Thursday, May 10, 2012

PERIOD 1 - THE GREY ZONE

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 only armed revolt that took place at Auschwitz. Please post your reflections about the film.


Dr. Nyiszli is pictured in the photo wearing the white lab coat when U.S. troops liberated Donau concentration camp.



34 comments:

Marissa Welch said...

I found this film to be very interesting and emotional. I think that the people who saved that girl were very courageous. They knew they could get in a lot of trouble for taking her, but the one guy couldn’t let her burn a live. I also, found the part about the other women who knew the secret about the powder to be very inspiring. They were willing to let themselves get hurt in order not to tell them. And I am not surprised that the one ran into the electric fence instead of dealing with the whole thing. I really liked this movie, even though it was very sad. I think it shows a good representation of the Germans. This because after the troops came and attacked the Jewish workers, they went back to their normal days of killing the Jews. They would do anything to get rid of all the Jewish people.

Alisa Raniuk said...

I thought this movie was really powerful. It was really sad and i couldnt believe how bad everything really was. Even in the end when the girl was talking about how everyone turns into the grey dust that covers their faces and they breathe in and how they then become a part of them.

Alisa Raniuk said...

I agree with Missy. I really liked this movie too even though what happened was just so wrong. It showed a good visual of the Germans and how terrible they were.

David Whalen said...

To be honest I am surprised by how much this didn't affect me. This is the most traumatic thing I can imagine being based off of true events, yet I was barely even fazed by it. I have become so desensitized violence but I never imagined that cremation wouldn't have much of an affect. I still saw how severe the situation was but I suppose part of me figured oh this is a movie it never happened. It never really sunk in. Off the top of my head I can't even think of a fictional movie more depressing than this. On a daily basis no one thinks how many bodies shot in front of you it would take for you to constitute your own suicide. This movie brings up the largest moral dilemmas I can imagine. I would have trouble living with myself after just one of the decisions any of the characters made.

David Whalen said...

I agree with Marissa, it took a lot of courage to save one life when you had nothing to offer. I'm glad amidst all that death people were still willing to do all they could to save an almost doomed life.

Krystle Armand said...

This movie captured my attention from the very beginning and I found it hard to look away from the screen. The extent of the killing at the concentration camps have never been this real to me, before today. At times tears began to surface, especially when the Germans just looked at the little girl signaling her to run as if she was allowed a head start or to be set free, but they just shot her when she thought she had a chance. At every gun shot (when the men were all lying down on the grass) i found my self wincing and after a while trying to shut out the sound. What the Germans did to the Jews were absolutely terrible. I can't even put in to words how this movie made me feel. I do not think I will ever forget what I say today in that film.

Krystle Armand said...

I agree with Alisa when she mentions what the girl said at the very end of the movie. It was very moving and stayed with me.

Steph Melvin said...

I wasn't here that day.

Lyndsie Graham said...

I thought this film was so effective visually because it makes the viewers really feel something. I found myself flinching and wanted to cry and scream with the victims whenever anyone was killed. It was a powerful reinactment and it's not something I'll soon forget. I can't imagine what it would be like to be faced with the decision to die in a horrible way or to do something despicable to live a few more months. It's a horrible thing to be forced to even consider either option.

Lyndsie Graham said...

I also agree with what Alisa said because I really admire the young girl that was saved. She was present for a mass murder and revived just to see the men who lied to her and her family when they ewnt into the chamber. Even then, she had the courage to run away even when she knew she was going to die. Her comments about the death and the dust really brought the whole movie together.

Mitch Crowder said...

I thought that this film was very interesting. It showed what happened in the camps with brutal honesty. It was hard to think about what I would do if given the chance to be a sonderkommando and live longer but have to deal with the disposing of all the dead bodies.

Mitch Crowder said...

I agree with Alisa. I thought that the little girls speech at the end of the film was interesting.

Bram Eagan said...

This movie "The Grey Zone" was very good at showing what happened at Auschwitz without holding anything back. It was shocking to see the gas chambers and then when one of them survived in it. It was just unbelievable. The end of the movie was very sad when the gas chamber works all got shot in the head and the when the little girl who survived the gas cambers got shot to it really shows that the Nazi's did not care at all about the Jewish people. I thought the ending was excellent with the little girl talking about her body catching fire fast and the smoke and ashes. It was truly incredible and I will never forget it.

Erik Harrington said...

The grey zone was a very moving film. Even though all of us know that they cant make it out alive its still easy to root for them. It just sucks knowing that those are normal everyday people and they had to deal with some of the worst things on the planet. Not only did I feel for this people but I felt like I was there with them. I wanted to stand up and help fight back against the Germans with them. The only thing that can be done now is making sure something like the Holocaust never happens again.

Emily Dwyer said...

The film "The Grey Zone" was very powerful. At some points it was really hard to watch for me. When I watch films that are gruesome I have to tell myself that it's okay because it's not real, however I wasn't able to do that in this movie. I could try to tell myself that their only actors, but in reality, this is something that did happen not too long ago. That is the hardest thing about watching this, realizing that these things did actually happen. I though that this film depicted the concentration camp very realistically, it gave me a much better understanding about what exactly happened during this time.

Pat McGonagle said...

This was easily one of the most powerful movies i have seen in a while. It showed what some jewish people had to go through if they were selected to work in the crematorium and lie to their own people. Some people would put themselves through the most terrifying situations possible just to live a bit longer

Pat McGonagle said...

I agree with Erik and the fact that these were normal people forced into a horrible situation where they had to make some of the hardest decisions of what to do.

Ethan Kaphammer said...

This was an extremely powerful film, it really put me in the shoes of a prisoner with the only choices before me starvation and suffering, and giving in and suffering. I can't imagine what I would have chose, I honestly can't. Sadly it is not an easy question. I agree with Lyndsie that it truly is horrible to be even considering each option. I really respected the women who did not reveal where the powder was too- she had a goal to never tell them, and she kept with it. The image of the ashes being ingrained into everything- the worker's faces, the floors, the ceilings, the grounds, the rivers... is extremely powerful to me. The place literally emanates death, and it's horrifically awful. A lot of my friends who had seen it thought that the girl getting shot was a horrible ending, but honestly I think it's important that movies like this have these kind of endings because it sends a message that even though the viewer has followed a few individual's stories it does not mean that everything will turn out fine, like in the normal happy movie format. I liked the ending because it clearly showed the message that there were no happy endings for anyone targeted in the Holocaust. The reality is what it is.

Brian Looby said...

This movie had a great impact on me. It shows to what extent a person can bring themselves to survive. I found this movie sickening and hard to swallow because of every decision the characters had to face. The dehumanization of the Jews was carried to such a brutal extant. The sheer heartlessness of the Nazi's was putrid as well. When one of the men beat the older man for his watch and the Nazi gave him the watch with a big smile on his face. My fists where clenched and my heart was beating fast. This movie gave an extremely clear view of what kind of hell Auschwitz and the death camps were. After all the traumatizing experiences that people survived to see freedom, I doubt they could lead anything close to a normal life.

Brian Looby said...

I agree with Ethan that the ending shows nothing but the truth. All this Hollywood bulshit about happy endings doesn't teach us what actually happens in reality. It shows the raw truth and we need to accept the fact this happened and try our best so that situations like this can never EVER happen again in the future.

Allie Henriques said...

I thought this film was very powerful. It was amazing to see how the Jews were actually treated in the extermination camps. I think it’s so hard to understand how humans could do this to others. The most interesting part of the film was the little girl’s monologue at the end of the film. The way she described the people helping run the camps made them seem more as mindless machines than actual humans.

Allie Henriques said...

I agree with Emily because watching these kinds of movies, people may say that what happened is being exaggerated. Knowing that these events actually happened is heart wrenching.

ricky casparriello said...

This film was much more rough and explicit about its subject matter than other films we have seen up to this point. That is what I think made this film stand out to me as seperate from some of the others we have watched. Its gruesome images and ville language help to emphisize the deplorable nature of the crime being commited.

rick casparriello said...

I also agree with allie h. This movie was ver powerful.

jacquie callery said...

Out of all the films we have watched so fat, I think this may have been the one that hit me most. Two scenes from this film stick out to me in particular. The first is the scene when all the men who tried to revolt are laying face down waiting to be shot. This shows how merciless the Nazis were and how easy it was for them to take the lives of these men like it was the simples task on earth. The second scene was when the elderly men had to push his wife, daughter, and grandchildren into the ovens. The voice in the background was saying how in twenty minutes, an entire generation and the future of that generation had been destroyed. I cannot even try and figure out how anything the Nazis ever did made sense to anyone. Their actions and crimes of cruelty and disgust are nauseating, to say the least, and this film portrayed them perfectly as just that.

Jacquie Callery said...

I agree with Ricky. I think this film stuck out the most because it was the first time we have seen the acts committed by the Nazis to the extremities of which they were portrayed as in this film

Sean Thekkeparayil said...

I think The Grey Zone was a very powerful movie and gave a fine portrayal of the death camp. Similar to David, though, I feel that it didn't move me as much as it should have because I see a lot of violent things on tv and the media every day.

Taylor Johnson said...

I missed the first part of the film but even just from watching the ending I left the classroom overwhelmed with the horror of the Holocaust. I admire the Jews bravery to organize a revolt against the Nazi's. I never knew that they attempted to fight back at the work camps. I also find it incredibly remarkable that a young girl survived the gas chambers, a task that is nearly impossible. Overall I think this movie was extremely powerful. Seeing a movie that displays the murders and killing of the Jews in a "up close and personal" way was a very effective tactic to express the true events of the Holocaust.

Shannon Colbath said...

The girl had to be an angel or something. it was amazing that she survived the gas from the gas chambers. i agree with the rest saying this movie was pretty extreme.

John Covino said...

I thought this movie was amazing. The fact that the girl survived the gas chamber was very lucky and that she had such caring fellow Jewish helpers to try and save her instead of just throw her back in was great.

John Covino said...

I agree with Marissa about how the movie shows how terrible the germans really were for just blaintly shooting the girl when they were going to let her go free. And how the germans could just go back to their normal lives.

Sean Anderson said...

I liked watching this movie cause it was cool to see a portrayal of what things the workers in the death camps were going through and it was another example of a group of jews rising up against the nazis. I thought it was cool to see how brave those guys were that they decided that of they were going to die anyways they'd at least destroy as much as they could first.

Sean Anderson said...

I. Agree with mike that it is really cool to see what conditions in the camp would have likely looked like even if it is all actors because it makes the evers so much more real and allows you to connect more emotionally with what happened in the holocaust.

Ali potts said...

I agree with Sean that this film showed how horribly the nazis would treat the Jews in the camps. They weren't even treated like real humans and it was sickening to watch.