Last Day

Friday begins with Maggie's mom, Pat taking me to class.  Done at noon and then off to the airport.  Thankfully we cover something a bit more uplifting today-the rescuers, those that Yad Vashem recognizes as "righteous" and some that will never be due to not knowing their names.  Watched the film, "Courage to Care", great stories of ordinary people who did the right thing.  People like Marion Pritchard and the Trocme family in France.  This kind of renewed my faith in people as a whole.  My instructor told us it was never a good idea to ask kids what they think they would have done, because we don't know, but I would like to think I would have been someone who helped in some small way.
What a wonderful, wonderful week.  I learned more than I ever thought was possible and made some wonderful friends in the process.  Thank you to those who followed me on my journey!!  Until next summer! :)
Shalom,
Heidi

Day 5

Thursday, the last day I will have to drive on the expressway!! :)  Two major "themes" for the day:
1. US involvement in the Holocaust.  Very, very disturbing how many chances we as a country had to help and chose not to.  This is a very controversial subject that many historians will disagree on so we were given many sources to back up the information we received.  First, historian David Wagner.  He has done extensive research and has shown how the people in the US State Department who had the authority to do something for the Jews were antisemitic and chose to do nothing (among other things) and the film "America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference"  this film made me very angry.  It showed person after person(as part of the government) who in the end said no to helping, even FDR, one of our most beloved Presidents.  Other names that were given as known antisemitics were Charles Coughlin, Breckenridge Long-both men who had the power to make a real difference and chose not to.  I have such mixed feelings about this, I need to do more research in this area.
The other "theme" (if you will) of the day was our survivor Analise Neusbaum.  Her story is one I will never forget.  She was born in Bonn, Germany in 1929, survived 3 camps and made it to the US in 1946.  She was one of the most candid, honest survivors I have ever had the privilege of speaking with.  She and her family were sent to Terezin in July 1942 where in 1943 she was a part of the propaganda film and visit by the Red Cross.  The Red Cross asked to see a camp and the Nazis "prettied" up Terezin and they fell for it, even to this day she is very angry with the Red Cross.  Her father was transported to Auschwitz in September of 1944 and she and her mother volunteered to go a week later. They did not see her father at Auschwitz, he actually died at Dachau, and Analise and her mother spent 5 days in Auschwitz and then were transported to an airplane factory to work (due to this she does not have a tattoo like most Auschwitz victims).  She spent about 8 months at the airplane factory, where she was never given a clean set of clothes or was able to wash the ones she was wearing.  Her "set" of clothes was a long striped dress, old shoes and a winter coat.  She had no personal items, toothbrush, towel or even underwear!!  The airplane factory was bombed and although none of them were injured, they now were without anything to do, they were transferred to Mauthausen where they were to be gassed.  On the morning of May 3, 1945, Analise, her mother along with the other women in her barracks were called outside for morning roll call and then stood for quite a while, they were then sent back into the barracks-this would happen several more times until night fall.  The next morning one of the women looked outside and saw a white flag-the Nazis had surrendered.  She and her mother were liberated on may 5, 1945.  Her mother had TB and died within a few months, Analise came to the US in July 1946 to the Bronx.  They found out shortly after liberation that the strange behavior of May 3-with them going in and out of the barracks-was due to the fact that the Nazis had run out of Zyklon-B and no where to get anymore (they usually got it in Linz but the Allies were already there) so they lived because the gas supply had been miscalculated and there was no way to resupply!!  Analise had several artifacts with her, yellow stars, a comb and a soap dish built by fellow prisoners in the airplane factory-all things she let us touch.  It was a very emotional day, one that I will never forget.

Day 4

Wednesday was our 12 hour day and it was one of the most emotional so far.  The day started with the representative from the Echoes and Reflections curriculum coming to not only give us a copy of it but to "walk" us through it as well.  The curriculum is very, very well done and I am anxious to get started with it.  We came back from morning break and began discussing the ghettos, especially Lodz.  We looked at several pictures and learning about the "Give us your children" speech.  This was given by the head of the Jewish council to the Jews in Lodz due to the fact that the Nazis were asking for more people to deport to the camps.  The council decided that the elderly and the very young-ages 9 and down would be the next to go.  This has to be the most horrible thing I have come across so far.  How did he deliver this speech-worse yet how did the people let their children leave?  What would I have done?  I feel like I would have fought to the death to save my child, but what if I had older children (as many of them did).....
I also emailed Bodie Theone-many have read her books, The Zion Chronicles and The Zion Covenant, I am interested in the character Rachel with the tattoo "For Officers Only" on her arm.  I received a reply and not only is the story true, but Rachel is a real person!!  I was so thrilled!!  I am planning on emailing Bodie again with many more questions.

Day three

Tuesday was the first day that I found myself really tired. We watched a variety of films. The first one was done by Jews as a way to promote Poland as a place that was welcoming and prosperous for Jews, it was done in 1938-they obviously had no idea what was in store for them......the next film was of pictures that a German family had- they had left earlier in the 1930's and the film covered then entire family on both sides showing who survived and those who did not-27 died in the camps. We then spent some time talking about the movie "The Pianist" and the producer, Roman Polanski. He is very controversial, but when you know more of his story it makes more sense. He was in the warasaw ghetto with his mother(who was pregnant) and father- his mother was killed almost immediately due to her pregnancy but he and his father survived. now fast forward to what happened to his wife Sharon Tate (and yes that Sharon Tate) and you may have a little better understanding of his tortured life. The hardest part of the day was viewing a film entitled "The World at War" which was a television series in the 1970's. We watched part 20 which obviously on the Holocaust and to be honest it was the hardest Holocaust film I have ever viewed...it was disturbing on so many levels that I actually felt physically sick watching it. One of my classmates had to leave the room, clearly I would never show this to my students although the clips of the SS men testifying to their crimes may be something I use. Difficult day....

Day two continued.....

Day three begins with the drive on the expressway- no crying this time!! I would not want to drive this way for the rest of my life, but it is nice to know I can at least do it. Couple of things I didn't mention in last nights post due to being tired but thought about all night. We looked at a book entitled "The Poisionus Mushroom" it was a children's book from the 1930s. I had seen it before but yesterday someone in my class had such a strong emotional reaction to it that it caused me to look a little more closely. It is basically teaching children how to recognize a Jew. It is filled with "cartoons" of Jews in a very negative light- as greedy, ugly, hairy, with the big noses trying to steal from people and lure children away. The thought that this would have been read to children and it was widely popular is really something I struggle to understand, on some level it is child abuse (in my opinion). The other book we talked about was "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" which was for adults and was complete fiction about how the Jews wanted to take over the world- it was not promoted as Fiction so many believed it especially since Henry Ford was promoting it by giving one away with every new car that was purchased from him! Looking forward to today- will write more later.

Day two began with me driving in morning traffic on the express way....a lot of praying and a little crying (only a little)and I made it! I was early for class but that gave me a chance to check out the library. Class began with a discussion about Hitler coming to power and then at 11:00 we had a survivor speak to us. Inga Karo was 10 yrs old in 1939 when her family left Germany for the US. She was from a very wealthy family and had relatives in the US so they we're able to book passage out of Europe. They lost everything, business, home, savings and possessions. She told us how she was discriminated against as a young child in school, having to give up her library card, not being able to go to the park or the movies. During the pogrom kristallanacht her home was targeted to be burned down but a German officer came to the door and told her parents that he was taking their house for his son and new wife and if they signed it over to him (for free of course) then he would find them a new place to live. Her parents had no choice so her father then got passage for them to leave-but it took a year to get the tickets and paperwork in order. The boat would only take American money and they could not get a visa for her grandfather-he perished in Auschwitz just a month before liberation. She and her parents and brother lived in NY for a while but her father could not find work so they moved to Philadelphia. When Inga was 60 years old she put herself through college, graduating with a degree in writing. In 2001 the town of Essen, Germany where they lived when she was little invited her and some other survivors back- she went but felt it was really a show on the part of the Germans- like they were correcting their past mistakes by having them come back in a show of goodwill. I personally found that to be quite rude on the part of the Germans- kind of disgusting....we finished the day with watching some clips of films that were made in the 1930's as a form of propaganda for the nazis- quite eye opening..... Inga was the best part of the day she was a very small soft spoken lady who was very gracious and forgiving towards the nazis, really quite amazing......

Day one....

So the flight was fine and quick-Maggie was right there to pick me up and off we went. Her home is lovely and her parents were glad to see me :) we did a few errands and had brunch and then it was off to Gratz. We decided I can drive......hope "we" are right!! I registered and joined several other students in the lobby area where tables were set for dinner and I felt like I was in the sixth grade again with no friends and a pimple on my nose. I was invited to join a group (thank goodness)and the introductions began. I quickly realized I was one of only a few non-Jews at the table and began to not understand a lot of what was being said. We were invited to change tables at dinner and thankfully I ended up sitting with my instructor, Josey Fischer, who was wonderful at explaining and answering my questions like when did women start wearing yamakas? (about 20 hrs ago) can you explain kosher food (too long of an explanation) and why is that woman wearing black? She is Hasidic-didn't know women dressed differently too. so even before class started I had my first lesson! Our class discussions mostly centered on why the Jews going back to biblical times with a lot more explanations about Jewish beliefs. Looking forward to tomorrow.....