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.
39 comments:
This film has definitely been the most eye opening film we have watched yet this year. Its visuals and realistic scenes impacted me a lot as it gave the viewer a real look at what conditions were like in the concentration camps. Its hard to pick one scene that was the most suprisisng or shocking to me as they were all hard to watch. I think in general, the number of bodies shown in the film is absolutely horrifying and saddening as this displays the extent in which the Nazis were able to completely destruct an entire race of people. Overall this movie had a brutally powerful effect in making one realize the horrifying circumstances of the holocaust.
This film really showed how awful it was for the Jewish people at the concentration camps. Many parts were really hard to watch because of how horrible and gruesome it was but it really showed what it was like. I think one of the most disturbing parts was when it showed everyone in the gas chambers and then when it showed them taking the bodies out after. This film really had am impact by showing how horrible the conditions the Jewish people lived in and how showing just some of the horrible things they had to face everyday.
I agree with Julianne, that just the number of bodies that was shown in the film was horrifying and disturbing.
I think the movie was shocking and very eye opening it hit home. The last words spoken in the movie the part about the ashes (the poem) was the most remembered part the child's words were haunting.
I agree with Kelsey the image and words used made the story stronger.It the audience a real peek at the suffering of the Jewish people.
This film was probably the most terrifying thing that i have watched. It was so realistic in the ways that the set looked like a real camp, and the actors portrayed their characters so well. It was very disturbing in the way that they had the girl that survived the gas, and when they showed all of the people they were killing as they were doing it. It really made me realize how lucky we are today to not have to go through what they did, and how scary it must have been for all of these people.
I agree with Amanda, a lot of this was hard to watch, but it was very detailed and held great information about what it was like to be in that sort of situation.
What hit me the hardest in the film was the ending when the girl talked about what happened to the bodies after they die. To me, that's what really effected me the most. The fact that the workers had to burn the bodies of the other Jews and they had their ash on them was very disturbing.
I agree with Julie, I was also affected by the amount of dead bodies that were shown throughout the movie as well as the amount of people they showed walking into the gas chambers.
I was absent this week (AP exams).
This film gave all of us insight into what really happened in Auschwitz. Before watching this, we all had ideas of what it looked like but now its easier to visualize the horror that these people went through. This film mad everything seem more real and definitely changed the way I view things in life.
This film affected me a lot. We have learned so much about the camps and all the killing, but actually seeing people killed in the camps shocked me. People being told that they could get their belongings after their shower actually made me feel very angry, because it was a flat out lie being told by fellow Jews. Seeing the people being gassed shocked me even more because I never thought I'd ever see that particular act replicated in a film. What struck me most about the film was how the Sonderkommando facilitating all these events eventually became used to it. It must have been terrible to do such things. When Hoffman decided to save the girl who survived the gas it made me think of how he must have felt, because he wanted to save one person's life. I wondered if it was often that people survived the gas. Every character's death in the film brought me to an upsetting realization that no prisoner was given any sympathy, even the girl who had survived the gas. The film showed me just a tiny fraction of how terrible Auschwitz must have been.
I agree with Julie. This film made me realize the full power that the Nazis had over so many lives by showing the number of bodies in the gas chambers and the shooting of those who rebelled.
This film was very hard for me to watch, in part due to the brutal conditions that it portrayed, but I think that it had a very powerful message. I thought that the saddest part of this film was the old man who had to burn the bodies of his entire family. It also shocked me to see how many people were killed in the gas chambers in just one day.
I agree with what Erin wrote. I though that the film portrayed Auschwitz in a way that helped me to realize how awful it really was. It made all of the terrible things that the Nazis did to people seem much more real to me.
This film truly opened my eyes to the conditions of the camps. I knew that they were awful, but you can't really fathom it until you see something like this. the scene that really got to me was seeing all the poor people walking into that small chamber, thinking that they were going to be fine, and then seeing the doors close and everyone screaming. It brought this all to life and was so realistic. I am never going to forget how this movie made me felt and how awful the Jewish people had it. Nobody should ever forget what happened.
The Grey Zone was the most eye opening thing I have watched this year. I thought that so many people were lied to and that they got killed by the gas. When they showed the people in the gas chambers and that the Jews that work their wanted to leave and wanted to fight. They Jews knew that they were not going to make it.
I felt very impacted by this film, even though I only saw about half of it. The moment that struck me the most was the fight in the gas chamber, as well as the moments following it. It was strange to see someone - especially a Jew - grow so angry at an act of defiance by a prisoner. The graphic subject matter of the scene was chilling, as well as the following moment when the Nazi officer handed the Jewish overseer the watch with a cold smile. After that scene I was also struck by the moment in which the overseer was sitting outside of the chamber, hearing people's screams and - hopefully - understanding the gravity of the current situation. I agree with Michayla in saying that seeing Jews blatantly lie to other Jews was shocking, and it points to the overwhelming deceit that the Nazis used in order to succeed.
Although this film was extremely hard to watch at times, it was very important for us all to see. It put us in the perspective of an Auschwitz prisoner, and depicted the constant state of terror that all prisoners were in day after day. The scenes of torture were horrifying and simply in humane, and it made me realize that not only were this people killed in the millions, but they were killed in the most gruesome way possible. It is still hard for me to grasp how the Nazis could kill so many innocent people in the hundreds every day, and the only way I can reason why is to believe that they were brainwashed. I think the most sickening thing about this film was that it was not just a movie, and that everything we were witnessing actually happened to the Jews and prisoners of the Nazis.
I agree Zoe, and feel that the scene involving the gas chambers was chilling to watch. Hearing the screams was disturbing and the fact that these people went through this day after day and were just killed off can never be explained.
I agree Zoe, and feel that the scene involving the gas chambers was chilling to watch. Hearing the screams was disturbing and the fact that these people went through this day after day and were just killed off can never be explained.
I agree with Julie, this movie has definitely opened my eyes to the kind of torture people were put through and even if they did rebel there was little to no impact. I thought the scene with the man who killed the man for his watch and then listened to the screams of the rest of the people he had locked up and were dying was the most disturbing. I understand that people would do whatever they could to survive a little bit longer but the fact that jewish people were comforting other jewish people as they led them to their death really disturbed me.
The Grey Zone has definitely been an incredibly disturbing, mind boggling film that I have watched yet in this class. The film depicts the life of jews as something unbearable to watch. I'm appalled that this was something that happened in history and gruesome would be an understatement in describing this film. I think the most upsetting scene that was watched for me would be the scene where the woman is being interrogated by questions regarding the uprising the nazis were trying to discover. This scene was so incredibly sad I had to look away when she ran to the fence in hopes of fleeing, but in the end getting electrocuted.
I agree with Kelsey in that the movie was so impacting on our lives that seeing what happened to everyone and even what happened to the young woman in the gas chambers.
Seeing this film really shocked me. I've learned about the holocaust before, Ive never seen footage like this before. It was so real to see how everything went in the camps, and how unbelievably cruel the nazis were, i just couldnt believe what i was seeing
I agree with Julianne, it was very hard for me to watch what was happening the majority of the time during the movie because it was so dehumanizing and cruel
I think this film was great, in a horrible way. It reveals how bad(to some extent) the camps were. It was hard to rap my head around the fact that people could just kill people so easily. so hopelessly.
I agree with Julianne, What made this movie so horrifying was that the bodies were just kinda tossed around in wheel borrows.
This was probably the first movie so far that really got to me. It showed extrememly graphic scenes, and was very shocking. I love how it was so realistic to really show the audience what really went on in those camps. The extreme pain and suffering they had to go through. How poorly the guards treated them, as if they werent even human beings.
I agree with Julie. It was the most eye opening film we have seen so far.
Although I was horrified by some of the true events that were shown in the movie, I enjoyed the film a lot. I think that even though some of the scenes were hard to watch, it was good for the class to see just exactly what Jews had to endure during the Holocaust, and to help us somewhat have an idea on what it was like for them. I thought that it was a very powerful movie because it really opened our eyes to what happened in the world in history, and it definitely helped me to realize the importance of knowing and understanding what happened.
I agree with Kelsey. I think that even though some of the scenes in the movie were horrifying to watch, those scenes depicted the truth. The fact that we now are watching it and are horrified shows just how unfathomable and evil these events were to Jews. The movie helped to show the truth behind the Holocaust, and even though it was hard to watch, it is the reality that we have to understand so that nothing like that will ever happen again.
I was absent for the end of this film and had no computer/internet access where I was down south so i apologize for posting so late.
The grey zone really went in depth and literally went into the death camps during the holocaust, which really gave the viewer a perfect idea of what it was like in the death camps back then. I always knew it was brutal, but this movie really went into depth and detail.
Kelsey brings up a good point that a lot of the scenes were really disturbing and made me uncomfortable to watch at times, but at the same time it informed me on what it was really like back then. Im thankful that today nothing like that could ever happen again and history will not repeat itself because of the amount of knowledge and armed forces we have now today.
I have never seen a film like this, where I learned so much while being so moved and disturbed. I gained so much information about the work camps that I never knew and a lot of the things surprised me. I learned that the camp had several crematoriums and gas chambers that all had an individual name and that they could fit up 2,000 victims at a time.
I agree with amanda. The most disturbing scenes were when it showed the people in the gas chambers. It was very hard to watch them being told to take off their clothes and to remember their hook number because they were just taking a shower. The deception that the Nazis kept going was unbelievable.
This film really took you into a death camp, which I found quite interesting. I never knew about workers rebelling against the Nazis in the camp and I honestly just thought there was no up rising and they just let the Nazis "kill" them. This shows that the jews weren't just helpless and hopeless but actually fought until the very end. The workers were replaced every four months and had to burn their units own bodies which may just be their families or neighbors. This film really opened my eyes to the hardship and horrifying events that happened during the death camps and helps explain why the Nazis wanted to hide and destroy them before the Allies discovered them.
I agree with Greg about how the most disturbing part in the film was the very end when the dead girl was talking over the scene of events and talking about the changing of the workers and how the new workers were put to work immediately. Hearing her describe how the workers would cough and brush off the ashes at the beginning of starting to work and then getting use to the ashes and not wiping them off, shows how the workers lost their emotions and feelings and were stuck in a state of mind.
Now that I have seen a clearly the most gruesome parts of the Holocaust, I have really had a hard time fathoming why any of this occurred. Some parts were too difficult to even watch - I hate seeing the corpses just flop around. I think what Dr. Mengele did to that poor victim was harsh. He hardly tried to save her.
This film gave a really detailed examination of how concentration camps really worked. You always read and heard about them but you could never really picture just how cruel and evil they really are. This film gives you a visualization that lets you get a further understanding of how the Nazi's ran the camps and the atrocities that happened inside.
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