Reactions ( Final Blog Post )

My reaction to our book are unspeakable, I’m speechless. It’s an ending that I was really happy yet, I was sad. The reason I was sad is because this event actually happened and I wouldn’t of have imagined someone who suffered that much in their life. I liked this book because it sort of gives you you something that it’s twisted and it has a really good and intense description into the details of what happened to the Jews in the Holocaust but, at the same time it gives you a story that you will probably never forget. One of the themes I think can describe this book is hope because they never gave up. They always wanted to make thing better at the camps and the ghettos, pretty much all they wanted to do is survive and with a lot of hope you can out past any obstacle that gets in your way. This is why I think the theme hope encompases the book

I liked this project because of our groups because you get to hear different ideas and reactions to the book. What I learned from this book that never judge or make fun of other people if you don’t know them. What I learned from blogging is that you can speak your mind of what's happening. Blogging is an awesome way let out your reactions to this project. This is project is important for teenagers to be part of because this project open my eyes to a whole new different world and I believe that a project like this can change the world of many others. Thank you!! Everbody for looking at my posts and for commenting. I have learned a lot of things this unit and it’s all because of you. Thank you!! (:

Final thoughts

My reaction to the ending was surprised and happy because of how all the Jews got rescued. It explained very well of how they got rescued and everything that happened. What surprised me was that everyone in her family lived but her dad. It made me think of how are they going to live on without him and they will always have memories of the Holocaust and it will stay with them of all the stuff they did. It brought joy to me when they got rescued because they deserved to live and it must have been hard to live through all that tragic stuff that happened to them. The theme fear is in the book a lot because all the Jews were afraid of what was going to happen to them and if they will make it out alive. In the book elli was afraid of not seeing her brother and if her mother will make it out alive. Everyone showed fear in the novel because the Nazis were very strict about what the Jews did and all the Jews just wanted to be with there family and be free.

I have learned that almost everyone has lost a family member who was in the Holocaust and trying to survive was the hardest thing. I also learned that the Nazis treated the Jews very bad and there were many people starving and getting diseases because of the lack of nutritions.I have learned that many people don't know everything about the Holocaust and that people care about my opinions. This project is important to teenagers because its really fun to see people comment on stuff you write and some of those comments might tell you a fact that you never knew. Thank you  contributors for commenting and complimenting me on my writing.

Final Blog Post

The novel was sad, amazing, and very eye opening. When Elli said she did not want to go to America with her family I was shocked that she didn’t want to start over after what had happened to Elli and her family. I was amazed when Elli said that she did not want to go to America. When she told her mother and brother that she wanted to stay in her home town. I was somewhat shocked as well, I was shocked because she wanted to stay in her home town, and live as she did before. I was also amazed and shocked when Elli decided to go to America, and she had an entirely new outlook on life and I applaud her deeply for that. If I had to choose one theme to represent this whole book it would be choiceless choices. Choiceless choices represent this whole book in many ways whether being a choice for someone or sometimes they became bystanders because of choiceless choices. Because if they didn’t just remain a bystander they could die and if they just remained a bystander the victim would be harmed more. By reading this book I have learned through the eyes and memories of a survivor of what the Holocaust had been like from the conditions to family to death. I have learned that the memories never leave them and that they had an extremely  difficult time and words and actions never leave them. This is an important project for teenagers to be apart of because they will truly understand the life in the Holocaust more than they did by just learning about it. By reading a book from a survivor about their experience in the Holocaust teenagers will feel like they are there with that survivor and feel what is happening and will better understand what happened during this time period. As for the blogging part of this project teenagers will be able to put their own thoughts out there about the Holocaust and have others react and talk to them. This in general was a very great and fun project that I loved  being apart of. Finally thank you so much to every contributor and commentator during this project. You were all very helpful and are very kind to take some time out to read and reply to us. I really appreciate you all for doing that. Thank you once more.

Freedom at Last

“So this is liberation. It’s come.

I am fourteen and I have lived a thousand years.

I’m numb with cold. With hunger. With death and blood, and the rattle of the train rolling on and on.... Freedom at last.” I Have Lived a Thousand Years, p. 205

This quote to me tells me the amount of struggle and pain Elli went through. She is still numb with the thoughts and remembrance of the experience she was in. Reading this quote brings tears of happiness and sadness to my eyes, she is fourteen and throughout the year she was in the ghetto and camps, she feels as though she has lived a thousand years. She has had to grow up so fast and feels she has lived a thousand years. Elli is happy for the freedom but still numb with the thoughts of the camps, the horrific scenes of murder, the unquenchable thirst and the always present hunger. She has been through so much and she is finally finally free.

When I read this quote I think of my family's experiences with foster care. My siblings and I were placed into multiple foster homes and shelters. Our experience wasn’t as traumatizing as Elli and her mothers, but we did have to grow up a lot faster than most people our age did. After we went through the foster care system we were ecstatic for the freedom but still numbed by the experience we went through, such as Elli states. There is  one experience that is more difficult than the others. I was 6 years old and I was separated from my mom, brother, and sister. I was placed in a shelter for children 6 years and older. It doesn’t sound as bad as it really was. The first day I was there, I was told that the shelter was going to be fun and it wasn’t. I was lied to, I had a terrible time there and I was deceived. The leaders were rude and mean, the kids there didn’t let you play with them. I felt alone, nobody to talk to, nobody to comfort me when I am sad. I had no family, no friends, I was surrounded by people but I felt alone. When I finally left I was happy for the freedom, but I can never shake the feeling of longing, I cannot shake the feeling of loss and pain. My experience is minor compared to the victims of the Holocaust but I had to grow up a lot faster than most did, like Elli did.

Survival

“Look, Mommy. I admit, I’m very hungry. And I will eat half of the soup. But you must eat the other half because you have become very thin and every drop of food you deny yourself may prove disastrous”.  I Have Lived a Thousand Years, p. 167

This quote just explains to me how horrible the Holocaust was. They didn't even give you food and if they did it would be nasty or too little. Everyone was really desperate for food in the holocaust that they will eat whatever they gave them because they were really hungry. It just gives me a picture of how awful the Nazis treated the Jews and how strong the Jews are for some of them surviving the holocaust. People changed how they looked because anyone could see there bones of how skinny they are because they had minimal amount of food.

This quote reminds me of the theme choice less choices. The theme choice less choices connects to this quote because you had no choice of eating the meal. If you didn't like it then you would still have to eat it because then you will die of starvation and many people did pass away because of that. If you didn't eat then you will get diseases because of the lack of nutrition. I can also connect this quote to the theme hope and hopelessness because the people who ate the food the Nazis gave them still had hope of them surviving. The people who died of starvation because they didn't eat anything had hopelessness because they gave up. I could connect this quote to the Donner Reed Party because they both had to survive by eating something. Instead of eating regular food the Donner Reed party ate each other which is called cannibalism. The Donner Reed party got diseases to because of the food just like the Jews in the Holocaust. They all had to eat to survive but they were both in a different situation.

Heroes of the Holocaust

Rescuers see themselves as ordinary everyday people because they do not think that what they had done during the time period was extraordinary. They do not think it was extraordinary because in their mind they knew it was the right thing to do. Rescuing for some meant sneaking an extra ration of bread or soup. It could mean someone was friends with someone of a higher ranking and they let them run free during at a transport. A time when help is needed other than rescue is when something little cannot be done as just one person. Rescue was given to the Jews when some people hid them from the Nazis. Some of the ways that people rescued Jewish people was, hiding them in attics, haystacks, and sheds. Another way to rescue them from was any legal documents saying that they were Jewish was to give them new forged identity papers, Raoul Wallenberg did this. There were many different ways to help and rescue the Jewish population, but that didn't mean that there was always the choice or option to do it. The people that did feel that they could rescue some of the Jewish people are considered heroes to me because heroes rescue people and save their lives and that is what those people did. They saved Jewish people's lives and changed them forever. (Information from the article Rescuing Jews)

Heroes

     

                                                           

Think about the terms “help” and rescue.”  What is the difference between these two terms?  In the context of the Holocaust, how do you understand the difference between these two terms?  Can you think of a specific time when help was needed rather than rescue, and of times when Jews needed to be rescued?  Would you characterize those individuals who helped Jews as heroes?  Why or why not?

The difference between those two terms is that when someone helps you they help you because you are in a harm or because you can't do it on your own. Rescue is when you are trapped somewhere you do not want to be and someone comes for you and takes you away from where you are. In the article they said “A Hungarian officer provided water and helped when his Jewish prisoners tired on a long march” (Rescuing Jews reading). They needed help because they were going to dehydrate of how they were walking without drinking water in a hot day. Jews needed to be rescued right when they got in camps or before they went to camps because some were sent straight to the gas chambers and you don't want to see people die for no good reason. People who helped Jews are heroes because they just saved a persons life and isn't that what heroes do. They are really brave for doing that and the people who helped Jews should be recognized.