Journal 1 : The Journey

- “Our destination? Nobody knew. We should be prepared for a fortnight of travel. (pg 14)”

- “Dawn came on us like a betrayer; it seemed as though the new sun rose as an ally of our enemies to assist in our destruction. (pg 16)”

- “Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who pause to consider the antitheses: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable. (pg 17)”

- “We said farewell and it was short…We had no more fear. (19)”

Everything had happened suddenly. The German officers coerced the Jews to obey them without any resistance. No one knew where the Jews were heading to, how they were going to be treated, and why they were being captured. However, they had to admit the reality; they are located in a place of no hope. These quotes and the introduction of the journey to Auschwitz made me feel “How dare am I complaining about my life?” Nowadays, I am still complaining about not having the “stuffs” I want, rather than feeling thankful of having what I have right now. However, the Jews had nothing during that time; the death camps also separated the families, as well as taking away their happiness and peace. All they had was the last bit of “hope” inside their heart. Many of the Jews seemed hopeless during their journey, but still the families, especially the mothers were caring for their children, by not giving up on them. As the quote states, “Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who pause to consider the antitheses: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable.” Even the Jews were not giving up their hope of survival, although they knew that they had a high possibility of dying later on. This means, I should not give up and should not complain of any struggles I have to encounter, from now on.

Journal 0 : The Auschwitz Video

It was difficult to watch the movie with a pleasant look. Since I have learned about the Nazis’ brutal treatments toward the Jews, I thought I would be able to manage the vicious scenes of the life in the death camps. However, the movie had portrayed the images descriptively than I thought and made me feel horrible about the people who suffered in the prison of Auschwitz. The Jewish people had lived a devastating life during the period when Nazis and the SS armies had overtaken the German government. Because of Hitler’s hatred towards the Jewish, he had forced the Jewish people to the concentration camps to make them suffer. However, the Jewish people were already living a depressing life. They did not have enough food to sustain life. In order to gain food, they had to exchange expensive belongings for butter and bread. In the streets, many random back-stabbings occurred and diseases were common around the people. However, the concentration camps were more malicious than the diseases or the poor conditions. If a person was Jewish, the SS military officers arrested the person. They sent the Jewish people through trains, which were dirty and full of people. The trains were dirty enough to spread diseases to the people so many of them also died inside. There could not be a worse condition than that situation. The camps also separated children from their parents in early age and treated them as Guinea pigs for Mengele’s experiment.
Even though I am not a Jewish person, I totally agreed that the camps were based on German point of view after watching the movie. This means, the Jewish did not cause any serious problems to the Nazis, but because of the Germans’ hatred towards the Jews, the Germans had destroyed millions of them with horrifying tactics. One of the shocking scenes was when a SS officer claimed he does not feel any guilt towards the Jew, but regrets that he did not spend enough time with his family. How could he? Does he not have any sympathy towards the Jews? He was the officer who killed hundreds of Jews and stated he did not feel guilty but felt he was responsible for it. Heaps of dead Jewish bodies were piled on the dirt everyday after being killed by the German officers. Even though the Jews tried to survive through worst conditions, diseases, lack of food and water, they did not have any solution or hope. There was no mercy for the Jews. As soon as they were inside the prison, only “death” was the answer.