Courtney Stewart -- Class Video

The beginning of the video starts off explaining what was happening within Jewish communities as well as interviews of some survivors in order to get a better understanding of what life was like before the war, and during the war; what it was like being rounded up, resettled, and forced into horrible ghettos where one bedroom apartments housed far too many Jews than what it was truly capable of holding. Throughout the movie, the viewer has the opportunity to witness the emotions and reactions of the survivors to what the actual footage captured during the struggle of the Jews and others that were tortured throughout the war. Within the beginning of the video, the viewer is able to get a look at how absurd the Germans/Nazis made the Jewish community out to be, by portraying their lifestyle as one that was comforting and uplifting in such a time; when in truth, the Jews were suffering and being killed off at the enjoyment of the Germans/Nazis. Later on in the video, being gathered and sent into ghettos was captured, showing the separation of families and hardships that each person had, being left for abandonment from their loved ones and personal belongings. The Jews were left with nothing and that is something that one must understand before believing any sort of propaganda and falsifications made out by the horrible Nazis. Though many feared where they would be sent after being transported to the ghettos, their high hopes to moving forward within their replacement location ended much earlier than what most believed. It is understand that most Jews died in labor camps or death camps, and though that may be true, it needs to be emphasized that not many made it out of the ghettos. The environment that the ghettos provided and the treatment in which they endured in that time shows that the Nazis made it as impossible as they could on the Jews to take one step further towards life beyond the ghetto. As the movie reels go on, the surviving viewers recapture the truth behind their fate and are forced to look away in order to maintain some sort of sanity that they have tried for years to regain after their experience from 1941-1945, and for many, years after that; though they were liberated in 1945 when the war was over.

The movie made me feel extremely upset but very sad at the same time. If I could go back and protect these people in any sort of way, I definitely would. I would give them their dignity back if I could. I would die for them if I could. Those poor people. May their abusers feel their pain, always.