Thursday, October 24, 2013

PERIOD 6: Resi Kraus

You have been watching the BBC documentary, The Rise of the Nazis - A Warning from History. Please share your thoughts about the segment on the Gestapo that you saw today. What did you think of the interview with Resi Kraus?

24 comments:

Ashley Chiu said...

For most of the time she was talking, I was in disbelief. For her to so casually deny her actions shows her to have zero remorse. I'm glad there's the document with her name and signature so the world can know the truth. As she kept talking, she was laughing about how people like the interviewer keep bringing up things that happened 50 years ago, which I found unbelievable, as if that doesn't matter to the present anymore. If she truly felt remorseful for her actions, she would own up to what she did and try to help teach the world about why this tragedy happened.

Chloe Skraly said...

Watching her interview, I couldn't believe that she lied about what she did. How could someone just completely deny the fact that they ratted someone out and got them killed? Rezi even laughed about it and said she didn't do anything and didn't kill anyone. It is so unmoral to completely lie about tattling to the Nazis and putting someone through all the pain the Jews had to go through in concentration camps.

Brittany Baxendale said...

I was shocked when I watched this interview. We clearly saw what she did and then she lied about it. She tried to make herself look better by saying positive things and that she never killed anyone. I feel strongly about what she did and do not think she deserves the right to sit there and lie to make herself look good. I hope she feels some remorse for what she did to this women.

Elizabeth Volpe said...

In the beginning of this interview i was thinking..oh maybe someone did forge that letter. Then once the women kept talking i was shocked. She was trying to blatantly lie about something that they have proof that she wrote. At the time she was perfectly fine to rat out that girl and now that our society looks down upon the Nazi party, she tries to say she didn't do it. It is just sickening that she doesn't even feel remorse about what she did and was laughing about it. It is even more ridiculous that she doesn't understand why 50 years later people are still talking about it, like it wasn't a big deal. The people that followed HItler were so brainwashed and it is so ridiculous to me that 50 years later, seeing the millions of bodies piled on top of each other at these concentration camps, that the Nazi party members don't feel sorry.

Emily Zarrilli said...

When I first walked into the room I honestly thought that this lady Rezi Kraus was going to be a good person and she would be a good figure of the time period...No, turns out she was just an insignificant(but very significant now) person n germany. I was shocked to see her sitting there lying to the interviewer's face about how she had absolutely no idea what the letter was talking about. How does one look at something that they have personally signed, and recognized they in fact did sign it, and then proceed to say they have no idea what it is. It's baffling to see the immaturity still very prevalent in the minds of these people. They made it seem like it was a game to throw people under the bus like that, truly astonished.

Leah Bridge said...

After watchong the interview with Resi Kraus, I was in shock. I couldnt beilve someone could just completley deny the awful things they had done and not feel any remorse for what they did and saying that they didnt do it. The fact that she thought that because she hadnt killed anyone made her a better person also shocked me. Just becasue she hadnt killed anyone doesnt mean it justifys what she had said about her neighbor.

Olivia Longo said...

I was shocked bu the interview of Resi Kraus. She lacked any sort of remorse or acknowledgement towards her actions. When she was asked what the letter was about, she denied writing it, even though she had signed it. I was astonished that she did not seem to care at all about what she did or what the interviewer was saying. She laughed during the interview and was extremely disrespectful. She claimed that the letter didn't matter because she never killed anyone, but her actions led to the death of her neighbor. I was also shocked that she used the fact that the letter was 50 years old as an excuse for writing it. Overall, I was disgusted by Reis Kraus and her inability to acknowledge and own up to her actions.

Lalith Pramod Ganjikunta said...

I felt as though I wanted to slap her and take away her right as a human being. I could not believe that she lied about writing that letter. She was trying to protect herself and be in denial of the fact that she took someone's precious life and turned it into a nightmare. I could not even see any emotion in her face and at one point she was even laughing and told the interviewer to stop. I also feel that she is just an empty corpse standing there with no emotion and no sign of remorse for her actions. I hope that someday she truly learns a lesson.

Tabitha Domeij said...

This interview was very shocking in that Kraus denies her taking part in the terrible murders of the Jews. It is hard to believe that someone would not only rat out the innocent Jewish people, causing them to be killed, but that they would later on show no remorse and deny that they had taken any part in the killings. As crazy as Kraus' statements seem, I think it is sad that she is still so brainwashed 50 years after the fact by Hitler's claims that she sees nothing wrong in her actions. People who belonged to the Nazi party were so brainwashed by everything Hitler said that I assume it to be nearly impossible to ever think in any other manner, which therefore explains why Kraus shows no remorse. However, this brainwashing does not justify Kraus' denials by any means because everyone deserves to know the truth and it is immoral to lie about something. I think Kraus' denial shows that maybe she does know deep down that her actions were wrong and that maybe she does have some slight remorse towards the subject even if she refuses to admit it.

Anna Meshreky said...

When I was watching this interview, exactly the opposite of what I expected to happen actually happened. When she reported this woman to the Nazi party, she did it for positive sanctions, for her own personal gain. Now that the Nazi party is looked down upon, she attempts to deny her wrong doing. She feels no remorse whatsoever for what she did to this woman. She believes that she is not the one who murdered this woman, so she is innocent of her blood. Whenever watching any of the interviews with devoted Nazi party members, it is clearly visible how brainwashed they have become. They became so brainwashed, it's almost irreversible. Like the army general said, once you swear an oath to someone, you cannot go back on your oath unless you commit suicide. These Nazi party members swore an oath to Hitler and all of his ways. Therefore it's not surprising that they still have these views. They became completely brainwashed towards all of Hitler's views. Now they are trying to deny everything that they had done. Or that everything that they had done was wrong.

Abby Underwood said...

I was disgusted when I saw this interview. She so blatantly denied her actions and laughed at them as if they didn't matter when she sent an innocent woman to die. She clearly felt no remorse for her actions which shows that she doesn't really care about what happened to this woman. She even said that she didn't kill anyone, but what she did was just as bad. At the time she wrote the letter she was doing it to comply with the society she was living in, and now that society view this as wrong she denies it because she doesn't have enough courage to say what she clearly did.

Rachel Hurkmans said...

I found Resi Kraus's interview to be both shocking and appalling. I couldn't believe Kraus would lie about what she did when there was a document signed by her that proves she did report her neighbor. When watching the interview I noticed that Kraus did not look upset about the awful actions she made in the past. She was even laughing during the interview. Kraus said things like she hadn't killed anyone. From her appearance in the interview I could tell that she felt no remorse for her past actions. This to me is very upsetting.

Rodrigo.Arguello said...

While watching at first i expected her to be somebody who had helped the neighbor, when it was clear that she reported her neighbor I thought that she would say that she had just reasons for what she had done, not plainly deny that she ever submitted that report. It surprised me how she defended herself by saying that she had killed nobody but she clearly played a role in her neighbors death, it also surprised me deeply that she laughed that people kept bringing up what as if it were a minor nuisance.

Shannon Connors said...

Before watching the film, i though Rezi Kraus was a woman who was a positive infuential leader in germany at the time of the nazis rather than a negative one. Not only was i confused on the strength of her denial but I was also angered by her attitude, expressions and reaction to the interviewer. She thought her action back in Germany was funny and that ratting someone out to their death was acceptable. It was almost as if she was stil in the time period of the nazis, living in a haze with no recollection or no idea of what they were doing to other humans just like themselevs. Hitler influenced them to feel no morals in what they were doing. Rezi still has this attitude 50 years later, as she completely denies doing anything bad.

Ryan Neil said...

This interview stunned me. This interviewer had a letter, signed by her, calling out her neighbor to the Gestapo. And after denying profusely she had any involvement in it, she admitted to it with zero remorse for what she had done. Even now, fifty years later, she looks at the whole situation as if her hands are clean. She claimed that she didn't murder anybody, and that she wasn't even in the Hitler youth, and this really disturbed me to my core. How someone could still feel so passionately about the propaganda that has ended over fifty years ago, really disturbs me. I just hope not all of the Nazi party members feel this lack of remorse for what occured in WW2

Kevin Koenigsberg said...

Its a terrible act to condemn ones neighbor to die in a concentration camp. But to casually deny it and try to say that it doesnt matter because it was over 50 years ago? Unspeakable. Scum like Resi Kraus are why the Nazis were able to rise to power and commit such atrocities in the name of the German people. She and others like her are just as bad as the Nazis, for enabling them to start a holocaust and carry it out by not only acting as bystanders, but openly and willingly helping them for no reason other than that it was what "good" German citizens did back then. The fact that someone like her could survive while millions of innocents perished is sickening.

Kate Burgess said...

I was shocked by what Resi Kraus said and did. There was distinctive proof that she indeed did these actions and Kraus herself proved that that was her address and signature but she refused to admit to these actions. She simply denied all of the allegations and simply stated that she didn’t remember any of it. She was wondering why it mattered after 50 years. She was denying the genocide. I think it’s because people like her that some people don’t believe the Holocaust happened. With every person like Krause, more of our lesson from history is lost. Because of the denial of the genocide we could possibly have another because we can’t learn from the past. Although Krause did not physically kill someone she inadvertently killed someone and probably much more by carelessly spreading her horrible gossip.

Shannon lawton said...

Watching the interview I was very surprised that the lady would not admit to giving her neighbor away. I was even more surprised that she did not have any remorse. I expected her to say that she was really sorry for what she did and that it wasn't right. I don't understand how everything the nazis still stick with some Germans today and that they still have the same beliefs even with how far the world has come.

Maddi Avergon said...

While watching the clip of Kraus talking I had no doubt in my mind that she was lying. what I was surprised about was that she wouldn’t own up to the terrible thing she did. If the case is what was suggested in class about reporting so many people that she couldn’t even remember this particular incident, than I most definitely think she was just as bad as the Nazis. She spoke with no remorse at all and even laughed during the middle of the interview. I feel terribly for the poor neighbor that was ratted out by this woman and sent to the camp.

Ivan Truong said...

I think it was obvious to everyone, including the interviewer, that Resi Kraus was lying. It was a cowardly and selfish act for her to make false accusations against her neighbor, leading to the woman's arrest. I'm not sure if there was a feeling of a "reign of terror" or fear of the Gestapo but only if there was widespread fear of persecution would I be able to understand her actions. Regardless, it was extremely selfish and criminal of her to do so but it disappointed me so much that she calmly stated that she had not murdered anyone or committed any crime therefore she was innocent. Her signature and address was on that sheet and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't forget what she had done to her innocent neighbor.

Caitlin Potts said...

After watching Resi Kraus' interview I thought that she was very hypocritical. When she was talking to the interviewer she said that she wasn't part of the Nazi party and that she didn't kill anyone. In reality, she did cause someone to die because the person she reported ended up being killed. Even after all these years she's still in denial that se was part of the holocaust. I think that she should take responsibility for what she's done instead of ignoring the fact that she was ever a part of it

Megan Whittles said...

The entire interview it was obvious to the viewer that she did not want to be there. Resi knows that even though she did not kill anyone, she was still a minor part of the holocaust therefore she knew that during the interview she was going to be looked down upon. She tried to cover up her mistake by saying that she did not even know where the document had come from. Resi either had felt so ashamed that she had been in denial or she had just been heartless and wouldn't own up to what she had done.

Sabrina Herstedt said...

Watching this video, I was excited to see who resi Kraus was and what she had to say. I was expecting her be some inspirational character, a catalyst in this brain wash of a movement. Yet after watching her interview I was left confused and in disbelief. "That's it?" Was all I could think. Resi laughed at the accusations she made towards a Jewish woman and claimed it was rubbish. She even went as far as saying she didnt remember writing it... She didnt remember, she couldn't recall. It's disgusting how someone could be so blatenly in denial over such a horrible incident. She knows what she did, and has no remorse. She is directly responsible for sending this lady to her death because "she had shady friends." Yet, she claims she did nothing wrong- or nothing at all. It's terrible and hard to even wrap my head around. All I can think is that she does it in order to shield herself from the pain, embarrassment, or regret she (should) feel.

Ethan Peterson said...

Resi Kraus is the definition of don't judge a book by its cover. She looks innocent and sweet but in reality she is responsible for the deaths of many Jews during the holocaust. She reported many individuals for looking suspicious to the Gestapo. She had no right to judge those that she didn't even know. She is an accessory to murder in my mind. What stands out the most is how she did not even admit to these accusations and does not recall how her name got on the letters. Mrs. Kraus is a liar and a murder. She even knew what she did was bad since she stated to her friend that she knew this might come out 51 years later. If she doesn't want it to come out then she knows that it is not something to be proud of. Resi Kraus is a despicable human being.