Free Write- 3/26/13

It's that time of year. The time of year when I start losing interest in school. But I can't allow myself to do that in college. I must stay on top of things, because all of my teachers have left the best for last. Meaning: research papers! Yay! I'm somewhat excited about this holocaust research paper, because it's something that will keep my interest, although I find it hard to listen or read about some of the stuff that happened because it's down right heartbreaking, and it brings me down for the rest of the day. I have to keep telling myself  that if they endured it for years and years, I can research about it for an hour a day, and then go back to my happy happy happy life. They couldn't. I have to deliver a culture speech in Public Speaking today, and my chosen topic is Iceland. Because no one knows anything about Iceland. It turns out that the entire country's population is 319,000. that's like the size of Springfield and some surrounding cities. Pretty unbelievable. This weather is horrible. Absolutely down right horrible. I guess that fall is going to go through December now, and the winter months will include January, February, March and most of April. yay. I'm just glad I have planted anything yet. I know a lot of people that did. NOT GOOD. I can't wait for this summer. I'm doing a lot of traveling. Why is traveling so frustrating to plan? And why, at the age of 18 can I not rent a car? UNBELIEVABLE! Isn't this the land of the free? I'm old enough to go out and smoke a pack of cigarettes and die for my country and vote on issues that greatly effect our country, but I'm not allowed to rent a car, drink a beer, gamble in Las Vegas, or get a hotel room. It seems to me that there needs to be some rethinking here. It's frustrating to know that I could have all the money int he world right now, but I can't use any of it without taking my parent along. It's a little ridiculous.

A Film Unfinished Response

Carlie Allison

Mr. Nueburger

Composition II

23 March 2013

A Film Unfinished

            There are very few things that surprise me anymore about what the Nazi's did to the Jews during the Holocaust, but this was an exception.  I find everything they do deeply disturbing in the film.  The way that they depict life for some Jews in the film as being in a well off home with multiple rooms, looking healthy and clean, and staging these scenes to make it look like they're carrying on with their lives. I really don’t understand this little project of the Nazi's because they were filming more than just the set up scenes. They were filming the actual lives of these people, and I know that the Nazi's didn’t want the rest of the world knowing what they were actually doing. They wanted to make sure there was no evidence.  It's seems to me a waste of time for the Nazi's even for propaganda purposes, but then again how can I make sense of what was reasonable in the Nazi mind? The film shows very disturbing footage of what the people in the Warsaw ghetto were willing to ingest and where they found some of these things to eat.  It just goes to show what people are really willing to do in order to survive no matter how repulsive it gets. Some of the survivors talk about how they could really start to tell which ones were starving and which ones were starving but going to survive. They were trying to explain that the spirit of the person meant everything. It meant whether you were going to live or die in some cases. It was very heartbreaking to hear one woman saying, as she watched the footage, how she just kept waiting to see her mother walking around on the street before she died. The beginning of the film is much easier to stomach than the end of the film. Everything just gets progressively worse. People are dying on the streets right and left and no one is really paying attention to it anymore because it becomes the norm for someone to just slump over on the sidewalk, dead. It's hard to fathom. 

Testimonies- Carlie Allison

Malka Barran was born in Warsaw, Poland on January 30th 1927 and when she was one year old her very large family and her moved to Czestochowa, Poland. She had a younger brother which made them a family of four, but she had a very large extensive family. Her father owned a printer shop in the same building of their apartment. When they were taken to the ghetto she was fifteen and her brother was thirteen. She said there were 42,000 Jews in Czestochowa and only 2,000 was left in the ghetto. She was twelve when the Nazi's took over Poland and the schools became closed while she was still in the sixth grade. The ghetto was established in 1941.  One morning in the year 1943 her parents woke her and her brother and they all put on many layers of clothing. She remembers looking outside and seeing SS men lined up all over the street and they came in the house and took them out into the street along with all of their neighbors. They lined them up and started the selection process. Her mother was put into the group that left Czestochowa and they never saw her again. Her brother and father and her were taken to continue work for the German's. Her brother and father were taken to do separate work from her. Her father and brother were carrying the rails for the railroad and were shot in the back one day. Her memory gets very foggy between the ghetto and concentration camp. The camp that they went to was a labor camp. She doesn't understand why she was the one that survived. She just remembers doing exactly what she was told by the Germans. They lived in barracks in the labor camp. She said there were no gas chambers at this camp.

"A young Jewish man ran into the hall and shouted,' You are free! Go out! The Germans are running away!'"

On what she ate after liberation…"she cooked those potatoes every day, and we ate it as though it was the most delicious treat everyday"

Joseph Morton was born on July 11, 1924 in Lodz, Poland. Same birthday as me. He had  five brothers and one sister. He was the oldest of his siblings and his siblings were spaced out about two years between each.  He found it very difficult to remember the names of his siblings and the years they were born.  His father was in the Polish army and was captured as a prisoner of Germany when they took over Poland. He was expected to take care of the family. The German's held a farmer's market or flea market and everyone was expected to come. They had hung four people to show what would happen to those who did not attend. In May of 1940 the ghetto was blocked off. They would round up the Jews randomly within the ghetto and send them away. Joseph didn’t find out until later that they were taking them to labor camps and some of them to help build the crematoriums at the death camps. They were still living in the same apartment within the ghetto. They had brought in around 250,000 Jews to the ghetto he was living in. His father came back to the ghetto and was used as a policeman by the Nazi's. By his father being a policeman he was able to save his aunt from going to Auschwitz. More people died from hunger and the more they would bring them in. When he was sent to Auschwitz with his family they were no longer giving the tattoos on people. They boys in his family were separated from the girls in his family and he never saw his mother and sister again. They were sent to work in Germany at Dachau next after only 2 weeks there. They began building a structure that went 11-12 stories in the ground.

"They would come in, black off certain streets, they would grab people, they took em' away, and we didn't know where" 31:40

"We had no outside contact whatsoever. I'm sure if we would’ve known what took place in Warsaw we would’ve known there was such existence as Auschwitz. I'm sure we would kill ourselves before getting to the place or we would do something"

Free Write 3-5-13

Oh my gosh, this week could not move any slower or be any busier. Mid-term week. the week before the best week of the year, just so happens to be the worst week of the year. 5 tests. One week. What's not to get excited about? Ew. My family and I are going to Panama City, Florida on Saturday morning at 3am. We usually go to Orange Beach, Alabama, but it's been getting way to cold for the beach, so we're going to try and see what 3 more hours south will give us. Super excited! This back and forth Missouri weather has got me dizzy and I'm ready for the "only worry int he world, is the tide going to reach my chair?" So far I've got A's and B's in all my classes. The only one I'm really concerned about is my Biology class. I'm so horrible at it. I just don't get it. My teacher doesn't even have a monotone voice, it's actually very engaging, but I can't seem to focus on what he's saying about carbon dioxide or whatever. I'm so white, can't wait to come back with a tan, only for it to fade away again. Everyone looks better tan. Fact.