Holocaust Blog #2

"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."

As Eliezer finishes “Night” , he ends it with this final passage, nothing more, nothing less. He doesn't tell us about what happened after the war, where he went and so on, but he specifically chose to end it this way. He begins by mentioning the fact that he gets up everyday regardless of what he's been through, he has to 'look at himself in the mirror", which could be interpreted as the fact that he still has to face the reality of it all, no matter how cruel or torturous it is." 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." This part of the passage is very significant in my opinion because he says that there is a part of him that is dead and still within him, a part of him that recognizes all that has happened him, the tragedy of losing family, seeing murder and torture but in the midst of all that there is the person who is looking in the mirror, the little sane part of Eliezer that is still alive and has a little hope for his life, but regardless of the fact that he has come this far, he will never forget as that Holocaust survivor is still in him. He uses two different identities to specifically show this as a sane human being would not be able to bear the weight of all that he/she would see in the Holocaust and be able to look themselves in the mirror. This passage might be perceived as hopeful or bitter sweet even as it shows that Eliezer has found his identity after the Holocaust and the tragedies of his life are not restraining him. I read a primary source of a victim from the Darfur genocide from the Modern Genocide section who danced whenever he saw the gruesome acts going on around him, it would temporarily take his mind of things. It would help him forget. Years later, he still danced and it brought back awful memories but he felt the need to keep those memories alive, to respect those that lost their lives, to prove that they were not just a number or one of the masses. The comparison between these two is strong and so similar, both genocide survivors felt the need to share with the world what they had saw and how it has affected their lives which is a very difficult and vulnerable thing to do. How many people actually take the time or energy to remember all these people that have died for no reason? It might not pull our heartstrings since we didn’t know them but what if something like this was to happen right now, taking the ones you loved away? These articles and books are awareness for us of what mankind is capable of. It shows that regardless of all the hardships we endure, we often keep living and have to overcome them to grow as a person. It may seem impossible and is often very difficult for us to put aside painful memories but often keeping them as remembrance pushes us to move away from them and progress.

Holocaust Blog

Genocide, the word has nothing but negative connotations to it, but it has been a part of history for as long as we can remember. Genocide along with all its atrocity is a topic that is avoided but also very difficult to grasp. Why? How does all of this take place and how are humans capable of doing such evil and harming other lives for their own pleasure? We will never be able to understand this concept unless we are given power to manipulate people’s lives but we have some proof as to how these manipulations come about. Before the Holocaust, one of the most gruesome genocides known to mankind, a lot of propaganda surrounding certain ethnicities and stereotypes came about in the world especially Germany. Propaganda is made to specifically change or to go against a certain aspect of culture. The propaganda that was taking place in the 1930’s in Germany was focused on anti-semitism.

All of this propaganda was very strategically planned and worked very well because of that. The picture above shows a children’s book, “The Poisonous Mushroom” that was published during the 1930’s in Germany clearing expressing it’s antisemitism views. This children’s book shows how they targeted Germany’s youth, as children are fed whatever they are told and the hatred that they instil in them in their childhood might always remain a part of them. This is, I think one of the most important and effective cause of the Holocaust. The whole concept of starting to brainwash a child when they are so young and bringing them to act upon their hatred is not a very hard task at all.

This artifact is crucial in understanding how this manipulation in children worked. When we are young and told to stay away from something that is supposedly dangerous for us, we never forget it, “stay away from stranger” or “don't’ eat anything a stranger gives you”, the classic morals that stay with us for the rest of our lives. Young children were affected by these ideas as these posters and books portrayed the Jews to be evil and harmful and it is only but human instinct but to avoid anything that we feel is a possible threat to us or our the people around us. German propaganda posters also took on this job and did it very well which leads into the next major contribution to the Holocaust, Hitler Youth. (http://histclo.com/youth/youth/org/nat/hitler/hitler.htm)

The basic idea of Hitler Youth was to build upon the propaganda and get young teenage boys and girls to train for genocide and how they could exert their hatred in violence. The Nazi party put up camps where they would train these kids until they were deemed fit to join the Nazi party and become a follower of Hitler. This was all plausible as Germany was just coming out of WW1 at this time, the damage that the citizens of Germany took along with the war reparations was a lot to balance. Germany was not only angry but very unstable. The general state of mind would've been to blame someone for the great hit the country had taken and when Hitler came into power, he really played around with that idea. He sympathized with people and told them he would support them, which was all citizens needed to be sold.This whole concept of brainwashing citizens and then using them for your personal gain is the infrastructure of how the Holocaust came about.

Current events entry

France on Sunday provided Malaysia images of what could possible the missing jet. A Malaysian official involved in the search mission said the French image was captured Friday and was about 930 kilometers (575 miles) north from where the Chinese and Australian objects were seen.

Rob Griffith and Scott Mcdonald. "Malaysia: France has images of possible jet debris." Yahoo News. March 23rd. 2014. Web. March 23rd. 2014. <http://news.yahoo.com/malaysia-france-images-possible-jet-debris-100413872--finance.html>

The National Security Agency has been recording all of a foreign country's phone calls, then listening to the conversations up to a month later, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. At the request of U.S. officials, the Post said it would not identify the targeted country or other countries where the program's use was envisioned by officials. This program known as the MYSTIC is used to help the U.S monitor the activity of "suspicious" countries. 

Associated Press. "NSA reportedly recording all phone calls in a foreign country." Fox News. March 19th. 2014. Web. March 23rd. 2014. <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/03/19/nsa-reportedly-recording-all-phone-calls-in-foreign-country/>

Recently the AAAS (The American Association for the Advancement of Science) has taken the media to explain to the public that global warming if effecting climates throughout the world rapidly. These climate changes are harmful for the existence of species and we are not helping the environment by all the fuel wasting technology we are utilizing in our daily lives. "The scientists said they were hoping to persuade Americans to look at climate change as an issue of risk management. The society said it plans to send out scientists on speaking tours to try to begin a debate on managing those risks.

The report noted the climate is warming at almost unprecedented pace.

“The rate of climate change now may be as fast as any extended warming period over the past 65 million years, and it is projected to accelerate in the coming decades."

Suzanne Goldberg. "Climate change is putting world at risk of irreversible changes, scientists warn." The Guardian. March 18th. 2014. Web. March 23rd. 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/18/climate-change-world-risk-irreversible-changes-scientists-aaas>

As someone who is a devoted follower of March Madness and has relatives all over the world that join this month of NCAA college basketball tournament, I think this is a big deal for all the sports lover across the globe. March Madness requires fans to make brackets for the college teams involved, eventually your final bracket being your winning team and you follow along and see how well your bracket is doing. This past Wednesday, President Obama also released his bracket to the media which quickly was followed by many. There have been many surprises with the wins and loses that have occurred so far. 

Mike Chiari. "President Obama reveals his 2014 March Madness bracket." Bleacher Report. March 19th. 2014. Web. March 23rd. 2014. <http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1998046-president-barack-obama-reveals-his-2014-march-madness-bracket>