Blog #6

In the movie, One Survivor Remembers, the most powerful scene in the movie was when Weissmann was separated from her mother by the SS at the train station. I can’t imagine being forcibly separated from either of my parents, and not know our fate. My heart would be broken, and I would be worried constantly. The lesson that I took from that scene was that I shouldn’t take anything for granted. I suppose it would be one thing if the Nazi’s just dehumanized people by shaving their heads, starving them, making the work in labor camps etc., but separating parents and children is way over the top.

I’m not sure if making up fantasy bets about the end of the war with a friend in the camp, or any other distraction technique like Suze and Gerda used would work for me. If I were to try to distract myself I would probably start with food like the girls did. I would dream about the smell of frying butter and adding things like, bacon, perogies, and of course wings with extra hot sauce. While I imagined eating that I would be flying a plane or riding my horse as fast as I could through the front field at the farm. These are all things I take for granted. I could probably live without them, but if someone took me from my parents, who I also take for granted sometimes, I would feel like I was going to die.

I think persecution happens all around the world, in varying degrees to almost every group of people. There are bullies on playgrounds and there is political intolerance. If you live in a bad zip code, or drive and old beater car you can be judged. If you live in an enormous mansion, or look different than what most people consider to be normal, you might be harassed. I believe discrimination and persecution have been around forever, and will sadly continue to be. Sometimes I think being pushed into diversity and political correctness creates discrimination. For instance, right now there is a lot of talk about not calling a Christmas tree a Christmas tree. For politically correct reasons, we are supposed to call it a holiday tree, so we don’t offend anyone, and to be more inclusive. Personally, I would like to be able to call a Christmas tree what it is. We all know what holiday is being celebrated. I feel like my holiday is being discriminated against because people are so sensitive about what others do, or what they have. The issue doesn’t just include Christians. I’ve also heard that we should call a Menorah a holiday light. It’s very hard for me to understand why we have to change words, or meanings of things, that have been in place for thousands of years, so we don’t hurt someone’s feelings. Wouldn’t it be easier if we all just accepted what we each have, and celebrate each thing as it has been done traditionally? If you choose not to participate, that would be equally as acceptable. Just don’t dilute or change something into something else that it was not originally intended to be.

In this movie Kurt Klein is a hero to Gerda. He rescues her from the camp as she is dying. When they go on to fall in love, it makes me believe that even in the darkest moments in your life there might also be hope to begin something wonderful again. I hope that I can make the world a better place by just being me. I can do small things like listen to someone’s problems, and try to help them, offer a smile to a stranger, help someone with work in their house or yard that they can’t do by themselves anymore, or anything else I am capable of right now.

Primary Source vs. Book

While coming home from Vac to Budapest, Marika and her father read in the newspaper that Hitler claimed half of Poland, and he was heading for Hungary. Apa tried to tell Marika that things might get bad for Jews in Budapest. In Marika’s mind, she denied her father’s warning like she denied everything else that felt bad to her.

Within a short time, Apa’s fears came true. By the end of 1943, the German’s defeated Stalingrad, and soon German forces occupied Hungary. Jews were being rounded up and sent to live in concentrated areas called ghettos. Even though Marika had done a wonderful job forging the new birth certificates that stated they had no Jewish ancestry, Apa and Uncle Lipot felt it was best that they lay low and hide. By 1944 every other Jewish store owner, like the baker and the grocer were forced to close up their shops. Marika’s worry that her best friend Zsofi would be taken away came true. The Hungarian police came and took her family as part of an anti-Semitic round up. They were put into a forced labor camp. Marika prayed for their safety every moment she could. She felt guilty because she looked the way she did, had the opportunities she had and most of all that she couldn’t get Zsofi’s family forged documents.

Even the best forged documents couldn’t change the name of Apa’s company, Schnurmacher,Pal and Company. The name was a dead giveaway. No one would use their services. No one would dare take the chance.

UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM. “HUNGARY AFTER THE GERMAN OCCUPATION” HOLOCAUST ENCYCLOPEDIA. HTTP://WWW.USHMM.ORG/WLC/EN/ARTICLE.PHP?MODULEID=10005458.ACCESSED ON 12/1/11

Helmuth & Marika –Cell or Soulmates? #4 comparisons

The books, The Boy Who Dared, and Marika are similar in several ways. These stories are both told using flashback and are conveyed through the eyes and minds of young people growing up in the fearful time when Hitler comes to power. The main characters, Helmuth and Marika are both struggling with grown up problems at a young age. Dealing with these adult issues makes them seem older than they really are. Instead of spending time playing sports, or hanging out, doing fun things with friends, Helmuth and Marika spend their time listening to the adults in their households talk about Hitler and learning the effects Hitler’s SS have on the Jews.

Marika and Helmuth also grew up in awkward circumstances at home. Helmuth is missing his real father and loves his mother very much. She goes on to marry a high ranking official in the Nazi party who Helmuth despises. He lacks an adult in his life that he can trust to share his thoughts and questions with. Marika grows up similarly. She is not at all close with her mother, but feels very close to her father. She feels cut off from him because of the wall between them and seems to rely on her doll, Maxi to confide in. Having no reliable adult to share their deepest concerns with causes them to act on their own when they probably shouldn’t.

A common character quality they each have is their stubborn adventurousness. Throughout the story, Helmuth spends his younger years wishing he could participate in the activities his older brothers are involved in. He feels angry and left out because he can’t do things his older brothers do. When he gets slightly older, and has a better understanding about the power of the Nazis, and their extreme ways, he decides to ignore the law and do what he thinks it right. He feels a strong need to deliver the truth, even sacrificing his own life for it. From the beginning of the story of Marika, the author shows her to be stubborn, and wanting to do things her own way. From not wanting to learn French, not wearing certain clothes that make her stand out, to deciding not to not tell her best friend she is a Jew, she goes to great lengths, including getting herself sick, to make sure she gets her way. The behaviors of these two characters demonstrate that they are both fearless, heroic, and willing to sacrifice themselves for something they think is greater.

Marika and Helmuth also share the factor that they both grow up in religious households and neither can understand why Hitler hates Jews and attacks them as he does. The two characters having different faiths doesn’t seem to matter, it is their immaturity and lack of life’s experiences that doesn’t allow them to predict the horrible impact their actions might have. In the eyes of other characters in their stories, and to the reader, they come off as impulsive. They both think they are smarter than the adults around them. It would seem impossible that Helmuth could change what Hitler was doing by passing out flyers. It would seem equally impossible for Marika to get away with helping her family forge documents to evade the Nazi discrimination.

Marika

The book, Marika, by Andrea Cheng, opens with the main character, Marika, or Maria as her father called her, forging documents with her father, Apa, and Uncle Lipot,. The story is set in Hungary, in December, 1939, when Marika was twelve years old. The reader learns that the family is Jewish, although they celebrated Catholic traditions. The author made it clear that the forged documents would be very important to the family’s future safety.

The author implies that the reason Marika forged the documents had to do with their last name being Jewish. Marika was not exactly sure why she was being asked to forge the family documents, and she knew it is wrong, but did it for her beloved uncle and father, because she had the nicest handwriting. While she worked on the papers, Marika thought to herself, “It was bad luck that we were Schnurmacher so everyone knew we were Jewish…What difference would it make to anyone? When I grew up, I would change my name, and Jew would be gone forever. No need to forge anything.” (pg.3) When Marika finished erasing any trace of the word Jew from each birth certificate her father felt relieved.

The story then flashes back to 1934, when Marika was six years old. The reader learns that Marika’s family was probably wealthier than others. They have a summer home, and they also have a nanny and a cook. When Marika returned from her summer home to their duplex, she found it had been turned into two separate homes; one for her father, and one for the rest of the family. The author gives no explanation as to why this happened. Marika was very disappointed because she felt close to her father and does not see him as much as she would like. She does not seem close to her mother, Anya. Anya seemed to be most interested in shopping, playing the piano, even though she is mostly deaf, and her appearance. The reader learns she has make up, hair, and clothes that don’t look like anyone else’s mom.

The author also introduces the reader to Andras, Marika’s older brother, and Maxi, who is a doll her Uncle Lipot gave her. She thinks of Maxi as her best friend. Her uncle was worried when she gave her doll a Jewish name. He commented, “ …you might be wise to pick something more Hungarian.”(pg. 10) Marika told Maxi a horrible story about two Jewish boys who got their eyes poked out by chickens, but reassured Maxi nothing like that would happen to him.

Another indication that this family may have been wealthier than other families was that they insisted on the best schooling for their children. In particular, they wanted Marika to be able to speak many languages, including French. Marika resisted her new French nanny, Collette, when she first arrived, as she goes onto resist other changes or things that make her stand out to others.

At this part of the book, it is 1935, and this part of the story ends with Collette being sent away, and Anya taking on more of a mothering role with Marika, something that neither one of them seem to be happy about.

What did The Boy Who Dared Dare to Do? #2

The author makes it clear, through the title of the book, and the opening scene in the prison cell, that Helmuth stood up for something he believed in, and was punished for it, but leaves the reader asking, what could he have done that was so awful that he was sent to prison?

In the early portion of the book, Bartoletti leads the reader to assume that Helmuth was excited to be a part of the Nazi movement. The first proof of this was when the announcement came in school that “Adolf Hitler had been sworn in as the new chancellor of the Reich...Music swelled and something inside Helmuth swells too.” (12) Later when he is given a leaflet by a German storm trooper, and the soldier says to Helmuth, “Germany needs soldiers like you to fight for the Fatherland,” he feels proud and “Electric with excitement, knowing someday he will fight for the Fatherland.” (16)

Bartoletti also left cracks in the story for the reader to wonder why Helmuth felt so strongly about supporting Hitler. The cracks indicate to the reader there might be room for Helmuth to change his way of thinking. Even though Helmuth was raised understanding both his mother’s point of view, which was to support Hitler, and his grandparents and others fears of Hitler, the reader can’t yet answer why he chose his mother’s view. The feeling that opposing Hitler may have been the right decision was inferred later, when Opa’s Mormon friend, Heinrich Worbs, visited after the Reichstag was burned. Worbs was overcome with worry about what he read in the newspaper. “This new decree takes away our freedoms. Freedom of speech, gone! Freedom of the press, gone! Right to privacy, gone!”(25) When Helmuth told Worbs, “Hitler wants to protect us.” Worbs replies, “It’s not the Communists we must fear, now we must fear what we say in our own homes, what we say over the telephone, what we write.” (26) The reader can still question why Helmuth would support Hitler?

The story began to shift when the SS troops postered the store windows owned by Jews with banners reading, “Germans, do not buy from Jews! World Jewry is out to destroy us!”(31) Helmuth was sickened when he was kept from entering his friend, Herr Kaltenbach’s bakery by a storm trooper, simply because the baker was a Jew. The author was suggesting to the reader that this may be a turning point for Helmuth’s opinion of the Nazi regime.

What did The Boy Who Dared Dare to Do?

Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s book, The Boy Who Dared, opens with an obvious problem. The main character, seventeen year old, Helmuth Huebner, is awaiting his execution in a prison cell in Berlin, Germany, in 1942. Helmuth spends time in his prison cell reflecting on his childhood in Hamburg, Germany. It is through his flashback memories that the reader will learn the events that led to his imprisonment.

The first flashback Helmuth had was when he was three. He was walking with his mother, Mutti, and his half-brothers, Hans and Gerhard near where they live. They came across a German soldier who asked him if he wanted to be a soldier for the Fatherland. When Helmuth responded “Yes!” the reader gets the first sense that this may have been part of the reason he winds up in prison later. Helmuth was raised in the Mormon religion by his single mother, and lives next door to his grandparents, Oma and Opa, who also help care for him.

Hitler began his rise to power when Helmuth was a young boy. He listened to his mother who was in favor of Hitler’s rise, because she thought he would bring prosperity and relieve the depression Germany was in after the Great War. He also listened to his Grandfather, Opa, who was against Hitler because he was fearful of the “lunatic” that would bring war to their country. Helmuth was confused by his grandfather’s reasoning and wondered why Opa wasn’t in favor of someone who wanted to help Germany.

A later reflection Helmuth had was when he was in the fifth grade, and news broke that Hitler had been sworn in as the leader of the Reich. Helmuth recalled felling very patriotic toward helping his country and wanted to be a part of the parade to honor Hitler. His mother celebrated Hitler’s victory by cooking a special meal, but would not let Helmut go to the parade with his older brothers because she felt he was too young. Helmut laid in bed alone that night listening to the radio, “imagining the streets booming with Nazi storm troopers, hundreds of them…”(20) wishing he could have been a part of it.

Flower Garden

In the story Flower Garden, the main character, young Mrs. Winning, chose to marry into the town’s most prominent family, and lived in their great home on top of a hill. In the beginning of the story she spent time dreaming about the people that would move into a small cottage that she once thought might have been perfect for her to fix up and grow a beautiful garden around. When the new owner, a widow, Mrs. MacLane, and her son Davey moved in, Mrs. Winning was excited to become her friend and spend as much time as possible with her. She was most interested in how Mrs. MacLane decorated the house and to hear her plans for the elaborate garden she intended to grow all around the cottage. Mrs. Winning was happy that Mrs. MacLane’s plans were almost exactly as hers would have been if she would have been able to move in. The two ladies and their sons remained friends until Mrs. MacLane was friendly toward a half black boy from town and hired his father, Mr. Jones to help her with the garden. All the other people in the town looked down upon that and talked badly about them behind their backs.

Although there are many significant literary elements going on in this story, the one that is the most obvious to me is the person-against-self conflict that surrounds the protagonist, young Mrs. Winning. To begin with Mrs. Winning seemed somewhat disappointed with how her life played out. Evidence of this is the quote, “For a while, when she was twelve and the grocer’s son was twenty, Mrs. Winning had hoped secretly that he would want to marry her.” Unfortunately, her wish was not her fate.

The author painted a contrasting picture between the two homes and lives of the two women to further show how Mrs. MacLane lived in the place where Mrs. Winning longed to be. The cottage was shown to be a small cheerful place that symbolized hope and happiness that was Mrs. MacLane’s. The Winning home was shown to be dark, dull and routine, just like Mrs. Winning’s life. Mrs. Winning showed jealously toward Mrs. MacLane when she noticed to herself that Mrs. MacLane “is pretty,” and came right out to Mrs. MacLane with more regret and said, ”It’s just that I’ve been wanting to live here myself for so long” referring to the cottage. Later she expressed more disappointment and regret about her life when she said to Mrs. MacLane, “I’d give anything in the world to live in your house.”

Further conflict occurs later in the story when Mrs. MacLane’s garden began to grow to be more luscious and beautiful, and she had Mr. Jones, a black man, help her do the gardening. At that point, Mrs. Winning found it hard to be friends with Mrs. MacLane because it made Mrs. Winning look like she approved of her friend having a “shirtless” black man help make her garden beautiful. When Mrs. Winning said to her, “Of course you won’t have him any longer than just today?” and Mrs. MacLane answered, “But surely.” Mrs. Winning became indignant and embarrassed and went home. Their relationship was never the same after that time.

Although I don’t think I would have felt the same way in all of the situations that Mrs. Winning found herself in, I did connect with her feeling of jealousy. Just like the example of Mrs. Winning longing for Mrs. MacLane’s cottage and garden, there have been times in my life when I have wanted something for a very long time, and someone else just stepped in and got it. Those times have made me angry, so I can understand how Mrs. Winning felt, like a loser.