Holocaust Blog

Ashley Groesbeck

      Part 1

Essential Question: What is the significance of remembrance?

When studying mass genocide such as the Holocaust, it is important to understand the significance of acts of remembrance. It is crucial to remember and make the public aware of the horrors the Jewish people had to go through to insure that an incident like that never happens again in history.

Artwork is an effective way to translate to people what when on during the Holocaust. The struggle and terror felt by the Jews upon entering the concentration camps is shown through David Olere’s artwork entitled “Unable to Work”. In the picture there is a very skinny, skeleton-like body hovering over a family like a ghost. He has his arm on the woman of the family but his legs are tangled and chained in the smoke of the crematoria. Possibly the figure above the family is the ghost of a Jew that was killed in the camp trying to warn or protect the family. The members of the family have white, pale faces and hollow cheeks. The baby of the family is sleeping and appears innocent and quiet. There is a little boy holding a toy which shows how young the children who were in this situation were. In front of the family is an arm holding a gun and by his sleeve he appears to be wearing a uniform. The officer seems to be blocking the family. The expression of the family’s face is complete shock. From the title of the artwork, it is inferred that this family will be killed because they are unable to work. The woman’s palm is showing held forward almost as a desperate plea. There are also people working as slaves in the background which suggests that life in the camp was not much better than being killed.

Poetry of the Holocaust lets the emotion of the Jewish people be known and remembered. The poem “Holocaust” by Sudeep Pagedar is about someone trying to decide whether or not to tell a young boy about the Holocaust. It is difficult and confusing to explain to a ten year old boy that he might one day be killed because of his religion.-Just because he is a German Jew. This shows that an entire religion was massacred just because of their identity and it didn’t make a difference who you were, even if you were a little kid. The author compares death to sleep in the poem. The tone of the poem is sad because it reveals what it was like for the Jewish people in the Holocaust who were uncertain and feared for their lives. Some too young to even understand the concept of death. They were deprived of their lives all of a sudden with no reason or answer. Poems written in the view of people living during the holocaust let people remember what they went through. Remembering is important because survivors owe it to everyone who died during the Holocaust to let people know. Out of respect for the lives and culture lost the public must be made aware of the crimes against humanity that were committed.

The writings of people who were living during the Holocaust are primary sources from that time. Excerpts from Anne Frank’s Diary let people know details of what it was actually like living in a concentration camp from someone who was there living through the Holocaust. Anne Frank writes how she got to the point where she didn’t care whether she lived or died. She wrote that the world would keep going on without her and all she could do was hope. Reading through someone’s view point helps to understand the horrible feelings that were felt by the people during that time. It makes it more real when you know that a piece of writing is from a real person and not a made up character. It also helps people to realize how inhumane the Holocaust was.

The artifacts from the museum displays help to answer the question of what the significance of remembrance is. Artwork, poems, and diaries of survivors help us to understand what happened during the Holocaust as well as portray the emotions that were there. By remembering and never forgetting what happened, it lets people to understand the inhumanity of genocide and why people need to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself and why current genocide must be stopped. It also gives the deserved respect to those to lost loved ones to the Holocaust and the people themselves who lost their lives. That their culture is worth remembering and their voices be heard through anyway possible.

Part 2

One artifact from the museum displays that relates to a passage in Maus was propaganda used that targeted children. A book called “The Poisonous Mushroom” written by Julius Streicher’s Der Sturmer-Verlag was a children’s book that encouraged antisemitism. Pages in the book teach about how Jewish people had crooked noses and how they were different. Another page in the book pictures a Jewish man being portrayed as a child molester by tricking young children with candy. The book makes Jewish people look evil and shows them as a danger to children. This book is an example of how propaganda was used to appeal to children to teach them certain ideas at a young age.      

This artifacts relates to the passage on page 149 in Maus. In the passage, Vladek passes by where some children were playing and they started shouting out, “A Jew! A Jew!” and screaming, “Help! Mommy! A Jew!!”. Vladek tells Artie how mothers always taught their children, “Be careful! A Jew will catch you to a bag and eat you!”. Vladek had to lie and say he was not a Jew so that he could get away safe.

The book and the passage from Maus connect because they both show how kids were affected by the ideas of Hitler. Children were influenced at a young age by propaganda and by ideas about Jewish people. It is wrong that there were books made and parents taught their kids about false ideas of Jewish people. If children are brainwashed into believing that Jewish people should be disclosed from society because they are a danger than they will grow up to believe those things and then teach their children those things. It is taking advantage of children by putting wrong ideas in their minds because kids are naïve and with lack of knowledge and experience believe what they are told. It is unfortunate that children were taught hatred towards Jews because they did not know better and people of authority such as their parents were teaching them this.  

Part 3

 One theme that I noticed throughout the artifacts in the museum displays and while reading Night and Maus was remembrance. The artwork, poems, and writings were all used to make people remember and not forget what went on during the holocaust. Also, Night is told by a survivor of the Holocaust who wants the readers to remember the Holocaust for the sake of those who have died. Maus is written by the child of a survivor and most of the story is Art's father Vladek remembering his life during the holocaust and telling it to Art. 

A poem from Mala's perspective:

Remembering

I remember the Holocaust like an old nightmare,

I remember the consuming smoke and the darkness of night,

I remember leaving my family was such a scare,

I remember we were all weak and unable to put up a fight,

I remember surviving with Vladek and getting married,

We remembered each other from before the war,

We remembered the horrors but on with our lives we carried,

We remembered we could now have a life of much more,

He remembered Anja his first wife,

He remembered her like his favorite song,

He remembered their memories that consumed his life,

I remember it was then we stopped getting along,

I remember we could never agree so the more we would shout,

I remember the bad times but I want to be happy now,

I remember the day I finally walked out,

Now I am alone but I am happier some how.