This week you watched
The Grey Zone. The film is based in part on the true story of Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Hungarian Jew chosen by Josef Mengele to be the head pathologist at Auschwitz. The film showcases the moral delimma of the the Sonderkommando Jews and follows their plans to carry out the armed revolt that took place at Auschwitz. Please post your reflections about the film.
40 comments:
After watching "The Grey Zone" I believe that I have developed a deeper meaning for what the word "Holocaust" means. Watching Jews under Nazi control become enslaved into destroying their people out of fear of their own lives is horrific, mind blow-ing, yet eye-opening. Seeing how the process of mass genocide was carried out--seeing the gas chambers, the prisoners barracks, the burning of bodies--is as close as we can get to experiencing it for ourselves. It is moving to see the difficult life and death decisions that these poor humans were forced to make. In "The Grey Zone", I strongly connected this with the women whom were involved in the sneaking of the gun powder. Having to bear extreme torture, then watching their own friends be shot in the head one by one shows an idea of the magnitude of how inhumane and unbearable the death camps were, creating an understanding of why many were able to commit suicide to get out of such a terrible place. I have come to the conclusion that it is of upmost importance to display historical film of the Holocaust in a manner such as this. Revealing the true horrors that millions were faced with and understanding how wrong these events were provides an important lesson to prevent something like this from ever happening again.
This film was very meaningful because it took what people had seen and made it come to life for people who had not. All of the things I have heard about the Holocaust have been horrible but I never truly understood how terrible things were in the camps until I saw this film which displayed it vividly. I learned a lot throughout the course of this movie such as the uprising that took place, also how the Jews and others prisoners were forced to help the Germans in the killing process by trying to assure everyone that they were on their way to get showers. I thought this was movie was both eye opening and informative.
"The Grey Zone" was a very deep film that touched upon so many aspects of the Holocaust that people try to keep a secret. No one ever wants to "upset" us but seeing the truth and all the horrible things that were endured gave me a stronger understanding of how people were forced to live. There were many times throughout the film where I thought to myself "This isn't happening" when in reality, I could see it. My mouth was wide open at many of the brutalities people suffered. What I found particularly disturbing was how the man was beaten to death in front of the whole group and no one did anything to help him. The wife's screams were so piercing but after she was shot the silence was eerie. The film proved how such traumatic events change people. The prisoner went from beating a man to saving a girl in an hour. It showed just how crazed the torture made them and the fact they couldn't make rational decisions. The deception was clear how they truly believed they were showering but also how every worker they would die. Seeing so many shot on the spot proved just how heartless the Nazis were but also the awful struggles people were forced to endure. Even after watching the whole film and seeing those experiences I still can't even imagine how they felt or the pain they suffered through although I now can understand what people really mean when they say "Auschwitz."
After watching the "grey zone" i developed a better sense of how hard the Nazi's tried to keep up the charade at auswitch. When the people were loaded off the trains they were constantly reassured that as soon as they showered that they would be reunited with their families. Also how they went as far as to number the hooks so that each person would know what clothes were theirs when they were to come back. It must have taken so much effort to completely wash down and repaint the "showers" after each trainful of people arrived. All of this stressed how deceptive the Nazis were.
I agree with Kylie Bradley that it is important to keep showing films such as this one so that people will remember the horrific events that transpired in hopes that nothing of the sort will ever happen again. The only way to prevent history from repeating itself is to remember it.
It was really hard for me to watch this film. It was so graphic and surreal; at some points I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It's difficult to imagine what the Jewish people went through and what they were thinking during their time in the camps. I thought it was frustrating to watch them being loaded into the gas chambers and ovens over and over again. All of them were so innocent and it's hard to understand why the Germans didn't see that.
I agree with Jordan on how deceptive the Nazis were. They wanted to make the Jews think that they were just going in to take showers so that they'd be clean. They didn't want them to know that they were about to be lead into gas chambers to be killed. Also, I couldn't believe that fellow Jews would trick the others into thinking they were simply taking showers.
after watching the movie i thought that Nazi people shouldn't kill men and the girl.
The Grey Zone in my opinion was the first film that I was able to really understand what went on inside of these camps. In several scenes I couldn't help but cry as I saw innocent people be murdered based on religion. It was sickening to see the Nazis treat people so inhumanly. I was shocked to watch jewish workers throw bodies into the crematory and lie to their own people to get them into the gas chambers just to save their own life. The scene where the women were tortured was extremely disturbing. The fact that someone had the guts to be able to sit in front of human just like themselves and crush the fingers and rip off their nails for the purpose of torturing them. The women the hid the gun powder were so determined to do something about being in the concentration camps which was very surreal for me. In the majority of other movies and in many texts books the jews in these camps obeyed the Nazis but here we saw that not everyone obeyed so easily. When the Nazis were individually killing each women in their unit I was disgusted with the human race. A man who for some reason thinks that he is of greater power because he is german stand in front of hundreds of women and willingly shoot each and everyone of them.
james Yi
when i saw this movie i saw many horrible things happen to the jews. i agree with patrick that i understand that the halocaust was a bad thing that happened but when i saw this video it made it clear that the camps were so bad.
I agree with Jordan. Before this film I never truly understood how the Nazi's were able to manipulate millions of people and have them calmly walk into their own death. After seeing how they used other Jews and many different psychological tactics I know have a better understanding on how they were able to do it.
After watching "The Grey Zone" i would urge as many people as possible to watch it. It not only shows you how life during this time period was but it truly allows you to put yourself in the shoes of a person observing the horrible things happening at these camps. It was shocking to see how violent and brutal some of the people involved in this were, it was also shocking to see how ashamed some people were though. You could see in many of the workers' faces how much it pained them to do this to people of their own kind and to watch them suffer. The film was a truly moving and eyeopening experience for me.
I agree with kylie, after watching i learned the true meaning of "Holocaust". It was just an event i felt bad about and knew about until now. I now know how awful it truly was and i understand more why it was such a difficult time. What i have yet to understand is why it isnt stressed more for people to be educated about the situation. It is shocking to know how many people dont know much about the Holocaust whether they choose not to or never had an opportunity to learn about it.
This film gave me a greater understanding of the terrible things the Jews had to deal with. It was shocking to see just how terrible the Jews were treated in the camps. The scene with the man who was beaten to death was very disturbing. He was killed so violently even though he did nothing wrong. The screams of his wife made it even sadder. It's horrible that she had to stand there and watch her husband being brutally beaten to death. This film really helped me to understand what life was like for the people in the camps.
I agree with Julia's comment about thinking "this isn't happening" even though I was watching it happen.
I thought the film showed the moral dilemma really well..Given the choice of death or helping the Nazi's, they chose to live..even if it meant they didn't want to live with themselves and what they had done afterwards. Trying to save the girl was like trying to save their last shred of human decency, as if they could right some of their wrongs with that one life saved. Yet they failed and the Nazis won in the end. The end of the movie wouldn't have made it past typical Hollywood critics, but it's so reflective of what really happened during the Holocaust, which was almost always a bleak ending.
I agree with Max..I think this film really captures what an actual "genocide" means. As just a word, you have no grasp of its meaning. Yet once you see the piling of bodies, almost too many bodies to register, you start to understand the meaning.
In my opinion, i thought that the film really showed how the Jews at the concentration camp went through harsh conditions. Most Jews would think that they were going to shower but, they didn't know what was going to happen to them. I was surprised at how the Jews had to put the dead bodies in the fire.I also found it shocking when a man was talking about how another man had to put his own family into the fire. This film helped me understand about what happens in the camps.
I agree with Jordan's comment. That it must have taken so much effort to wash down and repaint the showers for the more people arriving at the camps
I agree with Sam that saving the girl really showed that they were still human and were trying so hard to help each other out but under the circumstances some had to suffer. They would kill each other to live another day only to be killed themselves. The decisions these people had to make in order to save themselves were horrible and no human being should be put through that. It was interesting to see the doctor had such an authoritative role as a Jew. He was able to go to different parts of the camp with a pass from Dr.Mengele. People were so afraid of Dr. Mengele that they wouldn't question his authority. The gas chamber scenes were really disturbing and I didn't know just how hard they had to work to keep up the faccade of the "showers". This movie was very moving and opened up my eyes to many things that happened at the camps I did not yet know of.
After watching the "Grey Zone" I was able to develop a clearer understanding of the Holocaust and its impact on the Jewish people. The film really put me in the perspective of the characters and I felt as if I could feel some of the emotions emerge from the characters. The "Grey Zone" showed in great detail the various sufferings of the jews such as working in the concentration camps, being placed in the gas chambers, being shot to death in the head, etc. One thing I didn't understand how the Jews could do was when they were forced to burn the bodies of their fellow people and hide the fact that they were all going to die when they journeyed into the chambers. It must have been a heartbreaking experience for the Jews that were forced to burn the bodies of innocent people like them. It also kept them living in fear, because for many they would have their last day too, they just couldn't ever predict when.
I agree with Avalon's comment on how it was frustrating to see this film. It made the events that happened during the Holocaust a reality. I still am unsure of how the Germans were able to inflict so much pain on innocent Jews with no hesitation what so ever. These people were so innocent, and I found it so hard to see them be destroyed by such a heartless group of people.
I learned how much somebody under Nazi control would do for just one more day of life. All of the Sonderkommandos knew that they would eventually be killed, but they still agreed to murder thousands of people, simple to live a few more months.
I agree with Mehgan, the film does a really good job of putting the viewer in the concentration camp. It really makes you feel like you are there which helps you understand the situation even more
It was pretty difficult for me to watch this film because of all the distrubing things that were shown. It did help me see how difficult it must have been for the Jews and other victims of the Nazi's to live throughthe horrible events that they did. I can't even imagine what he would have been like to burn people, especially people that you may have known. At the end when the girl narrated the the final scenes of the movie I thought that it was a very meaningful way to end the movie. The way she described the smoke of their bodies rised and how eventuallythosepushing the bodiesinto thecematoriums were just like robots followingo orders.
Like Kylie, watching the women get tortured was extremely difficult for me to watch.My instict would be to say that I would have done the same that they did and endured the tortures that theydid in order to allow theuprising and revolt to happen but seeing the pain that they must have been in showedme how truely difficult that would have have been. When there unit was shoot for what they did it put them in an evenmore difficult decision because they didnt know it if was more imporant to hide the wehreabouts of the powder or save their friends live. I can honestly say that I do not know what I would have done. I think the movie overall allowed us to expereince, at a minor level, what the Jews and others had to experience daily.
I thought that this film was a really good insight for what happened in the death camps. There were a lot of things that I didn't know about the camps like how they shot a lot of people instead of sending them to the gas because they were over capacity. In fact, I never really thought about how a death camp can even go over capacity. It was also surprising that the prisoners smuggled guns and other things into the camp, though after seeing how people smuggled so much stuff into the Warsaw ghetto it's a little less surprising. It shows that people will find a way to arm themselves and rebel no matter where they are.
I though this movie was incredibly difficult to watch. It portrayed the camps so well and accurately that I was absolutley blown away that such horrible crimes could ever be committed. I was also blown away by the courage of the prisoners. Even with so much at risk, they went through with their plans to make a change.
I agree that there were a lot of things about the camps that i did not know before watching the film. I was unaware that they assigned jews to roles that contributed to the killing of other jews. I also didnt know that it was possible to survive the gassings, and i was shocked that a little girl lived through them.
I agree with Kylie that this movie changed my perspective of the true meaning of the holocaust.
Tom's statement reminded me that I, too, learned how much people would do just to live for a short while longer even if they know they'll be killed.
I think this film really showed the thorughness of the Nazi's. The lengths they went through just to deceive people into thinking they werent going to die are unbelievable. They even wetn so far as to have some of the Jews play music as they walked into the "showers", which, for me, was one of the most disturbing things in the film.
i think Meghan was right when she said the film really puts you in the perspective of the Jews as they walked through the camp. the way the camera was positioned in a couple of scenes really put you in the shoes of a Jew, as if you were seeing through their eyes.
I was absent for much of the film.
After watching the movie I thought it was brave of the Jews to fight back for what they believe it. I saw how inhumane the camps were and how badly they really treated the prisoners.
I think this movie really demonstrated the brutality and horrible occurrences during the Holocaust. A lot of the events that occurred become much more real in our minds by seeing them in the movie. Just reading about it doesn't really portray the true reality of what it was really like, and seeing it in this film really helped me better understand just how beyond terrible lives became during the Holocaust.
I agree with Jackie that this film showed how particular and thorough the Nazis were. It demonstrates how strong their devotion was to their beliefs, which lead to such devastating events and occurrences.
There was a distinct feel throughout the movie were nothing good was ever going to happen because this was a film constructed to show how badly the Jews had it and to express how no matter how hard they resisted they ended up being killed. The film is used for that purpose as it is filled specifically as it was filled with disturbing scene after scene
The grey zone was a truly horrifying peek into the death camps of the holocaust. To think that people were to be forced to kill each other and lie to there face is unthinkable
I agree with kylie that films like this should be continued to be shown in order to inform people of these atrocities
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