Good Over Bad

In her diary, Anne Frank wrote that she believed “most people are good.” Do you agree with Anne? If so, why, and if not, why not? (Echoes and Reflections) I do agree with Anne, most people are good. In a time of terror, or even just like this week the Boston Marathon bombing, even though there are people who caused the terror, there were more people helping out. The good over takes the bad in this world, that’s how I think of things, instead of the negative, always think of the positive outcomes in tragedies. Especially in the Holocaust, although we lost 11 million people, we gained knowledge, stories, and survivors. Countries and people gained strength from the bad experiences. They give us strength by expressing the message that it does get better. We’ve seen the survival stories, how they got through the struggle, and it gives us strength to realize that we can too. So yes, there are bad people out there, but Anne Frank had a point - most people are truly good, which can prove to have the biggest impact on our world.

Those Choice-less Choices.

“But I couldn’t hesitate. I just had to do it. I aimed the gun through the window, straight at the center of his back, then pulled the trigger”- Halina, pg. 141 and 142, Escaping into the Night

I thought this quote was beautifully written, it is short but powerful and meaningful. It reflects on her options; it’s her choiceless choice. She really has no choice, either let Batya die, or all escape safely and shoot a Nazi in the process, so she really had no choice. I think that was the best choice for their situation, and I think about how hard it must’ve been for Halina and Rueven to shoot an officer, because I’m sure 13 year olds don’t want to take anyone's life away! I’m sure many people had to go through this as well while in the Holocaust, even in the Holocaust museum there was a woman talking about in an interview, that she had to shoot an officer in her own building so the children she was sheltering would be safe. I would never want to be in that situation, especially at this age, but whatever it takes for you to survive and to help your loved ones survive.

A real life connection I have to make would have to be relating this to the homeless, and people living in the streets or in poverty. It’s kind of a weird connection, because most homeless people don’t go out and shoot officers, but they share a strong connection of doing anything to survive. They beg for food, money, and help, and do what they have to do to make it through to another day. They both struggle to find food and its hard to have good hygiene, or maintain being healthy. So they compare a lot to each other, especially with shooting the officer, expressing the will to survive.

Hope is the Only Thing Stronger Than Fear

“I have a gun,” Reuven said. “We can go back for her.” There are three soldiers there,” I said. “It was a miracle that I escaped. And by now they have probably killed her! We should try to return to the camp.” Reuven pulled back and looked at me, the angles of his face sharper than usual. “They told me there was little hope that you were alive. We mustn’t give up hope about Batya. Not until we know for sure. Please say you will come with me.” - Reuven & Halina, Escaping into the Night, p.137

I like this quote because of how Reuven had hope that Batya is still alive. I think that it is just great how hope was always there or atleast most of the time someone there had to have hope so that life goes on. Hope is probably the most thing that helped Halina survive even though she didn’t always have hope but others did, for example: how Reuven had hope that Halina was going to return after she was at the German soldier's house trying to ask for food while the others didn’t really think she was going to make it back (they had very little hope), if Reuven hadn’t have had hope Halina would have not made it back to the camp because when reuven had hope he waited for Halina. Also since Rueven had more hope when he saw Halina they were able to save Batya from the soldiers. Hope was the most thing that kept Halina going like when she actually ran away from the German soldiers leaving Batya behind, the only thing that kept her going was hope, she was hoping to go get help and save Batya before it was too late, and they did save her! If hope is there, miracles are there too. That’s why I like this quote because it talks about hope.

To make a connection, in almost every article I read all Jews who have hope are the most ones who survive, and the ones who lose hope, well, fear takes over them and they don’t have as much hope so they don’t even try to survive and so they die faster. Also I have watched the movie The Hunger Games and in that movie they said “Hope: It is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective; a lot of hope is dangerous. Spark is fine, as long as it’s contained. So, contain it.”  I relate this quote to the quote from the book because they both talk about hope and that even if there is little amount of hope it still helps because it is the only thing stronger than fear and it will keep you going because you are hoping for something and since you have hope you will want to live for it so you will keep going. And again if hope is there life will go on!  

Freedom Writers

Questions-What does freedom mean to you in your life and what does it mean to lose it?

• Response- I think freedom means to have rights. Everyone has freedom because they can do whatever they choose to do. If you can do one thing in life, you have freedom. People think just because they can’t do something or, don’t choose to do something because the consequences, that they aren’t free to do whatever they want. I disagree because everyone can do whatever they choose to do only if they believe in doing it. Freedom can not be taken away. If you are able to breathe then you have freedom. If you did not have a chance to do absolutely nothing in life then you never had freedom. The Jews did not lose freedom they were just put through oppression. They were put in the ghettos and with limited supply of everything like food and clothes. To me this means they still had freedom they just weren’t as free to do everything they wanted to do. I still believe they went through a tragic time but they just can’t say they didn’t have freedom. The ghettos were the worst place to live besides the camps in my opinion. I think freedom is another of saying life.
  
  

Who to blame?

As noted in the Final Solution Reading, “hundreds of thousands of people were involved, either directly or indirectly, implementing the ‘Final Solution’. In your opinion, were any of the people exempt from blame? Explain your thinking.

I think that everyone was involved and should be blamed and like it said people were either `directly or indirectly. I think that everyone had something to be blamed for, even if they weren’t directly involved. I mean if someone stood there and watched what was going on and knew it was wrong then that is something to blamed for.That's because that is being a bystander and thats probably worst or the same as doing this wrong thing. Being a bystander is like supporting the wrong thing and thats like doing the wrong thing. I also blame collaborators because they helped Nazis achieve their goals which were getting rid of Jews and being against Jews. According to a website I have looked up, it said that Heinrich Himmler is the number one person to blame because he was the one who set up the death camps and the concentration camps even though a lot of people think that Hitler is the number one person to blame but he actually isn’t  - he is number two.   

Most people to blame This a website that shows the top 15 people to blame.

Duck Duck Goose

Duck duck goose

“I saw her at the edge of the pit. I heard...”

“I covered my ears.”I have a candle.”

“We can’t light it. Someone might see!”

“We'll just light it for a minute- away from the window. Then blow it out.” Escape Into The Night, Bataya & Halina, pg.20

According to the quote I wonder why did they need the candle? Maybe because they wanted to see each other. Although I think they should have saved the candle. I also wonder what did they use to light it? I think they should have saved that too because, the place that they are in, it isn’t that important to see and to light the candle for later because they are planning to escape. Also I wouldn’t take the risk of anyone seeing us especially the Nazis. This quote is a memorable quote because it makes me think about the reason for them doing that. What do you think you would do, save the candle or not? I would to keep safe.

This reminds me of when schools practice drills to hide from predators by the school. So, as a class, we would hide in the classroom. We would have to turn off the lights and close the blinds, only if you were in a classroom on the outer part of the school. Then the whole class would hide somewhere in the classroom away from all windows so no one can see us. The part of the quote that says they will light a candle away from window then blow it out, reminds me of turning off the lights in the classroom and getting away from the windows.This connects to the Holocaust because the Nazis would liquidate the ghetto so it seemed pretty important to not be in your house at the time of that. Also being seen puts yourself deeper in danger. I think light can be pretty dangerous because being seen by certain people isn’t worth it.

“Bad People” Are Contagious

• In her diary, Anne Frank wrote that she believed “most people are good.”  Do you agree with Anne?  If so, why, and if not, why not?   (Echoes and Reflections)

I disagree because “bad people” are contagious. When people are doing bad things that attracts money then good people will turn evil to get the money. This mostly occurs when there are people that aren’t wealthy. Also they have to be vulnerable people. It´s probably only a half of the world is good instead of bad. Most people whose countries got taken over were out for revenge. Also the some of the Nazis were good, wealthy people but once they became Nazis, Hitler had made them evil because if they didn't  follow along with him he’d be killed or put in camp.