1. Academic language only please! Students are assessed and /or evaluated and therefore, the change in format does not translate into a change in expectations in terms of the kind of language, phrasing, etc, that is acceptable. This includes refraining from the use of text messaging language systems.
2. Inevitably debate will arise since students are expected to comment on their peers' postings. That said, personal attacks and offensive language and remarks will not be tolerated. If this happens at any point, the class blog will be shut down and serious consequences will follow.
3. Meet deadlines. Each posting comes with a date and time stamp.
4. If students refer to information from other websites in your postings, the expectation for citing your resources remains the same. At the end of your posting, always include the URL for any sites that are referred to in the posting, in addition to proper citation within the text, depending on the teacher's preference.
5. Students are asked not to share the blog's URL with their friends. The class blog is for students in
English 1DY-a and b classes only.
6. Parents will be made aware of the URL and a notice to parents in advance to using the blog in class will be sent.
7. Administration (along with the Department Head of English) will be made aware of the URL and be made aware that this software will be used in our course.
6. Parents will be made aware of the URL and a notice to parents in advance to using the blog in class will be sent.
7. Administration (along with the Department Head of English) will be made aware of the URL and be made aware that this software will be used in our course.
Shadia Adekunte
ReplyDeleteWatching the Night and Fog documentary truly opened my eyes to the horror that was the Holocaust. Before watching the documentary, I was feeling anxious because I knew that what was coming would not be pretty. While I was watching the movie, the primary and most prominent emotion that I felt was disgust- complete and utter disgust. After watching the movie, I felt sadness and sympathy. I feel so sorry for the Jews because they had to go through that torture. It pains my heart to think of it. Even though the documentary was on such a horrible topic, it was well done. The voice of the narrator combined with the black and white, the images and the music made a heart-wrenching experience for the audience. I remember I few parts of the documentary that made me feel particularly disgusted, the part where we were shown the hair and the part where the bulldozer was pushing all the dead bodies into a hole in the ground. That scene alone must have had tens of thousands of dead bodies. It saddens me to know that man is the reason for all these people’s deaths and misery. It saddens me to know that a human could and would actually do that to other people. After seeing this documentary, I would definitely agree that I better understand the Holocaust and it has shed new light on Jewish and German culture. The documentary has increased my knowledge of these two cultures. The fact that the Nazi supporters/ Germans (not all Germans) felt that what they were doing was just makes me sick to my stomach. I remember the part where we were shown how malnourished and small these Jews were because of these camps. It is sad to see how horribly they were treated at the hands of other people. This documentary relates to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas because in the book, we are able to see a more simple and sheltered perspective of the Holocaust. In the documentary, there is nothing that is simple or sheltered, we are able to see the full and realistic perspective of the Holocaust. I think that watching the documentary is beneficial to us because we are able to use what we saw and connect it to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. It helped to fill in any gaps that we may have missed and help us better understand the story. Overall, the Night and Fog documentary further educated me on the Holocaust and helped me comprehend The Boy in the Striped Pajamas on a higher level.
Alvin Pane
DeleteMy response to Shadia is that I also think the documentary opened my eyes to the horrors of this event. I found the images used to be very powerful and disturbing. These images saddened me and made me feel great pity for the Jews. I also thought the documentary was put together nicely and did well to convey how terrible the Holocaust really was. Even though I knew it was a very dark event, this movie showed a side to it that was even worse than what I originally thought.
Victoria Battaglia
ReplyDeleteThe short documentary "Night and Fog" made me feel very appalled at the behaviour of the Germans towards the Jews. I was also very disturbed by such horrors due to the fact that it was authentic clippings of what the Nazis did to the Jews. One specific part that stood out to me was when the numerous bodies of the Jews were being dumped into holes and buried. This film enhanced what I already know about the Holocaust. This film relates to The Boy in The Striped Pajamas in view of the fact that the film showed the gas chambers and I recalled when Bruno and Shmuel died in the gas chambers. Overall, I found many times where I could relate this film to The Boy in The Striped Pajamas.
Hey Victoria,
DeleteI agree with your response completely. I was also shocked with the number of Jews being dumped into holes. It made me realize that this was just one part of what the Nazis did to the Jews. They did much more and it made me realize what a terrible world it was back then for the Jews. This film relates to The Boy In The Striped Pajamas 100%
Sabrina Pullano
DeleteHi Victoria,
I agree that the viewing of authentic clips from the Holocaust added to the horror of acknowledging such atrocious pas events. And although I also agree that this film related to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I believe that it was more effective in communicating to the viewer/reader about the extremities of such horrific Holocaust events. This is due to the fact that the viewer is getting genuine glimpses of the Holocaust.
The documentary "Night and Fog" made me feel many emotions during different times in the movie. I felt anger towards the Germans when they were planning out how to kill the Jews, I felt pity for the Jews because they had to survive in so many harsh conditions, and I felt fear for the Jews who got hanged or experimented on in the laboratory because that is one of the cruelest ways that somebody could die. I also think that the movie was more effective than the book because when I read the book, all I am doing is imagining what could of happened. It is almost impossible to imagine something that bad happened to millions of innocent people. I also think that the depressing music had an effect on me because it made me feel even more desolate because of what happened to the Jews, and without it the documentary wouldn't have had the same effect.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI don't really agree entirely with what you were saying because you can't feel pity for the Jews. I mean what happened to them was terrible but they manage to remain strong through it all. Sure, what happened to them should never had happened but it did and there's nothing we can do about that but instead I would be congratulating them on their strength, on their courage, on retaining their human qualities throughout it all. And how can you feel anger towards the Germans. Not all Germans were at fault. Not even all Nazis were at fault. I think the documentary was meant to show us how not everything is black and white there are shades of grey and that even exists in something like the Holocaust. Where people only think that the Jews were weak and defenseless, and the Germans were mean and cruel.
DeleteIsabella Fortuna
DeleteMy response to Aiden Pigott is I agree that it is almost impossible to imagine… and to think it happened only a few decades ago. We are so fortunate that in our lives we have been sheltered from such vile events. Luckily, we cannot relate the events to our past experiences because we have not had to endure such torture and brutality. The only way for us to try and grasp what occurred is through media such as non-fictional sources (Night and Fog and The Diary of Anne Frank) which give us actual historical information and fictional sources (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and The Book Thief) which try to get us to empathize with the characters to get a sense of the emotions behind the suffering. Both of these mediums help us expand our knowledge on the subject because they give us new perspective and help us understand more than the single story we experience.
Hello Aidan,
DeleteThe unimaginable events of World War II and the Holocaust are prime examples of occurrences that until seen, cannot be believed. One cannot fully understand the Holocaust until viewing images that truly capture the horrific genocide. That is why for “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” to produce the maximal effect, one has to have at least some prior knowledge of the Holocaust in the form of images or documentaries.
The documentary “Night and Fog” really has opened my eyes a little bit more to what had happened in the concentration camps. At first I believed that it was just a working camp where they forced people to work, beat them, and then killed those who couldn’t work. When I saw the clips of the heads cut off, and the laboratory where they experimented on live humans, I was appalled. I knew that the Nazi’s had done sick and inhumane things to the Jews but beheading and live human testing is going too far. After further research, the live human testing would have resulted in death, permanent disability and disfiguration. It pains me to think that this occurred for so long without it being stopped and how many innocent people had this done to them. I believe that the documentery is similar to “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” because they both talk about the cruelties of the holocaust to the Jews, the gas chambers, many people living inside a single hut, and tortures along with beatings similar to the ones that Shmuel received.
ReplyDeleteAlvin Pane
DeleteI also think that the horrors the Nazis committed were taking it way too far. Cutting people’s heads off and experimenting on live humans is just simply inhumane. I cannot understand how anybody could have been persuading into doing those terrible things. The Jews were treated like lab rats, and it’s extremely unjust that they should have to endure that simply because of their religion. I am also very pained, knowing that these horrors happened. I hope that the world can learn from the mistakes of this incident and make sure that nothing like it ever happens again.
Christina Bisol
ReplyDeleteThis documentary was completely unsettling and replaced whatever happy thoughts I was thinking about with sickness. All the gruesome shots that were displayed for a moment longer than necessary truly brought out my empathy and apathy. Empathy for all the innocent people who had to endure the torture of that living hell and apathy for the horrors of the “hospital,” and the discarding of the remains which were horrifically recycled—these are some topics that I wish I still had my ignorance on, or at least did not see. With the film being in French, one is forced to look at the terrors presented on screen if they are not French speaking. Details like some Jews praying and others welcoming death presented me with two different stories on the way the prisoners undertook their burden. It also taught me how clever the Nazis were in creating these concentration camps and bringing the sense of refuge with a hospital that held an even worse fate, and tricking their fatalities into using human remains as soap. The cruelty and disrespect the Nazis had only further emphasises how ignorant the two nine year old boys really were.
Shadia Adekunte
DeleteMy response to Christina Bisol is…
Alike you, Christina, I also had any pleasant thought replaced by horrible ones while watching the documentary. I think that the fact that the documentary was in French made me have to pay more attention to the horrific photos and scenes that I was being shown. Speaking of ignorance, a topic you touched upon, your blog post reminded me of the saying “Ignorance is bliss.” I think that saying can be applied to this situation. We all know that more knowledge is good for us however, sometimes what we don’t know (or see) just might be for our benefit. This documentary really opened my eyes to the horrors of the Holocaust as it did for many others.
Doreen Sangaraganesan
ReplyDeleteNight and Fog was a gruesome revelation of the truth. I, coming from a public school where there was a dominating Jewish community, have been able to talk to many WWII survivors who are also Jewish and were in those concentration camps. When they spoke to us, they also told us about the starvation, disease and other unfortunate things that were common throughout the camps. The documentary put an image to the stories and memories I have listened to throughout the years, but they weren't imaged that I wanted to keep in mind. I felt the novel we read was so simple and basic that it frustrated me. That war especially, was a hard time. People were tormented in ways we couldn't imagine and the book was just a simple story about two boys and their developing friendship. I guess the book was simple because it is possible that the author wanted to put aside the complexity of the war and all the hatred and coldness and show that one friendship, one positive feelings was able to outdo the coldness from many peoples hearts. We always think about the cruel way the Nazi's treated the Jewish people, but of course as a result of what happened the Jewish people also had a feeling of hatred towards them. They also assumed all German people were like this. Au contraire. I think what really left an imprint on me was seeing the bodies, the sunken faces and the stick thin limbs. Seeing the way they threw the bodies, the way the trucks would just push them into the holes in the ground scarred me. I do understand that the book was meant for a younger audience but often the simplicity was torturous, I felt as if though I should just stop reading it because it was just too "glossy" (as Mrs.Woods puts it). It was too easy, there weren't too many "read between the line" moments. It gave you a simplified, 'sweetened' version of the truth. Yet the book managed to leave me with a feeling of sadness and remorse just like the documentary did. Though I chose not to watch all of it because the images were quite graphic, I was moved by it. In the documentary, we did not know the people personally, to us they were corpses who were killed needlessly, but the images created this feeling of remorse. In the novel, we are seeing the world through Bruno's eyes. We connect to him and his personality, and though many of us expected their deaths, we were still left hoping that it wouldn't happen. Personally, Bruno's death still managed to shock me because I had just started to appreciate his character, the same shock I had while watching the documentary.
Andre Dao
ReplyDeleteThis documentary provides information about the Holocaust that is far more direct than anything else I've ever seen or read. For the first time after watching this film, I realized that the Holocaust was not only a genocide of Jewish people. It was a calculated plan of using millions of innocent lives as torture and research subjects for the Nazis profit that would eventually lead to their deaths when the soldiers were satisfied. This information engraved itself deeply in my mind when I saw the images of thousands of limp, starved bodies and severed heads with open eyes being disposed of like garbage. It struck me harder to know it wasn't just any horror movie I was watching, but footage of actual horrific events. At the end of the Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne mentioned in the interview that if we were present at the time of the Holocaust but uninvolved directly, most of us probably would not even act to prevent the tragedy. It is only after the tragedy occurs that people start to express sympathy, using their ignorance as an excuse. Through the disgusting images, Night and Fog reminds the viewer that such tragedies and genocides are still present in our world and could happen anytime. Like Boyne asks, will we challenge injustice for the sake of innocent victims? Or will we sit idly and act oblivious?
I completely agree with you. It is hard to believe what we watched in class were true images of the horrors that the Jews had to endure. I can’t believe the pain and suffering the Jews had to face under the power of the Nazis just because a certain group thought they were the inferior race. The movie makes me think how life on earth was for the Jews during the terrible time of the Holocaust. Through the graphic and horrific images I gained a deeper understanding of all of the victims. When I read the book “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” I felt the author writes the book from a child’s perspective, which made it easy to read. However, through viewing the documentary “Night and Fog” the horrific graphics make it more difficult for the audience to watch.
DeleteIn response to Andre, I agree with you completely. In the beginning of the Holocaust, when the Jews were taken from their homes and such (before the break out of the World War), they were used as free labour. This was a Nazi hypocrisy, for they originally claimed the German people were being used by the Jews, yet not long after, they ended up using the Jews. The images were more so proof for me of what happened in the Holocaust since they did not invoke much, or any, emotion in me at all.
DeleteIn the novel, Bruno was the representation of the world. He was hidden from the horrors of the Nazis yet found them when he searched for them. We mustn't leave such atrocities to continue. As a global community, we must find and end these acts of hatred.
Mark Francis Olaya
ReplyDeleteThe documentary, Night and Fog, was an insightful and educational video that showed me some graphic films and images that were taken during the Holocaust that I have not seen before in other documentaries. In one part of the film showed how the Jewish people that were captured were shoved into train cars as if they were mere livestock. There were other parts which showed skinny, starving people, decapitated heads that were just placed into buckets, and boney corpses displayed on the ground for others to see, showing the audience how the Nazis despised the Jews and how they would have been treated. While I was watching this film, I thought of how the cameraman would have felt when filming this; how these lifeless bodies used to be talking, walking, and doing other simple everyday tasks and activities. I also wondered if one of the films were taken by a cameraman that was an Allied soldier whose duty was to record information in concentration camps after World War 2 has ended or by a SS officer that filmed it for the joy of it. What disturbed me the most is how people can become corrupt and then into monstrous murderers and torturers when they used to be a normal human being, having nice conversations with others and living in peaceful environments. The main thing that I did not like about the film is some of the background music choices. I felt that some sounded awkward or that it did not feel like it enhanced the effects of the images. I would have replaced several songs with a certain classical piece called Lacrimosa written by Wolfgang Mozart. Most or all of the lyrics in this piece can be related to the Holocaust. I recommend playing this piece while watching scenes that affected you the most in the documentary.
Hi mark,
DeleteI believe what you are saying is true. The documentary did give me new information on what happened during the holocaust and they presented it in a way that made me feel even worse for the jews. It is difficult to believe the atrocities that were commited to the Jews by the Nazis such as treating them like garbage, torturing and murdering these innocent people for fun. I believe that it was probably a soldier that filmed the camp becuase it was unlikley for an Allied soldier to find his way into a concentration camp and film it while he remains undetected and keeping the tape.
Dana Condescu
ReplyDeleteI found lots of contrast in this documentary. The black and white images compared to the present colour images, the almost "upbeat" background music alongside the horrifying images, and the innocence of the inmates compared to their situation. The slow scrolling camera left me at a bit of a suspense for what was coming next. What really left me at a loss for words was how the inmates were unaware of what was going on. They were told they would be taking showers and they would be treated at hospitals. They even thought they were constructing the buildings that would aid them without predicting the horror in the near future. I was also very taken aback when I noticed that immediately after the film finished, even during the film, there were still some people laughing or chattering as if nothing had happened and returned to their daily lives. This contrast between our lives and the victims of the Holocaust is immense, and yet no one delves deeper. I was not so much angry or sorrowful as I was shocked.Either the film was not able to deliver the message across , or everyone simply wanted to forget what they just witnessed.
Christina Bisol
DeleteMy response to Dana Condescu is…
All the film aspects you mentioned truly did emphasized the impacting message the film artists wished to convey. Simple things like the slow outward zoom of the mountain of hair and the variety of photos of the deceased were enough to take away anyone’s appetite. However, all the information and themes that were delivered was far worse. I believe some people just couldn’t bare or stomach to see the gruesome facts of the past that happened to innocent people because of other humans. We are equal and have multiple stories, but like any bad memory we all wish to forget the horrors even though our ignorance threats our future of history repeating.
I think that this documentary was very hard to watch because you see all the things that the German soldiers did to the Jews. I felt a mix of emotions about this film. I felt angry that the Germans soldiers did this to the Jews because they did absolutely nothing. I also felt really sad for the Jews because they are being killed and they are dying for nothing they did. I feel bad that they have to go through this much pain. Also the music didn't help the way I felt because it was very dark and made the situation worse for me.
ReplyDeleteVictoria Battaglia
DeleteHi Charlotte,
I completely agree with you about the music in the film. It was very cheerful for something that was completely disturbing. I disliked the fact that they used such animated music for a humourless situation. I anticipated that the music would be very unpleasant, however, the 'joyful' music made the whole situation seem unimportant, as if it were a joke.
Sabrina Pullano
DeleteHey Charlotte,
I also agree with the idea that the music in the film has a great impact on the overall effectiveness of the documentary affecting its viewers. I believe that the choice of the music during certain scenes of the documentary is able to affect the ultimate experience the viewer endures when observing emotional scenes. I believe that without the music, the documentary would not have the same power-fullness in communicating the overall meaning of the film to the viewer, as well as overall entertainment.
The documentary Nights and Fog was very graphic. I felt sick to my stomach watching a video clip of true events that occurred decades ago. It is difficult to imagine that those atrocities really happened. How can any human being treat others in such a despicable manner? I felt fear for the Jews, especially for the young children, women, and physically weak men. The Jews were reduced to such a state that they looked like "walking corpses". No one has the right to treat people in such an inhumane way. It angers me that some "evil" leader can abuse his power to that extent. He exterminated people and ended their lives as if they no longer had the right to live on this earth. Those acts were very disgusting. Watching the black and white documentary was depressing and heart-wrenching. The music was also very effective in creating a sombre and dark mood. What is even more horrific than the unspeakable scenes from the documentary is the fact that these types of atrocities continue to happen around the world. The author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas points that out in his interview. He mentions the people of Rwanda and the horrific genocide that occurs during our present day. By reading the book and watching the documentary, I gained a deeper knowledge of the terrible events that have occurred during the war. It also makes me aware that evil acts will continue to happen unless people change their way of thinking! Just imagine a world without stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteHi Francesco
DeleteI agree with you, the documentary was horrifying. The things that the Nazis did to the Jews were cruel, inhumane, and unjust. When I first saw the Jews in the concentration camps I was 12 and I thought that the movie we were watching was a zombie movie because of how scrawny and beat up they were. I can’t believe that so many people followed orders that were so inhumane and disgusting. The music too had a huge impact on the documentary as you said. Like you said, it is hard to even imagine what the Jews had to go through and the rest of the world barley knew that it was going on.
Daniel Morelli
ReplyDeleteThe documentary “Night and Fog” really opened my eyes to a horrible catastrophe known as the Holocaust. Before I viewed the documentary, I felt a little nauseous because I knew what I was about to watch. While I was watching the documentary, I was disturbed and saddened. I can’t believe the Nazi party condemned many Jew to death because Hitler believed they were the reason Germany was experiencing an economic oppression. After I watched the documentary, the main scene that was stuck in my mind was the scene showing the disposal of the dead bodies. I can’t believe the Nazis found it acceptable, and humane to kill hundreds of thousands of Jews because of their difference, and they found it humane to dump their bodies into a hole in the ground. This documentary showed me a side of the Nazi party. The documentary showed the Nazi soldiers transporting many Jews to concentration camps, and letting them live in unsanitary conditions. The documentary showed the Jewish people starving, and slowly dying, until the soldiers directed them to the gas chambers where they were killed. The documentary was made very effectively. The black and white images, the narrations, the music and the disturbing images effectively showed the devastation of the Holocaust. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas provided a simple perspective of the Holocaust. However, the documentary showed a realistic perspective of the Holocaust. In the interview, John Boyne said, “Fences like this exists all over the world. We hope you never have to reach such a fence.” The documentary showed the devastation of the Holocaust and warned that these horrors could happen again. This quote is warning us that this division and separation symbolized by the fence, could happen again.
During and after this documentary I felt anger, despair, and fear. There were many horrors revealed to me through the movie. Some of the scenes I am unlikely to ever forget are the scene with the bucket of heads, bulldozing bodies, and the hair. The slow moving shot of the piles of hair made me feel as if I would be forever staring at the never ending piles of hair. The fact that this was them made into the blankets that the inmates used made the idea even more disturbing. Also the scene showing the air vents and talking about horrible screams of torture was quite chilling. This documentary reveals that while The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, even though it provided a new perspective on the Holocaust and helped portray certain ideas, it certainly does not do this disaster justice in terms of the gruesome events that happened on the other side of the fence.
ReplyDeleteAndrea Peel
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that the documentary was both moving and disturbing. The documentary really goes into detail about what happened during the war and that it was not the GERMANS who were responsible for all of the killings that took place during the second world war. It was the Nazi party. The graphic images were disturbing to say the least. I really was not mentally prepared to see headless and skinny bodies. Nevertheless, this documentary was still very touching.
I agree 110% that the images were disturbing. It's a lot different seeing it then hearing it. Imagine what it would be like to live it. I think it was something that we needed to see though. To know what went on in the past and to learn from it. To make sure that it never happens again.
DeleteElena Ricci
DeleteI agree this documentary showed us what really happened in the Holocaust. As a child we only learned that the Nazi tortured the Jews because they thought they were less then the Germans, and that you were extremely lucky to get out alive. 'Night and Fog' shed light on what the Nazi did to the Jews and how they were treated alive and dead. The documentary was very disturbing.
Joseph Sereney
ReplyDeleteWhen I watched Night and Fog, I was very angry at the gruesome pictures that were shown. At the same time, though, I was fascinated and shocked that this was actually the horrid reality of the Holocaust. The film maker did a great job of conveying the emotions. First off, the change between colour and black and white made the images more impactful because I could tell they were authentic, and there was something about the lack of colour that made them interesting. Also, the music chosen fr the background confused me because it seemed way too happy for the scenes it was played along with. I think this documentary is in stark contrast to the Boy in the Striped Pajamas because while the novel explored a more innocent (and German) point of view where everything was kept undercover and the reader had to figure out what was going on, the film simply showed the disturbing images and it revealed how brutal the whole situation truly was.
Aidan Pigott
DeleteI totally agree with you. I have heard and seen many thing relating to the Holocaust and I had a faint image of what it was like, but I never dreamed that the Jews could be treated that horribly. To me, the lack of color represented the lack of happiness, which all of the Jewish people had none of in that desolate time period. I don't think that the music was happy at all, I think they played a very depressing minor key throughout the movie because there was not one happy moment anywhere in there. I agree with you, The Boy in The Striped Pajamas did a great job in indicating how many German people who didn't know about the Holocaust acted around it, and the movie did a great job showing how the people who lived through the Holocaust reacted.
Hi Joseph,
DeleteI also had many mixed feelings from watching the horrid documentary. I was shocked to see the various ways they tortured people, I was depressed to see the amount of deaths caused, and I was pleased because something like that would never happen in the present. I also liked how they contrasted from the past, which was black and white, and then to the present, which was in colour. It allowed the viewers to compare. I believed they showed happy music with the disturbing pictures to show that the torturing was done so much, that it became somewhat pleasant to the torturers. It might’ve also been used to show that it was nothing compared to some of the things that they do.
Upon watching the eye-opening documentary of “Night and Fog”, I have learned that the conditions in the concentration camps were even more deplorable than I would have ever imagined. The various ways in which the director used colour imagery, different angles, ominous music all while showing the desolate, gloomy scenery of concentration camps such as, Auschwitz and Birkenau was extremely powerful. The element in this film which affected me the most was the graphic scenes in which Jews and other prisoners of war were murdered, tortured and severely harmed. Without any sympathy, the Nazi soldiers relentlessly killed these innocent people and threw their corpses into mass graves as if they were pieces of raw meat. I found this incredibly cruel and nauseating, as these individuals had done nothing to meet their demises and were regarded not even as second class citizens, but as dirty vermin with absolutely no feelings or personalities. I had seen images of this before, but had never witnessed it in motion. The audacity in which the soldiers possessed to kill and carry around these dead bodies was barbaric and exemplified their insensitivity and apathy towards their victims. Furthermore, the fact that the Nazis utilized the body parts of the deceased to fabricate various commodities and materials (ex. bones for soap, hair for stuffing, skin for canvases) was traumatizing and further portrays them as heartless, maniacal people with no ability to empathize. The fact that the director decided to play haunting, resonating music emphasized the gloominess and darkness of these various scenes. It made me feel as if I were actually witnessing these atrocities. Additionally, the “experiments” unto the Jewish prisoners which were conducted were simply immoral and sinful. To see that these people were degraded and schemed in such manners is horrible, and further convinces me how delusional it was for the Nazis to obliterate the Jewish race for no apparent reason- simply because they were Jewish. The single stories which Hitler invented regarding Jews (ex. they were evil, they were stealing jobs from ethnic Germans, they are conniving, they were the reason for the economic oppression) evidently affected others and ultimately brainwashed them to believe such things. No one deserves to be prejudged and mistreated in such ways. The black and white imagery in the film assisted in developing the dreary, melancholic setting of the concentration camps and the contrast between the tranquil, priveleged of the Nazi family life to that of the impoverished, saddening Jewish life within the concentration camp. Moreover, I found the scene within the hospital to be eloquent but also alarming. Hospitals are intended to be places where those who are suffering are treated, where those who are in need receive assistance and guidance. Conversely, these hospitals were anything but that. On the outside, the hospital resembled any ordinary hospital, providing its patients with a false sense of security. On the inside, it was a living hell with people being tormented, raped, killed and all other sorts of unimaginable things. This correlates with the motif of the fence in “The Boy With the Striped Pajamas” given the fact that the fence is a border between fantasy and reality. Bruno’s side of the fence is a fantasy world, where everything is perfect, plants are in bloom and everyone leads a happy, healthy live where as, Shmuel’s side is barren, everyone is miserable, people are being killed, tortured and treated inferior. Both the fence and the hospital were facades that concealed the truth. The Holocaust serves as a lesson that we must treat everyone we meet with respect, dignity and consideration rather than labeling them and fabricating single stories to avoid such events from occurring once again. In the end, we are all equal in God’s eyes and He loves each one of us unconditionally. The question is- when will we learn to follow His ways?
ReplyDeleteTeodora Marginean
DeleteMy response to Milena Fortino is that I was affected in the exact same way as you were by this movie. We both gasped at the same time and shut our eyes in sync, so the impact of this movie is equal on both of us. Besides the obviously horrifying images and hidden video footage, which I've already mentioned in my post and my response to Sabrina, I felt like the music really set the mood and atmosphere and added to the intensely frightening nature of the documentary. It wasn't slow and saddening with dreary violins droning in the background to create an ambiance of sorrow, rather it was upbeat and very staccato (the notes are disconnected and shortly played) and made it feel like a sort of mockery of a regular, overdone documentary on the Holocaust. It stirred more of a sense of fear in me than the other documentaries I've watched on the topic, and really got my heartbeat racing because of the rapidity of the notes and unusual instruments. I don't think the audience would have been nearly half as phased by the images without the music that was played at the same time. I also recall reading somewhere that if you hear a certain song a long time after you first heard it, memories are triggered of what happened at that time, so I think the director purposely chose this type of unlikely music to make the audience think back to this documentary if they heard something similar.
Daniel Morelli
DeleteMy response to Milena Fortino is that I agree with your blog post. I agree that the documentary used colour imagery, narration, music, a combination of different angles, and real footage of the gloomy, and desolate scenery very effectively. I also found that the most powerful scenes in the documentary were the scenes where the Jews were inhumanely tortured, and killed, and the scene where the Nazi’s dumped the dead corpses in mass graves. The Nazi’s showed no sympathy toward the Jews. The Nazi soldiers transporting many Jews to concentration camps, letting them live in unsanitary conditions. The documentary showed the Jewish starving, slowly dying, until the soldiers directed them to the gas chambers where they were killed because of the single story of them created by Hitler. I agree with your point about the hospitals, and the fence. The hospitals were placed in the concentration camps to create a false sense of security. The hospital was a living hell for the people in the camps. The hospitals were used to torment and kill the Jews instead of giving medical attention. The fence did the same thing. The fence divided fantasy from reality. Bruno lived on the fantasy side of the fence where everyone was happy. Bruno always fantasied about what was on the other side. Bruno lived in his own fantasy. He fantasied everything because he never knew what was really happening. Bruno thought Shmuel’s side was similar to his side, but in reality, Shmuel’s side was the complete opposite. On Shmuel’s side, everyone was miserable, no one was happy, and the conditions were unsanitary, and unbearable. I agree that both the fence and the hospital were concealing the truth.
Elena Ricci
ReplyDeleteWatching the documentary, "Night and Fog" made me realize the terrible actions that the Nazi committed towards to the Jews which they held captive. The documentary displayed the cruel attitude and actions the Nazi's had towards the Jews. Some actions that scarred me were the living conditions, especially the bunks that the Jews were forced to live and sleep in. Also, how the Nazi would bury the Jew’s bodies as if they were not bodies of people at all as if they were nothing. In this era the Nazi enjoyed to see the Jews suffer, the documentary showed this by using colour imagery. During the scenes where the evil acts of the Nazi are shown in the shades of black and white, and the other scenes such as the end of the documentary were in colour. The gloomy music adds to the seriousness and misery of the documentary. The novel the ‘Boy in the Stripped Pajamas’ relates to this documentary because it gives us incite on how the Nazi treated the Jews. The Nazi’s had only one story of the Jews which was Hitler’s story. This documentary has and will help many people learn the gruesome actions of Hitler and his followers and it can help to prevent an event worse then war, like the Holocaust, from happening again.
Hey Elena, the black and white moments and the colour moments is actually something I didn't notice so that was pretty interesting to think about! I actually felt that at some places the music was a bit too cheery and comic to have any connection to the documentary which also confused me a bit. Another thing I wanted to mention was that the Nazi's had one story of the Jewish people but I think because of this event the Jewish people were more open to everyone and wanted to give everyone a chance. I think this because they knew what it felt like to be discriminated. One main reason for us studying history is so that we don't repeat mistakes we made from the past but learn from them and make better choices. I think this documentary really helps with that!
DeleteHi Elena, I was also distraught from the documentary. I was more agitated when they showed the different ways of torture and humiliation. I believe that the Nazis thought the Jews were inferior compared to even animals. Their enjoyment of torturing the Jews must’ve increased and spread as more Jews die each day. I agree with you that the music added to the effect of the black and white pictures, creating a greater impact on the audience. The documentary may serve as a warning for the outcome of a war.
DeleteSabrina Pullano
ReplyDeleteI believe that the part of the film that impacted me the most was when the bodies of the Jews were being pushed into the ground/soil by machinery. This disturbed me and was nauseating to watch because the bodies were disregarded as if they were disposing garbage, rather than human beings.
I also noticed how the camera continuously zoomed in on he Jews' appearances; the camera angles highlighted the skinniness of their faces and bodies and how their bones were highly visible under their skin as a result of starvation and malnutrition, and this is something you do not tend to see in Holocaust movies such as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
Another scene that popped out at me was when the Jews were put in the small enclosed train cars and they traveled for long periods at a time. I also noticed a quote that played with my emotions, "No night, no day, just darkness." This made me scared by imagining being in the shoes of the Jews. I would not be able to imagine being squished into an extremely small space with hundreds of people and being closed off from the rest of the world for such long periods of time.
Overall, although the documentary was scary and disturbing as well as frustrating, it helped me picture the reality of the brutality of the Holocaust; having a different affect on me than just a regular blockbuster Holocaust movie.
Isabella Fortuna
DeleteMy response to Sabrina Pullano is I agree that the documentary was very effective in conveying the brutality of the Holocaust… much more effective in doing so than The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. We are so used to blockbuster movies, especially horror movies, which exaggerate scenes with special effects or camera techniques to captivate the audience. Documentaries usually are more factual and less dramatic because they stay true to real events. Night and Fog was more frightening than any horror movie I’ve ever seen even without special effects. It did not need to exaggerate because the real events were so brutal as they actually happened. The fact that the documentary showed actual historical footage rather than a scripted version of someone’s imagination made it all the more petrifying. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas actually downplayed the horror of the concentration camp because the author used the viewpoint of a young, naïve and innocent boy.
Teodora Marginean
DeleteMy response to Sabrina Pullano is that I really did feel like the way the pictures were handled with such fine, haunting artistry really changed the way the documentary was portrayed. One of the pictures that stood out to me the most, as well as the bodies being pulverized by the machines as you pointed out, was the picture of a terrified man lying on a bed with widened, mad eyes. The camera started off with a close up of his eyes, which screamed desperately for help in such a silent way, and slowly panned out to the rest of his horrified face, to his hunched, emaciated body. In the Boy in the Striped Pajamas everything was a lot more saccharine and depicted in an innocent fashion because of Bruno and Shmuel's naivete, but the documentary Night and Fog really captured the cruelty of the Holocaust through its raw, powerful images.
Juan Leikis
ReplyDeleteNight and Fog reminded me of how the Jews were treated like garbage by the Nazi party, and that fact infuriates me. Watching this documentary of the Holocaust is basically like watching someone being tortured, except it was more than just one person. This fact is emphasized by the fact that there are many different forms of torture than the most commonly known, such as beating someone, starving them, verbally abusing them, and using chemicals to damage inner and outer physical form, which is what happened to the Jews. The fact that a countless number of Jews were tortured and/or killed by the Nazi party is emphasized by long shots of large piles of severed and/or cremated Jewish bodies being bulldozed into an even larger pile, which disgusts and angers me even further. This is because I feel as though the Nazis were disposing of these bodies as though they did not have lives, feelings, hopes, dreams, and as though they were not human. Basically, they treated them like garbage, and less, and piled them up as though they were just that. This documentary gave the impression that the Nazis saw the Jews as a nuisance with no other meaning in life than to destroy their way of life, and that they should be disposed of in order to have a cleaner and much more desirable place to live, again as though the Jews were garbage that needed to be taken out in order to make their home a better place. This has an even stronger affect on my conscious because I am of Polish descent, with my great-grandmother’s and great-grandfather’s families being Jewish. My great-grandmother lived in Poland for a large part of her life with her parents and 10 siblings. 9 years before the Holocaust, my great-grandfather and great grandmother lived in a poor part of Poland. Since my great-grandfather’s brother told him that there was work in Argentina, he decided to leave Poland and go work in Argentina. My great-grandfather worked for enough time in order to send money for my great-grandmother to come to Argentina. They lived there for the remainder of their lives, and that is why I was born there. My great-grandmother’s parents and siblings did not go, and during the Holocaust, they died in gas chambers. The reason that this increases my anger is because they were part of my family, and they were treated like they were nothing but pests that needed to be exterminated. Part of my family was treated horribly, and that angers me because not only do I sympathize for their pain, but also because this also makes me feel as though I was treated like nothing, since to the Nazi party, I descended from nothing but trash. Every time that I watch a documentary of the Holocaust, I imagine the expressions of horror on my family’s faces and, I believe that most of you would agree, horrible events are worse when family members are involved, even if you did not know them well enough. It is worse when a family member is involved, I think, because if it was not a family member, you still are slightly disappointed because you still could have had the chance to learn more about that person, even if it did not have that much of an effect on you. When it is a family member who is involved and passes away because they were involved, it is worse because you had a greater chance to learn about them than the person that you were not related to, as they may have interesting information about your family that only they knew, and it is gone because they are gone. Bruno in The Boy In The Striped Pajamas acted as a comfort for those who know that the Nazis treated the Jews like trash, as he was best friends with Shmuel, which gives the impression that there were glimmers of hope during that time. Nevertheless, The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, Night and Fog, and other novels, documentaries, and other forms of media that focus on the Holocaust are constant reminders of how unjustly the Jews were treated, and a constant reminder of all the horrific things that were done to them.
The documentary “Night and Fog” focused on the genocide known as the Holocaust. I have seen many other movies and documentaries on the Holocaust; many resulted in an emotional reaction. However, the Night and Fog did not trigger an emotional response from me, at least not one as large as I was expecting and anticipating. I believe this was due to two main factors. The first factor was that I had already seen dozens of other melancholy movies/documentaries about the Holocaust, so the horrifying images shown in the documentary came as no surprise to me. The second factor was that I was already highly educated about the Holocaust prior to watching the documentary therefore I was expecting to see many graphic images. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary despite the fact that it failed to shock and captivate me. I reflected on the novel “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” as I was watching the documentary. I imagined the fear that Shmuel must have experienced after losing his father and I visualized the bodies of Shmuel and Bruno amongst the thousands of rotting and mutilated corpses. Although this documentary would have had more of an impact on me if I had never heard of the Holocaust, it did enhance my understanding of the novel “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”.
ReplyDeleteMy response to Leighton Costanzo is:
DeleteAlthough I understand that you meant to explain that you were not as emotionally affected by this film as many of our classmates were, I think that we all need to keep in mind that this documentary should not be a form of entertainment to stimulate our emotions. The people in footage shown are not characters, these events cannot be erased from our history by shutting off the TV. Personally, I found it disrespectful and undignifying that people's deaths are allowed to be broadcasted for all the world to see so that we may form opinions on an event in history that will not be changed no matter what we think. I am not at all implying that we should not be educated on the horrific mistakes that the human race has made in the past. In fact, I am a firm believer that we should be able to access this information in order to thoroughly understand the world and the people living in it. However, I do believe that the horrors of the Holocaust could be just as effectively depicted without showing video footage of Jews being killed, and being stripped of their dignity as well as their lives.
Isabella Fortuna
ReplyDeleteI feel like this documentary has really opened my eyes to the brutality of the Holocaust. The images and videos from the 1930s - 1940s were very disturbing yet powerful. I really felt that this video showed the true suffering the Jews endured opposed to just reading or hearing about it. Knowing that the documentary was not fictional but was actually real-life footage really left me with a deeper understanding and even greater sympathy for the horrifying treatment that the Jewish people endured. Unlike in fiction, there was no optimistic storyline to lighten the imagery. In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the friendship between the two young boys masks and contrasts the vivid brutality that the documentary so explicitly displays. In the documentary, we have no “flowery” elements, just the raw truth. Although the documentary was very insightful, I did not feel that it allowed the viewer to gain perspective on the two cultures as it only seemed to deepen my pity for the Jews and my hatred for the Nazis. It really bothered me that the Nazis were pretending to build a little city for them when the hospitals were nothing but a façade and the residences were not even fit for swine behind the barbed wire fences. Meanwhile, the officers in charge were living nearby in their “perfect” white-picket fence homes. The last line of the novel states that something this tragic could never happen again. The reader can sense sarcasm in Boyne’s words and after viewing Night and Fog, I’m sure I will not sleep well tonight with the implication that something so horrific could actually repeat itself.
Hi Isabella,
DeleteI totally agree with what you are saying about the movie. I too felt it gave a very specific and precise way of describing the concentration camp in which thousands of Jews lived in. I also didn't feel that the movie gave a second perspective from the view of the Nazi's. I only felt even more pity and sorrow for the Jewish people that had to endure these sickening living conditions. I can't imagine what it would be like to have to be going through something so horrifying like that era. I like how you compared 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas' to a fictional novel. Bruno's story is unfortunately not at all fictional and it is clear that there is no happy ending to the novel. Reading Bruno's story and watching 'Night and Fog' definitely gave me a totally new perspective about the time of the Holocaust. I learned so much.
- Julia Isgro
I truly agree with you. The documentary vividly shows how one dominant group, the Nazis, persecuted the Jews. The effect of the suspenseful music, the tone of the narrator’s voice and especially the horrific images of the Holocaust made my heart sink with sadness and despair. It is frightening to think that even half a century later these terrible atrocities still happen around the world. Hopefully documentaries such as Night and Fog and books such as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas will teach us young students not to repeat such terrible historical events. Although the theme of "the Holocaust" is a difficult one to discuss, it is only through education that we learn not to discriminate and to treat people with respect and dignity.
DeleteJuan Leikis
DeleteMy response to Isabella is that these occurrences being horrific is no excuse not to learn about them and examine them. The truth is that the human race makes mistakes, and as a human being makes mistakes and learns from them, we too should learn from these things in order to change and advance as a species. You stated that the friendship between Bruno and Shmuel masks the vivid brutality that was portrayed in the documentary. This means that the friendship is another way to comfort people who afraid of this subject, rather than explain to them exactly what happened. The friendship between the two of them was seen as something cute, which was used as a way to make people think that there was a bright side to the war. The truth is that a large population died, and telling people this may horrify them, but it is better than beating around the bush and trading peace in the future for peace today. By that, I mean that telling people that there was a bright side in order to avoid terrifying them, causing a big fuss, is not as good as teaching them the truth in order to keep from this event from repeating itself. You also stated that your eyes were opened by Night and Fog. This is a very positive incident, as now that your eyes are open to the subject, you can examine what caused this event, and find out how we can change to prevent an event like this from happening. This event was very frightening, but that is not a good reason to run away from the facts. Instead, what one should do is run towards the frightening event, and once you pass through the horror, you can begin the process of understanding. This way the human race can change their ways in order to make it so that something like this does not happen in the future.
Revolting. It is only one word that reveals endless pieces of emotion and experience that can be felt while viewing Night and Fog. The mountainous piles of human hair that seemed to go on without the comfort of a finite border in sight. The border that we so wish to eliminate and yet here we are looking for a border, or an end to the piles of hair. The idea that there may not be any end to the masses of human hair, express an idea of discomfort as it reveals more the extent of how many were really killed. The 50 to 85 million who had an untimely death. The 50 to 85 million who we do not even realize have been tortured the way that they have: whether it was 'experimentation', as if people really had nothing better to do than to sever a live person and burn them with intoxicating chemicals, crush their heads, use their hair for materialistic profit, recycle their bodies into bars of soap, humiliated and discriminated countless, released gases to execute the innocent, burned bodies into nothing but memories. Tossed around like dolls, treated like dolls, disposed of like dolls, left to be tortured from the eyes of the devil himself in every person who looked upon the helpless with their malevolent smiles; buried alive, shot because of boredom, laughed upon for being who they are, and revolting can only sum up a mere blink of this situation. The 50 000 000 to 85 000 000 who had not the chance to start a family, or enjoy their life, or be who they wanted to be. The 50 million to 85 million who lay patiently facing death every time they awoke and wishing the end would be near to this monstrosity. The 50 to 85 million who did not live to tell their story, forever lost amidst countless accounts of death and torture, and disgust and pain, and patience and suffering, and starvation and torment. The fifty to eighty-five million who were looked upon as non-living creatures, as are many to this day. The possibility that this can return at any click of a button, any blink of an eye, any movement of a tongue, any jolt of our hands, any thought in our minds, any beat of a heart that dares pulse at a time such as then and even now. The acknowledgement of human advancement that may prove to only exceed past numbers and commit endless actions that may not even come to the mind. We are all but facing but a night in the fog, unaware of what is to be, unaware of what is around us, unaware of who is around us, unaware of who is to come, unaware of what we are unaware. And all we may think is who is to blame? Who is responsible? We are all to blame, we are all responsible. Instead of changing the riot that thrives in the beauty of our world, we look upon our own worlds and wait for the figure to approach us in the fog of the night. Instead of stopping the figure, we wait for the figure to come to us. But once we see it it would already be one moment too late. A moment that almost no one would be able to regain.
ReplyDeleteJuan Leikis
DeleteMy response to Ivan is that I agree with your understanding of the event. Yes, it is true that the occurrence was repugnant and revolting; it is true that no matter how much we try, we will not be able to bring these people back, and it is true that this was caused by human nature. However, the thinking and understanding of the topic should not go as far as the already covered topic of how this was a horrific event that was caused by the negative side of human nature, and resulted in many people a great deal of people losing their lives. The understanding and examination of the subject should expand towards topics which concern the future, such as how we can prevent this from reoccurring. Your post is based on the past, which shows a bias; being that you state that this event was bad and nothing more. This event should be seen as a mistake in human history, and we should learn from it rather than remember it and cry. I do not mean that your post can be reduced to whining. On the contrary, I believe that your post can be seen as the beginning of the road to understanding and prevention of déjà vu. Realising that this event can be prevented from happening again can end up bringing comfort to those who are afraid of it happening to them, as they know that there can be a reasonable way to prevent it. Therefore, I believe that it is better to create a better future based on avoiding the mistakes of the past, rather than to stay angry at said past events, and doing nothing about them.
Teresa Raso
DeleteHi Ivan,
I completely agree with your response to the documentary. The scene showing the piles of hair was one of the most impacting and horrific scenes for me. I agree with you comment of how we were looking for that end, that border. I like your choice of wording because it reminds me of the fence that contained all the Jews. the fence is a well known and symbolic object the is associated with the Holocaust. I think we were also looking for this end or border to the piles of hair because it was making us realize the large amount of people that got killed during this time. No words can describe the view of the hair which was such an amazing visual to represent the number of people in the Holocaust. Also we wanted the image to end because it was hurting us, our pride. it made us feel sad and guilty. it makes us think and want to help. Who is to blame?
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMy point was that it was not just a moment in history. It was a massacre of not one, two, three, or ten, but of 50 to 85 million! And do not mind in me asking this but in what ways has your post expanded on other topics? You have remained on the same topic yourself have you not? You yourself have only commented on how it affects your inner being. This is my expression of my inner feelings. You clearly have only read my post. You have not really analyzed it. The analyzing that is crucial in truly understanding not only my post, or the event i spoke of, but any other event in history as well, it is the analyzing that you forgot to do. I agree I may have expanded into future topics, but let me remind you that you have not done so yourself. Before criticizing my post, reread it. The point is that it allows you to think. On the other hand, I did touch upon the future, I did mention how something like this could happen again, I did mention how something worse could happen due to such great advancements in technology (which is odd how technology seems to be advancing more than humans are). I mentioned how it may be easier to do something such as the Holocaust today, and how it may gradually get easier to do so. Oh and to finish, I did not mention my anger at all within my post, in fact I did not feel anger at all, you did however, and mentioned several times in your post that you were angry. It is quite irrelevant to comment: "Therefore, I believe that it is better to create a better future based on avoiding the mistakes of the past, rather than to stay angry at said past events, and doing nothing about them." on my post. I allowed my readers to think, maybe you should do so yourself. After all you did mention "constant reminders of how unjustly the Jews were treated, and a constant reminder of all the horrific things that were done to them." I do not really see expansion to the future or other topics here, as I basically said the same thing but in different words. However you are right, we should learn from our mistakes, and it is a topic that should be expanded on.
DeleteThe post from above was in reply to Juan's comment.
DeleteThe Night and the Fog serves to show another perspective of the Holocaust, a perspective I have never experienced before.
ReplyDeleteAfter viewing Night and Fog, I felt apathetic towards the subject of the Holocaust. Although such a view sounds rather gruesome and inappropriate towards such a topic and subject, the discussion of it has been so repetitive for me it does not affect or invoke any emotion in me anymore. Indeed the film displayed many graphic aspects of the Holocaust, yet they were aspects more so already known from previous teachings (both at school as well as personal research done at home). Nonetheless, the film did grant me further insight into the lives the Jews lived during the Holocaust and their treatment from the Nazis. It opened my eyes to the ways the Nazis degraded and profited off them which was truly a hypocrisy since those were the same terms the Nazis blamed the Jews for bringing Germany to its knees during World War I. Still, my thought is that it is in the past, it is far behind us. We should no longer live in what happened, but move forward to prevent it from happening again. Too much do we recall the events of the Holocaust, but at the same time, too much do we ignore current and ongoing events that replicate the same issues. Take Rwanda and Eastern Africa into consideration. There have been many genocides in the past due to race, not religion, yet they have been overlooked due to 'more important issues'. Saudi Arabia and multiple countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa with extreme Islamic beliefs persecute people of other religions, yet this is considered to be a minor issue between countries. Trade continues as long as the media does not show in great quantities what happens in such regions; a documentary like the one shown in class may have a greater impact on the sentiments of students due to the currency of ongoing events.
ReplyDeleteThe documentary and the images within it are not a cause for me to question my family heritage nor culture. I see it as a past event which will hopefully prevent us from committing such atrocities again.
Victoria Battaglia
DeleteHey Nicolas,
I agree with you 100% about the topic of discussion being so repetitive that no new emotions are evoked. As of now, watching that film just showed me more ways the Jews were tormented. It was unfortunate to once again witness the terror caused by the Germans and hopefully we will never experience such cruelness ever again.
Hello Nicolas,
DeleteI agree that the Holocaust has become a repetitive subject; however, I do not think that it is time for us to move on from such an incident. World War II and the Holocaust are such important and significant events in not only history, but in our evolution as human beings. Following the conclusion of World War II, racism and prejudice declined and people started accepting others for who they were as individuals. Our soldiers bravely and honourably represented our nation and fought for liberty, freedom and justice. The end of World War II gave us strength and united us globally and as a nation, but more importantly it taught us many valuable lessons. World War II came at the expense of over 60 million lives and the financial, economic and environmental repercussions remind us to avoid such a catastrophe from occurring ever again. It may be time for us to explore current international issues, but it is not time for us to forget about the most prominent and honourable historical event in our world’s history.
Hi Nicolas,
DeleteYes, we do continually learn about injustices like the Holocaust, and it is reasonable to say it does not invoke emotion anymore. However, it is important to know about our history to prevent these things from happening again. If we are truly supposed to "move on", we have to remember our past and what we have learned from injustice. The genocides in other parts of the world are carried out by those who do not care to learn from history and the peace of moving forward.
Teodora Marginean
ReplyDeleteAs I sit here in front of the computer, my fingers poised to type my thoughts and feelings about Night and Fog, I can’t control the slight shake I have in my hands and the shivers running down my spine. I will admit that I didn’t fully watch the movie and closed my eyes during the horrifying images, but even without the graphic scenes and subtitles, I felt like I was even more deeply impacted. The sinister music in the background gave me goosebumps and the simple, reportage-style intonation of the narrator was chilling. The black and white pictures flashing against the lid of my eyes made me feel like I was stuck in night and fog with the victims myself, and the few glances I did catch of the inhumane killings are engraved in my mind. It is difficult to find instances in history that can affect the whole world as intensely as the Holocaust, decades later. Although the experimentation was beyond atrocious and will probably give me nightmares, it felt so otherworldly that I couldn’t believe a human being was capable of such actions. The pictures of the human hair and the bodies turned into soap were gut-wrenching and filled me with such a void of emptiness, because I didn’t feel any emotion was strong enough to describe what I felt at people being carelessly tortured like that and then used for others’ sadistic luxuries. Out of all of the images of the actual concentration camp and its victims, the one that stood out to me the most was the fingernail scrapings on the ceiling. Despair. Insanity. A blink away from death. As the camera panned out to show the ceiling, I could envision the thousands of victims crying out for help desperately, knowing their flailing hands were dancing in the arms of death in a suspenseful, heartless waltz created by the Nazis. All of the victims’ suppressed feelings and tormented thoughts amounted to the signs of desperation embodied by the ceiling.
Although I do feel like the documentary has shed light on the past of the Jews and the Germans, I do not feel it is definitive of their current culture. It is a devastating part of their history that people will carry on in memories for future generations, but I do not think Germans now should be judged based on their ancestors’ actions, nor Jews be stereotyped for being the victims in every situation. I’ve learned much about the timeline of the Holocaust and the traditions of the cultures in the past, and I am glad that the many different perspectives we were given on it prevented me from having a ‘single story’ to understand.
This movie relates to The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, but on a much finer and detailed level than John Boyne could have depicted through the eyes of a nine-year old. I do not have the books to read the interviews, but I remember John Boyne saying that he decided to make it a fable so he wouldn’t have to completely tell the history of the Holocaust, nor delve too deep into it. The message behind the documentary was that not enough people are aware of the impact of the Holocaust, and only the graphic pictures will bring you to that moment and allow you to live it with greater meaning.
Lastly, this documentary has made me pose some questions on my own Romanian heritage. Something I’ve always wanted to know is how many victims of the Holocaust were from Romania, and if Hitler’s order of Jewish execution even reached that far into Europe. Knowing that my own country was affected by these terrible times would really hit home and break my heart even more so than now.
Hi Teodora,
DeleteI too can't fathom this abhorrent event and can't believe that such a barbaric, ruthless occurrence happened only about 70 years ago or so. As humans, you'd expect that we would evolve and stray from these heartless, disgusting tendencies, but we clearly still haven't. This documentary further educated me about the horrors of the Holocaust and the tragedies which the Jews and other groups (ex. the crippled, homosexuals, Slavs, Gypsies, etc.) had to endure at the expense of Hitler and the Nazis. The way in which the Nazi soldiers acted and how they actually treated the Jews was a great highlight in this film and further exhibited how revolting this event was. These soldiers were absolutely heartless, they treated the concentration camp prisoners like dirty vermin and pushed them, shoved them and severely tormented them to the point of their death. Their corpses were treated like raw meat, and not even given a burial. They had no respect or dignity for the Jewish people. The method in which they utilized body parts from the deceased infuriated and repulsed me even more- these people were treated like mere animals. I completely agree with you about what you mentioned about prejudging the Germans and Jews simply due to the Holocaust. Just because someone is German doesn't mean they are a Nazi, or a white supremacist and just because someone is Jewish doesn't mean they are constantly being ostracized and victimized. The Holocaust has truly given both the Jewish and German races bad names and resulted in even more labels and stereotypes. Hitler thought he was carrying out an influential, life changing initiative by attempting to "exterminate" the Jewish race- if anything he worsened Germany's reputation and put them into further economic depression after the war. As well, I also agree with the argument you mentioned regarding the connection between the actual Holocaust and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. The Boy in The Striped Pajamas is no where near as graphic and doleful as the actual Holocaust. It is a much more toned down, innocent and naive rendition of the tale (reality, unfortunately). I guess John Boyne didn't want it to sound too much like an informative piece of writing rather than a narrative. Perhaps he also left some details out because he wanted it to appeal to a wider range of people including pre teens. He still conveyed the message and morals in a clever, and eloquent way without giving away too much graphic information. Overall, viewing this movie had a significant impact on me and my view of the Holocaust. The day the the human race learns from tragedies like this will be a very happy one.
Daniel Morelli
DeleteMy response to Teodora Marginean is that I agree with your blog post. The documentary was extremely depression, but it was created very effectively. The documentary used colour imagery, narration, music, a combination of different angles, and real footage of the gloomy, desolate scenery very effectively. All of these elements together in one documentary allowed the director to get his point across. The director showed the graphic scenes, used the sinister music, and showed the gloomy, and unsanitary scenery to show the devastation of the Holocaust. I agree that the Nazi’s using the dead corpses to make luxuries for Germany is inhumane. Hitler created a single story about the Jews and condemned many Jews to death and if that wasn’t devastating enough, the Nazi’s used their corpses to make luxuries such as soap. The Nazi’s killed many Jews for their own benefit. I agree that the documentary and the novel ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’ both told the story of the Holocaust, but in different ways. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was less graphic and less detailed than the documentary, but both stated that this devastation could happen again. In the interview, John Boyne said, “Fences like this exists all over the world. We hope you never have to reach such a fence.” This quote says warning us that this division and separation represented by the fence, could happen again. The documentary also showed the devastation of the Holocaust and warned that these horrors could happen again.
Sara Corvinelli
DeleteTeodora, I too was profoundly moved by the severity of the crimes that were committed during the Holocaust. I agree that both the black and white images, along with the sinister music, made me feel helpless and like you, “stuck in the night and fog”, just like the victims. You stated that it is hard to find instances that have affected the world to the degree that the Holocaust has. I disagree. Throughout history, even the years post-Holocaust, there have always been catastrophic events that have, not only shaken our faith in humanity, but forever changed our way of living. Just to list a few, 9-11, taking of young school girls in Nigeria, genocide in Uganda, the Middle East, etc. We must strive to work harder for world peace and ensure justice for all people, regardless of their gender, race, or religion.
Adam Packer
ReplyDeleteBefore watching the documentary I was nauseous. I knew it was going to be graphic yet I was still shocked by the images showed. The documentary used powerful images that left me breathless. At the very beginning it had a camera view that ran parallel to the fence. The camera moved from fence to fence and it gave you the horrible idea of how huge these camps are. It was a dark image and the only colours I saw was the green grass, the blue sky, and the black and silver chained fence. I don’t think this documentary shed new light on German or Jewish culture, I think it just continued the sad story of the holocaust. In comparison to The Boy in Striped Pajamas, I think it was a different kind of scary. The book was scary because everything was explained in a simple way about the horrors going on. It was such a simple way to describe an extremely complicated event. It reminds me of one of the saddest songs I know that makes me shiver every time I listen to it. Though I won’t get into specifics, the song is about a father rapping innocently to his 2 year old daughter about doing a horrible deed. It is alike to the book because you are not told outright what is happening but it is hinted. The documentary was much more graphic and I felt disgusted by the images they showed. They were two very different stories of the holocaust and it is hard to compare them.
Hey Adam. I agree with you on how it is very hard to compare the novel and the documentary. I felt that at times the book was so simple it was just frustrating. The reader never once really gets to know the extremities of the situation until Bruno and Shmuel both die. The documentary puts you on the spot, it's was so graphic that it captured your attention but no matter how much you wanted to look away you weren't able to.
DeleteJoseph Sereney
DeletePacker, I completely agree. Even though we were warned it was still very disturbing. The music choice (happy songs) and bright pictures of the modern day all make it even more gut-wrenching because thousands, maybe millions, of people were killed and they play the pictures to an upbeat tune. It was also very hard to compare The Boy in the Striped Pajamas to Night and Fog because they are two completely different approaches on telling the same story. On one hand, the book explores the simplistic side of the war in that it was simply horrible, but tries to make the reader put the pieces together. On the other hand, the film does not go in to detail and simply shows the images/film, and it doesn't matter if you are disgusted or not; it is the awful truth of the Holocaust.
Tony Vu
ReplyDeleteThe documentary, “Night and Fog”, was very educational and impactful. I learned a lot more and it gave me a different impression on the holocaust. The fact that it was a film, gave me a stronger impact and feeling towards the holocaust. The black and white pictures showed me how devastating and depressing it was. Sometimes, the film would show footage of the past and the present to compare our daily lives. It showed the audience how lucky they were to be here, today. I also liked the effect of the music. The happy tunes showed that they tortured the Jews daily, making it feel like a natural thing to them. I don’t really think that the documentary shed a new light on the Jewish and German cultures, because it seems more of a reminder of the past. I believe that the Jewish still secretly hold a grudge on the Jews and want revenge, on the other hand the Germans might feel pity, sympathy or hold anger against the Jews. I believe that nothing was solved after the holocaust. The two cultures taught me a lot in the documentary. It showed me the many flaws and weaknesses in humanity; that there will also be someone that wants to cause a war. It also portrayed the persistent side of humanity; that we are always resistant to what we don’t want to accept. We can turn to other things, to hide our pain; friends, religion, or daily work. This relates to the interview because Boyne talks about how the innocence of a little boy could get him into trouble. It shows that even thought the Jews were innocent, they were still tortured. In conclusion, I highly enjoyed the unique documentary.
Elena Ricci
DeleteI agree this documentary was very educational and impactful. The photography was very well done, the black and white images versus the colour images with the appropriate music. I also liked how the movie started and ended showing the remains of the war. It is very true that the documentary shed light on the Nazi and how they showed one of the weaknesses of humanity, not accepting the things that we cannot change. Society needs to be able to accept that everyone is unique and special and that we should not judge them based on how they are different.
Joseph Sereney
DeleteI agree that the documentary was very impactful, but also very informative. Though it was in French with English subtitles, it was still educational. The images were very disturbing and extremely graphic which made me much more disgusted with the entire thing. I think that the comparison of past to present is important to not only assure people that it is in fact in the past, but also to make us realize that it belongs in the past and nothing like the Holocaust should ever happen again. I agree with your sentiments about humanity in that we are a flawed but resistant species. It tells us that the Jews could have bowed out and did a long time before they actually did.
Aidan Pigott
ReplyDeleteAlvin, I agree 100% with everything that you are saying. The Germans have so much disregard for the Jews that they would use a bulldozer to push all of them into a pit rather than at least bury them themselves. This indicated that the Jewish people were just obstacles, not people, and had to be dealt with as quickly as possible. The aspects of the documentary such as the gruesome images and video followed by the music did a very good job in showing how much of a dark time the Holocaust was.
Hey Nicky,
ReplyDeleteI too was disgusted by the Nazis and their actions towards the Jews. It made me think about the world we live in and how cruel it can be sometimes. The world was especially bad for the Jews during the Holocaust. It is not right to do this to innocent people and it disturbed me when I saw them dead for no reason.
Teresa Raso
ReplyDeleteThe documentary “Night and Fog” was a harsh reality to what happened during the time of the Holocaust. I found this to be quite in contrast to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas for many reasons. This documentary was made after the Holocaust, meaning they knew the cruelty the Germans did and are now sharing these facts. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was written during the time of the Holocaust when the Jews didn’t know what the Germans were doing. The novel didn’t go into depth and detail about the events going on at the time because everyone was “blind” to what they were doing. The documentary was quick gruesome and horrific. It gives you a different type of sympathy towards the Jews than The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. In the novel we have sympathy for the mother and the two boys, Bruno and Shumel, but we don’t focus on the millions of people in the camps. There is also a large gap between the effect a novel has and the effect a movie has on individuals. Movies are the hard core images that we see while a novel can be picture as multiple stories to various people. Also the choice of music and camera angles also added effect to the documentary and movies in general. At the beginning and throughout the movie we were watching the fence. The camera would move slowly around the fence to exaggerate and put focus on it. The fence is very symbolic because it shows how they were segregated or isolated from everyone else. They were labeled as different and would be punished for that. Many times the camera would zoom into people and focus on their eyes. The blank stares the people gave back showed the blindness of everyone. There is contrast between the size on the eyes on the screen and then the zoomed out view of the millions of tiny people. The large spaces of people pilled together standing so close really shows the numerous amounts of people that were killed. What bothered me was that at other parts in the movie is didn’t seem like there was that many people. There would be a few shots of a small group of people eating or sitting, where as I pictured it to be more crowded. I thought those times in the film did not do justice to the reality. What did do justice was the pile of hair. I’m glad the director chose to show this and to spend so much time slowly moving the camera over this mountain of hair. I also agree with the placement of this scene which was toward the end of the film. This left the audience with a lasting impression and a scene to remember.
Shadia Adekunte
DeleteMy response to Teresa Raso is that I agree that there is a contrast between The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Night and Fog. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas gives readers a feeling of sympathy for the two boys whose lives were lost in innocence. Night and Fog still makes its audience feel sympathy, but it is a different kind of sympathy. The sympathy I feel in Night and Fog runs much deeper and it is one that could have brought me to tears. Also, because Night and Fog is a documentary, there are so many more opportunities to make the audience feel something. The music, the camera angles, the black and white, the narrator’s voice and the images are just a few examples. We were exposed to a deeper and harsher Holocaust compared to the one that we already knew.
The horror of the Holocaust was something I had only heard verbally but to see pictures and videos of it... Like the narrator said can we ever truly understand the physical, emotional, and mental torture that the Jews suffered. Do we even want to? And in relation to the Boy in The Striped Pajamas, I find that the book and the documentary are polar opposites, perspective wise anyway. In the book John Boyne uses the child-like perception of Bruno to show the events of the Holocaust. In this way we are sort of sheltered, as Bruno was, to what was truly going on. We did understand that something horrific was taking place on the other side of the fence but we were blocked from seeing what it actually was. In the movie everything....and I mean everything... was presented. Nothing was sugar coated or censored...it was all there in black and white. There was no hiding the truth. The part that impacted me the most was when they started shoveling the dead bodies. I understand that what the Nazis did to the Jews was inhumane but that went beyond inhumane for me. They were bulldozed like they were garbage in a dump. I don't know why but that gets to me. A lot. Another part was when 2 sickly and scrawny men were dragging another man to the "hospital". It seems out of place to see such an act in the midst of all that misery. To me it shows that humanity still existed for the Jews even though what they were undergoing was as far from humanr as it gets. It reminds me of a quote from Maya Angelou. "We are all human; therefore, nothing human can be alien to us." I think this would've been important for the Jews and the Germans. In the concentration camps the Jews were treated less than human beings. but in order to stay alive I think that they needed to remember they're human nature and remember that no matter how bad they were treated they were still humans who could think, feel and love like human beings. The Germans needed to remember that did Jews were human beings and not as different from them as they had thought.
ReplyDeleteMy response to Chino Ekeanyanwu is…
DeleteI agree with what you are saying. But first I would just like to make a minor correction in your comment, that it was Nazis who mistreated the Jews, the Germans could have been on either side of the Holocaust. You said you do not know why the scene of bodies being bulldozed like garbage affected you, but I can understand. We grew up in an environment where we learn to respect and care for others as fellow humans. The scene we witnessed had no human dignity; bodies of people that once had lives like us were tossed around in masses as if they had no value. We are disgusted because it defies everything we learned about our Catholic and human morals like the rest of the Holocaust events did. The documentary was indeed disgusting and brilliant.
Anisa Thomas
DeleteHi Chino, I totally agree with you post and I loved how you said that humanity still existed among the Jews even under horrifying circumstances. This was very important because even though the Jews were being mistreated, they all realized that they must stick together and support one another. The Jews had hope that things would get better and it did because of their brave souls and faith filled hearts. The clip of the 2 men who carried a fellow Jew to the “hospital” also touched me because it showed humility and most importantly compassion. Those 2 men were great examples of a bright light in darkness. It shows how goodness always overcomes evil and this is a value everyone should keep in mind.
My response to Chino is:
DeleteI agree with you one hundred percent when you say that the Jews lived as people who loved, thought, and felt. I would also like to add that they died as people who loved, thought, and felt, and that it is not dignifying or fair that generations later, we have the ability to broadcast their deaths across TV screens and mourn them as characters in a film for us to pity and cry over. Yes, I believe that many of us feel pity toward the Jews for all that they endured but I choose to admire them for their strength, for the ability to still love and care for each other even in such horrible conditions. I feel that this documentary was insensitive and disrespectful for stripping these people of their right to rest in peace.
Dana Condescu
DeleteMy response to Chino Ekeanyanwu is that we are indeed sheltered from these kinds of things. We are never shown the true nature of a situation; you have to be there in person. The media always tries to hide the truth, and this documentary acted as a window to the cruelty we were hidden from. The crisis in Venezuela is also censored by the media, but more to the point where almost no one knows about it. The media has control over our emotions and knowledge, but it is important to know the truth. Some events simply cannot be sugarcoated.
Sara Corvinelli
ReplyDeletePrior to watching the film, Night and Fog, I presumed that it would be depressing and heart-wrenching, since it was a “Holocaust” documentary. Despite this, the film further emphasized the magnitude of the atrocities against the Jewish race. The acts were truly horrendous. There were many images in certain clips that, while they were hard to watch, they helped the viewers to envision what had happened during that era. The film left me disturbed, especially after watching the scene of the corpses of the Jews being thrown like rag dolls. The world, like Bruno, is guarded from this harsh reality, and once it is discovered, it becomes too late.
Anisa Thomas
DeleteHi Sara, I was disturbed to by the scene where Jews were thrown like rag dolls by the Nazis soldiers. I don’t believe humans are capable of being this cruel and I blame it on the fact that some of the soldiers were simply not in their right mind to carry out such horrific orders. Unfortunately they were being controlled by the Nazi party and this makes me sad because no one should be forced into something they don’t agree with. Yes, the film did an amazing job of showing all the horrendous events that took place in a very graphic manner to get the point across. The film was effective and from my own viewing of the documentary, I can say that I better understand how horrifying the Holocaust actually was.
Elisa Locantore
DeleteMy response to Sara Cornvelli.
Sara I agree with you 100%. Although, previously having the knowledge of what had occurred in the Holocaust, we should have been more prepared for the scenes that disturbed us the most. Even though some of these scenes were quite morbid, it did demonstrate how difficult it was for Jewish people to go through all this pain and effort. It is these difficult clips that the director of the film wants us to remember. These clips are the ones that portray the image of pity for the Jewish and rage for the Germans. I do agree fully with your finally saying since it is the truth. We must discover new things now to make a difference in them for the latter.
In response to Sara, I too learned much in regards of the Holocaust, from the treatment of the Jews to their living conditions. Indeed, what the Nazis did was horrible, yet I still think that we should move on from it today. Yes, some of the clips shown in the video display the atrocities and many war crimes the Nazis committed, yet nonetheless, it is in our past. You felt uncomfortable and disturbed upon seeing them, yet I felt apathetic towards such images probably since I already believed that was what happened, yet also due to it being an event behind us. We must learn from our past to prevent it from ever repeating, yet not continue to hold on to the grudges that may have continued after such atrocities have been committed.
DeleteThe world IS guarded from such a harsh reality, yet just like Bruno, it can be found by those who seek it.
Anisa Thomas
ReplyDeleteNight and Fog was not like any documentary I have ever seen before. Most documentaries get you pumped up and excited to watch the rest of the film however Night and Fog was not like this. The film was unsettling and made viewers feel guilty for ignoring such a horrid event like the Holocaust. The movie was very direct in many ways and never sugar coated anything. Images like the naked bodies, shaved hair, and heads in a basket were graphic images that made me feel disturbed. I always knew the Holocaust was evil but as I watched the documentary I realized it was a lot worse than I thought. I believe this was the goal of the director and he did a really good job. It was also unsettling that the movie made me think that such events could happen again and the world would be bystanders. In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Bruno was a young boy who never understood the many horrors that were happening right next to him and the author said that this was what the world represented. John Boyne said we were sheltered from the horrors of the Holocaust and most bystanders in the villages were too scared to speak up and didn’t do anything about it for a long time. The author also makes us question whether we would have done anything if we were in the bystanders shoes. Most people like to think we would have but would we? The scariest part for me was that at the time many soldiers thought that killing the Jews was the right thing to do and this should made me question my family’s values as well. It was human nature to always believe we were doing the right thing but this wasn’t always true.
Hi Anisa, I felt exactly the way that you did while watching the film as well as, after the film. The Holocaust was truly a heinous event which should never occur again. Innocent individuals being tortured, murdered, persecuted, raped and tormented simply due to their ethnic heritage and religion is simply unacceptable and deplorable. No matter how many times some individuals in society attempt to deny it, this veraciously was one of the most severe, disgusting and agonizing events of genocide in history. Jews, Slavs, prisoners of war, "Gypsies", those who didn't agree with the Nazis and just about anyone Hitler despised all had to suffer under this terrible regime. Unfortunately, acts of genocide similar to the Holocaust still do occur, perhaps on a smaller scale. We must educate ourselves and learn to break down the "fences" that segregate us to live in harmony and unity. However, it will always be there in people's nature to prejudge and blame certain things on certain groups of people. Regardless of how many times I view documentaries and pictures of the Holocaust, it always invokes a feeling of disgust and shame in me. Some conspiracy theorists like to believe that the Holocaust wasn't that severe or didn't happen at all. They are clearly blind to the true events that occurred and must open their eyes to the malevolence that the Jews had to suffer at the hand of the Nazis. We must learn from our previous mistakes in human judgement, that it is not right to accuse certain races of certain things or stereotype specific groups of people as it can result in such atrocities as this. We were all created as equals, so when can we start treating each other as equals?
DeleteTeresa Raso
DeleteHi Anisa,
I agree with your comment about something like this happening again. It is a scary thought and I never thought about that before. I guess its because we don’t want to believe it could happen again or even believe that the event that did happen are true. To think that the world was blind to the persecution of the Jews is extremely heart breaking. It makes me think of how many horrible things are happening in our world that we are unaware of. The graphic images were disturbing but really made you think of how really it was. To see a visual confirms many things. People always need evidence and proof. It’s hard to believe without seeing.
Hey Nicky,
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you and Charlotte said. It's hard to believe that the Nazi government and Hitler made all these horrible things happen to so many innocent people. Another image that really made me uncomfortable was the one with the Jewish man hiding on one of the bunks in the camp building. The image is in the dark but the man’s fear is so evident that it can be seen through his eyes. I can’t even imagine being in his position; it’s scary to think about it. The image of the crematory (where many of the Jews were killed) also made me think about Bruno and Shmuel in the gas chamber. The two innocent children did not deserve to die so young. It truly is depressing to think about. I feel so sorry for all the people that had to live in such a horrible time.
Julia Isgro
ReplyDeleteWhen we viewed Night and Fog together as a class, I was truly disgusted and humbled by what I saw. Even though the documentary was in a different language, I felt it was very informative through the images displayed. The horrifying photos and clips helped me get a better sense of the time of the Holocaust. The movie was very humbling in that we got to see what the living conditions were truly like for the Jews that were held in the sickening concentration camps.
The scene that stood out most in my mind was when the pile of bare, dead bodies were being dumped into a large hole in the ground with a bulldozer. This image made me feel an overwhelming sadness for the millions of poor, innocent people and also for humanity. Another thing that also came to mind when seeing these deceased, naked bodies in the movie relates to the novel ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.’ Bruno spends much time in the story describing how the people on the other side of the fence were all wearing blue, striped pajamas. This was something that stood out greatly to him but when we watched the film, I noticed that the dead bodies were not wearing these outfits anymore. This makes me wonder what happened to the clothes that were worn by the Jews. If Bruno’s account is true; that the Jewish people contained in the concentration camps were actually wearing pyjamas, this can only mean that the dirty clothes were taken off of them. Why though? My guess would be that soldiers removed the clothes from the bodies only so that they can reuse them for more Jews to come. This was part of a cycle. The Jews were hunted, tortured, exterminated and thrown away like garbage. I assume that not long after, another group of Jewish people would go through the same process. Since millions of Jews died during this era, the cycle must have continued multiple times. The pyjamas were only one of the many symbols that marked the Jews as Jews. Like we saw in Bruno’s eyes, the pyjamas were simply another way to separate society from the unwanted race.
I cannot seem to think of a word to describe my initial reaction to the documentary shown in class other than shock. I have been exposed to other documentaries about the Holocaust before, however the images and videos shown in Night and Fog were beyond horrific. The novel The Boy In The Striped Pajamas depicts a more innocent, less graphic view of what concentration camps were like because it is written through the eyes of a child, but this film took the novel's imagery to a whole new level. I am sure that we can all agree that the events that took place and have been filmed were unfair and disgusting, and none of us can imagine any valid reason for Nazi soldiers to willingly devote their lives to such a job. Certain scenes really highlight the magnitude of this insane mass murder and the graphic images made all of our stomachs turn. But frankly, I do not believe that showing said images is respectful to the victims of the atrocious murders committed during the Holocaust. Although the film was intended to educate us about the horrors of the Holocaust and put into perspective what really did happen, my opinion is that sharing footage of people dying terrible deaths is more disrespectful than it is educational.
ReplyDeleteElisa Locantore
DeleteMy response to Issabella Orlando.
I do agree with you that this documentary on the Holocaust had differed from any other video I have watched before. Not only were the videos and pictures intense and portrayed much emotion, but the eerie music as well as the black and white texture made it much more unique and disturbing. Personally, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas made me have a less morbid image. Watching this documentary made me quickly realize how simple the Holocaust was in the novel versus truly viewing videos of torture and being experimented and bodies everywhere being tossed around. Except that is the true purpose of this video, to allow the spectators to feel much emotion and pity for what truly happened during the Holocaust. Yes I do agree, the Nazi’s were just being influenced by their leader, Adolf Hitler, to murder innocence people. For example, in the novel, Lieutenant Kotler beat Pavel just because he accidently spilled wine. Pavel is a simple human being and just made a mistake as we all do. Quite recently I spilled water on the floor, does that mean that I am to be killed too? Your finally thoughts and opinions are very deep and true. The film is using the deaths of people to educate us what not to do. They are not respecting the fact that millions of people had to go through gas chambers, fear, whips, beating, marches, starvation and many more just so the Nazi’s can get what they wanted and so that people in the future can make money after portraying their deaths on television. To me, it is just plain wrong and disrespectful.
Elisa Locantore
ReplyDeleteThe documentary, Night and Fog, was very interesting although I did feel that it was quite gruesome. After reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I felt that this video was a great visual aid to allow the reader to actually see what occurs and feel different emotions that they have not felt before. I personally would have preferred to watch this video in English since continuously reading the subtitles is quite distracting from the documentary itself. The unique music being played in the background made the documentary much more mysterious and really made the spectators curious of what would happen next. Honestly, the music resulted in me getting the chills since I was quite frightened. The scenes that impacted me the most were always when the director showed videos of dead bodies being pushed around by a truck as well as when the Jewish people were forced into a laboratory and get experimented on. I pictured myself in their shoes and I would have found it very difficult to survive in those tough conditions. This documentary makes a spectator become more pitiful of those of Jewish heritage since of the torture they had to go through. Towards the German side of the documentary, I feel a large amount of rage to what they willingly/forced to do to these innocent human beings! The pity towards the Jewish and rage towards the German is probably what the purpose was of the film according to the director; to capture the innocence of people and show how they were mistreated terribly. The director did a fantastic job on doing that. Overall, it definitely increased my knowledge on these two cultures. To the German side, it proves that people can be easily persuaded to murder the lives of innocent people. On the Jewish side, it shows how they were given a large amount of strength to deal with being tortured. In the novel, Bruno did not know what was truly occurring in the deep side on the fence. Shmuel knew exactly what was occurring but his strength told him that he could not give away too much information and opinions to a soldier’s son. This documentary informs us about why Shmuel was staying at the fence; since he was avoiding being experimented on or forced into a gas chamber which had happened to him at the end of the book. Overall, this documentary was quite informing and leaves me with much thoughts of appreciation.
Alessia Schembri
ReplyDeleteThe documentary, Night and Fog, was very informative and interesting although the visuals were disturbing. It left me thinking more about the time and experiences of both the Jews and the Nazis. The video went into detail to explain the concentration camps and how everything worked and operated. I learned more about how people were treated and how many Nazis were brainwashed during World War 2. I was shocked by the visuals and part of this is due to the fact that The Boy In the Striped Pajamas was a much less disturbing visual and did not show the entire truth behind the concentration camps.
Sara Corvinelli
DeleteAlessia, you stressed how the documentary showed very graphic images of the Holocaust. Most of us cannot grasp the full extent of the appalling acts inflicted on the Jewish people during World War II until we actually see the images. This has a deeper effect on us. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, although did not show the images to the same degree, I feel it brought to light an innocent relationship between a Jew and a German. It visited the Holocaust from a different perspective, and it sent a message that the pure innocence of children did allow for a friendship to flourish. We could all learn from this.
Hello Alessia,
ReplyDeleteThis is Adam Packer
I agree with you that the documentary was disturbing, but I do not think that the book was any less. The innocence of a nine year old mind and how he sees the world was shocking. When we saw a concentration camp and the horrible conditions the Jewish people lived in, he saw a playground and wondered why he wasn't on the other side. It made me shiver how he would describe horrible things so innocently. I really enjoyed inferring things from the novel
Ornello Iannace
ReplyDeleteWhile watching the documentary Night and Fog, I couldn't help but feel that this wasn't real. The thoughts that were going through my mind went something like, "This is so terrible there is no way it could be real." The bad part is that it is as real as it an get. I have seen many people say that The Boy I the Striped Pyjamas doesn't compare to the documentary, but I also disagree with that. I think that the author of the book was going for a different message and feel than the gruesome reality. Even though the documentary had more of an effect of me I still believe the book had a strong message.