and has often been referred to as the Switzerland of the East. The heart of the area is the fertile Vale of Kashmir (known as The Valley), which lies between the Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range. About 12 million people live in Kashmir, of which around 70% are Muslims. The rest include Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists. Hindus live mostly in the south and around the city of Jammu. To the east is the Ladakh region, where the majority of the people are Buddhists and of Tibetan origin. Kashmir has been the key to the dispute between India and Pakistan since their independence from the British in Each country claims Kashmir as a part of its territory. China controls a portion of the territory in the east. As a result of a rebellion in 1947, India and Pakistan have been constantly at war over the territory of Kashmir. The problem of Kashmir, unresolved for nearly five decades, is a darkening stain on India, Pakistan, and the world community. Though the United Nations has been seized of the issue almost from its beginning in 1947, the world community has virtually turned its back on Kashmir s suffering, although it occasionally goes through the motions of being involved. Meanwhile, two generations of Kashmiris have been scarred by the daily violence of insurgency, counterinsurgency, and human rights abuse. Since 1989 the controversy over Kashmir has taken a violent turn in the valley; the Kashmiri people themselves have taken up arms against the Indian occupation. More recently, India has increased its role as an oppressor in Kashmir. The deployment of over 700,000 troops to silence the voices of the Kashmiri people is seen as the only solution by the Indian government, resulting in gross violations of human rights. These crimes have been carried out as a matter of routine, and are not looked upon as important. The US State department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have recorded varying categories of human rights violations in Kashmir. These include: Political and extrajudicial killings Denial of fair trial Arbitrary interference into privacy, family, home and correspondence Use of excessive force and violations of humanitarian law Suppression of freedom of speech and press Suppression of freedom of peaceful assembly and association Suppression of religious freedom Due to these excesses, more than 80,000 Kashmiris have been killed since 1990, with a lot more unaccounted for. Thousands of helpless Muslim Kashmiris have fled across to eastern parts of Kashmir for safety and are now living in refugee camps. For the last five years the people of the State have intensified their efforts in order to invite the attention of the world community towards the Kashmir Dispute, though the people of the State had been fighting for their just cause peacefully for the last forty eight years. The Indian Forces, stationed in Kashmir, have been given a free hand to kill any person they choose. These powers have been given to them under the draconian laws like Disturbed Areas Act of 1990 and Indian Armed Forces Act of Indifference shown by world community to the miseries of people, have encouraged and given a free hand to armed forces, Disappearances Rape Torture and custodial abuse Arbitrary arrest and detention Willful destruction of property 48 48

49 Human Rights and Genocide to deal with the people, as they like. In October 1992, the Indian Armed forces started to intensify the killing of people immediately after their arrest. Now the armed forces have resorted to another policy of Catch and Kill which means that no sooner a person is taken into custody, within minutes he is brutally tortured and killed. In other cases, innocent civilians are arrested and taken to border areas where they are shot. The Indian government then publicizes that these innocent people were killed because they were militants, and that their troops had to kill them for the safety of Kashmir. This clearly does not make sense because it is the Indian troops that are harming the people of Kashmir and violating these people s rights. Torture and rape are other devices that the Indian army has used to suppress the Kashmiri people. An estimated one million women have been bereaved, tortured, beaten up or killed, and many hundreds have been subjected to barbaric sexual assaults. These figures represent a minute portion of the atrocities in Kashmir as a majority of them go undocumented. The number of killings per year has decreased significantly since the year 2000, and Kashmir may very well be on the way to becoming peaceful again. While the people of the state of Kashmir continue to march ahead for socio-economic emancipation, India and Pakistan agreed to a cease-fire for their troops stationed in Kashmir in November of 2003, even though the cease-fire did not apply to the militant secessionists. The two countries have respected current lines of control, and the countries leaders have signed agreements to reduce troops along the line, open border posts to trade, and resolve the dispute by peaceful means. Works Cited: Lamb, Alastair (1994). Birth of a Tragedy: Kashmir Roxford Books, Hertingfordbury, Hertfordshire, U.K. Newberg, Paula R. (1995). Double Betrayal: Repression and Insurgency in Kashmir. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D.C. Margolis, Eric S. (2002). War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet, Revised Edition. Taylor & Francis Group. The Undemocratic Democracy of Turkey By Sevan Angacian, Georgetown University, Washington D.C. The nation of Turkey cannot consider itself a true democracy as it does not tolerate the freedoms of speech and expression, which are the basic tenets of a democratic system. The powerful Turkish military has taken over the government three times since the 1970 s. As M. L. Rossi rhetorically asked in her book, What Every American Should Know About the Rest of the World, Is it a democracy or a military government enforcing what it thinks is democracy? (158). The Turkish government refuses to admit to its actions as the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide in As such, it does not tolerate any of its citizens or those of other nations to commemorate the Genocide through venues such as writing, theatre, speech, or artwork. Books have been banned, records destroyed, theatre productions stopped, and ties with nations broken, all in the hope that the world would forget that the Genocide occurred and Turkey might remain the only alleged Muslim democracy in the world. Turkey is also undemocratic in that they do not grant the country s Kurdish population rights despite the fact that they make up one-fifth of the country s population. Kurdish language television and schools are not permitted. Writing about the Kurds and their situation is banned in the country and those who do not abide by that decree face harsh punishment carried out by the Turkish military, as they are the ones that form the backbone of the supposedly democratic, but truly militaristic, government. There are those who argue that the Turkish government is a democratic system and that all accusations of it not being so are ludicrous. If one argues the presence of a democracy in Turkey through historical terms it can be said that Kemal Ataturk, the President of Turkey from 1923 to 1938, who changed the country into a secular and Western-leaning state, established a democratic nation at that time. He banned polygamy, gave women the right to vote, freed women from their veils and men from their fez, modernized businesses, and improved the infrastructure of the country. However, the same man who formed modern Turkey and made it into a secular, Western-like nation, refused to recognize the Kurds. He was supposedly making a democracy and yet banned the Kurds from having any rights. Those who believe that Turkey is a democratic nation may also point out the fact that recently Turkey adhered to democratic principles when the country was deciding how to act upon the matter of Iraq and the United States decision to invade that nation. At the time, 94% of the Turkish public was opposed to the war in Iraq and therefore the government decided not to play a role in Mission Iraqi Freedom, despite the opposite wishes of the Turkish military. In her article entitled Turkey s Path to Real Democracy, Turkish journalist Tulin Daloglu points out the fact that Turkey s army behaved very much according to the standards of the Western democracies in choosing to remain on the sidelines of politics. This represents a major departure from past practice, even in more recent times, when Turkey s military often steered events from behind the scenes- if it did not intervene outright. (4) 49

50 Human Rights and Genocide Though this statement admits that the military was often the driving force behind government decisions and actions, it also states that Turkey has changed for the better in terms of becoming more democratic in its policy. The voices of the Turkish constituents were heard in Turkey for the first time ever in March of 2003 and will be in the future as well, according to those who believe in the integrity of the Turkish government. Ironically, the same journalist who claimed earlier in her article that a democracy is present in Turkey also wrote, in reference to the military, Yet, behind the scenes, they continue to watch the party members closely (4). This contradiction within her article makes one question how democratic Turkey can be if that is the case. The Turkish government stands firmly behind its stance that the deaths of the Armenians in 1915 were not under the category of genocide, but rather were results of actions of war and civil unrest. It claims that there was much civil upheaval during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the deaths can be attributed to that. Also, Turkish authorities claim that the Armenians were helping the invading Russian army during World War I and so the killing of the Armenians was analogous to killing an invading enemy army. Famine and disease have also been mentioned as causes of deaths of Armenians during World War I. Although over thirty thousand lives have been taken since 1984 because of the warfare between the Turkish government and its Kurdish population, the Turkish government claims that their undemocratic actions towards the Kurds are well warranted. The government insists that the Kurds are trying to break away from Turkey and form a separate Kurdistan, and therefore are causing turmoil within the nation. The Turkish military also claims that the Kurds are destructive in that they attack pipelines. If Turkey were a true democracy, they would listen to their people and allow free voting to bring about a peaceful resolve rather than fight them and deny them their rights as citizens of Turkey. Historians concur that Turkey s perceptions of the Armenian Genocide and the Kurdish people is incorrect. The Turkish government refuses to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide as such and goes to great lengths to stop the discussion and learning of the horrific events of 1915, despite convincing evidence that it was a deliberate mass murder carried out with the intent to put an end to the Armenians collective existence. The Young Turks, the political party in power in 1915, ordered the deportation and ultimate killing of the Armenians from Armenia and Anatolia. They were subjected to expropriation, deportation, abduction, torture, massacre, and starvation. One and a half million Armenians perished during that time, constituting threequarters of the Armenian population of that region, and yet Turkey denies that it was deliberate for fear of economic and political consequences that would surely follow any profession of their past atrocities against humanity. This economic concern is also the catalyst for Turkey s behavior with the Kurds. It is well known in Turkey that the area of the country in which the Kurds reside is a strategic one. It contains important oil and water resources that Turkey could not afford to lose. It is for this primary reason that Turkey refuses to allow the Kurds to exist freely and flourish within their own cultural identity, but instead, uses military force to coerce the Kurds Surely the Turkish government should realize that other nations have committed similar actions, admitted to their wrongdoings, and are still well established in the international community despite their brutal pasts. For example, two such nations include Germany and the United States of America. Germany, after carrying through the mass killings, collectively known as the Holocaust, of people of Jewish descent and other minorities, admitted to its murderous actions. However, the German mea maxima culpa after the war did not prohibit the country from becoming the third most technologically powerful nation in the world, following the United States and Japan. Germany grants the freedoms of speech and expression, as the Holocaust can be written and spoken about freely. Similarly, the United States has always had a conflict-prone relationship with the Native Americans. Thousands of deaths of Native Americans have been recorded and attributed to white Americans. However, regardless of the brutality of its past, the United States is the most powerful country in the world in many regards. The nation redressed its wrongs by allocating land for the Native Americans and exempting them from paying taxes. People are allowed to discuss the past actions of the United States without fear of military opposition. Unlike Germany and the United States of America who acted democratically to admit to their pasts, Turkey denies

51 all accusations of genocide and unwarranted killing of Kurds and works tirelessly to prevent the international acknowledgement of its brutality. Turkey claims to be a democratic nation, yet its actions denote those of a military government. The freedoms of speech and expression have been denied to those who write and publish books relating to the Armenian Genocide and the poor treatment of the Kurds. Because the government will not actually admit to its actions of banning and burning books since it claims to be a true democracy, the powerful Turkish military takes over this duty. Publishers are convicted if they publish books about the massacre of the Armenians. Authors, too, are harassed by the military. Kemal Yalcin, a writer of Turkish descent, wrote a book entitled, You Rejoice My Heart, a collection of personal interviews with Armenian survivors of the Genocide. After being run out of Turkey for his revolutionary journalism several years prior to publishing his latest work, he returned to his homeland, Turkey, to have his book published. However, three days before his book was set to be released in Turkey in 2001, all copies of it were shredded (Goshert). The basic rights of humans to express themselves through writing were denied by enigmatic military plotting. Furthermore, when Fatih Tas, the publisher of Noam Chomsky s book, American Interventionism, attempted to publish the work, he was tried in court because of the chapters on anti-kurd brutality carried out by the Turkish military. The nation of Turkey holds so tightly to the term democracy yet is slothful in keeping the principles that form a democratic system. A nation in which one cannot publish and distribute documents of truth should not be allowed to call itself a democracy. In addition to banning and destroying books, the Turkish government also stops theatre productions from being performed, another variety of denying the freedom of expression. The government repressed the play, Beast on the Moon, a work in which the two main characters are survivors of the Armenian Genocide. The play was being directed by Knut Weber in Germany and was scheduled to perform at the European Culture Days Festival of Karlsruhe. The Armenian Reporter stated on Human Rights and Genocide May 22, 2004 that When Beast on the Moon appeared in the schedule of plays to be presented, Weber received a phone call from a Mr. Kuk, who is the city s Consul General to Turkey, and thus a representative of the Turkish government in Ankara. He informed Weber that, if the Festival presented Beast on the Moon, Turkey would officially boycott the entire Festival. (1) Turkey feared that the presentation of this play would undermine its efforts of denying the Genocide and trying to get the world to forget that it occurred. As Stephen Feinstein, Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota stated, Artists are not easily co-opted, they have certain insights, and someone with a totalitarian mind will see the worst, and someone with a democratic mind will see the best (qtd. in Armenian Reporter 15). The play has already won thirty awards, five of which are equivalent to the American Tony award. Those that view the play democratically and accept its message clearly see it as an exemplary work while those, such as Turkey, who choose to view it as a threat only prove further their nondemocratic outlooks. By forcing Mr. Weber to withdraw the play from the Festival, Turkey proved that it does not truly believe in the tenets of democracy. As Mr. Weber said, A country which denies its own history has a problem with democracy. Ankara and the Turkish Consulate responded very toughly and took the tone of a dictatorship, which is not like a democracy (qtd. in Armenian Reporter 15). Turkey cannot hope to be regarded as a democracy Tophane Mosque (Armory Mosque) in Istanbul 51

52 Human Rights and Genocide by the international community by hiding its past. Denying the right of freedom of expression only proves that Turkey is not yet capable of being called a true democracy. Turkey has also tried to hide its past by interfering with commemorations of the Genocide in countries neighboring Turkey. For example, on April 17, 2004, Poland planned to commemorate the Armenian Genocide with the unveiling of a stone cross, or khatchkar. Turkey tried to stop the memorial from mentioning the word genocide and was active in interfering with the plans for the occasion. The word was ultimately used in the engraving on the stone, but only after much hassle with the opposed Turkish government. As one Polish clerk asked upon reflecting on this matter, Why are the Turks afraid of the facts? They could simply admit what they did and the present-day conflict could be avoided (Karayan 3). The commemoration ceremony also brought up the topic of the disappearance of a Polish historian in Turkey. Students present at the Genocide commemoration passed out fliers about Rafal Yedrashik who was in Turkey in the summer of 2002 to make a film about the Armenian Genocide at the time of his disappearance. Neither the Turkish government nor the military has made comments about Yedrashik s whereabouts or their connection to his mysterious disappearance. Turkey continually tries to stop all forms of remembrance and teaching of the Genocide, proving further the existence of a militaristic government system. Not only does Turkey cause rifts between itself and individual groups and people, but it also does so with entire nations. Each time that a nation resolves to officially use the term genocide when referring to the killings of Armenians in 1915, Turkey shows some form of opposition and acts undemocratically. Two nations who recently passed bills recognizing the Armenian Genocide are France and Canada. In May of 1998, France s parliament passed a bill recognizing the Genocide. It was reported by Reuters on May 29, 1998 that, Turkey has warned France against passing the bill, saying trade and diplomatic relations would suffer, (1) and indeed, they did. The Turkish military enforced a campaign to boycott all goods with a French label. Two of the main products that were boycotted include wine and textiles. Turkey also drafted a plan to refuse to enter into contracts concerning defense with France. In April of 2004, Canada officially recognized the Genocide, but not without strong resistance and many threats from the supposedly democratic Turkish government. Turkey publicly stated, the federal Canadian politicians will bear the responsibility of all the negative consequences that this resolution will bring (Mooradian 2). They also attempted to force a change through business contracts, similar to what they had done with France. A $335 million contract and another of close to $1 billion were placed in jeopardy to underscore the way Turkey felt about Canada s recognition of the Genocide. When the United States tried to help the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq through Operation Provide Comfort, they were not successful in Turkey as they were in Iraq. The Turkish government threatened the United States by claiming they would not allow the U.S. to use integral Turkish airbases. Because of this, the United States did not help the Kurds free themselves from Turkish rule. The ways in which Turkey s government reacted to other nations recognition of the Genocide and the desire for a separate Kurdistan indicate Turkey s fear of culpability and its lack of democratic principles. A nation in which the freedoms of speech and expression are denied, truths are veiled, and the military rules, should not be considered a real democracy. Turkey is one such nation: a nation in which acceptance of the Armenian Genocide, of which Turkey was the perpetrator, is prohibited and minority groups are greatly discriminated against. The military has banned and burned books, stopped theatre productions, interfered with commemorations, and broken ties with other nations all in lieu of accepting its nation s wrongdoings. Its lack of democratic principles in these matters has contributed greatly to the European Union s apprehensions about possibly letting Turkey into the Union. The former president of France, Giscard d Estaing, stated that if Turkey were to be admitted, it would mark the end of the European Union (qtd. in M.L. Rossi 162). The undemocratic actions of Turkey through which it denies fault in the Genocide and commits acts of hatred towards its Kurdish population only abate the country s efforts of becoming a truly democratic nation. Works Cited Daloglu, Tulin. Turkey s Path to Real Democracy. 17 April May StoryId=3104 Goshert, Jake. St. Vartan Cathedral Hosts Brave Writer. The Armenian Reporter Int l 22 May 2004: 14 Grillo, David. Beast on the Moon Target of Turkish Suppression. The Armenian Reporter Int l 22 May 2004: 1+ Karayan, Sarkis Y. In Spite of Active Interference by the Turkish Ambassador in Warsaw, Armenian Genocide Commemorated with a Khatchkar-Monument in Krakow, Poland on April 17, The Armenian Reporter Int l 15 May 2004: 3 Mooradian, Moorad. Check the Difference. The Armenian Reporter Int l15 May 2004: 2 Reuters. France Recognizes the Armenian Genocide. 29 May May Rossi, M.L. What Every American Should Know About the Rest of the World: Your Guide to Today s Hot Spots, Hot Shots and Incendiary Issues. New York: Penguin Group,

53 Human Rights and Genocide A Call to Action for Darfur By Sevan Angacian, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University The weekend of February 4 th 2005, held great importance for the international community as students from over ninety universities, including several outside the United States, gathered in Washington, D.C. for a National Leadership Conference entitled: A Call to Action for Darfur, Sudan. The conference, which I also attended, was hosted by Georgetown University s STAND, Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, and by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The purpose of the conference was to further educate the students as to the situation in Sudan and to organize and network so that action can be taken to ameliorate the circumstances under which the Darfur residents are living. Sudan borders the Red Sea in Northern Africa and is ruled by an Arab military regime. The ethnicity of the population consists of 52% black, 39% Arab, and 9% other. The genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians and the displacement of over one million people. These victims are considered to be Africans, mostly from the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masaalit groups. The perpetrators of the genocide in Sudan s western region of Darfur are Sudanese government soldiers and members of the government-supported militia referred to as the Janjaweed. They are of Arab ethnicity, and therefore the Khartoum-based government is fueling ethnic and racial violence constituting genocide. They are inflaming ethnic conflict, impeding international efforts for humanitarianism, bombing civilians with aircraft, and murdering and raping innocent civilians. Some of the Darfurians have been able to flee to neighboring nations such as Chad, yet most are trapped inside Darfur, where thousands are dying each month from the effects of inadequate food, water, shelter, and healthcare. The United Nations further raised the alarm when they referred to the genocide as the world s worst humanitarian crisis. Beginning on Friday, February 4, 2005, students from across the globe, who are currently attending some of the most prominent universities of North America, gathered at Georgetown University for the opening events of the conference. On Friday evening, an interfaith service was held in recognition of the genocide in Darfur. The following morning, hundreds of students, most of whom had been housed by Georgetown students, left the campus for the Holocaust Museum. The morning program began with a welcome by Jerry Fowler, the Staff Director of the Committee on Conscience of the Museum, followed by a Holocaust survivor, Nesse Godin, who was, in turn, followed by Omer Ismail, a spokesperson of the Darfur Union and Cofounder of Darfur Peace and Development. After the welcoming statements were completed, Omer Ismail and Ali Ali-Dinar, the Founder of the Darfur Information Center, were interviewed by two members of STAND in reference to the history of Darfur. Following the interview in which students minds were refreshed with the background of the crisis, a short clip of the film, Darfur Documentation Project, which was produced by the Coalition for International Justice, was shown. The film included images of refugees living under stark conditions in neighboring Chad, as well as comments from those working on the film, remarking on what they saw in Darfur and the refugee camps outside the region as well. After the clip of the film was shown, three of the people involved with making the film took the stage and answered questions posed by students from the audience. One of the important points that was established during this time was the dire need for students to be involved with taking action against such crisis as the one in Darfur. They pointed out the facts that student action was not a strong force during the genocide in Rwanda and the ominous results that that bore on the country. They urged the audience to support Darfur and to speak out against the actions of the Janjaweed. Following a brief lunch break, the students gathered once again into the auditorium to hear from policymakers from different institutions about the current situation and the policies that are being considered for action in Darfur. The four speakers 53

54 Human Rights and Genocide included John Prendergast, Special Advisor to the President and member of the International Crisis Group; Krista Riddley, Deputy Director of Policy and Advocacy, Oxfam America; Gayle Smith, Senior Fellow of the Center for American Progress; and Donald Steinberg, Senior Fellow of the United States Institute for Peace. One point of particular interest was that originally only $2.3 million was allotted to efforts to help the situation in Darfur by the United States. That amount is the equivalent to what the United States is spending every thirty minutes in Iraq. At the conclusion of the session concerning policy, Donald Steinberg shared six ways that he felt students could make a difference in the Darfur region of Sudan. The first of these six instructional points was to find advocates, followed by establish priorities, identify and exploit actions and force events to occur, build partnerships, follow the buck, and unite. What some students viewed as the grand finale to Saturday s events was the speech given by General Romeo Dallaire, the man to whom command was given for the UN Observer Mission Uganda-Rwanda. Following several promotions and the reception of honorary awards, General Dallaire recently published his book entitled Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. He is currently working as the Special Adviser to the Canadian Ministry of Defense on matters of child soldiers. His speech, enhanced by a PowerPoint presentation, spoke of the need for clear vision, precise ideas, and concrete proposals. On Sunday, students began their day, early once again, by meeting for various workshops that focused on how students could integrate programs of activism on their own universities campuses. Several of the workshops were led by students who presented how they had found it most effective to organize and lobby successfully. Following the workshops that took place in various classrooms of Georgetown University s Intercultural Center, students gathered in Gaston Hall for further speeches and presentations by various entities such as MTV and by Sudanese students who are currently attending American universities. The conference proved to be an effective and valuable resource for all students who attended. A large deal of networking took place between events as students met with one another and spoke about ways to integrate their individual programs with others. Hopefully, through these efforts, the genocide in Darfur, Sudan can be ended as quickly and peacefully as is possible. Sources: Peace in Sudan and the Darfur Conflict By Caryn Urbanczyk and Caroline Laverriere, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York U n a n i m o u s l y endorsed by leaders of southern Sudan s rebel movement, the agreement to end Africa s longest running civil war was finally signed by faction leader John Garang and Vice President Ali Tama on January 9, 2005 in Kenya. Signing of Peace Treaty This peace arrangement, designed to end two decades of war between the Muslim north and the mainly Christian south, which has left an estimated 1.5 million people dead, cleared the way for the drafting of a new Constitution and the formation of a government in which the current insurgents will receive 30% of Congressional seats and in six years, southern states will have an opportunity to vote on secession. Furthermore, Sudan, which only recently began exporting oil, resolved how to share oil revenue and other wealth in this new peace deal. Rebel leaders maintain that their goal is to create a united country, free from discrimination. However, with a new government assembled, a new flag, and national anthem, southern Sudan has begun to look increasingly like a country-in-waiting said the BBC s Jonah Fisher. In fact, the rebels have never precisely stated whether they are fighting for a unified nation or complete independence. This 21 year civil war has pitted the Arab-Muslim dominated government in Khartoum against Christian and Animist southern rebels fighting for greater autonomy and a larger share of the country s wealth and resources. Beginning in 1983, the Africans displaced by Sudan government, dominated Conflict by northern Arabs, tried to enforce Islamic Sharia law throughout Sudan. Southerners, many of whom are black African Christians or practice traditional religions, were upset by the government s actions and began a rebellion. Some of the rebels became known as the Sudan s People s Liberation Army (SPLA). U.N. and U.S. officials hope that the treaty will help end Sudan s other conflicts, most prominently, the 23-month rebellion in the western Darfur region. This is where pro-government Arab militiamen known as the Janjaweed, an old Darfur epithet for bandits or devils on horseback, have attacked African villages in a campaign of burning, looting, raping, and killing. The militia group is accused of the ethnic cleansing of large swathes of black African territory. The Darfur conflict is a smaller,

55 Human Rights and Genocide accelerated version of Sudan s larger conflict. It is believed that more than 70,000 people have been killed and nearly 2 million displaced since the conflict began. The nearly two years of fighting has left an ugly trail of abandoned villages, and neighboring Chad has become host to over 200,000 Sudanese refugees. Former Secretary Janjaweed Member of State Colin Powell was the first government official to label Darfur a genocide. Human rights groups and the US Congress were then quick to back this claim. However, as of early February, the UN refused to deem Sudan s conflict genocide. It maintains only that a huge humanitarian crisis is occurring in Sudan. Hope remains though; if the UN agrees that genocide is in fact occurring, it will be legally obligated to respond to stop it. Despite significant international pressure and mounting criticism, the Sudanese government continues to avoid taking action against the Janjaweed. The Arab- led Khartoum government faces a threat of penalties from the United Nations Security Council for what the Bush administration has called a campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide against black Africans in the west, an accusation which Sudan has vigorously denied. Yet, even with the threat of sanctions and the promise of the Sudanese government to disarm the rebels, little has been done. The government is not trusted by the refugees, so even the thousands of security guards that the government did deploy are doing little to help. If the government fails to do anything, the United Nations might impose sanctions on the export of Sudanese oil and the country s purchase of weapons. Although the two conflicts are not directly linked, rebel groups in both areas accuse the government of favoring the ruling Arab elite and demand a greater share of Sudan s power and wealth. The major difference between the conflicts is that the African Christian and animist groups in the south are opposed to government moves to introduce Islamic Sharia law, while in Darfur the rebels, who are Muslim, say that as non-arabs, they too suffer discrimination. Although the two conflicts are not directly linked, rebel groups in both areas accuse the government of favoring the ruling Arab elite and demand a greater share of Sudan s power and wealth. The major difference between the conflicts is that the African Christian and animist groups in the south are opposed to government moves to introduce Islamic Sharia law, while in Darfur the rebels, who are Muslim, say that as non-arabs, they too suffer discrimination. With the peace agreements in place, the work of humanitarian aid has begun and has already started to bring business activity. The Dutch Development Minister promised $130 million in European aid, but on the condition of an end to the continuing conflict in the Darfur region. Many other foreign donors have pledged hundreds of millions of US dollars in aid, but also want to see progress in Darfur before releasing the funds. In addition, the UN is hoping to deploy 10,000 peacekeepers sometime in March, to oversee the agreement between the government and the southern rebels. Today many are hopeful that the recent treaty can bring peace to Sudan. The optimists are confident that with the end of one civil war in Sudan between the north and the south, there can also be peace and an end to the crisis in Darfur. An end to this conflict would bring the possibility of ending the starvation and disease that so many are facing after being forced out of their homes. It would help aid groups gain access to areas in severe need of help and perhaps unify a country that has for so long been in fighting. With each day the situation in Sudan is changing, and only time will tell whether Sudan is on its way to peace. (Written: February, 2005) Works Cited: Map of Sudan BBC News: Southern Sudanese in Unity Challenge January 23 rd Peace in Sudan December 31 st Sudan s Darfur Conflict November 11 th Breaking Darfur s Stereotypes CNN News: Rebel Leaders in Southern Sudan Ratify Peace Deal January 24 th

56 56 56 Human Rights and Genocide Not This Time: Taking a Stand Against Genocide in Darfur Lisa Rogoff, a 2004 Colgate University Graduate, is the University Outreach Coordinator for the Committee on Conscience at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Twenty-nine Rogoffs are listed on a piece of paper with notes about the day they died and how they were killed by the Nazis. This paper looks all too similar to a list made by Darfurian refugees in Chad attempting to document the murders of their family members. I fear that in 50 years their grandchildren will have to visit a memorial to their family members killed in Darfur, just as I had to do for my family that perished in the Holocaust. After the Holocaust we proclaimed, Never again. Yet, again and again, we have failed to fulfill this promise. Now, in Darfur, as genocide is taking place, we must say, Not this time. In early 2003, rebels drawn from non-arab (or so-called African ) ethnic groups, seeking a greater share of natural resources attacked police stations and military bases in Darfur. The government responded by enlisting militias from some of Darfur s Arab ethnic groups and launched a war on the civilian population from which the rebels drew their recruits. These people are clearly targeted because of their so-called African ethnic identity. The distinction between Arab and African may be largely subjective, but it is fueling a conflict in which hundreds of thousands of Darfurians have been killed, raped and chased from their homes. The lucky ones have fled to neighboring Chad and are living in squalid refugee camps. In July 2004, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum declared a Genocide Emergency in Darfur. In September, then-secretary of State, Colin Powell called the crisis in Darfur genocide. A United Nation inquiry found that government forces and militias conducted indiscriminate attacks, including killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement, throughout Darfur. Yet not enough has been done to stop the violence, and the situation continues to worsen. We have watched genocide unfold before our eyes before. Only after the killing ends do we acknowledge our inaction. Each day in Darfur the death toll rises, more women and children are raped, and human suffering continues. Time is of the essence. The sheer scope of genocide can deter people from acting to stop it. But individuals can make a difference. If every member of the House and Senate had received 100 letters from people back home saying we have to do something about Rwanda, when the crisis was first developing, then I think the response would have been different, said former Senator Paul Simon after the failure to stop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Right now, college students across the country are calling one another to action for Darfur. After a meeting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum last fall, Georgetown University students formed STAND (Students Take Action Now for Darfur), which has grown to become a national coalition creating awareness and promoting activism for Darfur. Through letter writing campaigns, nationwide fasts, candlelight vigils, and other activities, students are taking a stand against genocide. Last February, the Committee on Conscience which guides the Holocaust Museum s genocide prevention efforts held a National Student Leadership Conference for Darfur, providing students with a venue for education about Darfur, networking, and developing plans of action. Four hundred students from 90 schools across the country attended and made a commitment to effect change in Darfur. Students led movements for change during the civil-rights era and when apartheid existed in South Africa. They have the resources and motivation to influence and change policy through their determination and commitment; that is what the situation in Darfur requires. Participation in the upcoming Minute of Silence for Darfur is one simple way to get involved and easily increase the awareness level on campus. On March 17 th at 3:00 p.m. EST, colleges across the country will observe a minute of silence and stand in solidarity with the people of Darfur. To sign your campus up and learn more, visit More information about Darfur and how to get involved is available at In the recent movie, Hotel Rwanda, as hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina gives refuge to over 1,000 Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide, he asks an American journalist how the international community cannot intervene once they see his footage. The journalist tells him that once they see the images, They ll say Oh my God, that s horrible! And then go on eating their dinners. We cannot stand by and allow genocide to take place on our watch. Students must take a stand, create noise and tell the world: Not this time.

57 Global Education Israeli Poet Shares his Poems with the HGP Yigal Shachar, an educator, author, and poet was born in the town of Hadera, Israel in His school years were spent in the city and on a Kibbutz. Having served as an officer in the Israel Defence Forces, Yigal then majored in History and Biblical Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For many years Yigal was the head-master of a junior high school in his home-town. After retiring, he was certified as a student-mission guide to Poland and has guided several groups over the past decade. Yigal Shachar authored three books: The Spirit of Life - The Story of Ruth Eliaz, HaPoalim Library, Tel-Aviv, The Poverty Within - Poems. Traklin Publishing, Tel- Aviv, Oh Madre, Yad Vashem Publishing, Jerusalem, The God of Children Yigal Shachar When children die, the stars in the sky are flushed, the moon taints its halo, sheds a tear. the morning wind strokes their faces, covets their bodies, mourns their death. The trees of the forest will bow their tops. the fresh grass of the field will wither, in their glory. When children die, white ravens guard their worldly passage, then their god holds their soul for safekeeping until a new, different childhood comes When children die the elks go to pasture in green fields and other elks, tangle their horns in the thicket of the woods. 57

58 Global Education Chimney of Disgrace - Yigal Shachar Oh Chimney of disgrace, you have known Days of human loads Your wickedness desired Orphaned souls It is you that has breathed the smoke of the pyre It was you that had stood at the end of the assembly line If your stones could have told your guilt would have poured Your disgrace would have cried your humiliation in a fiery furnace Damned be you oh chimney of disgrace Damned be all your days Wherever you go Damned be all your nights 58 58

59 Global Education In the forest of Tykocin - Yigal Shachar In the forest of Tykocyn I heard silence The prayer of El Maleh Rachamim (God Full of Mercy) In the forest of Tykocyn the clumps of the earth sponged with tears and blood The Wind in the harp of the forest plucked the song of a thousand angels In the forest of Tykocyn the day has turned Suddenly a voice is heard weeping There round the grave in a heavenly eyes humbled angels stand In the forest of Tykocyn a moist silence The angels shed their tears In the forest of Tykocin I heard silence The prayer of El Maleh Rachamim (God Full of Mercy) Jerusalem, Israel 59

60 Global Education Jewish Holocaust Centre Report: From Australia By Matthew Church, Damien Eddy, and Helen Nightingale, Wanganui Secondary College; Victoria, Australia On Monday 15 th of November, 2004, our history class visited the Jewish Holocaust Museum in Elsternwick, Melbourne. Here we were greeted by two of the surviving children of the Jewish Holocaust, Floris and Lusia. They sat us down where we watched a brief history of the atrocities that took place in World War 2 by the German Nazis. We had studied and learned about these things but have not watched film of it. The video finished, and Lusia, the older of the two, stood up and engaged her audience in probably one of the chilling stories that I have heard. Standing in front of forty-five or so strangers didn t seem to phase her as she pressed on with her story of survival. Unbelievable would be an understatement if anyone would be to describe it like that. During the three and a half years in concentration and extermination camps, Lusia survived extra-ordinary odds and experienced horrible places and events such as Auschwitz in Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Death March. There was one point she was making which is so frighteningly real. The Germans could take away life whenever and wherever they wanted. She was in a train going to a concentration camp; Lusia was talking to one girl who was squashed up against her. Suddenly there was a German Officer barging into the train, and he shot in Lusia s direction. Lusia felt a warm sensation in her side and for a moment she felt like she was shot, but it was the girl next to her who she befriended not five minutes before. Lusia lost her whole family, her mother, father and through the war, along with six million or more of her people. All the forty-five of us were staring with unsurpassed amazement and the reality of her story as it was only like the kind of thing you would see on television or in a book. Personally, the number of Jews murdered in the Second World War was just a figure. Now that I have heard the story of a survivor who witnessed the whole thing, that gave that figure a meaning and I have a massive feeling of compassion and sympathy. If Floris and Lusia set out to change one person s perspective on the incident, I would have been that one person. -Matthew Church, Year 10 I m walking down Selwyn St, Melbourne. It is a quiet street in the suburb of Elsternwick. Today is grey and cold, and I walk quickly. At Selwyn St, I arrive at my destination. Greeting me are figures of barbed wires and people entwined. I come to the door. A sign says Press button for bell and pull door after it rings. I oblige, and a cheerful chime sounds. It is not what I expected to find at the front door of the Jewish Holocaust Museum in Melbourne. As soon as I m through the door, a man greets me and he is smaller than me (and this is extraordinary as I m only 1.58cm) and I realise with a shock I am looking into a survivor s eyes. Lulek Bron quickly ushers my friend and me into the sobering room where the museum begins. Survivors basically run the museum and they are people who refuse to let others (especially young people like me) forget about or ignore not just the Holocaust, but history in general. W h e r e are you from? he asks, and I reply that I m from two hours north of here, Shepparton. I feel uneducated when he informs me that my hometown is the place where Jews first settled in Victoria. The room is filled with numbered stations, holding information to all the aspects of the Holocaust. Number one is the guides history, and Mr. Bron points out his own. There is a photo of the Bron family at a wedding; in the caption it is stated that he lost his whole family in the Holocaust; his brother Janek was shot two days before he would have been liberated. Mr. Bron was a prisoner in the death camps of Auschwitz and Belsen near Hanover in Germany. He remains dedicated to the remembrance of the victims and the Holocaust, and like other guides, refuses to let anything remain unsaid. He requested his information to be retrieved from the camps where he was held, and in 1994 only a small amount of records was sent to him, and in them a small amount of information. Mr. Bron, like all other Jewish men, was given the name of Israel (women were all named Sara) in an early step in the dehumanisation of Jews. This name does not appear on any of Auschwitz s recovered documents. For the year or so that he was in Auschwitz, Mr. Israel Lulek Bron did not exist, and if he did, it was by the number A (which 60 60

61 Global Education remains tattooed on his arm today). After he survived, his ordeal did not finish. He arrived in Australia in 1949 but has returned twice to Germany. In May 1980, he was requested to give evidence as a witness against a suspected guard at Belsen concentration camp. He risked his life on this trip, as it was feared that witnesses could be mistreated at the trial or disappear suspiciously en route, but Mr. Bron believed in honouring the Holocaust victims. He was again invited back to Germany in1995 to commemorate the liberation of Belsen, where an estimated 50,000 people died. This return was written up in the Melbourne tabloid, the Herald Sun, which refused to publish the story without a photo of Mr. Bron. He obliged and estimates they took seventy-two photos of him a reason I don t ask for one today. Mr. Bron leaves us to look around the stations of the museum, which depict various areas of before, during, and after the Holocaust. He tells us he will return later. I am interested in the third station, titled The Rise of Nazism. Having lived in Switzerland and travelled around Germany, I can speak German and don t need to read the translations of newspaper articles, letters, and signs promoting the boycott of anything Jewish. Deutsche, kauft nicht beim Juden ( Germans, don t buy from Jews ) screams one very famous sign. The simple statement Dreckjude (dirt Jew) told me that already at this stage, many Germans had been indoctrinated by the extreme beliefs of one man Adolf Hitler. As we slowly walk around the displays, we are utterly amazed by the extremity of the information presented to us. Photographs show us that Jewish tombstones were used to make roads in Germany. The camp of Belsen was notorious because many German scientists carried out horrible and excruciating experiments on their Jewish guinea pigs. One photograph shows the picture of a woman, at least 10cm taller than I, yet she weighs 25kg. This was a result of the experiment testing how much one person could weigh before dying. Other experiments were carried out on identical twins, or hypothermia limits were tested. Sometime during our observation of these gruesome events, we are ushered into a small theatre to watch the film, Remember. It is an overview of Germany between Hitler s rise and the end of World War II. It tells some horrible stories, like that of gold teeth being removed from Jewish corpses before the gaunt bodies are thrown into a mass grave. After the film, another survivor (I don t catch his name) addresses us. Now he tells us his story. He was also in Auschwitz. He tells us how they lived in huts that would house thirty, yet at least 100 would have been there. During winter the water pipes froze over and not much water was available. For breakfast they were served coffee, which was really brown water, and lunch was soup (consisting of water and maybe a rotten potato or two). This man tells us how he used to dig deep under the snow to try and find blades of grass so the soup would at least look a bit thicker. Dinner was a thin sausage. He goes on to talk about his liberation how he assumed the Americans were more Germans and actually escaped from them to run back to his hut. However, as he was suffering from a great number of problems, he was taken away to hospital, where he was placed on a bed in a white room where a hat connected to a line was overhead. He still didn t know what was happening. He still has not found a word to describe the feeling when warm water came out of that hat, nor the feeling of a warm towel drying his body or condensed milk slipping down his throat. But in one more unfortunate story in his survival, he asked for toothpaste and a toothbrush to brush his teeth. However, when he was brushing, blood spurted out of his gums, causing immense pain, and he had to be treated. For the next two weeks, he could only eat liquids. How unlucky then, that pineapple should be served. Pineapple, he said, before the war was a luxury, an expensive and tropical fruit that we could only dream about. And now it was right in front of me, and I couldn t eat it. He calls this punishment, and does not understand why he was punished again. Later, in the early 1950s, he came to Australia with his wife, where they lived a lucky life. But we must remember that six million Jews, or the estimated million people killed in World War II were not so lucky. Lulek Bron approaches me after the film and gives me three double-sided photocopies of newspaper articles and photocopies of his Auschwitz records for use in my article. How generous of him, but then again, he is one person who sincerely understands the danger of forgetting. He who forgets will live history again. -Helen Nightingale On the morning of Monday15th of November, two Australians at war classes embarked on a trip to the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Elsternwick, Melbourne. When we arrived, we were ushered into a hall where two elderly ladies proceeded to show a movie that gave us a twenty minute review of the Holocaust massacre that had some very graphic pictures that really hit home. The two ladies, Lucia and Floris then both shared with us their stories of survival during the Holocaust, and I was absolutely mystified by what they had to say, especially Lucia who endured the loss of her entire family and many concentration camps, and had the most horrific story to share. Unbelievably, she had survived the many death marches and selection processes to be alive today. I was stunned and speechless that she walked through a sea of dead bodies and witnessed many people killed for no reason. After we had heard their amazing stories, we headed down to the exhibits that gave a chronological sequenced description of the Holocaust; they showed many graphic photos, and many actual pieces of clothing and medals and other things around the exhibits. The whole trip was an amazing, eye-opening experience that woke me up to the terrifying events that people have had to go through to win their freedom. Damien Eddy, Year

62 Global Education New Museum Hopes to Put an End to Intolerance By Scott Kaufman, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York On the Monday of December 10, 2004, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance otherwise known as the Center for Human Dignity received the coveted Global Tolerance Award. The Museum of Tolerance is a project that is well under way and already seems to have global support. It is expected to be completed in 2006 or 2007 and it will be three times as large as the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, California. This museum will be the largest and newest addition to the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The Simon Wiesenthal Center was founded in 1977 as an international Jewish rights organization that seeks to put an end to intolerance through the memory of the Holoca ust. The museum will have several different sections. The International Conference Center will be a place where tolerance can be discussed among world leaders. It is expected to be a large venue for many importance meeting on peace and tolerance. The theatre complex will have 500 seats and will be used for live performances and lectures. The grand hall will be used for temporary exhibits and receptions. A large square foot atrium will overlook the Museum. The museum plans to use a similar style of education that the museum in Los Angeles uses. Many of the exhibits will not be revealed until the opening, but hands-on, interactive experiences can be expected throughout the museum. The museum will not focus on the Holocaust as much as the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum that is already in Jerusalem. The new museum will focus more on the issues of today. The museum will have many interactive exhibits on the events that have shaped Jewish history, terrorism, and the problems Israel faces today. Many people now are saying that Israel does not need Source Cited: another Holocaust memorial museum. I believe that any museum that has a goal of ending any intolerance is necessary to society. It should also be noted that, as I stated before, this museum is more than a Holocaust museum. This museum focuses on intolerance around the world and not just the Holocaust. Any museum with such a noble cause should be celebrated and should not be a source of controversy. There are many special exhibits that can be found at the museum. They can be found for most of the year and a schedule of them can be found on the website at mot

63 Global Education Marlon Brando s Holocaust Connection By Dr. Rafael Medoff, Director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, which focuses on issues related to America s response to the Holocaust ( Courtesy of adorocinema.cidadeinternet.com.br Marlon Brando deserves to be remembered not only for his theatrical accomplishments, but also as one of the first public figures in post-world War II America to speak out about the failure of the Allies to aid Europe s Jews during the Holocaust. Brando s platform was the Broadway stage. In the summer of 1946, barely a year after the liberation of the Nazi death camps, 22 yearold Brando co-starred in A Flag Is Born, an explosive play authored by Ben Hecht, the famed Hollywood screenwriter and Jewish activist. Set in a cemetery in postwar Europe, Flag focuses on two elderly Holocaust survivors, Tevya (Paul Muni) and Zelda (Celia Adler), who encounter Brando s character, a distraught young Treblinka survivor named David who is on his way to British-ruled Palestine. Through the conversations between Tevya and David, Hecht articulates the Jewish right to the Holy Land and the need for a Jewish state. The Allies failure to rescue Jews from Hitler is one of the play s underlying themes. As the story begins, the narrator declares: Out of his burning houses, out of his crematoriums and lime pits, the Jew of Europe looked on a murderer called the German. But beyond this murder face of the German were other nation-faces to be seen--dim and watchful faces whose silence was a brother of murder... When the six million were murdered in the furnaces and gas chambers of the German, these cries were in their throats: Where is Humanity? Where is the goodness of man that we helped create? Where are my friends? During the play, Brando s character denounces the Allies silence while the Nazis made a garbage pile of my people. He also raises pointed questions about the response of Jews in the Free World. One of the most memorable scenes has Brando s character addressing the Jews of the United States and Great Britain. Beginning in a quiet voice and then growing louder, Brando demands: Where were you, Jews?... You Jews of America! You Jews of England!... Where was your cry of rage that could have filled the world and stopped the fires? Nowhere! Because you were ashamed to cry out as Jews. The accusation sent chills through the audience, Brando later recalled. At some performances, Jewish girls got out of their seats and screamed and cried from the aisles in sadness, and at one, when I asked, Where were you when six million Jews were being burned to death in the ovens of Auschwitz?, a woman was so over come with anger and guilt that she rose and shouted back at me, Where were YOU?... At the time there was a great deal of soulsearching within the Jewish community over whether they had done enough to stop the slaughter of their people--some argued that they should have applied pressure on President Roosevelt to bomb Auschwitz, for example--so the speech touched a sensitive nerve. The words Brando spoke in the play were written by Hecht, but Brando shared the playwright s assessment of how the world responded to the Holocaust. In his memoirs, Brando describes how he learned about Jewish issues from Hecht and especially from his acting coach, Stella Adler. He quickly developed a strong sympathy for their cause, and performed in A Flag is Born at the minimum actors guild wage as a gesture of solidarity. And Brando championed the Jewish cause offstage, as well. Hecht and Adler were active in the American League for a Free Palestine, better known as the Bergson Group (after its leader, Peter Bergson), which sponsored the play and, after ten weeks on Broadway, staged it in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, and elsewhere. Brando not only performed in the play, but became, as he put it, a kind of traveling salesman for the Bergson Group, speaking at numerous rallies and meetings. In city after city, the young actor spoke to audiences about the international community s silence during the Holocaust, the plight of H o l o c a u s t s u r v i v o r s l a n g u i s h i n g in Europe s D i s p l a c e d Persons camps, and the need for a Jewish state. As America mourns the passing of Marlon Brando and remembers him for his roles in so many famous movies, let us also remember his other public role--as one Courtesy of mapage.noos.fr of the first to confront postwar America with the hard questions about the Holocaust that need to be asked again and again. 63

64 Global Education Museum s Traveling Exhibitions Program Brings Holocaust History and Lessons to Battle Creek, Michigan By Margaret Lincoln, Library Media Specialist, Lakeview School District; Battle Creek, Michigan (USHMM Mandel/Museum Teacher Fellow, 2002) Through the Traveling Exhibitions program of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), institutions nationwide can bring the history and the lessons of the Holocaust into their community. Using the latest research methodology and innovative design and production, Museum exhibitions encourage diverse audiences to learn about the events of the Holocaust and to reflect on its meaning for people today. Battle Creek, Michigan is home to some 53,000 residents, many of whom have not had the opportunity to travel to Washington, DC to visit America s national institution for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history and to reflect upon our country s memorial to the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust. This small Midwestern city has been fortunate, however, to host two USHMM traveling exhibitions. How has Battle Creek been able to twice benefit from Museum resources? As a library media specialist who has been employed by the Lakeview School District in Battle Creek for 32 years, I am pleased to share with you some background about this successful partnership between the Museum and our city. In 2002, I participated in USHMM s Mandel/Museum Teacher Fellowship Program. As part of my outreach project for this program, I wrote a grant to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation which brought the USHMM traveling exhibition on Oskar Schindler to Battle Creek s local

65 Global Education Temple Beth El for a six-week period. An article in the publication MultiMedia Schools describes our experience of hosting this exhibition. See lincoln.shtml. Following Battle Creek s successful hosting of the Schindler exhibition, the city s Art Center was selected as a site for another traveling exhibition. Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust will be on display from September 6-November 13, This exhibition explores the remarkable history of children who went underground to escape Nazi persecution and destruction and who were often aided by the courageous actions of Righteous Gentiles and other rescuers. Life in Shadows will travel to only two other venues in the United States: The Spertus Museum in Chicago and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. A full array of cultural events will complement the exhibition. Pierre Sauvage, a Holocaust child survivor and documentary filmmaker affiliated with the Foundation of Le Chambon (the French village that rescued thousands of Jewish adults and children during World War II) will help open the exhibition with a visit to Battle Creek. Mr. Sauvage comes to our city through a Kellogg Foundation Expert in Residence grant. He will offer a viewing of his award-winning film Weapons of the Spirit and will address a gathering of adults, students, and educators on September 8, The incomparable Theodore Bikel (star of stage, screen, and television and renowned musician) will be featured in a concert with the Battle Creek Symphony on October 8, Mr. Bikel will take on a narrative role in a performance of Peter Boyer s work Ellis Island and will also offer solo selections. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein will be featured in Ernest Bloch s rhapsody Schlomo prior to the Boyer work. Miriam Brysk, a Holocaust survivor, hidden child and artist based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, will display her work in a supplemental exhibit at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Rene Lichtman, a Holocaust child survivor who heads up the Michigan chapter of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust, will offer a film presentation of his documentary Hidden: Poland on November 3, The film presentation will be followed by a panel discussion featuring other Michigan residents who also survived the Holocaust as hidden children. Area adults, students, and educators will attend this event. Educational support activities are being planned. Teachers throughout the state of Michigan have been notified of the opportunity to bring students to Life in Shadows where they will be guided through the exhibition by trained docents. Once again, retired classroom teachers will fulfill this important role. The USHMM will conduct a workshop for Holocaust educators at the local Willard Public Library on May 18. The workshop will be led by Stephen Feinberg, head of national outreach in the Museum s Education Department. There is a research component associated with Battle Creek s hosting of a traveling museum exhibition. USHMM has made available an online version of Life in Shadows on the Museum Website at museum/exhibit/online/hiddenchildren/. Life in Shadows is scheduled to arrive in Battle Creek in late August 2005, an event which is eagerly anticipated by the community. To promote the exhibition, USHMM has linked to this Web page from its own Traveling Exhibitions page at http: // The Spertus Museum in Chicago and the Museum of Jewish Heritage will undoubtedly attract significant numbers of visitors when Life in Shadows is on display at these metropolitan institutions. We in Battle Creek, Michigan, however, are honored to be able to bring this extraordinary traveling exhibition from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to our community. Our attempt to share the lessons of the Holocaust will do more than impart knowledge. It will raise awareness of our responsibility to protect and care for all those who are targeted by hatred, discrimination and violence. Our hope is that students and adults will gain a heightened awareness of a most tragic period in the history of humankind. 65

66 Global Education 60 Years Later: Remembering Liberation History Distorted Introduction by Victor Minachin, Coordinator of iearn Russia I am 57 years old. Over 40 years of my life I lived in the Soviet Union under very restrictive communist regime. I have never traveled outside the communist block countries until It was very hard to get books and publications one wanted to read especially if printed outside the Soviet Union. The Soviet newspapers and broadcasts were censored and we were allowed to read only what the authorities allowed us to read. Russian language broadcasts of the Voice of America and BBC were often jammed. Anti-Semitism was very visible for everyone who lived in the Soviet Union. To be hired for a good job was very difficult if one was a Jew. Jewish applicants to universities were subject to unjust and much more rigorous entrance exams than other nationalities. The exams were conducted not to test the applicant s abilities, but to find a reason not to accept him if he or she were a Jew. People who wished to emigrate to Israel were subject to humiliations and persecutions. There was no information about the Holocaust. I myself have never heard about it neither at High School nor at the Moscow State University where I studied No textbook told us that there was a German plan to kill all the Jews in Europe only because they were Jews. We knew about concentration camps and the German atrocities but we did not know that Jews were selected from all over Europe and transported to be gassed. We were only told that this was done to men, women and children from European countries. We knew about the 1941 massacre in Baby Yar in Kiev, but we were only told that the German barbarians killed innocent Soviet citizens without any explanation why these citizens were selected to be killed. On the surface, we were told the truth. Indeed, Jews gassed at Auschwitz were men, women and children from European countries. Indeed, Jews massacred at Baby Yar were Soviet citizens. But it was not the whole truth. Why were these people selected? Why other Soviet citizens were not selected? There were people in power in the Soviet Union who preferred to avoid this question. It was one of the manifestations of anti- Semitism in my country. When the President of the new Russia, Vladimir Putin visited Krakow and Auschwitz in January 2005 to commemorate the 60 th Anniversary of its liberation, he told in one of his speeches that anti-semitism is something which we should be ashamed of and that he feels shame for some things which happened in our country. So do many people in Russia. This is why one of the articles prepared for the anniversary issue of An End to Intolerance is about how information about what the Red Army discovered in Auschwitz was distorted and censored by Soviet media. Our students have written it in the hope that such things never happen again. How Information About the Liberation of Auschwitz was Distorted in the USSR By Yuri Shashkov, age 15; School 689, Moscow Russia The Second World War was close to its end. The advance of the 1 st Ukrainian Front commanded by Marshal Konev forced the German army to abandon the Polish city of Krakow. After the liberation of Krakow, the 60 th Army commanded by General Kurochkin turned southwest and during the last week of January came to the town of Auschwitz. At that moment, the Soviet soldiers didn t know about the concentration camp. Only a few days before approaching Auschwitz did the divisional reconnaissance patrols learn about the death factory from the local population. Ordinary soldiers, who first entered the camp, wrote the first reports about Auschwitz. These people, who every day risked their lives and were far from the politics, wrote absolute truth. They based their articles on the words of survived prisoners, discovered archives, and their own impressions. The first such report is dated January 27, It was compiled by the combat troops of the 100 th and 322 nd divisions who first entered the camp. The report is signed by Major Cheliadin, Captain Tomov, Sergeant Rossel and Corporal Vasilenko. The medical part of the group included surviving Auschwitz prisoners: Jacob Gordon, a physician from Vilnius, Lithuania; Professor Steinberg from Paris, and Dr Epstein of the Prague University. This is the conclusion of this report: During the time when the camp worked, between 4.5 to 5 million people were killed, most of them were Jews from the occupied countries, Russian prisoners of war and Poles, Czechoslovaks, Belgians and Dutch people sent to Germany as forced labor. However, this report, as well as other similar reports made by eyewitnesses, was not published in the Soviet Union at the time. They were not intended to be published. The report was sent to Army Headquarters, and then to the 1 st Ukranian Front

67 Global Education Headquarters and then to Moscow. A commission created by the 1 st Ukrainian Front s Political Office worked from February 1 to February 5, 1945 and produced a detailed report containing 12 chapters. It still told the truth. Here is a part of Chapter 7: With the launching of the Crematorium I in Birkenau, mass poisoning and cremation of Jews, brought not only from Poland, but from all European countries, began. In 1942, many Jewish families from Czechoslovakia were burned. In 1943 Jews from France, Belgium, Holland, Greece and other countries were transported to Auschwitz. In summer 1944, about 600,000 Hungarian Jews were killed and cremated. In spring ,000 Jews from Saloniki, Greece were killed. This was sent to Moscow, and the text for publication began to be prepared by the Special State Commission on the Atrocities of the German Invaders. However a very strange thing happened. Time went by and there was no report. It took a very long time in Moscow to work on the text and this delay caused a surprise in other countries: On February 15, the British Foreign Office asked Moscow when the official Auschwitz report would be published. On February 19 the same question was raised by the British ambassador, and on February 27 Vishinskiy, the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister, answered that in Auschwitz more than 4 million Europeans were destroyed, but no British subjects were found among the survivors. The State Commission approved its final report only on May 7, 1945 over three months after Auschwitz was liberated The final version was approved by Stalin and Molotov.. It was published and it is very strange. The text received from the Commission of the First Ukrainian Front Headquarters which we quoted above is missing. The report does not say anything about the German plan to exterminate Jews. In fact the word Jew appears in the multi-page report only once when a reference is made to the testimony about medical experiments given by a Jew from Greece named Left to right, Top row: The teachers - Elizaveta Suklyshkina, Svetlana Panarina, Middle row: Students - Yuri Shashkov, Tatiana Kosterova, Nastia Ikonnikova, Alexander Ovchinnikov, Bottom row: Students - Dasha Suklyshkina, Dina Bagautdinova, Katia Romantsova, Katia Nikitina, Galina Novichkova,Katia Savkova Bela. I n s t e a d the report said that the Germans killed citizens of European countries. For example, the final part of the report said that no less than four million citizens of the Soviet Union, Poland, France, Y u g o s l a v i a, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Holland, Belgium and other countries were killed. Why were all these people selected, transported to Auschwitz, gassed and burned the report did not say. The report about Auschwitz is a bright example of Soviet politics. When the entire world knew the truth, Soviet people knew nothing. And if someone found truth, he would understand that it would be better to keep silent about it. 67

68 Global Education How the Distortions of Truth about the Holocaust Began in the Soviet Union (Baby Yar Reports) By Galina Novichkova, age 15; School 689, Moscow, Russia The Soviet Government was informed about mass executions of Soviet Jews in Baby Yar, near Kiev, which happened on September 29, The Soviet press wrote about this event after the Germans took Kiev. The news was obtained from Soviet underground in Kiev and survivors. On the professional level there was a special report from of December 6, 1942 by Pavel Sudoplatov, Chief of the 4th department of People s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (Soviet Intelligence) sent to Viacheslav Molotov, Stalin s Deputy. This report contained the exact description of Jews tragedy in Babij Yar. At this time no special rules were established for reporting mass killings of Jews. But then everything changed. In November 1943, after the liberation of Kiev a special committee of experts was investigating the atrocities of the German invaders. This committee was called Extraordinary State Commission (ESC). In December 1943, the ESC produced its first draft of the report on the Baby Yar massacre. Here is a fragment from the original draft version: Hitler s bandits carried out the brutal mass extermination of the Jewish population. They posted a street notice ordering all Jews to gather on September, at the corner of Melnikova and Dokterevskaya Streets ant to bring their documents, money and valuables. Gathered Jews were taken to Baby Yar where all the valuables were taken away from them and they were shot. However this report could not be published before it was approved and endorsed by the higher authorities. On the December 25, 1943 Nikolai Shvernik, Chairman of the Commission, sent this text to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for approval. In a cover letter to G. Alexandrov, the Chief of the Propaganda Department, Illustration shows the original text of the draft report prepared in 1943 by the Extraordinary State Commission investigating the German atrocities in Russia. The handwritten corrections were made by G.Alexandrov of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The translation of the last paragraph before Alexandrov s editing: Hitler s bandits carried out the brutal mass extermination of the Jewish population. They posted a street notice ordering all Jews to gather on September, at the corner of Melnikova and Dokterevskaya Streets and to bring their documents, money and valuables. Gathered Jews were taken to Baby Yar where all the valuables were taken away from them and they were shot. After Alexandrov s handwritten correction the text reads as follows: On September 29 the Hitler s bandits gathered thousands of peaceful Soviet citizens on the corner of Melnikova and Dokterevskaya streets. Gathered people were taken to Baby Yar where all the valuables were taken away from them and they were shot

69 Global Education Shvernik wrote: I am sending to you the draft report of Extraordinary State Commission on the destructions and atrocities committed by the German Nazi invaders in the city of Kiev. I request your permission to publish it in the press. Alexandrov kept the text for a long time, until February 3, and then returned it to Shvernik with the recommendation to take into account the editorial remarks. These remarks changed the meaning of the text. The new text suggested by Alexandrov was: On the September 29, Hitler s bandits gathered thousands of peaceful Soviet citizens on the corner of Melnikova and Dokterevskaya streets. Gathered people were taken to Baby Yar where all the valuables were taken away from them and they were shot. Shvernik received the corrected version and understood the meaning of the changes. On the same February 2 he sent this new version to Viacheslav Molotov, who was Stalin s Deputy.Molotov consulted several other people and finally on February 28 approved the text with Alexandrov s corrections. On the same day February 28, 1944 Shvernik sent the corrected version to the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union for publication. This was the beginning of the official line of reporting the mass murders of Jews by the Nazis, right up to reports about the liberation of Auschwitz. From now on it had to be written only about peaceful Soviet citizens or citizens from European countries. The Last Months of Auschwitz By Galina Novichkova, age 15; School 689, Moscow, Russia The theme of the Holocaust is very popular among the historians, but even today, there are still some gaps in materials connected with Nazi death camps. And, from my point of view, modern society should know more about horrors of World War II and especially about executions and mockeries at people, who were kept in prison. Not long ago I have seen a book titled Death Dealer. Rudolf Hoess, who was the Kommandant of a Camp Auschwitz, wrote it when he was awaiting his trial and death sentence. This book tells about the history of a well-known death camp Auschwitz and about all the things that happened there from 1940 to My main interest in the connection with 60 years from Auschwitz s liberation was the period from September 1944 to January 27, Several important events took place in the Camp in this short period of time. First of all, it was a revolt on October 7. The camp authorities decided to kill the entire Sonderkommando and to organize the mass revolt which was to take place throughout the entire camp. But they failed and the revolt was checked by SS guards. About 750 members of the Sonderkommando fell in battle. Of the 663 members of the Sonderkommando, who survived the revolt, an additional 200 were shot. 212 were allowed to live. During the mutiny, three SS soldiers were killed and one of the crematoriums was completely destroyed. In November 1944, Himmler ordered that the gassings in Auschwitz must stop and that the traces of German atrocities must be destroyed. The gas chambers were blown up. Himmler understood that Germany was losing the war and started to cover up the crimes at Auschwitz. On December 1 a wrecking commando began the destruction of Crematorium III. Another wrecking Kommando was formed and began cleaning and covering the earth with turf in the open-pit burning areas where the Hungarian Jews were cremated. On December 26, Soviet airplanes bombed targets in the vicinity of Auschwitz and the SS hospital. Five SS were killed. The general evacuation of the Camp began on January 18. The Red Army was now far away and the Germans started to evacuate the surviving prisoners to Germany. Columns of women, men and children were marched out of the camp in cold winter conditions escorted by SS guards. Along the routes soldiers shot those who were weak and couldn t continue marching. On January 21 some prisoners were loaded into uncovered coal trucks and taken to Germany and the others were taken by train to Buchenwald, Dachau and Sachsenhausen. Very few survived this Death March. And the next significant date was January 27, the day when the first Soviet soldiers appeared on the grounds of the Camp. They were welcomed with joy by the liberated prisoners. After clearing the mines, the 92nd Infantry Division of the 59th Army of the Ukrainian Front, commanded by Colonel M. Winogrodow, entered the Camp. In that moment there were about 1,200 prisoners at Auschwitz, 4,000 women and 1,800 men at Birkenau and about 600 left at Monowitz. Most of these people were so sick and exhausted that they could not be saved. The infamous death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau still stands even after so many years after the liberation of Poland. It s the monument and a museum to the millions of men, women, children of almost every nationality in Europe who suffered and died there. And terrors of this place, as terrors of World War II, must not be forgotten. The Cold Spring Harbor Central School District wishes to recognize the invaluable contribution made by Mrs. Shirley Mayer to Holocaust education in our district. 69

70 70 70 Global Education Truth of Life By Tatiana Kosterova, age 16; School 689, Moscow, Russia In January we have had the 60th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet Army. My friends are writing about the military history: how Soviet Army came to Auschwitz. I want to tell you about the human stories of the liberators of Auschwitz. The Russian Ministry of Defense Archive has the report of Major General, the chief of the political division of the 60th Army. It says: At the station Lebioz we found a subsidiary camp of Auschwitz with some prisoners who were alive. There were 30 Jews; the others were Hungarians, Frenchmen, Poles, Czechs and Russians. They were hiding in a coal mine while the others in this camp were killed. One of them, a Jew called Lever, told us that before Lebioz, he had been to Auschwitz. At each moment of time there were 25 to 30,000 Jews from many countries of Europe. They were brought there continuously during four years. Those who couldn t work- women, children, old men, they were selected and destroyed at once. They were sent to an isolated building; there they took off their clothes; after that they were killed in special chambers by gas, and their bodies were burnt in crematoriums. There were 12 furnaces in the camp. Lever thought, that more than 400,000 Jews were killed there. The prisoners were fed very poorly: some water soup once a days and grams of bread. Many people died because of exhaustion and starvation. Every week the camp doctors examined everyone and those who couldn t work, were killed in the gas chambers. Starting October 1944, evacuation of Auschwitz to Germany started. The crematoriums worked without stop, but in December 1944 they were blown up. In 1942, some Poles escaped from the camp; after that 1000 people were killed. By 1945 all Jews in the camp had been murdered; the camp had been blown up, and all eye- witnesses had been killed. The main purpose of that camp was to destroy people- first of all Jews. There were 4 crematoriums with 10 gas chambers for murdering people. Each of them could take 600 men. For some time the crematoriums couldn t cope with their task, and so it was decided to burn people in 40x40- meters pits. Another Soviet commander who took part into liberations Auschwitz was General Vasili Petrenko. He commanded 107th Infantry Division: For the first time I learnt about the concentration camp Auschwitz at night, when I was commanding in the battle near Neuberun (now called Bierun Nowy in Poland). The corps commander, General Ilyinykh called me and told the 100th and 322nd Divisions run into the installations of a huge German concentration camp which had its center at Auschwitz. The corps commander gave me the order to take Neuberun as soon as possible and prevent the German forces there from retreating to Auschwitz. He also ordered us to continue advancing along the left bank of Vistula River to the west thus cutting the Auschwitz garrison from behind. Germans fought stubbornly. We lost 180 soldiers killed. The town (Neuberun) was liberated on January 28. General F. M. Krasavin, commander of the 100th Division which took Auschwitz one day earlier called me and suggested that I should come to Auschwitz. I told my deputy commander and my chief of staff that I will be away for a couple of hours and left for Auschwitz. I was shown into the camp. It was snowing but the snow melted immediately. I remember that my winter overcoat was unbuttoned. It was getting dark. The soldiers found some device and turned on the light. We were approached by emaciated prisoners in striped overalls. They were saying something in different languages. I had seen death many times, but at that moment I was shocked, because I saw not people but living skeletons in front of me. Soviet officers who participated in the military operations which resulted in the liberation of Auschwitz First from the left - General Vasily Petrenko, commanding offcier of the 107th infantry division which liberated the area north of Auschwitz. First from the right - General Fyodor Krasavin, commanding officer of the 100th infantry division which took Auschwitz on January 27, 1945

71 Global Education On the next day, January 29, I came to the town of Auschwitz (Oswiencim). General Degtiarev, the Divisional Chief of Staff met me. He said that the day before 78 Russian offices and men had been buried there. I came again to the camp. Two men suddenly stopped, when they saw the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. They smiled and began to applaud.. I also remember two women. They came up to me, embraced and kissed me. These people at least could smile. Others just stood there silently like living skeletons. I was shown into a barrack for women. There was blood on the ground, excrements, dead bodies were lying everywhere. The stench of decomposing bodies was unbearable. On the day when I visited the camp, 7500 people were counted there alive. No one was well. The Germans left the sick people in the camp and on January 18 marched away the others - everyone.who could walk. The medical battalions of 108th, 322th and my 107th Divisions deployed cleaning stations. Food supply was also organized by these three Divisions. On the second day we were relieved by an auxiliary regiment. I also saw the room where the prisoners were killed at the entrance to the crematorium. The crematorium itself and the gas chamber were blown up. Then I saw children. It was terrible: pale faces, thin arms and legs. They were silent and only showed the numbers tattooed on their hands. The prisoners didn t cry because they couldn t I saw them trying to wipe their eyes but they were dry Student note: P.S. I am sure, that nobody will forget the horror of Auschwitz. In 2005 the whole world celebrates the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. It s an important date, and even today, we remember millions of people with pain in our heart Vistula-Oder Operation of the Soviet Army By Alexander Ovchinnikov, age 15; School 689, Moscow, Russia It is 60 years since Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp, was liquidated. More than 3 million of people were killed in this camp. The memory of this terrible place will remain forever, and we must not forget the threat of neo-nazism, which exists nowadays. The Soviet Army liberated Auschwitz on January 27, How did it get there? Which military operation was under way which brought the Red Army to the gates of the infamous Death Factory? I will try to explain it in this article. By January 1945 the Soviet Army completely liberated Russia itself and entered Poland. The last big operation of 1944 brought it to the line of the Vistula River (see map). In three places the Red Army even crossed the Vistula and established bridgeheads on the western side of the river. The biggest of these bridgeheads was near the Polish city of Sandomir. The Red Army halted on this line while the new supply lines were developed and the chief command decided on where to direct the next offensive in The map shows four main groups of Armies there. They were called Fronts in the Soviet Union. The two in the middle of the Vistula line were called the1 st Belorussian Front in the North and the 1 st Urkainian Front in the South. The 1 st Ukranian Front was commanded by Marshal Konev. If you look at the map, you will see that the next big river on the way of Russian Army was Oder. It is running to the Baltic Sea roughly parallel to the Vistula several hundred miles to the west of it. The Supreme Soviet Command decided that the main next objective for the advance will be to get from River Vistula to the Oder, capture a bridgehead on the western side of Oder (with the aim to use it for the future advance to Berlin). As this advance would bring the Red Army from River Vistula to River Oder, it was called Vistula-Oder Operation. On the way the Soviet Army was also to occupy the Silesian industrial region where there were important coal mines and steel producing factories. The Silesian region was in the line of advance of Marshal Konev s Armies In November, 1944 in preparation for this big operation Marshal Konev was summoned to Moscow. Stalin, who was the Supreme Commander, pointed the Silesian industrial area on the map and said to Konev: Gold! emphasizing the importance of its industrial potential. Konev understood that he must capture the area without inflicting great destruction. It is not really known if Konev knew about the concentration camp at Auschwitz when the operation was planned. In January 1945, the Soviets launched the Vistula-Oder operation. The operation carried the Soviet army from three bridgeheads beyond the Vistula to the Oder River. The first 71

72 Global Education Ukrainian Front with the help of the first Belarusian front attacked from the Sandomir bridgehead. Konev s armies attacked on January 12, Germans were preparing to blow up Krakow one the most beautiful historic cities in Poland - but the rapid attack of the army destroyed their plans. Krakow was liberated by the 1st Ukrainian Front on January 19, German numerical superiority was one of the main problems. But during the long attack of Soviets the resistance of German forces was overcome and the Red Army came to the north part of Dobrov coalfield near Auschwitz, on 27 January 1945, and liberated the camp. The liberation of Auschwitz was one of the most important events during The Second World War but it was also one of the most important events in the World history. Millions of people were killed in this death factory and it was maybe the most horrible place in that time; that s why the liquidation of the camp was such a significant event. Why did the Soviet Army Liberate Auschwitz a Week Earlier Than Envisages by the Original Military Plans By Daria Suklyshkina, Age 15; School 689, Moscow, Russia Everyone knows that Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz victims on 27 January There were only few thousand people alive because most victims had been sent from the camp to Germany by the death march on January, Many of those who were liberated alive died within a few days because of starvation, illnesses and hardships. But fortunately thousands of people did survive. Few people know that even these victims could have died if Marshal Konev did not change the original plan of the offensive of Soviet troops. According to the original plan Auschwitz would have been liberated only on February 2-3, 1945, that is almost a week later. What happened and why did the Soviet troops come to Auschwitz a week earlier? On January 17, 1945 Marshal Konev who commanded the 1st Ukrainian Front (one of the four big Soviet Army Groups) received the order from Stalin about the new attack on a wide front. This order formulated two main objectives for the next offensive: (1) The main forces had to move from the Vistula to the Oder River, cross the Oder and capture a bridgehead on the western side of Oder in the area of the Breslau (now this city is in Poland and its name is Wroclaw). This was the main line of advance from the east to the west. We may call it the right arm of the offensive. (2) Another part of Konev s Front which consisted of the 59 th and the 60 th armies had to liberate Krakow and capture Silesian cool mines. They had to advance to the south of the main line of advance. We may call it the left arm of the coming offensive. Krakow the former capital of Poland - was liberated by this left arm on January 19 and then the 59 th and the 60 th armies met an increased enemy opposition. The Germans were defending the Silesian industrial basin. Marshal Konev immediately understood that he had a problem. If he continued the frontal The two illustrations showing Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev who commanded the 1st Ukrainian Front (Group of Armies) which liberated Auschwitz. Marshal Konev s decision to change the intiial plan of the offensive was responsible for the fact that Auschwitz was liberated a week earlier than planned. One of the images shows Marshal Konev and US General Omar Bradley. Marshal Konev s troops met American troops on April 25, 1945 on the River Elbe in Germany. assault on the Silesian coal basin, he would have to face great losses and the stiff fighting will probably destroy much of the industrial potential in the Silesian area. Stalin did not want this to happen. He wanted to capture the Silesian mines and factories as intact as possible. And Marshal Konev made a decision which was not in the orders he received originally.

73 Global Education He ordered the Third Tank Army commanded by General Rybalko which was advancing with the main right arm of the offensive to change the direction of its advance and make a sharp left turn to the south along the Oder river. In this way by January 23 the Soviet tanks appeared behind the German forces defending Silesia. Before January 23 the German resistance to the 59 th and 60 th Armies of the left arm was very strong and Soviets could not break the German defense near the town of Chrzanow, northeast of Auschwitz. But when General Rybalko s tanks came in the German rear, the Germans started to withdraw their troops from fighting the left arm armies and move them against General Rybalko s advance. The whole three German divisions were taken from the front which opposed just one 60 th Army at Chrzanow. Using this situation, on January 24, General Kurochkin, commander of the 60 th Army, ordered his troops to move to the major road crossing and German strongholds Auschwitz and Neuberun. This made it possible for the Soviet Army to liberate the Auschwitz victims on January 27. Many people who could have died, if they were left behind German lines for another week, were saved. A Special Thanks: The HGP would like express great appreciation to our friends in Russia for all their cooperation and help with this section of AETI, 2005: Russian Coordinator Victor Minachin; Natalia Uglava, Principal and teacher of English; Svetlana Panarina, teacher of history and HGP coordinator in Russia, and Elizaveta Suklyshkina, teacher of English. SOURCES Books: In Russian: Before and After Auschwitz by Vasily Petrenko, published by the Holocaust Foundation, Moscow 2000 Magazine articles: In Russian: Information Soviet Style by Lev Bezymensky, Znamia (Literary Magazine), no. 5, 1998 (the Russian text is online at =186&Club_ID=1) Web-sites: In Russian: 59th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz e=500 Liberation of Auschwitz Recollections of Boris Polevoy, Soviet Writer and War Correspondent 21.html#1 Military operations In English: Holocaust Statistics 73

74 Global Education Remembering Pope John Paul II By Gideon Goldstein, HGP Mentor, Israel As this edition of An End to Intolerance goes to press, we learn of the death of Pope John Paul II. Born in Wadowice, Poland, Karol Jozef Vojtyla Jr. grew up in a community where Jews and Catholics shared childhood experiences. It is no surprise, therefore, that Karol Vojtyla had a Jewish best friend (Jerzy Kluger lives in Rome and is, as the Pope was, 85 years old) who invited him to the local synagogue where they listened together to a world famous Cantor. The Pope-to-be played soccer from time-to-time with the Wadowice Jewish youth team. He had a wonderful relationship (some say, a crush) on his next door neighbor, Regina Ginka Beer who he escorted to the railway station as she made her pilgrimage to Palestine in When the German Army invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Karol Vojtyla was 19 years old. He spent the atrocious years of the war as a student in Krakow first at the university and later as a Catholic seminarian. In retrospect it seems that he was not oblivious to what was happening in his homeland of Poland, which became the chosen country where Auschwitz, Birkenau, Majdanek, Belzec, Sobibor, Chelmno and Treblinka were constructed to perform the most horrendous acts humanity had seen the brutal, meticulously planned and executed massacre of six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Roma, political dissidents, homosexuals and scholars. During his lifetime as a man of the cloth, as a Bishop, a Cardinal and as Pope John Paul II, Karol Vojtyla of Wadowice, both in words and in practice, never forgot the victims of the Holocaust. In many of his homilies, addresses, speeches and messages to his followers; as the spiritual leader of over one billion Catholics around the globe; Pope John Paul II took every opportunity to redress the apathetic indifference of his predecessor, Pope Pius XII, who gained infamy as Hitler s Pope 1. It is altogether fitting and proper that we pay tribute to the memory of Pope John II by quoting his latest comments made on the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz: When, as Pope, I visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in 1979 [as] I stood somewhat longer before the inscription written in Hebrew. I said: This inscription invites us to remember the people whose sons and daughters were doomed to total extermination.... This, the very people that received from God the commandment, You shall not kill, itself experienced in a special measure what killing means. No one is permitted to pass by this inscription with indifference. Today I repeat those words. No one is permitted to pass by the tragedy of the Shoah. That attempt at the systematic destruction of an entire people falls like a shadow on the history of Europe and the whole world; it is a crime which will for ever darken the history of humanity. May it serve, today and for the future, as a warning: there must be no yielding to ideologies which justify contempt for human dignity on the basis of race, colour, language or religion. I make this appeal to everyone, and particularly to those who would resort, in the name of religion, to acts of oppression and terrorism. Such, then, is the deepest meaning of this anniversary celebration. We remember the tragic sufferings of the victims in order to honour the dead, to acknowledge historical reality and above all to ensure that those terrible events will serve as a summons for the men and women of today to ever greater responsibility for our common history. Never again, in any part of the world, must others experience what was experienced by these men and women whom we have mourned for sixty years! 2 As in his words, so were his acts. In his last Papal year, it was revealed that as a Catholic seminarian, Karol Vojtyla brought a hot cup of tea, as well as cheese and bread to Edith Zierer 3, a survivor from a forced labor camp in southern Poland. He consequently carried her to the train, lit a fire and shielded her with his robe until they arrived in Krakow. Later, as a bishop in Krakow, Vojtila refused to baptize a six-year old boy, Shachnae Hiller 4, when he learned that his parents, who were exterminated in Auschwitz, requested that he be raised as Jew. Shachna lives in the United States. The Holocaust Genocide Project welcomes the proposal made by Shacna Hiller-Berger, entertained by Yad-Vashem to proclaim the late Pope John Paul II as one of the Righteous Amongst the Nations. (Endnotes) 1 Cornwell, J. (1999), Hitler s Pope, The Secret Life of Pius XII. Viking Penguin, New York. 2 Copyrighted by the Library of the Vatican. Sent from the Vatican January 15, pont_messages/2005/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_ _auschwitzbirkenau_en.html 3 The version I used for the story of Edith Zierer is based on numerous items but mainly on Roger Cohen s article The Polish Seminary Student and the Jewish Girl He Saved published April 6, 2005 in The New York Times. ( 06krakow.html). 4 The story on Shachne Hiller Berger was published by the Roman news agency Zenit on January 18, ( za.phtml?sid=64928).

75 Black Elk Speaks Student Reviews By Keith Casadei, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York John G. Neihardt, an American poet and writer, went to Black Elk in 1930 and listened to his story. Back Elk had wanted to pass along the reality of Lakota life and the visions that he had (Black Elk was a medicine man ), and so, he cooperated with John G. Neihardt and the story Black Elk Speaks was the result. Black Elk Speaks is the true story of Nicholas Back Elk and the history of his people, the Lakota Sioux Indians, during the middle to late 1800s. It was time of westward expansion on the Northern Plains. With this expansion came conflict and trouble because the gold miners and settlers were intruding on the Sioux way of life and territory. What followed were many broken treaties, much bloodshed, and tough times for the Lakota Indians. Before delving into this overview of Black Elk, one must have a general understanding of his people and their history. Black Elk was a Lakota Indian. To be more specific, he was an Ogalala, which was one of seven Lakota tribes. The Lakotas were the western division of the Sioux Indians. The Lakota people were always on the move; whether it was because they were following the herds of bison around the plains, or in the latter part of the 129 th century, avoiding Wasichus (the Lakota s term for white people ). They were nomadic plains Indians and lived in harmony in their world. Then the white men came and caused problems; they were after the gold and land. Soldiers were sent to fight the Lakotas after treaties were broken by the Wasichus. Following were battles of the Rosebud, the Little Bighorn, the Wounded Knee Massacre, and these are just a few. This book is not just a story about a Sioux tribe s struggle, but portrays the overall picture of Native Americans in their failing fight for their sovereignty. Not knowing much about the history of the Lakota Indians, the reader is left with a feeling that just having read the story, one can t help but admire the heart of the Lakota people. After reading about the camaraderie of Black Elk s people on the battlefield and during peace, and the way they lived in harmony with nature, leaves the reader with a feeling that what the white men did to them was wrong and unforgivable. They took people living peacefully and happily and disrupted their way of life for gold and land. Black Elk s people were truly incredible. Some of the stunning victories and bravery displaced by the warriors in battle can leave you speechless. I was surprised how effective the Lakotas were against the more modern and technologically advanced soldiers that were sent after them. It also amazed me how long the Lakota held out for before finally submitting to the Wasichus. Other Sioux tribes had already surrendered and went to their reservations. For those who are not aware, it is a sad, disappointing, but true fact that the American people during this time period had extremely mistreated and devastated the Native Americans and their way of life. The graphic depictions of the Wounded Knee Massacre in the book alone can show this. Innocent women and children were massacred as they tried to run from the cavalry that was set upon them. Towards the end of his story, Black Elk s words about the massacre were, I did not know how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud and was buried in the blizzard. A people s dream died there. It was a beautiful dream. (207) The whole series of battles were bloody. The Lakotas won many battles and definitely were more superior battle-hardened warriors than the soldiers sent after them. Eventually, the persistence and tough times for the Lakotas (cold winters, lack of food and shelter 75

76 Student Reviews due to constant evasion of the solders) broke them and they were no longer able to fight. The other side to the story of Black Elk is a spiritual and fascinating part. It is about the way he developed and dealt with his visions. This is what Black Elk really wanted people to know about and why he was enthusiastic about the writing of this book. He wanted the people of the world to see his vision. Black Elk has said to John Neihardt in their first meeting, There is so much to teach you. What I know was given to me for men and it is true and it is beautiful. Soon I shall be under the grass and it will be lost. You were sent to save it, and you must come back so that I can teach you. (xxvii) Since Black Elk was a young boy, he had visions. His first vision, and most influential, was his Great Vision. In it he visits the Six Grandfathers. The Six Grandfathers are sacred god-like people in the Indian religion. They showed him the world and told him that there would be bad times ahead. The Grandfathers had said that they wanted him to help his people. They bestowed him with powers that would keep him safe and assist him in his burdensome task and sent him on his way. This vision had puzzled him for a long time and throughout much of his youth, Black Elk had tried to make sense of his vision. Much of the story of Black Elk also deals with this vision and is also why this book has become so renown. It is said to be the bible of Indian culture. Black Elk claims that the Grandfathers helped him during his life and tells of occasions where he uses their powers. They would warn him of things to come through small visions or of things he would have to do. For example, one time, he had a vision of a certain type of herb and decided that he had this dream because he was supposed to find it. It turns out, the next evening, a man s son was sick and Black Elk knew that he was supposed to use this herb to cure him. The herb worked, and the boy became healthy. Black Elk became known as a healer and holy man from then on. The story of Black Elk was interesting and inspiring. I learned a great deal and also enjoyed reading this completely authentic account of a man s life, his struggle to accomplish the tasks he faced, and the heroism and character of many Lakota people. Gentlehands By Orli P. Kleiner, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York As part of my repertoire of assigned reading, I found fictional Gentlehands by M.E. Kerr to be both intriguing and exciting. Set in eastern Long Island, New York, U.S.A. in the 1970s, it tells the story of Buddy, a rebellious teenager, and Skye, his aristocratic significant other. Motivated largely in part by grave disagreements with his father, Buddy befriends his estranged Grandpa Trenker, a seemingly wealthy and very compassionate German. The relationships between Buddy, his family, Skye, and Grandpa Trenker soon experience a severe upheaval when an eclectic and elusive journalist reveals that Grandpa Trenker was once a brutal Nazi officer and is wanted for war crimes and for trying to escape his horrible past. Gentlehands gives insight into the emotions and relationships rocked by such a shocking and terrible circumstance. Kerr s novel also provides a sample account of the modern investigation and pursuit of Nazi criminals. Captivating twists and turns keep the reader interested in the plot of this book, which concludes with a grave ending that is unexpected and yet not surprising at the same time. The book opens the mind s eye to the incomprehensible and horrific reality of the Holocaust. I recommend this excellent book for those that are young adults and older. As Kirkus Reviews exclaims, Kerr will leave you reeling

77 The Cage Student Reviews By Rachel Silber, Sequoya Middle School, Holtsville, New York The Cage, written by Ruth Minsky Sender, was a very exciting, informative, and sometimes disturbing piece of literature. The genre for this book was a true story or autobiographical piece. This story took place in Lodz, Poland; Germany, and also many concentration camps. Thirteen-year-old Riva Minska became custodian for her three brothers: Moishele, Motele, and Laibele while trying to hide from the Nazis. Even though Riva was physically weak, she was strong enough to hold her family together after the death of her mother. This incredible responsibility was placed on this young girl due to the fact that the Nazis took her mother during a Nazi invasion in the streets of Lodz. During this journey, Riva s youngest brother, Laibele, came down with a very bad illness, and he passed away. She and her two brothers decided to depart from the ghetto they were living in because there were signs up, and people were telling her that concentration camps were good things; they will not hurt you. Unfortunately, Riva was the only one who survived out of the five of them, including their mother. One scene that was very important to the book was when Riva and her brothers decided to depart from the ghetto to go to the concentration camps on a beautiful, sunny August day for many reasons. For instance, they would live in constant terror of being caught by the Nazis and being brutally separated as a family. Additionally, the food rations were running extremely low, making all four children feeble and wondering when their next meal would come. What should they take with them when they flee? Books? Personal belongings? Family pictures? They decide not to leave behind Riva s poems and journal on their journey to the unknown. The children were relieved when another family, the Beruhowich s decided to flee with them towards the railroad station. The conditions of the railroad cars were horrific. There were people in one car, squished together, without any lights or bathroom. They would be on these cars for three days. After arriving at the concentration camp, Riva found the camps to be a lot different than expected. It was terrible when she and her brothers were separated from each other. Riva never saw them again. Another scene that was important to the work of literature was when Riva and the prisoners she was staying with realized something was not quite right. The camp commandant shouts at the girls very early in the morning to get up and outside for a head count. That was when the girls realized something was going on. Everyone starts marching out of the camp into a beautiful, quiet neighborhood. Someone asked Riva if she was in another world. Then someone proceeded to tell her that this is not the same road they turn onto each day. The people around Riva start to tell each other that they can feel that something is going on. There were more guards following them, riding their bikes. In front of the girls are woods that they all believe they are going to be killed in. One of the soldiers shouts, The Russians are behind us! The Russians are behind us! All the guards stand still for a moment; then crazed by the astonishing news, they take off, leaving the prisoners in the street. They do not move; some say this might be a trick. People were saying they might be waiting for them to start running and then they might shoot them. They figured it out that it was not a trick and the girls ask each other where they should go. One person said, Let s knock on the doors here and ask them for help. No one answers the doors because they are hiding from the prisoners. When a Russian officer on a white horse enters the gates of the cage, Riva believes she is in a fairy tale. He was shocked when he sees her and the others and is relieved to learn they are Jews. He tells them that he has liberated several concentration camps and found only dead bodies. Being a Jew himself, he is thrilled to learn that some people are still alive. When first assigned this reading project, I was 77

78 Student Reviews apprehensive as to how I would feel as the story unraveled. Being a thirteen-year old Jewish girl myself, I can relate to Riva. I was surprisingly glued to the book, chapter after chapter. I think the book is great to show and tell other people about this time period in history, being that it was a true story and not a fictional piece. I would definitely recommend this book to other people, especially non-jews. This book will be able to show them about what happened during World War II and the Holocaust. I enjoyed this book very much and I hope other people will enjoy it as much as I did. The Wave By Tara Dolan, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York For today s youth, Nazi German seems so long ago. It was a different age; it was a different culture; it was half a world away. Survivors of the Holocaust are disappearing. We tell ourselves we will always remember, but will we?. And if it did happen again, would we realize what was going on? These are questions explored by Todd Strasser in his novel, The Wave. The answers are unsettling. The Wave was based on a real incident that took place in a high school history class in Palo Alto California in The novel follows Ben Ross, a young social studies teacher frustrated with his class s mild boredom with the subject of the Holocaust. Ben Ross s students can t seem to understand how the German people could have followed Hitler and the Nazis. Mr. Ross designs an experiment called the Wave. The Wave s three principles, Strength through Discipline, Strength through Community, Strength through Action, are thinly veiled fascist manifestos. However, his unruly students develop a voracious appetite for leadership. What begins in a single classroom, soon gathers momentum. Before the end of the week, Ross, a charismatic teacher, soon finds himself leader of a cult movement that governs the entire school. To an educated reader, these students seem to be reincarnated Hitler Youth, but only two students, Laurie Saunders and David Collins, recognize the Wave for what it is. Ross eventually realizes he has lost control of what he has created. He sets out to stop it before it is too late. But is history destined to repeat itself? In the end, Ross hits home with a lesson that both his students and the reader will never forget. Todd Strasser s novel rises above its simplistic style and shallow characters to deliver a blunt message. Readers begin to doubt their complacent attitude that such things could never happen in this place, in our time. The German citizens of the Nazi era were no more evil per se than Americans are today. As humans, we all possess the instinct to follow a charismatic leader. Those instincts can make us vulnerable to some of our darker urges. While Ross s students deplored the Germans for pretending not to notice as their neighbors were massacred, some students eventually use the Wave as an excuse to exercise their own intolerant frustrations. In one incident, two Wave members beat up a new student and call him racist obscenities. Intolerance is a slippery slope, and we are always in danger. There are racist people in the world today. Sometimes political correctness is the only thing that stops them from airing their hateful opinions. Strasser considers what if it became politically correct to be racist? Students in the school, given the order to convert new Wave members using any means necessary, begin to believe that any behavior is condoned by the principles of the Wave. Peer pressure runs amok. The Wave rushes mercilessly through the school, sparing no dissident. Ben Ross is surprised at its strength. He himself even gets caught up in it. The Wave demonstrates how often in history egalitarianism can become Fascism. Although it is not directly mentioned in the book, the power that Ross attains is reminiscent of Stalinist Russia. The principles of the Wave are not evil in themselves, yet the type of society they create is a society primed for a leader like Hitler to lead astray. Could it happen here? The Wave was written not only as a narrative of an experiment on human sociology, but as a warning. By opening our eyes to the dark possibilities within all of us, Strasser arms readers with awareness. As citizens of the world, we must be aware of intolerance taking place around us globally and locally. Whether by recognizing potentially volatile situations on an international scale and educating others about it, or by simply speaking out against intolerance in one s everyday life, readers of The Wave realize their potential to make a difference. The message of the novel The Wave is consistent with the message of the HGP in that only by working together and pairing awareness with education can we prevent the Holocaust from happening again.

79 Student Reviews Remembering Rwanda By Olivia Paquette, Boston Latin School, Massachusetts A film like Hotel Rwanda is not easy to categorize. It is not a documentary, nor is it a completely fictional. It is a war movie, showing the violence of a civil conflict. It is also an epic drama, recounting one man s heroic actions, which made a difference to so many others. What distinguishes Hotel Rwanda from any other movie is, in fact, the way in which it combines all these aspects. The story is based upon the true experiences of Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan man who, during the genocide of 1994, used the hotel of which he was manager to shelter more than 1,200 Tutsis from the violence of the Hutu majority. While it succeeds in telling an inspiring story of sacrifice and courage in the face of unspeakable horrors, it is also an important film because of its subject matter. Hotel Rwanda aims to reveal to an American audience the facts about a genocide which happened only eleven years ago, but has already been forgotten by the world. As director Terry George says, it was a story that had to be told. In order to tell that story truthfully, George, along with Keir Pearson, co-writer of the film s screenplay, did extensive research. They visited sites of the genocide in Rwanda, and interviewed survivors, many of whom were sheltered in Rusesabagina s hotel. They also spent hours with Rusesabagina himself, reviewing the script and adding facts and details which he provided. By showing the public exactly what happened in Rwanda, the director writer, and actor wanted to move them to action. The indifference which the rest of the world, especially the United States and Europe, showed toward the Rwanda genocide is painfully clear in the film. Don Cheadle, who stars as Paul Rusesabagina, joins George and Pearson in urging the public to learn its lesson from the film. In an article co-written for the Boston Globe, he relates the genocide in Rwanda to present-day events in Congo and Sudan, asking readers not to repeat the cowardly retreat which the world performed in response to the conflict in Rwanda. Hotel Rwanda has been compared to Steven Spielberg s 1993 film Schindler s List, about a factory owner during the Holocaust who saved over 1,100 Jews from death in concentration camps by identifying them as necessary workers for his business. The two films share a similar plot and central character. Paul Rusesabagina develops in the same way Oskar Schindler does, from an uninvolved onlooker into a hero willing to compromise his personal safety to save lives. The mission of both films is also the same: to educate viewers about atrocities which must not be forgotten. Spielberg says that he made Schindler s List so that history could not be denied. For this reason, he wanted the film to be as close to reality as possible. Although Schindler s List is not a documentary, Spielberg gave it what he calls a cinema verité, documentary feel by filming it entirely in black and white, to resemble typical video footage from the World War II era. Many scenes in the film were shot in the original locations where the events took place. The film faced the reality of the Holocaust with brutal directness and honesty. The truth of Schindler is what makes it so memorable and so important. Keir Pearson says that he considered a documentary approach in telling Paul Rusesabagina s story. However, he felt that a feature film would reach more viewers. The urgency, as Boston Globe critic Ty Burr puts it, of getting Hotel Rwanda out to as many people as possible also prompted Pearson and George to cut out some of the violence of the movie, in order for it to pass with a PG-13 rating. This somewhat restricts the true representation of the genocide in the film. Although he says that focusing on just one man s story may obscure other facts surrounding the Rwanda genocide, Pearson hopes that this film will reach more people in order to provoke thought and action in the viewer. After all, he says, Hotel Rwanda is only a film. What s most important is what you, the audience, take away from it. Unlike many movies shown in the United States, Hotel Rwanda is, indeed, a film which aims to educate as well as entertain. Ms. Freeman, who teaches Facing History and Ourselves at Boston Latin, brought a group of students to see Hotel Rwanda when it opened at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. She says it is an important film because the issue is important. The goal of any movie, she believes, should be to educate the public. Hotel Rwanda educates viewers about an event which, says Ms. Freeman, most Americans know very little about, and there is an incredible value in that. Hotel Rwanda entertains, yet its truthful and factual portrayal of such an important event is what makes it so valuable. As a feature film, however, Hotel Rwanda is able to do what most documentaries would not be able to do. Beyond simply drawing more people into theaters, it also makes the facts more accessible to viewers. Since it focuses only on a few characters, Hotel Rwanda allows viewers to become more personally engaged in the story. This is facilitated by the superb acting in the film, especially that of Don Cheadle, whose performance has been nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award, and of Sophie Okenedo, also nominated for an Oscar, who portrays Paul Rusesabagina s wife with remarkable intensity. Viewers become involved in the fate and the evolution of these two characters, and can relate, in some way, to struggles of the Rwandans during the genocide. Like Schindler s List, Hotel Rwanda tells an incredible story. Its plot and character development alone would be a remarkable work of fiction. However, the real power of the film lies in its truth. It reveals the shocking, terrifying reality of an event which is now forgotten by most of the world. It shows the shameful indifference of the United States at the time, which is reflected today by our lack of knowledge about the event. Hotel Rwanda is an inspiring story, but it is also a testimony to a disturbing truth. In the context of current events in Congo and Sudan, it is a warning to never again allow indifference to obscure the suffering of thousands, whose lives could be saved. 79

80 Student Reviews Hotel Rwanda By Peter Finocchiaro, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York Paul Rusesabagina is the manager of Des Milles Collines, a four-star hotel in the capital city of Rwanda, Kigali. He is, among many other things, an excellent politician of sorts. Providing his clients with the very best brandy and Cuban cigars, dishing out bribes to generals and distributors, Rusesabagina runs the Des Milles Collines with smooth precision. While these might not seem like the most admirable techniques one could employ in business, it is these skills that Rusesabagina used to save the lives of over 1200 during the 100 day Rwandan genocide in One of the bloodiest, most appalling examples of hatred in history, the Rwandan genocide claimed a million souls, most at the hands of the machete-wielding Hutu militia. The history leading up to the genocide, as briefly explained in the movie, goes back to the Belgian colonial occupation of Rwanda, during which time the ruling Belgians selected a small number of the Rwandans to help rule the country as Tutsis over the majority Hutus. Resentment and anger of the unfair ruling of the Tutsis fermented among the Hutus, and when the Belgians left Rwanda, the Hutus usurped power in the country. As the genocide begins, Rusesabagina (played by Don Cheadle in the performance of his career) first worries only for his family, but later realizes the severity of the situation, and opens the doors of the Swiss owned hotel to the refugees of the genocide. Only by the bribes that Rusesabagina dishes out to, among others, a murderous military general, are the refugees protected from the blood-thirsty Interahamwe (the Hutu militia). Rusesabagina is never portrayed as overly magnanimous, but down-to-earth, and he never condescends to those around him. He is a normal man placed under extraordinary pressures, but he remains, most of the time, calm and understated, which can be credited to Cheadle s wonderful performance and the writing of Terry George (Hart s War), who also directed. The Hutu extremists hate of the Tutsis is manifest throughout the film in the cold voice of a Hutu radio personality who urges the decimation of the Tutsi cockroaches and actually sets in motion the massacre with the code cut the tall trees ; (the Tutsis were, in theory, taller than the Hutus, with thinner noses). The presence of the radio broadcasts throughout the film served as an ominous reminder of the atrocities committed outside the walls of the Des Milles Collines and also draws an unsettling parallel to the Nazi propaganda machine during the Third Reich. The visuals of the massacre are never so explicit as to make the audience cringe, but powerful enough to remind the audience of the horror of the genocide. One moment that is especially powerful happens when Rusesabagina happens upon the piles of dead bodies lying on the street when he had ventured outside of the hotel to get much needed supplies. One of the most tragic aspects of the genocide was the world s failure to recognize it, one of the major aspects of the film. UN forces are sent mainly as figure- heads, shows of the UN s presence, but without any real ability to prevent or put an end to the butchery. Throughout the film, you hear little clips of Clinton-administration officials tackling with the issue of whether to even call the events in Rwanda genocide, as well as watch as international forces enter Rwanda to evacuate all the foreign national while leaving the native Rwandans to die. Surely one of the most tragic aspects of the Rwandan genocide is, considering the ease with which the world could have intervened and saved many lives, that no one chose to help. Hotel Rwanda is, undoubtedly, one of the most socially conscious, powerful films released in The magnitude of emotions that the film can bring out of the viewer secures its place as a must see, and wonderful performances and fantastic story make Hotel Rwanda surely one of the most important cinematic achievements of the last five years. Hopefully, the movie will draw more public attention to the monstrosities that occurred now a decade ago and help to put an end to at least some of the pain brought about by the awful events of genocide

81 The Story of a Life Student Reviews By Lauren Sharan, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York The Story of a Life by Aharon Appelfeld and translated by Aloma Halter, is a memoir that tells about Appelfeld s experiences during the Holocaust, since he is a Holocaust survivor. He has written more than twenty books about the events which stuck in his mind during these never forgotten years. He was seven when the Nazis invaded his hometown, Czernowitz, on the eastern edge of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was killed at the beginning of the war. I didn t see her die, he writes flatly in the memoir, but I did hear her one and only scream. Appelfeld and his father lived through a forced march across Ukraine to a labor camp. Aharon escaped and survived in the forest alone, staying part of the time with an old Ukrainian prostitute. After the war was over, he moved from one displaced persons camp to another until at last he wound up in Jerusalem. Appelfeld appears to have written his memoir as a duty. It is vague and general where his novels are not. During the later part of his horrible years, from one concentration camp to another, he begins to have writing trouble and still to this day tries to remember more and more of what happened. In his book, Appelfeld says, been trying to describe without success, for years. One of the memories he has that stuck on his head over the years is of walking in thick mud across Ukraine, holding his father s hand, watched on by the whips and guns of Romanian and Ukrainian soldiers. It s clear to me that with only one small wrong movement I ll sink down and drown, and even Father won t be able to pull me out.... The mud is deep, and I cannot feel any solid ground beneath it. I m still drowsy from sleep, and my fear is dulled. It hurts me! I call out. Father hears my cry and responds instantly, Make it easier for me, make it easier. This part of the passage is very emotional, and makes you feel as if you are there. Unfortunately, these were the conditions and it truly is how the inmates felt. These are the last words you hear about his father. Appelfeld never says what happened to him. There are enough silences like this to make you wonder how and why Appelfeld ever became a writer. You wonder why he would ever want to remember these tragic times in his young life. Many of his recollections are what you might call mute memories, the remembrance of things nonverbal and things left unsaid. After he escaped from the labor camp, Appelfeld didn t remember how he entered the forest. In the memoir, nicely translated by Aloma Halter, he gives a heart-stopping account of a train ride he took in the summer of 1937 with his mother. He tells how when his mother was sleeping a stranger approached him asking him if he would like some sweets. She later tells him that his favorite food, halvah, is for peasant children and shoves his feet into his mouth, saying aren t they tasty? Appelfeld s mother catches the witchlike woman and pulls him away. Many Holocaust writers say that is it just impossible to describe what went on. What makes Appelfeld s writing more deeply troubling is that he ties, almost unconsciously, the silences created by the Holocaust to the silences that came before and after. 81

82 Student Reviews The silence of many Jews after the Holocaust is, in Appelfeld s telling, largely because of Israel. Far from seeing Israel as a land of healing and hope, Appelfeld sees it as the land that severed his connection with his language and history. As a child he spoke Yiddish and German, Ruthenian and Romanian. As a teenager in Israel, he was made to speak Hebrew. That language went with an ethic: Work hard. Don t look back. Be a man. Live in the present. He admires his friend Mordecai, a survivor, whose unspoken rule of life is less and less speech. And the heroine of Appelfeld s novel Tzili is a silent creature, almost mute, who grew up neglected among the abandoned objects in the yard. Tzili survived the Holocaust just as Appelfeld did: by being quiet, running from blows and learning which berries were poison. There is, however, one crucial difference. Tzili had Appelfeld to tell her story. Appelfeld has only himself. Appelfeld s memoir exemplifies most of the unspoken memories of things that occurred during the Holocaust. It gives us full view of the inmates perspective, how they were treated and how they sincerely felt. He gives an overall deeply personal impression of the horrors of the Holocaust. Author Philip Roth is known for his racy humor, among many other things. But in his new novel, The Plot Against America, Roth takes the reader into the world of a Jewish man, remembering his childhood in New Jersey during the Second World War. The Plot Against America is a pseudo-historical novel in which a different scenario is played out during the time of the Nazi Regime. In the novel, Nazi sympathizer and American hero, Charles Lindbergh is elected President as the Republican party candidate. Lindbergh forms an alliance with Adolf Hitler to avoid war. He focuses on ridding the United States of concentrated communities of the Jewish religion and culture. Eight year old Philip, the leading character of the story, expresses his concern and confusion about the rapidly changing world around him. Because of the anti-semitic administration of President Lindbergh, including automobile revolutionist Henry Ford, Philip s family, among with many others in the Jewish community, are filled with perpetual fear of the future of the Jewish people. Surprisingly, the main focus of the book was not, for the most part, on international affairs and politics, but on the everyday life of Philip during this treacherous time period. This made for a more entertaining story rather than reading about and policies of a what could have been 1940 s America. I found it very engaging to witness the issues of Philip s family, whether the conflict between his Lindbergh- collaborating aunt and his liberal father, or relocation of Philip s brother to a Christian household in middle America in an effort to lose his Jewish roots. Constant national and close-to-home conflict kept me continuously on the edge of my seat while waiting to read what happens next during events including the anti-jewish pogroms throughout America, to the disappearance of Lindbergh. This book overall was one of the best I have ever read and should be read by anyone fascinated by the what if scenarios of history The Plot Against America By Jon Newmark, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York

83 Student Reviews The Long Way Home By Harry Lisabeth, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York Children today grow up learning about the Holocaust in school; they read books about it in English and learn its historical context in social studies. With a significant number of the films and books about the Holocaust focusing on the ghettos and concentration camps, The Long Way Home, a documentary film put together by Moriah Films of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, elaborates on what is commonly only a footnote in other stories: the displaced persons camps and the struggle to find a home for the millions of Jewish refugees. The Long Way Home gives new meaning to the Holocaust. Not only were millions of Jews and other minorities slaughtered during the course of the war, but the liberated survivors were thrust into a world which had no place for them no compassion to help them create roots in a new world. But a raging forest fire, once extinguished, sets in motion the rebirth of diverse new plants that will eventually fill the places left barren by the loss of the old ones. And so these refugees, these human ashes, set forth with unstoppable resolve to found a homeland a place where they would be free from oppression and persecution a place where their children could grow and prosper, unafraid. The Jews were met with hostility and resentment with their every step towards independence. Conditions in displaced persons camps were not much better than those in concentration camps. Most refugees found that their families were deceased. Resolved to start anew, the Zionist movement gained momentum and like-minded Jews began the difficult journey to their ancestral homeland. The British government regularly seized boats of Jews bound for Palestine and threw their passengers into empty German concentration camps. When the British government finally defers the issue of a Jewish state to the United Nations, the Jews are again met with opposition. With help of a strong lobby from the United States, the Jews are finally granted their own state. The survivors of the Holocaust triumphantly name their new homeland: Israel. This film will open the eyes of any who watch it to the realities of returning to normalcy after World War II. The pictures of liberation and the early days of the displaced persons camps are some of the most graphic and profoundly disturbing images of the Holocaust existing. It is difficult to differentiate between the sallow, wax-covered skeletons that are pictured leaving the camps. All of the commentaries from the liberating American troops share a common theme: one has to continually remind himself that these are humans being liberated from the camps. The stories offered by this film are difficult to listen to but important to hear. The liberation is often represented as the end of the Jewish people s struggle during the Holocaust, but it is actually far from it. The displaced persons camps were run like prisoner of war camps: surrounded by barbed wire and kept in order through the use of military discipline. When the Jews attempt to leave the camps and start new lives, they learn that they are not wanted by any country. The film details the Jewish people s resistance to further oppression, both armed and diplomatic. After a long struggle, the reward comes in the shape of a Jewish national state. The film is long and difficult to watch at times, but it is worth the time and discomfort for everyone to be aware of the strength and resolve of the Jewish people following World War II. Even after being rescued from the concentration camps, the Jews in Europe were often treated as subhuman. They had to fight for every inch in the battle for a homeland. The amazing thing is that, in spite of the overwhelming opposition to their cause, the Jews remained steadfastly hopeful. Looking back, all of the survivors consider that period, from 1945 to 1948, as one of the most important times in their lives. It was a time during which they truly believed in something; and they fought for it. The Long Way Home may spend the majority of its lengthy duration detailing the Jews struggle to find a home, but at its core it is a film about hope and strength and the triumph that is Israel. 83

84 Student Reviews Nesse Godin: Holocaust Survivor Online By Mary O Connor, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York On the website for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, there is a link to a website that shows the testimony of a Holocaust survivor. The survivor is Nesse Godin who was born in Siauliai, Lithuania in Nesse tells of her own experiences in the Holocaust as a child. The website shows a video of Nesse Godin speaking to a live audience about her life. This website is a great tool for teachers, students, or anyone that is interested to hear the first hand account of a survivor. Watching Nesse s speech from a computer is especially important for those who have never had the opportunity to meet a survivor in person. The site is very easy to reach by going to the United States Holocaust Museum s website, scrolling down to the education section, and clicking on the link, for teachers. The site can also be reached by simply going to foreducators/nesse. Definitely, one of the best ways to learn about the Holocaust is from listening to the facts from the voice of a survivor. This website makes it convenient for anyone with Internet access to have the chance to watch a survivor tell her story. Another feature of the website that makes it available to anyone is that the website can be used with or without speakers because there are subtitles during the video. The story of Nesse s speech is divided into eleven different sections, giving the option of watching the speech in segments or as a whole. When showing this presentation to a class, it is easy to choose the sections convenient for the lesson. The museum s website has many other useful tips for teaching the Holocaust to a class and great resources to use along with this one. Her speech includes the events of her life from before the Holocaust to the Death March. Nesse also discusses lessons she learned from the Holocaust and answers questions from the live audience of teachers that listened to her speech. Nesse remembers the advice of an older woman she met when she was only seventeen and going through what we learn today was the Death March. The woman s advice was, If you live, if you survive this hell, don t let us be forgotten. Tell the world what hatred and indifference can do. Nesse took this advice seriously and gives speeches to pass on the knowledge that only she and a few other survivors hold. Listening to her story and the story of others is a great step in understanding and teaching about the Holocaust

85 Alumni The Alumni Podium (continued) Often hearing from graduates of the Holocaust/Genocide Project, we posted a letter and a short questionnaire to our discussion forum so that we could find out some specific information about where life has led former HGP members, what they re doing now, and how and if the HGP affected their life choices. The results, so far, are very interesting. Here is a sample of the questions and answers we received. Our goal is to keep everyone in the link through telecommunications. If you are a grad, and would like to reply, write to us! Questions for Alumni: Please use these questions as a guideline to formulate your reply in a paragraph or two. Again, thanks for your help. 1. Name 2. Country 3. What are you doing now? 4. When did you participate in the HGP and what was your role in it? Did your participation in the HGP have an impact on your school experience? 5. Why did you join the HGP; was it what you thought it was going to be? (Explain briefly). 6. Did you take part in An End to Intolerance (magazine), the Spielberg Shoah interviews, or the Study Missions? How was that experience? 7. Have you taken part in workshops to explain the HGP? How were these experiences for you? for others? 8. Since the tragedy of 9/11, what new challenges are we facing that would be appropriate for the HGP to focus on? 9. One of the stated goals of the HGP is to educate ourselves and others in order to take an active role to make a more peaceful world. Did the HGP meet this goal for you? How? 10. Did the HGP have an impact on who you are today? Explain, please. 11. As an Alumni, have you stayed connected to the HGP in any way? How? 12. Are there any other related matters, stories or experiences that you would like to share with us on the HGP? My name is Sarah Golub, and right now I am a sophomore at Johns Hopkins University. I m studying public health, and possibly considering a career in medicine, or some other health-related area. Throughout high school, I was an art editor for the HGP, and wrote several articles as well. I have to say that I was mostly influenced to join the HGP by persuasion from my fabulous English teacher, Mrs. Kern (J), but I also loved what it stood for, and the message it sent out to not only those who contribute to it, but those who read it as well. I think one of the most important lessons I have taken away from my time spent working on the HGP has been the need for global communication and understanding. Learning about intolerance in high school was a valuable lesson, and being able to express not only the pain that others have felt, but also the strength that they have built up in response, was an incredible way to feel the impact of acts of intolerance throughout history. Whether through paintings, poetry, interviews, museum visits, or discussions, I think that the students involved in the HGP have had a fabulous learning experience, and in the process have allowed themselves to become more open-minded individuals. Along those lines, something I have learned to understand a little more this year is the issue of respect for others beliefs and cultures. Through my involvement in the Hopkins Hillel and Jewish Students Association this year, I have actually learned a lot about the extremely diverse levels of observance among Jews. It is amazing how differently Jews carry out their traditions and rituals, despite the fact that we all share the same religion. This difference obviously does not only exist among Jews, and this lesson in appreciation for others should be extrapolated and practiced worldwide, if we hope to aim for a peaceful coexistence of nations. I think this ties in very much with the events of 9/11 as well, and it is a crucial point in understanding the challenges of the world today. My participation in An End to Intolerance was a significant part of my high school experience, and I m glad to see that its members continue to work diligently and spread its valuable message! My name is Amanda Zoe Del Balso from the USA, and right now I am a freshman in the Honors Program at Boston College in Massachusetts. I m undecided as a major, but am taking psychology, communications, and English classes. I am also interested in studying Spanish and international studies in the future. For extracurricular activities, I write for our school newspaper, The Heights, and play club lacrosse. I participated in HGP from 10th grade until I graduated. I published poems in 10th and 11th grade, and in 12th grade I helped out with editing and wrote a few other articles. My participation with HGP had an extremely positive impact on my high school experience. I first became interested in HGP because Mrs. Kern was my 10th grade English teacher. It was a great experience for me to be able to talk to so many different people, even students from different countries, on the online forum. I have to confess 85

86 Alumni to pushing some homework aside in order to post a few things on the message board or scan what other people had written. It was really my first time getting to do anything like that, and it has definitely incited an interest and concern for social justice issues that I continue to carry with me. My most vivid memory from HGP was when I had the opportunity to show three foreign teachers around Cold Spring Harbor High School. As we walked the hallways that I considered so familiar, the teachers seemed impressed by our access to technology and comfortable, desk-filled classrooms. Having them tell me what teaching was like outside of the United States really gave me perspective on how great my academic experience was. Also, I remember feeling so lucky to engage in dialogue with these three teachers. Their students sent us cute little hair clips as a thank you a few weeks later, and I keep mine in my desk drawer as a reminder. I joined HGP because Mrs. Kern made it sound like it would be a great way for me to get an opportunity to write (both poetry and more serious articles), as well as become more aware of issues related to tolerance and justice. I knew it would expose me to things that I would have never come upon independently, and it was also a great way for me to meet with peers who felt the same compassion towards improving the world as I do. I took part in the magazines by publishing articles. The most memorable things I had published were two poems. I had always really enjoyed writing poetry, but being able to put the emotions I felt about the Holocaust behind a poem turned out to be a really great way for me to express my views and compassion about the Holocaust into a productive piece of literature that would reach people. I have explained HGP to many people. During college interviews and other things of that nature, I was surprised at how frequently I found myself mentioning HGP and the way it has affected my views on the world. Having to probe into what makes me different as a person, I have to say that HGP really provided an eye-opening experience in me. I was able to push past the comfort zone of Cold Spring Harbor, New York and make contact with people who lived extremely different, and in many cases more difficult, lives than I did. It s an experience I appreciate as being extremely unique and rewarding. It s ironic. During senior year Sevan Angacian and I worked on the HGP project together, and she was the one I found myself hugging tightly as we watched the events of September 11th unfold on the television in the library two years earlier. I feel like that connection speaks for itself in that HGP has a responsibility to promote justice. The way that Americans came together after 9/11 was remarkable and touching. However, the backlash of intolerance towards those who do not look traditionally American is something that as a project, the HGP should seek to point out and prevent. HGP definitely met this role for me. I really felt that I was making a difference by participating in the HGP. The responses from the message board and the publication of the magazine at the end of year offer tangible evidence that the efforts of the project are really helping to reach and enlighten people. Graduating from Cold Spring Harbor, NY after participating in HGP made me look forward to getting out into the world and continuing to make a difference. I don t think that I would have felt the desire to improve the world and promote social justice issues in the way I do now had I not been actively involved in HGP. Right now I am a member of the Appalachia Volunteer group at Boston College. Through this volunteer group, I will be traveling to Weirwood, Virginia, USA for Spring Break to help the community there improve their life. We will be helping these people, all of whom live in extreme poverty, rebuild their homes, clean up, and offer any other kind of aid the community may need. We will also be talking to the people down there about their situation and how we can help. My desire to help the people of Weirwood through this trip is largely a result of my feeling like I have a responsibility to improve the conditions of the world we live in, and this responsibility was taught to me by HGP. I also write for the news section of The Heights, the student newspaper of Boston College. Through that, I have had the opportunity to cover a lecture given by Holocaust survivor Sonia Schreiber Weitz. I have also written an article about two Palestinian students who came to campus and spoke to us about their situation and how we could help. I am drawn towards spreading the word about stories like this because I feel like I can continue to help, in the way I did though HGP, by writing these things. I ve stayed connected to HGP largely thanks to my communication with Mrs. Kern and the current staff of HGP. I passed the article about Sonia Weitz on to Mrs. Kern, and I am always happy to respond to alumni surveys like this one. It s such a great and rewarding project, so however I can help, even now

87 Alumni that I ve graduated, I m happy to do! I d encourage people to use HGP as a springboard for getting involved in the community around you wherever you are. I would have never met the amazing people I have in writing for the Heights or being a member of Appalachia had it not been for my inspiration to participate in these activities from HGP. I d also like to thank Mrs. Kern for all her efforts in the project. She served and continues to serve as a great mentor for me. Her compassion for human beings is truly inspirational, and I feel thankful that I have been fueled to make a difference by her empathy for all humankind My name is Marissa Prianti and I attended Cold Spring Harbor High School where I participated in the Holocaust Genocide Project under the direction of Mrs. Honey Kern. (I am currently a freshman at Bryn Mawr College.) I participated in HGP from grades nine through twelve, and I wrote articles for An End to Intolerance magazine in addition to being a section editor during my junior and senior year. My participation in HGP had a definite impact on my school experience because it taught me to take a broader and more comprehensive view of events both past and present. When I joined HGP in ninth grade I was not sure what to expect and only knew what I had heard from older students who were already participating. In addition to writing for the magazine, I participated in the 1999 Study Mission to Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. The trip was an amazing experience and visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp allowed me to gain a greater understanding of the scope and magnitude of the tragedy that took place there. In light of the 9/11 tragedy, I think it would be appropriate for HGP to focus on the issue of intolerance towards Muslims in the United States. This issue is a very serious one which clearly needs to be addressed. HGP s efforts to make the world a more peaceful and tolerant place are definitely achieving that goal even though the process may be gradual and at times not apparent. HGP has had a major impact on me as an individual because I am acutely aware of the need for racial and ethnic tolerance and the horrors that can result when this need is not met. As an alumni, I have stayed connected to HGP by visiting Mrs. Kern at Cold Spring Harbor when I come home for breaks in addition to visiting the website My name is Heather Morante. I am a citizen of the United States of America. Currently, I am attending St. John s University School of Law. I participated in HGP when I attended Cold Spring Harbor High School. Participating in the HGP allowed me to reflect on the importance of tolerance and has made me more cognizant of issues that concern the Jewish community. I joined HGP to become more involved with activities at my high school. I was, and to this day, remain concerned about social issues. I thought HGP would give me a great opportunity to learn more about an area that I was not that educated about. I took a role in HGP by writing an article for the magazine. Writing the article increased my awareness of social justice issues and allowed me to develop my writing ability. As a result of 9/11 one must be reflective with regards to the religious and cultural differences between our country and other nations of the world. This year I would suggest the HGP focus on how religious and cultural differences affect relations between the United States, Israel, and Palestine. I also think it is important for HGP to address how the views of our society regarding the Arab world have been shaped by the attacks. Unfortunately, as a second year law student, I find I have very little time available to educate myself about current political issues. Yet, I think it is my responsibility to stay informed and not solely focus on my studies. It is everyone s responsibility to remain updated on the current news. I would suggest people read their news from a variety of sources (not just strictly CNN). Perhaps, use European newspapers, as a source. The BBC is a great source ( Also, the Drudge Report ( is another source of news that will provide students with a balance of information to digest. The battle for social justice continues to be fought all over the world, as well as in our country. Importantly, there needs to be more of a focus on the individual s interaction with the community - our community of friends, our high school, and our extended 87

88 Alumni programs daily, I gained an unbelievable amount of proficiency in the tools of the trade, learning skills which would later be of direct use to me for my major in college. When it comes to representing the HGP after my departure, I find myself somewhat lacking. For the most part, I have remained somewhat quiet and reserved, generally not appearing in events where I have to speak in front of an audience (something I ve never found terribly pleasant). However, I did have the pleasure of participating in the Survivor Speaks events occurring while I was still in high school. It was there that I got the chance to hear personal accounts of the stories we often read about in second or third-hand renditions. There is just something truly fascinating about being face-to-face with the speaker and being able to interact on such a personal level, something that can not be found anywhere else. Now that I m a full-time student in college, I ve found myself feeling a bit distanced from the work being done on the project. Even with instantaneous communication over both phone and instant messenger available, I have found it to be somewhat less effective than just being there in person, which is exactly what I do on occasion. During my breaks from college, I try to make a point of dropping by my old high school to check out how everything has progressed, to lend a hand (if needed), and otherwise just revisit a bit of my not-so-distant past. Regarding September 11, one of the problems I feel is most likely to affect us down the road is that of blind hatred and global community. We need to concern ourselves with issues of social justice that do not only affect us, but issues that affect people all over the world. Dorothy Day once wrote, The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart. We must examine our own hearts and then attempt to affect change revolution in the hearts of others My name is Andrew Sanjanwala, a graduate of Cold Spring Harbor High School in America. I am a student at Rochester Institute of Technology. I first learned about the Holocaust/ genocide Project and its student magazine, An End to Intolerance (AETI), during the middle of my high school education. The idea of the students compiling their work and having it published made me rather curious. Acting on this, I started watching then staff: Brendan Condon and David Lebensfeld working on the magazine and learned what I could about how they did what they did (using Adobe Indesign to hand-craft the raw articles and images into something unique). Later, I would use the skills I picked up to take over their roles in AETI when in my 11th and 12th grade, I served as Layout and Design Editor for the project as well as Editor-in Chief for the latter of the two years. One of the most notable benefits I received from working on the HGP during these two years was that relating to the actual compilation and layout of AETI in the computer. Using the 88 88

89 Alumni the past; however, they are still prevalent in modern times. I was able to expand my knowledge of the world beyond my provincial thinking and was exposed to much of human history that students in high school social studies classes are never taught. Being a member of the organization allowed me to have a complete and accurate view of both the past and present human condition. I certainly feel that the HGP educated myself and others on how to take a more active role to make the world a peaceful, better place to live. Without being presented with many of society s problems, one is never able to be an agent of change. However, the HGP not only increased my awareness of discrimination due to race, gender, ethnicity, and religion, but it also made me want to actively try to change the world by reducing the amount of such hate. I have always felt a need to correct anything in the world that I saw was wrong and the HGP allowed me to have the opportunity to become an agent of change. I feel that the HGP has helped to mold the young adult I am today. I feel that it has made me realize how lucky I have been thus far in my life to have never experienced the levels of discrimination that many other people have experienced. The organization also helped to make me a more worldly person; I am less sheltered and extremely open to all people, ideas, and ideals because of the HGP. Although I have not actively been involved with the HGP since I graduated high school, I try to keep current by reading An End to Intolerance every spring when a new edition is published. discrimination under the guise of patriotism. With terrorism, we as a nation are faced with the potential for an attack to come at almost any time and be carried about from almost anybody. All that is needed of a person to become a terrorist is for them to simply perform acts of terror. This is not all too difficult to accomplish and does not require the individual or group to be of any specific nationality or ethnicity. Because of this, I believe the potential for a second era of McCarthyism to begin exists, even if remotely so. The best way to deal with this possibility is to try our best to educate people about the sheer irrationality of it, hopefully preventing simple arrogance and anger from taking over. However, this is a somewhat extreme possibility and most likely will not come to pass. And if doesn t, at least those who tried to teach can say that they did their part; they helped better society through whatever means they could. I am Kristen Aliano and currently a sophomore biology major concentrating in neurobiology and behavior at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. I was involved in the Holocaust- Genocide project during the last three years of my high school career at Cold Spring Harbor High School. Being a member of the HGP completed the educational experience I had in tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades. Not only was I able to participate in the Project as a writer and editor for An End to Intolerance, but I was also able to learn a great deal about many of the injustices that occur in our world today. We often think of prejudice and hate as relics of 89

90 Creative Impressions Morning On The Terrace By Barbara Wind, Jacob s Angels, daughter of Holocaust survivors, Director of the Holocaust Council of Metro West, New Jersey Who shall it be today, Herr Göth Female red-haired freckled The first to walk by Must she do something special Squint into the sun Scratch at a mosquito bite Does it matter if her Hair is long or cropped? Choose now! That blond? Or, would you prefer brunette Corkscrew curls Fair-skinned, plump It s true, plump s a rarity Under these conditions But it exists Everything exits here Look! There s a moving target Thick braids glow like polished copper Don t give it too much thought Cock the hammer, aim, shoot You can do a brunette tomorrow Amon Göth, a Nazi, was the commander of the Plaszow Concentration camp during World War II The Last Tool People stare into the obscure liquid with no hope. Growling hunger begs for substance that isn t there. Someone grasps the bowl with brittle hands. Beaten and covered in filth, Even a tool for sustenance humiliates a desire for food. A young girl, starving, diminishes in the presence of soup. In the miasma of human waste, This bowl offers a last chance past sorrow. Shaina Nukho, Blue Ridge High School, Lakeside, Arizona 90 90

91 Creative Impressions Renee s Bathingsuit (a tribute to a survivor s memory) I am her last piece of dignity, the light in this horrible time. Memories are so clear; they help block out the present-- they give a taste of freedom. Then the stench of reality returns and memories are ruined. She relinquishes her hold on me, but loving memories remain. Samantha DeWarf, Blue Ridge High School, Lakeside, Arizona The Ravine The earth s lips open once, swallow all, forcefully close. There is no discrimination between men, women, children. A shot, just one, yet many fall. The taste of death is bitter. Mother earth wraps her arms around the ravaged, offering sorrowful comfort. Teddy Waldo, Blue Ridge High School, Lakeside, Arizona The Window The eye of the chamber, the window of the soul, touched by perfect noses as they peer in from the outside, force-fed spoonfuls of death, saw life leave cheeks, saw the burden on the soul. The window saw pain. It is as clear as glass. Yet no one stood between the perfect and their view. And no one stopped the death. Danica Gibson, Blue Ridge High School, Lakeside, Arizona T. J. Dowling 91

92 Creative Impressions Sara s Doll I wish I knew where Sara went, Our friendship once a golden treasure. I ve seen Sophia watch us, Jealous with an awful look. I remember the sound of Sara s laughter, The touch of her soft, warm hand in mine. But now, I wish I could hear my Sara s voice again. Brooke Pyper, Blue Ridge High School, Lakeside, Arizona Haley Stutchin The Sky Witnessing the tragedy from beginning to end, each raindrop is a tear to the dead. The heaven s sight is a torture of present and past. Unable to help one man, the sky is a reflection in a mirror-- like a depressing wretch, eyes perpetually crying, just standing by, weeping...never again Charles Ellsworth, Blue Ridge High School, Lakeside, Arizona

93 Creative Impressions I Remember I remember the warm blanket my grandmother made I remember waking to the sound of my mother singing I remember running the track for fun Then life came crashing down That warm blanket? My entire family on one cot warms me now How do I wake now? The sound of gunfire wakes me, when I get to sleep at all A warm meal? A cup of stark cold soup broth twice a day is my new diet And running? When I run, it is for my life When life was good this could have been a nightmare But a nightmare has become reality and an old reality, a farfetched dream Sarah Yewdell, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York 93

94 Creative Impressions Lonely People Lonely people Alone in the dark No hand to hold No shoulder to lean on Cruel intentions fill the souls of many A period of hate A loss of feeling safe Nothing to live for Never knowing when it will all end So make a wish Then think outside the cage Hold to it true Believe hard Fight the fight everyday and night Nowhere to run Nowhere to hide Somehow millions were caught dead or alive Colby Kossoy, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York In muffled silence sobs of children press into silent walls. Tears run down cement. Miasmic gas has done its work. A Silent Tribute Neil Hesse, Blue Ridge High School, Lakeside, Arizona

95 Creative Impressions Answer Me No preference Only an answer Find me Any soul I am lost Hear me All ears I am quiet Save me Every heart I am in peril Answer me No Preference Only an Answer Nebulous Joe Locicero, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York Alone Trapped in a cattle car With 80 other people Mother gone Sister gone Father missing I sit here With people all around the world Some talking Some sleeping But it is as if they don t exist I have no one I have no family No friends I am alone Matt Sunshine, Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York 95