I'm on a time limit so let's GO!!!
What I'm talking about this week:
a) Holocaust + WWII + Speakers
b) French???
c) Gloating
A) + B)
So, being in Grade 10 this year, I get to learn History. And the kind and generous beings that my parents are decided to enroll me in French Immersion ten years ago, and I, being the amazing person that I am, decided not to let 8 hard years of work go to waste and am currently working on my Extended French Certificate. So, this year I'm taking three courses in French, including History. And what we're working on now is World War II. That's the premise.
So basically, I am learning about the Holocaust, and Nazi's and whatever right now. Now, I'd say that I've not been sheltered from the truth and the horrors of the Holocaust. My first book about it, that I picked I might add, was Hanna's Suitcase when I was eight years old. Since then I've read a bunch of others including the Journey Through the Night series, a couple books by Corrie ten Boom, and recently, The Book Thief. I also read the Dear Canada for WWII, and about the liberation of Holland by Canadian Soldiers, etc. Three of my grandparents survived the occupation of the Netherlands, and my other grandfather wasn't old enough to fight, and was here in Canada. Although, now, I only have two grandparents who survived it, I do know about it.
One of my favorite stories that I know, comes from my mom. I like the story because it shows that not every Nazi wanted Jews dead, and also because it showed how ordinary people became extraordinary. And it goes something like this:
'My great-grandmother, my Oma was a very strong person. My great-grandfather, Opa, had fought against the Nazi invasion and as such was wanted as a Prisoner of War. But my Opa also was a very loving person, and while my Oma might have been able to just hide Opa and his two brothers from the Nazis, without Opa she wouldn't have helped so many Jewish people. At the time of this story, they had the three brothers under the window of their store, Jewish adults hiding in the cellar, Jewish children whose hair was being bleached to blend in with her five children and three Nazi soldiers in the house. On the last day the Nazis were staying with them, when the car came to pick the soldiers up she walked the three men outside and the commander turned to her and started screaming. He was screaming about how the food at her house was horrible, the beds were filled with diseases, and the cellars filled with mice. At that moment, just before my Oma started crying because she couldn't think of what she had done to make him think this, one of the Jewish girls ran by and the commander leaned in and said quietly to her "You need to dye their hair again." '
This man risked his life, so instead of reporting her, and causing everyone in that house to the concentration camps, he saved them.
The suffering in the camps was horrible, but I find that sometimes the ordinary people who saved millions of lives, their stories are lost in the horror of the others.
Recently, I met a man named Andy Reiti (I hope that's how it's spelled) who survived the Holocaust. He is the same age as my Nana, who was 2 when the war ended, and he told us his and his mother's story. It was one of those stories that makes you remember what you really do have.
My favorite part was when he talked about what happened after the holocaust. Because how do you walk away from the millions of deaths of people. His father and paternal grandparents all died at Auschwitz. And because I, after not as bad a horror as that, but with problems find myself asking "What do I do now? There aren't crises anymore so what do you do?" And he went back like everything was normal.
We just recently finished watching a movie called Schindler's List in History. It was spoken in French with English subtitles. I strongly urge anyone 18 and older and perhaps younger if you can get your parents to agree. It's quite graphic, but very incredible. But, here's where the second thing comes in, today when we finished it, my teacher was talking to us about the movie (in french, obviously) she asked us whether or not we thought that standing by was the same thing as actually killing someone, instead of helping them. And that's a difficult question that I don't think very many people my age think about that sort of thing. Someone said that the people who didn't help were obviously scared for their families. I basically boiled down the question to: Is one person's life more important that another's? And that's a difficult question, too. It's one that some philosophers have trouble with in their mother language. So how are we, 15 and 16 year olds supposed to respond to that in what is either our second or third language.
So, maybe because I know, and I am very proud of both my Nana and my Grandpa, whose families hid Jews during the war. Or maybe because I know that my other grandma, who I've never met, due to her death when my dad was 13, that her family didn't hide Jews, but rather supplies and other things. But, one person's life isn't more important than another, and while, yes it is horrible what happened and that we should never forget, and never think that this wasn't real, but there are heroes all around us, unsung heroes, who saved millions of lives and because they can't mention every single one of them, we have to speak up.
C)
Lily! You haven't edited yet! SO MY STUFF IS STILL THERE! HAH!
Also, what do you think about an Essay about Harry Potter. I'm thinking: 'Why James and Not Him' about Snape and Lily. Thoughts?
Song: Wizard Rock by The Boyz Who Lived, and Maybe by Lauren Fairweather.
Book: Still Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
Quote: I will be, after a delicious Red Vine! ~Ron, AVPS
Bethany OUT!
Oma is the dutch word for Grandma
Opa is the dutch word for Grandpa
Time: Over by 24 minutes.... oops!
What I'm talking about this week:
a) Holocaust + WWII + Speakers
b) French???
c) Gloating
A) + B)
So, being in Grade 10 this year, I get to learn History. And the kind and generous beings that my parents are decided to enroll me in French Immersion ten years ago, and I, being the amazing person that I am, decided not to let 8 hard years of work go to waste and am currently working on my Extended French Certificate. So, this year I'm taking three courses in French, including History. And what we're working on now is World War II. That's the premise.
So basically, I am learning about the Holocaust, and Nazi's and whatever right now. Now, I'd say that I've not been sheltered from the truth and the horrors of the Holocaust. My first book about it, that I picked I might add, was Hanna's Suitcase when I was eight years old. Since then I've read a bunch of others including the Journey Through the Night series, a couple books by Corrie ten Boom, and recently, The Book Thief. I also read the Dear Canada for WWII, and about the liberation of Holland by Canadian Soldiers, etc. Three of my grandparents survived the occupation of the Netherlands, and my other grandfather wasn't old enough to fight, and was here in Canada. Although, now, I only have two grandparents who survived it, I do know about it.
One of my favorite stories that I know, comes from my mom. I like the story because it shows that not every Nazi wanted Jews dead, and also because it showed how ordinary people became extraordinary. And it goes something like this:
'My great-grandmother, my Oma was a very strong person. My great-grandfather, Opa, had fought against the Nazi invasion and as such was wanted as a Prisoner of War. But my Opa also was a very loving person, and while my Oma might have been able to just hide Opa and his two brothers from the Nazis, without Opa she wouldn't have helped so many Jewish people. At the time of this story, they had the three brothers under the window of their store, Jewish adults hiding in the cellar, Jewish children whose hair was being bleached to blend in with her five children and three Nazi soldiers in the house. On the last day the Nazis were staying with them, when the car came to pick the soldiers up she walked the three men outside and the commander turned to her and started screaming. He was screaming about how the food at her house was horrible, the beds were filled with diseases, and the cellars filled with mice. At that moment, just before my Oma started crying because she couldn't think of what she had done to make him think this, one of the Jewish girls ran by and the commander leaned in and said quietly to her "You need to dye their hair again." '
This man risked his life, so instead of reporting her, and causing everyone in that house to the concentration camps, he saved them.
The suffering in the camps was horrible, but I find that sometimes the ordinary people who saved millions of lives, their stories are lost in the horror of the others.
Recently, I met a man named Andy Reiti (I hope that's how it's spelled) who survived the Holocaust. He is the same age as my Nana, who was 2 when the war ended, and he told us his and his mother's story. It was one of those stories that makes you remember what you really do have.
My favorite part was when he talked about what happened after the holocaust. Because how do you walk away from the millions of deaths of people. His father and paternal grandparents all died at Auschwitz. And because I, after not as bad a horror as that, but with problems find myself asking "What do I do now? There aren't crises anymore so what do you do?" And he went back like everything was normal.
We just recently finished watching a movie called Schindler's List in History. It was spoken in French with English subtitles. I strongly urge anyone 18 and older and perhaps younger if you can get your parents to agree. It's quite graphic, but very incredible. But, here's where the second thing comes in, today when we finished it, my teacher was talking to us about the movie (in french, obviously) she asked us whether or not we thought that standing by was the same thing as actually killing someone, instead of helping them. And that's a difficult question that I don't think very many people my age think about that sort of thing. Someone said that the people who didn't help were obviously scared for their families. I basically boiled down the question to: Is one person's life more important that another's? And that's a difficult question, too. It's one that some philosophers have trouble with in their mother language. So how are we, 15 and 16 year olds supposed to respond to that in what is either our second or third language.
So, maybe because I know, and I am very proud of both my Nana and my Grandpa, whose families hid Jews during the war. Or maybe because I know that my other grandma, who I've never met, due to her death when my dad was 13, that her family didn't hide Jews, but rather supplies and other things. But, one person's life isn't more important than another, and while, yes it is horrible what happened and that we should never forget, and never think that this wasn't real, but there are heroes all around us, unsung heroes, who saved millions of lives and because they can't mention every single one of them, we have to speak up.
C)
Lily! You haven't edited yet! SO MY STUFF IS STILL THERE! HAH!
Also, what do you think about an Essay about Harry Potter. I'm thinking: 'Why James and Not Him' about Snape and Lily. Thoughts?
Song: Wizard Rock by The Boyz Who Lived, and Maybe by Lauren Fairweather.
Book: Still Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
Quote: I will be, after a delicious Red Vine! ~Ron, AVPS
Bethany OUT!
Oma is the dutch word for Grandma
Opa is the dutch word for Grandpa
Time: Over by 24 minutes.... oops!
