Chapter 5

I feel quite speechless after reading this chapter. I can not really think of the words to describe these horrific events. I feel ashamed that I am learning much of this for the first time. Clearly I learned of the Holocaust and WWII, but never to this extent. I think it is sad that I never learned of the specific dreadful living conditions, deaths, gas chambers, and disease that so many people lived through. I saw the movie "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and that was the first time I learned of the gas chambers. In college even, I have studied the oppression that Jews have lived through here in the US with stereotypes and discrimination, but never of their experience during the Holocaust in such detail. I was thankful for your description of when and why the US stepped in and fought in WWII, and of the Oswego freedom camp. As a future teacher, I hope to take advantage of historical sites such as that. I feel that would give more meaning to students about the Holocaust, more meaning than reading one book about it as I remember from 6th grade.
The optimism that the Blumenthals had disappeared when their paperwork as exchange Jews was not accepted. That was the last straw for them, but I think it is amazing they stayed as optimistic as they did. They still did find small gleams of hope, like when a guard gave Albert an apple. It was interesting to see Marion's search for four perfect pebbles come back into play. I suppose that in itself is a hope to keep optimism alive.
I was shocked as the description of the lice, the amount of dead bodies, using urine to warm themselves, and the amount of people who died from typhus. I was also shocked that it took 15 minutes for the gas to have its effect, and the thought of people suffering for that long. I suppose people suffered longer from dying from disease. I think the camp commandant, the Beast of Belsen, should have suffered longer than a hanging. You have mentioned before how you can not understand how humans committed such acts, and I often wonder that about humans who have oppressed others throughout history. It is something I am unable to comprehend.
I am not sure what I could do with this chapter in a classroom with students. It is very disturbing information, but I would like to find a way to present this sort of information to students. I think it is important for students to understand what it must have been like to be treated so horribly, and why it is so wrong. Some troubling words I found were: Sternlager, Austausch, gas chamber, Zyklon B or Cyclon, deceive, booty, crematorium, typhus, delirium,