English Final-Ashley Speer

English Final

Holocaust Research Paper-Ashley Speer

Holocaust Research Paper-Ashley Speer

Hawaiian Vacation-Ashley Speer

My Frog Movie-Ashley Speer

Alfred Caro - Survivor Testimony

Ashley Speer

Mr. Neuburger

Eng. Comp. 102

26 March 2012

Alfred Caro Testimony

            Alfred Caro lived in Berlin, Germany during the war.  His family was being investigated by the German police for political reasons and told that one of the men from his family had to go down to the police station to answer questions.  When he arrived at the police station he was asked no questions, but instead transported to a Nazi concentration camp called Sachsenhausen along with the other Jews that were being investigated.

            In the camps, they were marched out of their barracks every morning to work.  Life in the camp was miserable.  They were constantly beaten and were forced to sleep on the floor.  For breakfast they had water, for lunch they had water soup, and for dinner they had peas or bread to eat.  There were flecks that marked the size of the camp and whenever a Jew crossed over a fleck they were shot by a machine gun that was positioned at every thirty yards.  Sometimes to German soldiers would tell the Jews to turn around multiple times to make them disorientated and the Jew would fall over a fleck so they would shoot them. 

            Alfred went to Sachsenhausen in June 1938 and was released from the concentration camp in July 1938.  Alfred was held in the camp for six weeks before being released.  After being told he was free to leave, Alfred came home and joined Hicem which was an organizaation to help Jews to be freed from concentration camps and help them emigrate.  Hicem gave him a passport to France where he took a train to after being taken to Belgium.

           

Kristine Keren - Survivor Testimony

Ashley Speer

Mr. Neuburger

Eng. Comp. 102

26 March 2012

Kristine Keren Testimony

            Kristine Keren is a holocaust survivor from Lwow, Poland.  Around the time that the war, began Kristine remembers the Germans invading her town on motorcycles.  The Germans came to her apartment and told her family that they were taking everything and they had to leave their apartment at once.  After leaving their apartment, Kristine and her family were forced to live inside the ghetto in a small apartment with multiple families.

            Kristine’s father knew that one day the Germans would liquidate the ghetto so he built a tunnel from their basement in the apartment building leading to the sewer for a hiding place.  They were in the sewer for fourteen months.  There was no drinking water available so her father crawled on his hands and knees for two or three miles with a teacup in his teeth to get fresh drinking water.  There were twenty people with them so they divided the water into parts to drink.

After 3 weeks, they were discovered by sewer workers so they had to crawl to a different location inside the sewer.  They finally found a location in the sewer that was decent.  They stayed in that part of the sewer for 14 months.  They divided daily duties between the 11 people there with them. 

While they were in the sewer they had to deal with hardships like flooding.  The flooding reached the ceiling of the sewer so everyone had to hold their heads above the water for air.  Kristine said that when it was flooding she asked a religious man that was with them to pray and he did and suddenly the rain stopped and the water started receding. 

            When Kristine and her family were finally able to leave the sewer, Kristine was blinded by the light for a while and could not see anything but oranges and yellows.  Her brother was terrified and wanted to go back into the sewer because he had forgotten what life was like.  For the next few months they stayed in an apartment building and started to look for normal life again.  It was hard for Kristine and her family because Jews were still looked down upon after the war, but they managed to survive.

A Film Unfinished

Ashley Speer

Mr. Neuburger

Eng. Comp. 102

7 March 2012

Film Summary

“A Film Unfinished”

The video, “A Film Unfinished” portrays the life of Jews during the Holocaust.  After the Holocaust had ended, multiple films were found containing video on life in the ghettos.  The films were used to show how life was comfortable for most Jews.  All video taken from inside the ghetto was staged though.  Individuals were ordered to act a certain way and say certain things while being filmed and if they did not follow orders they would be either beaten or killed.  The films titled “The Ghetto” were unedited however which revealed some of the misery the Jews experienced.  

In the ghettos, Jews of all statuses were forced into the same area.  The people were only allowed to take whatever they could carry with them and nothing else.  This made it difficult for people to survive.  The wealthier people continued living a life of luxury in nice apartments with adequate necessities while the poor gradually became less fortunate and homeless.

Quality food like duck or geese were brought into the ghetto by the German soldiers to give the appearance that the Jews were living a comfortable and satisfying life.  The cost of the food was unaffordable for most of the individuals though unless the family was wealthy.  This made it unlivable for the poor people.  Most people sold all they had to survive the extreme measures which left them homeless and without food or water.  Survival among the poor was scarce.  Towards the ending of the ghettos the rich and poor people were easily distinguished.  The poor were starving and ill while the rich were still able to afford food and eat.  As a result, many people died and were left on the street by their families.  Corpses were found laid out on the sidewalk because families could not afford to bury their loved ones.  The corpses were picked up by the German soldiers and buried in a massive grave.

The ghetto was a miserable life for the Jews because most were aware of their cruel destiny.  Unable to fix anything about their outcome was terrifying.  Some people lived after the liquidation of the ghettos, but most died a tragic death after being sent to the concentration camps.

Word Count: 384