Holocaust AoW's Reflection Blog

Today we learned about different experiences and new things learned about the concentration camps. I learned a few really, horrific, insane facts. One was from Bella, about Joseph Mengle, who killed 400,000 people including babies. Not only that be he kept the eyes of those who he killed, which I found extremely disgusting. Another crazy fact was in Jenna's article where she spoke about the findings of new ghettos and camps. In the article it said that researchers found over 42, 500 camps and ghettos in which 15 to 20 million people died in. This affected the death toll that had already been counted and I was astonished at such large numbers of camps and people. Gabe had a fact that I never had really thought, or heard about. Survivors would die after liberation because their stomachs were too weak to digest any food. It must have been so tragic to be or see someone be free, just to die a little later. Finally Abdiel had a story of a survivor and when he told me how many relatives they had lost, I couldn't believe it. One person had lost 49 relatives, thats more than I have in my entire family, and this person had to live with the fact that 49 of his family members perished in such a terrible event.

The largest topic this week was definitely survivor stories, their experiences at the camps, and what has resulted from it. There were many similar story lines, terrible experiences at the camps, lasting effects, and/or the telling of their stories to teach and so that others can learn. Amelia, Jesus, and Abdiel all I think had similar articles. They all had people whose experiences were so traumatizing, they would not speak to anyone about it for up to 60 years. Now in Leanna's article the person who survived had a different way of going about it after they were liberated. This woman had cheated death, since she had escaped a gas chamber and survived three concentration camps. She instead spends time telling her stories for "those who can't" and uses it as a message to love one another and to prevent bullying of other races or religions. Speaking of lasting affects, both Autumn and and Stanley had a very interesting article about how descendants of Holocaust survivors have altered stress hormones. That it causes anxiety and stress plus does not allow you to bounce back from something tragic. I found this so intriguing and I wonder how many generations this can go for. I wonder if any other events have affected like the genetics passed on from one generation to another. This week I feel like was essential to learning more about the Holocaust and I learned some things I wouldn't have.