Free Write 3/26/13

Well, I worked on my Summaries then posted them to the wrong section.  I feel like such a goof.  I don't cut corners, I work hard on my papers, then when I think they are completed and I did everything right I posted them to the wrong Blog.  Ugh!!!  Then I think I was supposed to double space and didn't.  I just want to scream.  Wonder if I can chalk it off to old age?  Maybe I'm getting senile in my old age!

The Warsaw Ghetto Film

Angela Gossett
Mr. Neuburger
English Comp 102-117
March 26, 2013

The Warsaw Ghetto
A Film Unfinished

This short 90 minute film epitomizes the horrors that Jews faced daily in the Warsaw Ghetto.  The film was hidden away and was never intended for viewing.  One can see that it is a film based on the mockery of the innocent and the poor.  The people of the Ghetto lived a daily hell.  The Ghetto was surrounded by barbed wire over brick walls and housed hundreds of thousands of Jewish people.  The Nazi's left people to die from starvation, diseases, and even sent them to an extermination camp, Treblinka.  The first extermination of Jews totaled around 300,000.  A crew of German soldiers was sent to Warsaw to film the life of a Jew.  It was a propaganda film to discredit Jews by showing their life wasn't as bad as they stated it was.  The German's filmed a circumcision ceremony, a burial service, actors dining on lavish meals at a restaurant, dinner parties, and even dancing.  One survivor stated as she watched the film that Jewish people do not bury their dead in coffins as the film showed.  Also filmed was extreme poverty and people lying dead on the sidewalks and in the streets.  Jewish people died because of malnourishment.  Their hair was falling out and they were skin and bones. People would come and pick up the corpses and throw them in a wagon and take them to a trench that was used for disposing of them.  They would throw them down a wooden shoot and pile them on top of each other and walk over the corpses to stack the bodies. After so many were in the trench, they would cover the bodies with paper and throw dirt over the top of them.  At the cemetery, there would be 40 to 50 corpses at a time that still had to be buried.  One of the comments from a survivor was, "We became indifferent to the suffering of others".  After 30 days of filming, the cameramen packed up and left.  The Warsaw Ghetto was full of innocent people left to die either by starvation or at the hands of evil people. 

Harrison Bergeron Essay

Response Essay

“Harrison Bergeron”

            In Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron” tells of a life where everyone is equal.  After reading the essay, one can only conclude too much government control actually destroys freedoms.  In fact, there are no longer pretty, athletic, or smart people.  Masks and weights cover up people’s bodies, hiding whatever special features one may have.  Vonnegut explains, “They weren’t only equal before God and the law.  They were equal every which way” (293).  Even intelligence is no longer allowed to be exhibited.  Smart people wear a mental handicap radio in their ears tuned to a government transmitter and every twenty seconds, sharp noises would sound, thus keeping people from “…taking unfair advantage of their brains” (294).  Average intelligence people can only think in short spurts.  Going against the laws is punishable by fines, prison, and even death at the hands of agents who is with the Handicapper General.  In conclusion, the pursuit of true equality destroys freedoms.  (170 Words)

Vonnegut Jr., Kurt. "Harrison Bergeron." Power of Language; Language of Power: A Collection of Readings. 2nd ed. Boston: Pierson Learning Solutions, 2011 293-299. Print. Custom Edition for Ozarks Technical Community College.

Edith Coliver Summary

Summary

Edith Coliver

Edith Coliver was born July 26, 1922 in Karlsruhe, Germany.  She was the oldest of two brothers and came from an upper middle class family.  Her father was a banker.  She attended public school until 1937 then was kicked out of school for being Jewish so parents sent her to England.  In June 1938 they left to go to the United States, spending four weeks in New York.  She stayed up all night on the ship so she could be the first to see the Statue of Liberty. Coliver's family then ended up in San Francisco where she graduated from George Washington High School.  After going to Berkley for college, she applied to the War Department to be a German Interpreter. Whereas Coliver participated in the hearings and interpreted throughout the trials.  Hitler committed suicide the day before Germany surrendered to the alley. Hitler's #2 man, Guerin also swallowed poison to commit suicide and to keep himself from being hung the following day.  The extent of the Extermination Camps was new to Coliver.  She felt very lucky to have gotten out when she did and was ashamed of being German.  Over 40,000 people died after liberation because of being starved and the medical problems it caused. The German's attitude was very unique during the trial.  The soldiers thought they should be shot by a firing squad instead of hung and would say things like, "I'm just a little guy" not taking any blame for what they did to the Jews.  Coliver was married for 31 years to Norman and they had 2 daughters, one an architect and the other an attorney.  She retired in 1992 from the Asia Foundation where she worked for 40 years. "I had the courage of my conviction, " is how she was able to be a public speaker.   (306 words)

"See the smoke coming out of the smoke stacks if you lived anywhere close and the smell, so we never believed the German's didn't know."

"I had the courage of my conviction." 

 

    

 

 

 

Joseph Morton Summary

Summary

Joseph Morton

Born Joseph Morkkwitz on July 11, 1924 in Lodz, Poland.  He was the oldest child having five brothers and one sister.  His father was a tailor and his mother a homemaker.  Morton went to school until the 7th grade.  The war started in September 1939.  Two days later, the German's marched in.  His father was in the Polish Army and was captured in Russia as a prisoner but was later released.  Jewish people was made to wear yellow bands on their arms to show they were a Jew then a yellow star on the front and back of their uniform.  "In 1940 they enclosed the Ghetto and that's when the real problems started."  As a result, starvation, people dying from hunger, and always living in fear.  The German's guarded borders and there was no leaving the Ghetto's.  When the Ghetto was enclosed, the whole family was together. The Warsaw uprising began and German's came in with trucks, took belongings and closed the Ghetto in 1944 then loading the Jews onto cattle trains to be taken to Auschwitz.  There would be 50-60 people standing in the trains with no food other than what one brought with him.  They would be on the trains for two or three days but didn't know where they were going.  Once they were in Auschwitz, the German's split the family up.  Morton, his father, brother, and cousin was sent to work and the rest of his family was killed.  They worked to build barracks underground.  As a result to the horrible conditions, Morton became ill with Typhus, being hungry, and losing so much weight so he was sent to the sick camp by train.  The American Army came and liberated the Jews and Morton was taken to a hospital for being so sick where he reconnected with his father and brother.  They left the hospital by jumping a fence and went to Canada.  In 1949 he registered to come to the U.S. and went to Chicago.  (330 words)

"In 1940 they enclosed the Ghetto and that's when the real problems started."

"Why do you think you survived?  By luck, strictly luck."   

3/5/2013

Well what all has happened since the last time I wrote, hmmm... My daughter called me yesterday and we are expecting grandchild number 3. I'm so excited that our little family unit is going to be a bigger unit. Since Samantha's death, our family has suffered so much and feels so little that having 3 little ones will sure be a blessing. I love being a grandma and want to have another grandson due to the 5 year old granddaughter is a complete handful. They both are but it seems that she is more so than he is. My daughter says there will be no more after this so I'm hoping for twins. That's probably not going to happen but a grandma can hope. I want 4 grandchildren total or 5 would be awesome but my daughter says they can't afford that many so 3 is all I'm getting. Work is going ok, glad the boss is back. Nothing to write about there. Nothing going on at home. Nothing going on much at school. Im a very boring person or rather, I just have a very boring life. My friend is coming up from Texas this weekend. This is before she moves back to Oregon at the end of the month. I'm really going to miss her but she is exhausting at times. I know she means well but wants all of my attention all of the time and that is exhausting. I'll be glad to see her since its been several months and hope she gets to stay til Monday but then I'll be ready for her to go home. That sounds awful of me but that's how I feel. What picture do I need to put on here? Let's find one of a baby toy.