For the past few days you have been watching the documentary entitled, "Amen." It is a film based on the testimony of Waffen SS officer Kurt Gerstein who visited Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka in August of 1942 and witnessed the mass gassing of thousands of Jews. Please post your thoughts about the film and comment on at least one other student's post.
5 comments:
I couldn't believe that Gerstein was hung for crimes against the country. He was trying to save thousands if not millions of lives, Jewish lives, when he wasn't even Jewish. He risked his life and betrayed his officers and was lost to his family all for the sake of strangers of a different race that even the pope wouldn't say a few words to save.
I found this movie very interesting because up until this point we haven't really had the chance to see the inner workings of the SS and the Nazis like we did in this film. I also learnt a lot about the interactions between the Vatican and the Nazis. I found myself shocked that the Pope seemed to be doing almost nothing and that when the younger minister tried to tell people what was going on he was advised they just told him that he needed to learn more about politics rather than try to do something about what he told them. I think that what Gerstein tried to do was very comendable. He risked his life to try and stop what was happening. While I think it is awful that he either committed suicide or was hung for crimes against the country, I am glad that he was rehabilitated 20 years later. I agree with Tara that his arrest and resulting death due to being accused of crimes against the coutnry was awful because he was actually trying to help people.
I agree with Tara that it was awful that Gerstein was hung in the end because of crimes against the country when in reality he was doing the opposite. But I think that it was kind of expected considering the times. And even though the Pope and Vatican City should have helped the Jews, it wasn't very surprising that they didn't do anything to stop the Nazis. I think they were trying to pretend it wasn't happening so they didn't have to get involved.
I thought this movie was very interesting because it showed how people within the Nazi organization knew what was happening, thought it was wrong, and attempted to fight it. I never realized that any members of the Nazi party did this. I was very surprised when the Pope basically did nothing to help the Jews when he knew what was going on.
I liked this film because it gave me an inside look on what the Nazi’s were really like. Before this film I had no idea about the involvement of the Pope and the Nazis. I learned that the Pope basically looked the other way when I came to what the Nazis were doing.
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