"So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit- It's when things seem worst that you must not quit" (Author Unknown, Don't Quit Poem).
We have talked recently about the school's "values of the month" of positive attitude and personal goals. The quote above came from the poem I showed you in Homeroom a few weeks ago (see link above).
In reading Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, we saw Anne exhibit these qualities, values, and "ideals", as she says. These virtues were what kept her alive and happy, though she was living in wretched conditions. Right at the end of her diary, after over 2 years living in oppression and fearing for her life, she writes:
“It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again” (p. 263-264).
In Defiance (check out the "bookmarks" in this link), we saw that same survival of hope and human spirit. Think about the scene when Tuvia gets angry that one of the community members gave birth to a newborn baby, and Lilka reminds him that he can't lose his humanity. Or, the scene when they are fleeing from the Germans and come to a lagoon. They are about to give up, but then Asael reminds them, "Nothing is impossible. What we have done is impossible!"
And what about The Boy in Striped Pyjamas? How do we see human spirit in this movie? The survival of hope and goodness? Does this movie also show us that, like Anne says, "in spite of everything, people are really good at heart"?
This post is for you to open a discussion about "the human spirit" and its survival in even the worst of times. Think about the movies we saw, Anne's diary, and the bravery and courage of the Jewish people living through the Holocaust. Think about other times in the past when hatred has made people's lives oppressive, and about your own life today... and if YOU have the same human spirit that these people had.
Living in the Holocaust is the hardest thing a human can go through. It is not desent nor necesary what this people (the germans) do to the jews, they shouldn't mistreat them just because of their religion, they should remember to have humanity, as Lilka in Defiance rembered Tuvia, we are all humans with no difference in the inside, so there is no sense that Hitller spread anti-semitism all over Europe. For example in the movie The Boy in the Striped Pijamas even though Bruno didn't know he couldn't be friends with Schmuel he kept visiting him, they became friends although his parents tell him not be near the concentration camp and he ofrs himself to help Schmuel find his father. After Bruno annd Schmuel were taken to a chamber Bruno's parents ralized that they didn't like what they did to their son and there they understood what those jewish people were going through.
ReplyDeleteAlways think in the golden rule "Don't do to others what you wouldn't like to do to you."
~ Camille Luna*
As Luna(love ya girl :D) I consider that living in the holocaust is the hardest thing because what people fear the most is the unknown. Nobody ever can even think that they are going to live to tell things that Anne told in her diary. I think the best thing she could have done is not to loose her ideals, what she believed, cause' that was the only thing she had left.
ReplyDeleteAbout the question of The Boy in the Stripped Pijamas yes their was human spirit. You know the bible says that you should have the heart, soul, and mind of a child.to have forgiveness and tolerance in our hearts. Bruno on the movie kept being friends with Schmuel even though her father told him Jews were ''not people''.
I believe Anne, the Bielki brothers, and all the Jews even the ones that didn't survive the holocaust are the most brave and courage people ever because living in those times was not at all easy. Also I know that they are children. By this I mean that all this time has passed by and they didn't had revenge from the Nazis and those who believed in antisemitism. I think they have forgiveness in their hearts like no other
Alba'Reynoso
About the other thing Never loose your hope, it is true because if you are in the middle of the war and you loose your hope you will never get out of this part of your life, so what i need to say when i loose everything? Anne just want to be free from nazis and live good with her family she don't want that ending ... In our own life we makes mistakes but the biggest one is to don't forget who you are....
ReplyDeleteValerie lora
I believe Alba and Luna and Valerie are right people should never loose their hope. In DEFIANCE when Asael said that nothing is impossible and that they already had done the impossible, i think it is true they had kept a whole group of people alive and safe- and yet they were making the impossible to win over the Germans and show them that they could fight over them and still be alive. In the BOY IN STRIPPED PIJAMAS Schmuel mantained all the hope possbile, to be a normal keep and to enjoy his time. Bruno is good at heart, he was a friend of a Jew even when his father told him they were animals, but when Schmuel was cought taking a biscuit that Bruno offered, Bruno did not know they were going to hurt him. Atually, i wish i had the courage and hope people had before, because people in these days are not much positive.
ReplyDeleteMarla Moreta :s
The human spirit during the holocaust was really big, it was great how people could find any way to survive. In defiance everyone thought they will never survive and things like that but the strength in human is so huge that they spent 3 years in the forest. In Anne Frank she was
ReplyDeleteMr.Dussel almost made everyone loose faith but their minds were always trying to be positive. And in The Boy in Stripes Pijamas both lkids were always trying to look for shmuels father, even though bruno was taught jews were like animals.
i think you should never lose hope because for example: if the community that tuvia had wouldve give up the woulnt survive. thats the great thing of hope. if mr. frank wouldve lost hope he wouldnt have survive in the concentration camp even thought the others didnt.
ReplyDeleteGabriela Susana
''Never loose hope" belive it or not is one of my favorite quotes. you should never loose hope on ANYTHING and it's just what gaby says;'' if tuvia and all the people there loosed hope they would be killed rite on the instant they loose it and they wouldn't have the chance of surviving like some did
ReplyDeleteMao D.
Living in the times of the holocaust is hard if you're a jew but there are different ways to confront it. you can suicide, you can fight, or you can just hide. in everything that we've seen that has to do with the holocaust everybody has a different perspective for example the bielski otriad they fought and got most of the people alive they were brave and stand up for themselves.
ReplyDelete-Jennifer
well, i consider keeping hope is one of the best things you can do in a situation like this beacause imagone you are passing a bad situation and also with no hope .. everything will go bad beacause if you dont have positive atitude nothing positive will como around.
ReplyDeleteAlanna Paulino:D
the thing is like this, they are trapped in a house without the chance of going out of it,but it doesn't matter cause if they are together they could always help each other and as the word says NEVER LOSE HOPE.
ReplyDeleteEmmanuel Rodriguez