Response to Oprah Winfrey and Elie Wiesel Interview
(Blocks 4 and 5)
(Due Friday, May 6, 2016)
After watching the above interview, read and respond to the question below in one paragraph. Write in complete sentences, and PROOFREAD your response before publishing it.
What new insights and/or information did you gain from this interview?
Even the people that survive this horror still dont know themseleves why this happened. The jews had no idea what there fate was and where they would be placed. They picked random kinda they choose the ones that they thought would be harder workers and those went to the work camp the rest went straight to the gas chambers. Wiesel says that it was hard to sleep at night because of the horror he witnessed everyday. He says all he could smell is burning flesh. The women , children, elder and others that were unfit to work were told they were getting showers but when stripped they were lead into the gas chambers it took about 15 mintues for each round. If you were ordered to do something you had to run or you got killed. They would give some jews shots of diseases , they would do anything to get rid of as many people as possible.
ReplyDeleteThat Interview left me without words. It instilled a much more human feeling of somberness to the holocaust that I haven't experienced before today. The most impactful part for me was the "what could have been" seen in the possessions, hair, and especially the shoes. So much potential, what could have been a raging fire, was snuffed out like a mere candle. Im extremely glad you had us watch this, It provided a lot of insight.
ReplyDeleteI find it astounding the sheer size of Auschwitz, around 6500 acres of land! I never knew this. Also, from this documentary I have learned what went on in each section of the camp, and how cruel the whole process is. Another thing that really took me a step back was how unceremoniously the Jews were treated, there dead bodies--they were terrifyingly only skin and bones--were just thrown about without shame. Overall, the whole ordeal is awful. As a side note, I thought it was really impactful when Wiesel disclosed the fact that despite the 47 books he has written, he feels he hasn't even begun to tell his story.
ReplyDeleteFrom this short film, I gained more of an insight on how cruel the SS officers were to the Jews during the Holocaust. From Elie describing the situations himself, I could simply understand how terrible living in the concentration camp was through his eyes and point of view. It shocks me to know that families were tricked into believing that they were moving to Eastern Europe with their families, but were actually being sent to their possible death. Even more, babies were murdered due to their choice of religion and they hadn't even developed yet to know what religion they were to follow. This strikes me as an unjust and inhumane thing to do and I hope that such a thing never occurs in the future again. No human deserves to be separated from their family and forced to work in unbearable conditions under such an unnecessary circumstance.
ReplyDeleteI was completely unaware of how large the camp was. In seeing how vast it spanned I had thought about the millions of people who were herded like cattle and put to death for the slightest inconsistency or shortcoming in their physical being. The fact that thousands of infant children were put to death and piled as if they were trash. All of these things seem unbelievable and utterly horrifying, and they are. What is more horrifying is the undeniable truth that these acts were perpetrated by living, breathing human beings. People watched as they allowed millions of people to shamble by to their deaths, mothers, children, men, millions simply approaching their death. With no remorse or thought as to, "why would I allow this to happen". Beyond the ability to commit such crimes comes the question as to why they felt the need to do any of it in the first place? Because someone was a charismatic politician? Hopefully, the world will not be so naive and underdeveloped as to let anything close to this ever happen again.
ReplyDeleteSome new insight that I gained after viewing this interview between Winfrey and Weisel was how the Jews were stripped of every aspect of their lives. What I mean by this is that besides being separated from friends and family, all of there possessions were taken as well. Elie explained how nothing mattered in the camp. If you were somebody special or had a big title to your name and you entered the camp, you were instantly nothing to the Germans. They literally stripped them of everything and thats something I wouldn't have even thought of before watching this interview.
ReplyDeleteAfter viewing the interview I gained some new insights. One being that no one can comprehend how it had happened or why. That Eliezer could recognize that the SS were humans who had love for their families, and then they went and committed those atrocities. Also how shocking the vastness of of Auschwitz still is to him. How each section of the camp had its own role and impact on the Jews that went there. He seemed like there were things he was okay with not knowing the answer to, and that surprised me. He experienced the camp in full but some things he just wasn't going to think too much about. I wouldn't of thought someone wouldn't want to know the answers before the interview.
ReplyDeleteI was taken aside by the number of people they estimate were killed just at Auschwitz, over a million people being killed at one compound is so hard for me to comprehend. Watching the interview showed just how huge the camp was, I never realized or had learned from images before I had seen of Auschwitz that the grounds were that vast. Seeing Elie talk, especially on the grounds of Auschwitz emotionally caused me to really comprehend the seriousness of what happened. As I continued to watch the interview, images transpired in my head of thousands of people being beaten, disrespected, and killed. All without any remorse, this was happening. I had never known that there was essentially a second Auschwitz known as Birkenau. The interview also taught me that the SS headquarters were at Auschwitz 1, that I had never knew. Learning that they collected the hair shaved from the heads of jews and sold them to German industry to make clothing sickens me, it frustrates and makes me question how the world was so blind to this atrocity that was happening.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how many years I think I have spent learning about the Holocaust, there always seems to be more information to learn about it. Something new that I learned from it was that the Germans preserved the victims of the Holocausts' hair to be sent to factories and make cloth out of. Seeing all of the pictures of the dead or 'living dead' bodies was the hardest part for me, because it showed how much suffering and pain they were put through. Another insight I gained was the fate of the babies. I had never even considered that since there was no chance of young children being able to provide work, they would be immediately exterminated. I also never knew how large Auschwitz was. Hearing it was the size of over 5,000 football fields was astonishing and I really took away from it when Elie had said that it had to be so large to house the millions of Jews.
ReplyDeleteAfter viewing this interview I was really made aware of just how many people's lives were taken. I knew the numbers, I'd heard them time and time again, but I never really grasped it. Then after viewing this video and hearing Eliezer talk about how every night he'd wake up and someone next to him would be dead was just shocking. Seeing the hair of all the people really hit me hard, thinking, all of that hair, that belonged to someone once; that was someone's at one point; so seeing the case of hair go on and on and hearing they used it for clothing was just absolutely astonishing to me. The vastness of the place was also really astounding, as well as getting to see Auschwitz in the winter, you can picture just how cruel it was for all the prisoners to be there doing work in hardly enough clothing and not nearly enough sustenance. The interview was very eye opening for me and gave me new insight.
ReplyDeleteSome new insight I gained from the interview between Eliezer and Oprah was the fact that the people responsible for these events tried to profit from it. This is never more evident when the case of hair is seen during the video. To know that millions of people were killed and that the ones committing these acts tried to thrive economically for it is disheartening. I also found it very disturbing to know that the people responsible for these acts had stolen the most prized possessions of what those killed had. To hear and read about such events is one thing, to see the events and the effects is another. The thoughts and expressions that Eliezer showed gave a profound effect that he was and will be changed forever, nothing and nobody can give him back the innocence that was stolen from him, and nobody can give back all the lives and futures that were lost. Finally I was most shocked when Oprah and Eliezer talked about the effects those that were lost could have had. To know that future scientist, doctors, artists, and inventors were lost in such horrific events is hard to swallow.
ReplyDeleteAfter viewing this interview I realized just how tragic and how real it all was throughout that time in history. You get an insight in school about it but you never go so deep to where you can actually hear someone speak about it and about the struggles that they went through. While watching this interview just listening to him quiver when he was talking about some of things like the baby clothes and all of the hair that was shred it just made myself think how could someone actually have done this to so many innocent people. It makes you think about everything those prisoners went through. It touched a piece of my heart to not take anything for granted and to always be thankful of what I am getting because you never know when you have something in then in just a couple days everything can disappear. I would have never thought about watching this documentary before but I am so glad I did. It gave me an insight on everything that happened. Watching this I always heard of the numbers that were killed but I never had imagined how many that number actually was. I think that every person should watch this interview to get a better insight of this tragic event.
ReplyDeleteSome insight that I have gathered from watching this interview is a new perspective on just how big Auschwitz was as a whole. I guess, I never fully understood that vass majority of just how many jews were living in this one area. It is hard to comprehend how with every jewish victims story that I have heard they have all been different because there was just so many victims. Also, one of the most interesting things that I found throughout this story is how intelligent and humble Elie Wiesel is about this whole situation. Hearing him recall his past experiences put into perspective how he isn't angry at anyone, he is only hurt and wishes to understand the reasoning behind all of this. I feel so much pity for this poor, innocent man and find that from watching this interview it has given me a lot of insight on not only the victims held in the concentration camps but also Elie Wiesel himself.
ReplyDeleteAfter viewing this I gained a lot of new insight on the Holocaust. The Jews were stripped of everything in their lives including their names and they were given numbers. I learned how vast and massive Auschwitz was. I never realized the camp was that vast. It didn't matter who you were when you went into the camp because to the Germans you were just another Jew. I learned a lot from this interview and gained a lot of new insight on Auschwitz and the Holocaust.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I have to say I learned is that the atrocities that occurred in Auschwitz are indescribable. Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the camp, is just as lost as we are on why such a horrendous event took place. And the thought process that goes along with it, there just isn't one. The only question can really be asked is "Why?", and that's the only one we will never really know the answer to. The camp was laid out for perfecting the ability to murder millions, and with each section having their own duties and roles, prisoners were not only being killed, but forced to harm others as well.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the interview I gained some new insights. The Jewish people did not know that they were going to Auschwitz, they thought that they were getting relocated. When the arrived that were striped of everything that they had, and all aspects of their lives were gone. I knew that they lost most of the identity, but I did not know that this much would have been taken away from them. I also was very surprised when they said that the Jewish people were the ones that had to but the bodies in the crematory. I think that this would have been so hard to do because you knew that you could be one of those bodies later on. I was also surprised on how big Auschwitz was and how many people were located there.
ReplyDeleteSome new insights/information I learned was how cruel to the maximum mankind could ever be. Weisel's story was so deep and full of emotion, and even inspired me. He said he did not know why he lived, he was such a timid child, never volunteered and was always sick as a kid. Seeing the bodies and how they were tossed in the ditches as if they were just a piece of trash, really caught my attention. To think the Germans are human like any others, Jews were treated like nothing. What were the differences in human?
ReplyDeleteFrom watching this interview you gain new insights on what it really was like inside the concentration camps and what the Jewish people would think about on a daily basis and how they carry on with their lives after. There was a part in the interview where Wiesel said something along the lines of "how many dreamers, how many contributions to society were lost in the horrible events that took place", that really made me think, I have never heard or even remotely thought about something like that. It is almost breathtaking and it is hard to find the right words to describe my exact feelings about what took place.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching this interview with Elie Wiesel I gained a better insight of what it was actually like to live within Auschwitz. I was most astonished with the amount of shoes, hair, baby clothes and other artifacts that were discovered during the liberation of the camp. The artifacts made me actually realize the amount of people that were murdered during the Holocaust. This short film also gave me more insight on how cruel the SS officers were to the jews, which was apparent in the way Wiesel talked throughout the interview. It is hard to imagine the hardships the Jewish community went through during this time period but through watching this video I was able to grasp the sheer horror of the holocaust.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the interview I did gain some new insights. Mainly just how horrible it was at the camp. One could not even begin to describe or comprehend the atrocities that occurred there unless you were there. Then again if you were there it still would not even make sense according to Wiesel. After watching and seeing all those images, you really begin to understand even more of how horrible it was. Everyone who went into the camp was stripped of everything they had and most didn't even get to leave. And if you survived you had nothing when you came out. Which is horrible to even think of.
ReplyDeleteAfter viewing the interview with Elie Wiesel, I gained new insights on a couple things. One being that Elie can see the SS as humans who had love for their families but also went and helped with the murdering of millions of men, women, and children. Another insight I gained after watching this interview is how Elie still sees Auschwitz as vast as he did when he arrived there around midnight his first night. He still knew where every building was, 61 years later.
ReplyDeleteThere was much insight I gained from watching this short film. The Jews and other prisoners had no idea what was happening to them until it already happened, as no word had gotten out about how horrible these places were. As well as the expansiveness of some of the bigger camps, such as Auschwitz, and how many people they could efficiently kill every day. That constant death became a 'normal' part of the people living there, prisoners and those in charge. I cannot, however, comprehend why something like this could have occurred and why the people beat and murdered millions of selected people in genocide.
ReplyDeleteThe interview was quite astonishing; to see Oprah and Eliezer walk through the concentration camp in Auschwitz that he had once walked through 61 years ago, which must have taken a lot of courage gave me a much greater insight on the Holocaust. I didn’t know the camp in Auschwitz was that big, or when Oprah and Eliezer walked through a building and saw that glass cases of shoes, suitcases and hair was unbelievable. During the interview Oprah mentioned that she “Couldn’t wrap the thought around her head.” I feel the same way, it’s almost as though it seems so horrible it must be untrue. To see the images of the skeletons, the piles of bodies and even the gas chamber; are all pictures that I won’t be able to forget. I have discovered much more about the living conditions and the abuse that millions of people had to endure, and I will never forget this genocide.
ReplyDeleteThere was so much shocking, and even dynamic material exposed in this interview, that it was hard for me to single out what I found to be the most telling of such a tragic event. What really made me think, though, was what Elie said in regards to the value of human life -- during the Holocaust, people were stripped of any characterizing traits (i.e. wealth, status, title, etc.) and deemed without meaning. Yet, Elie went on to describe how each person had specific value which transcended beyond their conviction and eventual death, which is now endangered of being forgotten. This was reflected in Elie's self-incriminating behavior; the weight of the living and the dead upon his soldiers. It was especially enlightening to view relics of the holocaust that simply couldn't be described without doing the persecuted persons injustice. Additionally, the realization of the millions of people that died tragically in relation to the upsets caused by a single person's death in modern times provided me with a more holistic and perceptive view of the world.
ReplyDeleteI did not gain much new knowledge from this considering I have seen this exact interview before. But it did help me see the holocaust in a different way. We all think the killing was the cruel part, but what I found is the torture was the worst. Death was an escape for the prisoners, almost gracious. The torture lasted a long time but death was close to instant. It always followed, and was a welcome relief.
ReplyDeleteWatching this video and seeing Oprah And Eliezer travel through the streets and exhibits in Auschwitz was very eye opening. To me the most shocking thing was learning how big it was. Also, the exhibits of the shoes and suit cases was very shocking, Oprah said that there was up to 67 feet of cases packed with shoes. Another thing that was very shocking is how the jews were unaware where they were going. Eliezer said that before he arrived he had never even heard of Auschwitz. Another part of the film I guess I did not realize was the relief of death. Normally people are not relieved by death of loved ones or others but in this case often death was an escape.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching this video I have learned how big Auschwitz is and how it's set up. I never really would have thought of it being so big. I didn't know the Jews thought they were going somewhere else so they packed bags and personal belongings, which where taken from them. I learned that Eliezer being a survivor of the holocaust, witnessing and involved in, still can't process or fully comprehend what happened and how it was allowed.
ReplyDeleteI acquired some insight from this short film, this film made me realize that the conditions of the camps were worse than he per-trade in his book. The Auschwitz camp alone was absolutely huge, and the gas chambers were bigger than I thought they would be. The other thing I noticed was the pain in his voice and eyes; you could tell he didn’t want to be there in the camp again. The things they saw in Auschwitz were worse than Ellie let on in his book. The things they went through have left mental scars on all of them that survived any of the camps, especially the ones who had to load the dead bodies in the furnaces. The fact that humans could do such things as this is unethical and unimaginable.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the interview, I was able to see what some of the locations from Wiesel’s novel actually look like. I also thought it was interesting to learn that Elie was a professor and spoke surprisingly good English. It was very hard to watch some of the gruesome scenes of death and torture, but I think it was important to realize how terrible the Holocaust truly was. I thought it was interesting how the Nazis collected the prisoner’s hair and sold it to be made into new material in order to fund the war effort. Overall, the interview was very eye-opening and engaging since it displayed some of the unimaginable events that occurred on a daily basis at Auschwitz.
ReplyDeleteWatching this interview allowed me to better understand the true appearance of a concentration camp. Wiesel's ability to recall the exact locations at which he experienced such horrors, and the emotions they conflicted him with, made it clear that his time there was unshakable. Although the vast camps that remain are still impactful, nothing can recreate how they would have looked with the SS carrying machine guns and piles upon piles of innocent people at the time. Beyond the traumatizing conditions Elie experienced when he was the age I am now, it was uplifting to see that he has made a life for himself, and is appreciating it in honor of those whose lives were cut short just beside him.
ReplyDeleteEli, to this day, does not hate the germans. He only questions how someone could do the things that they did. How could someone kill children and pregnant women. How the Dr. Of birkenau could experiment the way he did. How people could be forced to live and be treated like rats. I never knew that they used the hair that was cut off, for anything, i thought it was just to keep lice away. Even though Eli went through what he did, he doesn't want people to pity him or make things all about him. Because he suffered, he wants to stop other people from suffering, and help if he can.
ReplyDeleteThe insight that I gained from this interview was the size of Auschwitz. I had no idea that the camp was as massive as what it is. The number of people killed there in such a short time is mindblowing. I also have, yet again, more respect (for of better words) for what happened and what those people went through. The torture and the way they were treated was unimaginable. The pivtures and video clips of the halocaust that were shown in this video were probably some of the most graphic and disturbing things I've ever seen. It gave me a new appreciation of what happened and what these people suffered through.
ReplyDeleteThis interview between Elie Wiesel and Oprah Winfrey at Auschwitz gave me a lot of new insight, one of the biggest insights being the vastness of the horrible place. In the interview they are touring the concentration camp of Auschwitz and they say how the entire camp was basically an entire separate universe. Also Elie talks about how lucky he is to be alive, how sometimes he doesn't understand how he survived and others did not. He always wanted to honor those who lost their lives. It also seemed as though Elie Wiesel was such a peaceful person, he talked softly and poetically and was grateful for his life.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the interview between Oprah and Wiesel I gain insight on just how awful it really was. Seeing the mountain of dead bodies being bull dosed into a gigantic grave was just horrifying. But really what disturbed me the most was the condition of the dead bodies, they weren't really bodies anymore they were just bones, they were walking skeletons. Now I've seen pictures like that before, but not the the extent shown in the video.
ReplyDeleteThe video interview between Oprah and Wiesel really gave me insight on how terrible the holocaust really was. I did not know how big these camps were and how many people were killed at the same time until this video. There was literally a hill of dead people that they just threw into one big grave it was terrible. I also did not know the different ways in which they would kill people.
ReplyDeleteI think that this interview was a very humbling experience. Elie talked about how whenever he went to Auschwitz, he wouldn't talk for a few days, just to let the silence sink in. It was very interesting to hear him talk about his experience in the camps and it was cool to learn that he works around the world helping people. The video was an experience I will never forget.
ReplyDeleteI knew that it was very hard for people to go back to the place where they were tortured and abused. I did not know that there were so many suit cases and shoes and baby clothes and hair. The hair is the hardest thing to get over to know that they were selling human hair to company's to make a profit and clothes for other Germans is crazy. I never knew that there were prisons inside of the camps. This was the place where people were tortured and then killed. I had no idea about all the shoes and hair in the cases to preserve them and that was all from people that were in the one camp not even the others camps.
ReplyDeleteI knew for a lot of people that have gone back that survived the camp it was very hard for them. But for Elli he said that every time he goes back, that he doesn't talk for days and that was really surprising to me. I also did not know that Auschwitz was so big, it was literally miles and miles wide. Finally I think that Eli is really brave for coming back so many times, if that was me I don't think that I would have gone back to the place that was literal hell.
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ReplyDeleteI believe the documentary gave me a whole new understanding of what went on during the Holocaust. Throughout reading night I have been able to envision what happened but this solidified it. I understood how terrible it was but, I did not understand how people were lied to and tricked on where they were going. These people packed up all of their prized possessions thinking they would make it out alive, which many of them did not. One of the things that I thought was absolutely horrific was when they took the human hair to sell to German producers to make clothing out of. All of this together really helped me see what actually occurred during the Holocaust instead of just what I thought.
ReplyDeleteI think that this documentary gave me a whole new insight on what really happened during The Holocaust. I think it would be so hard for someone to revisit a place that ruined their life. I thought that it was amazing how Eliezer had the courage and bravery to come back to Auschwitz. The most haunting thing that I saw during the documentary was the piles of hair and shoes that were in the display cases. To get the idea of how big the concentration camp really was and how many people were in the camp is depressing. This is by far one of the influential and having the most impacting genocides in the history of mankind.
ReplyDeleteThis interview helped me a lot comprehending what had happened during the Holocaust. I will never understand how people (Germans in particular) can act so inhuman.The whole event was really rational and had nothing to do with Feelings (that's how it seems). I never heard of Elie Wiesel before , so I was surprised of how wise he is. He didn't feel hate for what had happened to him and all the Jews , and I am not quite sure if I could feel the same way if I would be in his position. I really respect him for going to that place again where he had suffered so much.
ReplyDeleteI knew just general things about the Holocaust , so this interview gave me a whole new insight. I knew that they shaved your head , but the fact that they selled it was a new fact. I could go on and on , but all in all it was good to watch an interview like that , because nobody really talks that much about it anymore.
This interview really opened my eyes and made me really realize how much trouble people that were part of thr Holocaust went through. If i was a part of the Holocaust I don't know if I could go back and revisit Auschwitz, or any camp for that matter. It'd be too hard for me. Some of the things Elie Wiesel said during the interview really gave a new insight and view on the Holocaust..
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