Starting Off

Growing up I didn't know much about the Holocaust, only what we learned in school- which wasn't a lot. In seventh grade, however, my english teacher Mrs. Eichenlaub introduced my class to the Holocaust. It was close to the end of the school year when she brought up the topic. We talked about it for a week before she brought in a movie; The boy in the striped pajama's. The teachers crowded my grade into the auditorium where they played it on the big projection screen at the front of the stage. It showed life in the concentration camps for a nine year old boy compared to the life of a nine year old german soldiers son. The hardships the little boy went through just because he had different beliefs then the german boy shocked me. How could anyone be so creul, especcially to a child? Like all movies, the end was the saddest part which caused most people to end their day with teary eyes. However, when the movie was over it didn't strike me as real. It was something I couldn't quite grasp until two days later in that very same english class when Mrs. Eichenlaub again brought up the topic of the Holocaust. Once again we were meant to watch yet another movie. This time, however, it wouldn't be about the lives of two children, it would be the life of a man who was in a concentration camp as a child and how it felt when he went back to it years later. It showed him walking around and telling stories of where different events happened in his stay and the different emotions he felt looking back at everything. The movie, unlike the last, showed me the truth of the Holocaust and the devestating affects it had on millions. I chose to take this course because I truely find the Holocaust intriguing, and all I wish to take away from it is more knowledge about what happened; the cause and the effect.