Monday, January 5, 2009
AUSCHWITZ: Inside the Nazi State - Period 1
"What greater purpose can history have than to try and lead people toward a possible understanding of how this crime could ever have happened? Without an understanding of how it happened, you can't begin to look around the world and think why it might happen again."
– Laurence Rees, Writer and Producer, AUSCHWITZ: Inside the Nazi State
Please post a reflective comment on the film that you saw today and feel free to comment on at least one other student's post.
Mr. Gallagher
27 comments:
I thought that the Auschwitz movie was very interesting and disturbing. I didn’t know that the war in Russia had anything to do with the starvation in Germany. I also learned that the Auschwitz buildings used to be Polish army barracks. However, they didn’t hold enough prisoners so they moved the camp further away to a larger plot of land. It was really disturbing to hear Hans Friedrich talk about his hate for the Jews to this day. Some Jews had cheated him when he was a child and it scarred him for the rest of his life, causing him to inflict so much pain on such a large group of people that had done nothing to him and he knew it. You would think that after something so horrible there would be some sort of regret, but not in his case. It was really sad to see the rooms that the disabled children and adults were killed in using carbon monoxide while being deceived that they were supposed to be getting showers. The Jews were treated so terribly in the concentration camps and all of the pain inflicted was intentional, which only makes it worse to hear about. I think that Laurence Rees says the same exact thing that we talk about in every history class. We learn about history so that it doesn’t repeat itself and so that we can learn from the past and not make the same mistakes again. I’m glad he made this film about Auschwitz because so many people are in denial about the Holocaust and this is real evidence that it took place.
- Unfortunately I missed watching the film today so it's impossible for me to comment on it. However, I find Lizzy's comment very interesting and hopefully I'll get the chance to see and comment on the film myself.
- Unfortunately I missed watching the film today so it's impossible for me to comment on it. However, I find Lizzy's comment very interesting and hopefully I'll get the chance to see and comment on the film myself.
- Ilsi D.
- forgot to post my name up in the last one..
I found the Auschwitz movie very disturbing and informative. It showed the transformation and creation of Auschwitz. I found it interesting when the movie said that originally it was not meant for thousands of Jews it was meant for potential political threats to the Nazi plans. Over the years they took three million soviet prisoners and killed about two million of them. I thought it was disturbing when it showed how they were able to get the local people to rise up and beat and torture the Jews. Another thing that I thought was hard to listen to was how they killed mass numbers of people. How they lined the people up along side the large ditches and would shot them so they fell into the ditches was horrible. Lastly, when they were talking about how killed the mentally disabled children and adults I found it heart wrenching. How a doctor would just look at the reports and not even try to meet the people before they killed them. The carbon monoxide pipes and prison like rooms were horrible and not a fair way for them to live and die.
I agree with Lizzy when she says that it was disturbing to hear Hans Friedrich and how he still has a hatred to this day for the Jews. Also, it was hard to hear the stories of how they were intentionally inflicting pain on the Jewish people.
I agree with Lizzy when she says that it was disturbing to hear Hans Friedrich and how he still has a hatred to this day for the Jews. Also, it was hard to hear the stories of how they were intentionally inflicting pain on the Jewish people.
The Auschwitz film we watched today was disturbing due to many instances of crime. For example, it was hard to see the men that were forced to hang by their arms in an unnatural position, the cruelty to that is unbelievable. I did like to hear Political Polish Prisoners point of views of the matter and other men that went through the hardships of Auschwitz. On the other hand, Hans Friedrich was disturbing to listen to. I did not like how he did not regret his heinous acts of crime and how he said he had no emotion towards the innocent people he was killing. I guess that’s what makes him such a great Nazi representative, his cold heart is just an example of what those men really were. I disagree completely with everything he said and he had nothing to back it up. Especially when he was talking about how the Jews treated his family, however it was clearly the propaganda talking. As for the innocent Jews, it was really sad to see them face their deaths. I was surprised to see that doctors signed off on the killings of mentally disabled civilians, their jobs as doctors were to protect and try and help those people. However, that is not what they did. Without reason they killed more people demonstrating their similarities to Hitler himself.
Agreeing with Amanda, I was really disturbed with everying Hans Friedrich said. With all the documents and footage there is today he should see how bad his actions were. Sadly, it seems like if he went back in time today he would do the same thing again.
The Auschwitz film taught me a lot of infromation I have never heard of before. I didn't know that the buildings were originally built to imprison Polish soldiers. There were two things that interested me the most in the film. One was the interview between the German man and the interviewer and his reasons for killing the Jews and how and why he felt such hatred towards the Jews. And the other was the treatment of the disabled and how doctors determined their lives through paper work, which is astonishing.
I agree with Katie's comment. It was very disturbing to see the Jews hang themselves in uncomfortable positions because it shows that Hitler and the German people wanted the Jews to suffer in the worst ways possible. And I also agree with how the doctors' actions were similar to Hitler's.
I found todays video to be disturbing and full of information. From the video i learned that the aushwitz camp was originaly intended for polish prisoners, and it wasn't going to be a death camp but a factory that would make thing for the war and polish prisoners would have been forced to work in it.
I agree with lizzy in that i feel that the killing of dissabled people was very sad and one of the most disturbing parts of the movie.
it is interesting to see how a back water concentration camp can become an infamous nazi death camp with a few plans from hitler and the ss. this film does a good job of depicting the nazi mentality when they executed civilians and built death camps. its almost sickening to witness how these people who kill innocents can live with the same beliefs later on in life.
agreeing with marufa. the scene in which the jew is describing ways he was tortured was very hard for me to listen to. to think that people can sit through that and do nothing is appalling in every sense.
I was deeply disturbed by the Auschwitz film we viewed. But, at the same time i was not as horrified as i had expected i would have been considering my previous knowledge. I thought it odd to think that the camp was not planned to be the site for the historic terrible mass exterminations. Also, the way the facilities and amenities for the prisoner were not as bad as expected. The prisoners themselves were not the masses of jews i had anticipated hearing about. Most horrific to me was the first person accounts of the experience from both the survivors and the Nazi's who carried out the killings. The lack of answers the one man had for why he killed the Jewish prisoners was unimaginable. If you don't know why you killed them why did you do it in the first place? What was the motivation? I can only imagine how this film will progress.
-Austin E.
I agree with Lizzy's comments on the new information that this film showed myself and her. I was surprised that the starvation in Germany was a direct effect from the war in Russia. Also, i was also disturbed by Hans Friedrich when he talked about his time as a Nazi and his hatred of the Jewish people. His lack of regret made the film sincerely difficult the watch. Like Lizzy I am glad this film was made and shown in our history class.
-Austin E.
I found this film segment of "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State" extremely interesting because it was the first film I've seen that showed the origins of the Nazi death camps. Prior to this film I had known about many of the terrors that had occurred inside the death camps many years into the war, but I had no real knowledge of how this all came to be in the first place. Laurence Rees is right, without an understanding of how it happened, we cant look around and think about what could happen again.
I thought this film portrayed the horrific nature of the camps very well, but it also showed the political side behind the camps, which I doubt many people know. The film talked about how the area around Auschwitz was rich in natural resources. The Nazi empire had bold dreams to create a new city in the area with Aushwitz as a type of slave factory for different manufacturing labor.
I also learned from this film of the 3 million soviet prisoners that were taken by the Nazis. The film said that a majority of them would be killed within a short time span, an unforgiveable act. The film showed how the Ukrane Jews, Russian, and Polish Jews were targeted for extermination. It was shocking to me watching the interview with the SS officer that he still holds hatrid towards the Jewish people even to this day. How is that possible with such heartless attrocities taking place? It was amazing that the officers were so obidient and unquestioning, and they enabled the extermination to readily take place.
-Jake Jablon
I agree with Lizzy about the sadness and horror of hearing about the disabled prisoners. These prisoners were chosen to be systematically exterminated for no other reason than they were slightly impaired. The Nazis intentionally murdered these individuals, 75,000 of them, with no apparent regret. Once again, its horrible to think that this could have ever occurred in our modern society. How could a people have sunk so low that they could allow this? These disabled were checked off to be exterminated by the hand of a willing and undiscriminating doctor. By simply marking an X on a piece of paper he was stripping away a human's right to life. What gives anyone the ability to do this?
-Jake J
Although the movie was clearly disturbing, i found it very interesting. I liked learning about the concentration camps and hearing first hand what witnesses had to say about it. I was able to learn how the jews were killed and what the jews themselves had to say about it.
I agree with Jake that not only did the film portray the horrific nature of the camps, but it also did a very good job at explaining the political aspect of it as well. I hope we can watch more of this film.
The film was very interesting. I had not known that the camp was originally built for other purposes, other than killing the Jews. I did not like the part where it described how the mentally disabled inmates were told to take a shower and then killed. It was just very disturbing. I was surprised that the witnesses were able to tell their stories so clearly. I expected a lot more emotion. I guess they've gotten used to telling the stories.
I agree with Nick about how the officers still had the same beliefs as before. The interviewer made good points telling the men that the people they killed had no direct connection with the way their family may have been treated in the past. He admit that was true but they were still just Jews. I would expect an apology by now.
I was shocked at the types of torture that the Nazis were trained to do to political prisoners and how some Nazis felt no guilt or sympathy as they tortured and killed Jews. I also did not know that Auschwitz was originally a town and later a prison to hold prisoners before it was turned into the infamous concentration camp used in Hitler's Final Solution. I also did not know that some prisoners were kept as serfs. I also did not know that a lot of the roots of the anti-Semitism that some Nazis felt came long before Nazi propaganda was being printed.
Andy H.
The most disturbing part of this film was the interview with Hans Friedrich. He spoke of his involvement in the killings of Jews at the Auschwitz camp. He seemed to have little regret for the way he brutally murdered countless Jews and still has strong antisemetic feelings even now, more than sixty years after the war ended.
Also interesting was the way the Nazis treated disabled people. It was shocking that doctors could sentence someone to death for not being healthy when they had not even met the person but only read a small bit about the person's health.
I agree with what Lizzy said because I feel that I definitely learned a lot about the history of Auschwitz from before it was the concentration camp that it would later be known as. I was also disturbed by how some Nazis had such a strong hatred for Jews that they did not regret what they did and they did not hesitate to kill the Jews.
Andy H.
Even though the camp was a terrible place, the way it developed is interesting. Seeing the history of Auschwitz also shows the deveopment of the Nazi party and how they went from persicution to exicution.
Taylor E.
I agree with Lizzy, the way that the people in the Nazi party didnt have any regret for killing people. I could understand not having regret then because of everything we learned about the propaganda and how they turly belived that the people they were killing desereved to die. But afterwards when they see the way it affected the world and how much it hurt people and how terrible and brutal it was, I was shocked to hear them not have any regret about killing all those people.
Taylor E.
I thought the most disturbing part of the video was when the man who shot at lines of innocent Jewish as a Nazi soldier said he felt nothing when taking one by one taking their lives. He tried to justify his indifferent feeling to murdering innocent people that he had been conditioned to fervently hate Jews at such a young age that it felt natural to him. He even admitted that there were many misconceptions about the Jews, and even if a few Jewish people stole from his family when he was younger he didn't have the right to take out his rage on a whole group of people associated with the same religion. No matter the hatred he felt for the Jews, you'd think that one would have some kind of compassion when shooting innocent people.
Moreover, I agree with Lizzy's comment that one needs to understand history and people's intentions/misconceptions in order to not reiterate it. Although the Auswiotiz video is difficult to watch, it's important that it's documented so that people can see the true horrors of holocaust and human genocide.
This was the first film I have seen including an interview with a concentration camp operator (Hans Friedrich). He is one of few if any I have heard to say that he hated the Jews. (Not all Nazis actually hated Jews), He said that he still hates Jews because they somehow wronged his family. I think that he wants himself to believe in anti-Semitism to justify the atrocities he committed.
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