Methods of Torture #10: Movie and book comparison

After watching Conspiracy and Schindler's List I realize which film I like more.Conspiracy was a good film because you felt like you got into the minds of the Nazis and experienced the arguments and battles of what to do with the Jews. Schindler's List was also a great film because of it's real life setting of the holocaust and how it felt like I too was living in the concentration camp and being pushed around by the Nazis who I knew could kill anyone at any moment. In my opinion Schindler's List was a more interesting film because it contained so much of what happened in the Jews eyes. It was devastating to see people killed and thrown around but that was the reality that the Jews could not escape. Throughout the film I would also think back to the story Night and relate it to this film. A scene of the film that was also in the story Night was when people were packed onto trains very thirsty, hungry and hardly able to breathe. That's why I liked Schindler's List because it gave me a view of the holocaust as a Jew.

Works Cited

Conspiracy. Dir. Frank Pierson. 2001. Film.

Schindler's List. Dir. Steven Spielberg. 1993. Film.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. Trans. Marion Wiesel. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. Print.

Methods of Torture #9: Schindler's List

Today I watched Schindler's List. I found this film to be very interesting and realistic. There was a scene where the ladies thought they were going to be gassed  from the rumors that had been spread but they were actually taking a shower  in a dark chamber (Spielberg). I thought this scene was one of the most realistic scenes because at the moment I was deathly afraid for their lives as well. So many emotions battled through my heart. Some feelings of hatred and anger towards the Nazi murderers and then some of compassion and care for the people who helped the Jews escape their deaths. I have been reading so much about how the Nazis tortured the Jews but I never really understood how it would truly take away all their hope.This film opened my mind to the carelessness of the Nazis who killed for no reason and how the Jews could not do anything to make themselves feel safe or protected.

Works Cited

Schindler's List. Dir. Steven Spielberg. 1993. Film.

Methods of Torture #8: Night

I was thinking back to when I read the book "Night" by Elie Wiesel. "The spectators observed these emaciated creatures ready to kill for a crust of bread"(101). It is very clear that the Jews packed on to the trains were starved so much that they would turn against each other and even kill just to get a roll of bread. They were on the edge of starvation and each one of the bodies packed into that tiny train craved for a grain of bread to carry them onto the next week of travel. I am so grateful to have plenty of food to eat everyday. Everyday after school I can pop a bag of popcorn in the microwave or make myself a sandwich. The Jews were deprived of that privilege for the years they served in the concentration camps. I can't relate to the extreme starvation that the Jews experienced but I can appreciate everything I have.

Works Cited

Wiesel, Elie. Night. Trans. Marion Wiesel. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. Print.

Methods of Torture #7: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

When watching The Boy in the Striped Pajamas many things caught my eye. I noticed in one of the scenes that they showed a video clip about the "fun" life in concentration camps (Herman). In reality the concentration camps were anything but fun. I think they made this video clip to not scare off the Jews that they would later take control of. It was probably easier to control the Jews only until they were confined and stripped of their belongings. While watching I felt a lot of pain because the Jews had to struggle to survive even though their lives were torn apart and ripped into a thousand pieces.To have everything you love taken away from you is one of the worst kinds of torture. I realize now that we don't just learn about the holocaust to feel sorry for the Jews, but to prevent this from ever happening in the future.

Works Cited

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Dir. Mark Herman. 2008. Film.

Methods of Torture #6: Dr. Mengele

In past websites I had always seen the name Dr. Josef Mengele so today I decided to find out more about him. "Josef Mengele was an SS physician, infamous for his inhumane medical experimentation upon concentration camp prisoners at Auschwitz" (Holocaust Memorial). It is clear to me that Dr. Mengele had no limitations to his studies. Whatever he wanted to know about he could experiment with no questions asked. He could inflict pain and torture among helpless people without an objection. I cannot believe people would let him continue his dangerous experiments that often killed his victims. For a man to be so evil and not give a second thought to what he was doing astounds me. It is crazy to think about how he enjoyed his experiments while watching his victims die a gruesome death.

Works Cited

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Josef Mengele." Holocaust
Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 20 June 2014.

Methods of Torture #5:Conspiracy

Today I watched the film Conspiracy. It was about a conference that took place with many of Hitlers followers and generals. They talked about their plan to get rid of the Jews. One of the ideas that came up were about the gas chambers. They referred to the gas chambers as a cheaper way to execute hundreds of Jews at a time (Pierson). This shows that the Nazis would rather save some extra bucks and loose millions of lives. One person included in the conference said that the Jews were smart and that they should carefully plan their next steps but his ideas were not recognized (Pierson). I can understand how this mans ideas were not considered because the rest of the men were not realizing what their actions can cause. That just goes to show that all actions have consequences and you cannot kill an entire population with no harm done to the rest of the world.

Works Cited

Conspiracy. Dir. Frank Pierson. 2001. Film.

Methods of Torture #4: The experiments

Today I continued reading about human experimentation during the holocaust. I have read that the Nazis also preformed bone, muscle, and joint transplantation."Experimenters at Ravensbruck amputated legs and shoulders from inmates in useless attempts to transplant them onto other victims"(Tyson). I hope to never feel the pain of someone cutting your leg off for no reason. Then attempting to reattach someone else's leg to my body. If the Nazis had never done so many horrid experiments we could have not lost so many lives. We could also have figured out the information from their experiments in a less harmful way. More intelligent people could be living and contributing to the world. There is always a chance that someone who died in the holocaust could have saved the world.

Works Cited

Tyson, Peter. "The Experiments." NOVA online. N.p., Oct. 2000. Web. 10 Mar.