Tuesday, April 2, 2013

free write-4-2-13

I am so ready for winter to be gone and spring to bless us with its presence I went to bed knowing the weather was going to be yucky this morning because of the excruciating pain in my left knee, it does it every time there is a weather change. On the positive side I am so excited I started a very good job yesterday and look forward to all the money and oppurtunitys within the company !!! I'm looking forward to the middle of April I have a few great weekends planned as well as returning back to church !! Easter Sunday was an amazing service at North point church and I plan to go back this weekend and see a regular service and decide if I want to make it a every Sunday event for me and my family. I am so proud of myself and all the accomplishments I have made in the last 6 months It has shown me that growing up isn't that bad after all, I'm a great mother, Student,daughter, granddaughter, niece,sister and friend today and I wouldn't change it for the world. It is nice to feel so good and positive about how my life is changing one day at a time.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

A Film Unfinished - response summary

In "A Film Unfinished" it shows the horrible truth about the Warsaw ghetto. This film was very disturbing to me , but at the same time I viewed it as a eye opener on what was happening during the war when the German Nazis tortured the Jewish culture. In the thirty days of filming they captured things that were going on such as people starving,children searching for ways to eat ,trash everywhere because people were just to weak to carry it ot, Jews being mistreated and filmed as if they were animals. They were also filming things that were staged and untrue for propaganda purposes. I couldnt imagine being expelled from my home and forced to find a home within the ghetto walls in 2 days not able to have all my belongings,in most cases families were to share one room and only had access to very little food. The film showed how the Jewish community just roamed the streets most of them became very weak and unhealthy in a short time due to lack of eating and hygeine. Families were torn apart as they were eventually dying off in the streets, one survivor mentioned herself as becoming "unhuman" ,she had became "indifferent of others,otherwise it would have been impossible to live." They were eventually stepping over corpses of all ages that were lying in the streets and sidewalks, watching Jews picking up other Jews throwing them in a cart and taking them to mass graves.While watching this part of the film I asked myself , How could someone just stand there and film things like this go on ? It is heartbreaking to watch, I couldnt imagine being a part of something so horrible. The staging of scenes like making Jews walk with their heads held high as if nothing was going on, the feeding them in resturaunts , even a fake funeral precession is just another horrible act. How can people be so cruel? The Holucost is a very interesting topic however after viewing this film it was put into perspective of all the torture and inhumane things those poor people had to endure during the War and the Film was a little hard to sit through and watch without tears coming to my eyes.

Monday, March 18, 2013

testimony of Joseph Mortkowitz

Joseph Mortkowitz born 7-11-1924 in Lodz Polond , later becoming the largest ghetto created by the Nazis in occupied Poland. He was one of six children, his father was a tailor, and also in the Polish army.Joseph grew up in a section of all Jews and was raised in a very orthodox home, he finished 6th grade ,school was then interupted by the war.He was able to stay in home while 250,000 Jews were enclosed in the ghetto around his section. He worked for the secret police since he was the oldest child he referred to it as slavery, his father had been captured in Russia and they didnt know it. In May of 1940 they were enclosed by wired walls and streetguards were in place and they were made to wear yellow stars. His happiest memory was being reunited with his father and was able to travel to Auschwitz in 1944 on the cattle cart with him and the rest of the family ,they were then seperated he stayed with his father ,brother,and cousin in the Barrick he learned his mother and Siblings were killed.He was taken two weeks later to Mildorf Germany for work, he and his father was in good condition. He got sick in the summer of 1945 and was taken to a sick camp,there was when the americain soldier came in during Liberation and took him to a hospital. In June of 1948 he and his brother left Germany and went to Montreal Canada and stayed until 1949 it was then they came to Chicago and met there Father he has resided in the states ever since. The First sign of anti-semitism in the states was in Albany NY stopping at a country club there was a sign reading "NO Jews.No dogs,No coloreds" He said,"I cant believe that was my first surprise in anti-semitism since 53..."

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Holocost survivor testimony Anton Mason

Anton Mason born 4/21/1927 in at that time known as Romania was a survivor of the Holocust.He lived a comfortable life with his parents and little brother, his father was a buisness owner and economically they were considered upper middle class, his family were observent jews of the holy holidays,but never very religous.They spoke Hungarian in the home and romanian outside of the home. Aston was a emotional,tempermental child who had alot of friends from school and also played sports like tennis,soccer,and ping pong. At age thirteen his father told him one day he would be his buisness partner after finishing school, it was soon after that the war started.At his Barmitzvah it was a day of celebration but also a sad day because they had heard of all the Jews being killed in Poland as the stories were being told they didnt know how safe their families would be.In 1942 the war was confirmed to his family, his fathers sister showed up and told them of all the Jews being killed and they needed to be took into hiding. In 1944 his family was made to leave home and taken to a ghetto the Hungarian authorities had taken everything from them. They stayed in the ghetto for six weeks and then taken on a cattle cart to the selection in Poland and there was seperated from his mother and brother,he and his father were selected as prisoners and they survived in concentration camps throughout the war as workers. Survivors got used to living with starvation, death, and terror in the camps.There isn't a day that goes by he dosent think about the horror of the holocost. As time went on he became the sucessful buisness man his father knew he would be. Quotes of Aston Mason: "If you drank the water you gave up!" "will the world ever know all of what happened?"