Because of Romek: Final Post

1. Every single thing that happened in the concentration camps were horrible, but the event that I found the most disturbing was when he was striping the bodies of all or any of their valuables and he found the baby who had stayed alive in the gas chamber. They made him throw the baby into fire and he listened to the screeching of the baby as it died. I found hat the most disturbing because hehimself actually had to kill a baby who had a whole life ahead of it. If I ever had to do that, I would probably die myself.

2. One job that pretty much kept him alive in the Krawinkle camp was making the coffee. If he didn't get that job, I don't think he would have lived. If all of these little things didn't happen in the very hard times at the concentration camps, he wouldn't be alive. This job probably felt like paradise for him because of all of the hard times he went through. If he didn't know people like Paul, he wouldn't have survived.

3. At Bergen-Belsen, the conditions were horrible. I think that the Germans knew that the war was coming to an end, so they treated them even worse, trying to kill them all. They even had to eat as much as they could of each other. The lice blankets, people giving up on living anymore, and just the very horrible things that were done to them made them, these were only a fraction of the things that they went through. I think that the Bergen-Belsen camp was the worst because they were all dying and they still got treated horribly.

4. I think his happiness was that he stuck to his promise that he made to his mom. Another triumph was getting to see his "family" or the man who his sister was supposed to marry. Both of these and the triumph of not living in pain anymore added up to a very happy ending. His biggest triumph was probably getting to say to his mom that he stuck to his promise.

5. David Faber's book, Because of Romek, should be required reading in all middle schools, high schools, and universities because all students need to learn about the horrors of the Holocaust. If middle school students don't learn this, then history might repeat itself, and nothing this horrible should ever happen again, even if it "isn't as bad". David Faber said in his speach that hatred should not ever get that bad and that it should all end and we should live in peace. If middle school students don't learn about this, then the world will never be in peace. This book writes in detail about how bad it really truly was, and if no one learns about the suffering that went on and about history, then the fuiture will represent the past. This wouldn't be learning from our mistakes, it would be even worse because we know it shouldn't happen, but we wouldn't know how bad it would get until it was horrible.

Renaissance Ball Project Reflection

The purpose of this project was to learn about the Renaissance time period and its importance. Another purpose to this project was to learn about the culture of the Renaissance, and how things changed in subjects such as literature, the arts, science, mathematics, cartography, and engineering, In order to learn about this, we had to write an autobiography/biography about a famous Renaissance figure. We had a choice of writing the autobiography/biography in first person, third person, or as a diary entry.

I learned that the Renaissance was considered a “rebirth” and that there were great changes made from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. In the Middle Ages, the society was mainly based on agriculture, and your status was set by birthright. In the Renaissance however, society was based on commerce, and your social status was based off of ability and wealth. From 1346-1352 a deadly plague called The Black Death spread throughout Europe. Due to this devastating event, 25 million people died, which resulted as about 1/3 of Europe’s population. A few other things that I learned were that there was a new type of scholar called a humanist, which was someone who was well educated in Latin, Greek, history, science, and mathematics. The scholars thought that being better educated would solve problems. The crusades were the main reason as to why the Europeans were so eager to be educated. In this project, I learned how to perform a Renaissance dance called the Pavan.

I enjoyed this project because it was interesting to learn about this “rebirth” in time and about how things changed drastically. I also enjoyed this project because it was interesting to learn about some of the famous rulers, artists and other figures. I feel like I could have done better on this project because I didn’t take as much time at editing my biography as I should have. I took a long time on my notes, and then I rushed at the end to get it done instead of using my time wisely and spending more time on the actual writing of the biography. Next time, I would spend less time on my notes and more time on my biography.

I will link my biography to my DP.

Because of Romek: Post #3

Name: Alexandra Title: Because of Romek

1. Overall, it was really sad but interesting hering him talk. I think that he did have some opinionated information he was giving to us, but it was really interesting. In the book, at times, you start thinking that it was fiction. But then when he is actually talking it is so much more sad and deep because you know that he can't be lying and that everything that he says actually happened.

2. It must have been hard for him to go up there as a girl and always be in possible danger. I think that they were asking a lot of him, and maybe they should have gone up there and done that. I think that Romek was proud of David because he is finally becoming a man and starting to help in the war in a way.

3. I think that the Gestapo spared David because they realized that he actually didn't know and that they wouldn't let him die because that would be good for him. It would have been good because I think that the Gestapo thought that he would get tortured later and more severely. Maybe they would kill him later or something that would please them even more.

Beacause of Romek: Post #2

Name: Alexandra Title: Because of Romek

1. I think the significance of the pigeon is that they were supposed to be saved and not killed. The pigeon becomes one of the most importtant things tha Divd could have used in his whole life. It was the reason that David is still alive today. In that time and that place, something as little and pointless as a pigeon could save your life just as it did for David. If he wasn't persistent in convincing his mother to let him keep it, he would not be living today.

2. I think that the living conditions were really bad in the Pustkow "vacation" camp. I was a form of physical labor and they all went hungry most of the time. I think that the labor camp was called a "vacation" camp because if the Russians or anyone else from out of the country saw it, they wouldn't be suspicious (or at least that's what I think they were hoping for).

3. Question #1: How do you remember every detail on what happened?
Question #2: Out of everyone who survived the Holocoust, only a few actually wrote a book about it. What made you chose to write a book about it?

Because of Romek Book Response Post #1

Name: Alexandra Title: Because of Romek Author: David Faber

1. An important fact/detail that I learned so far was that the Germans left the women and children at their homes. I find that interesting because they were going to kill them all anyways (at least according to their plans) so why didn't they just take the women and children too? You'd think that they wouldn't care if you were women and children and that they would just kill you anyways but I guess they decided not to.

2. From what We've read so far, I think that David's family is really close together and they love each other a lot. I think that they do a lot of things together, and that they will probably have a hard time being split up in the war. I think that they will have a hard time in the war and not being able to see each other a lot. I think that this event in their lives has really scared them for ever and thats why i think that David remembers everything. This whole thing that has happened in his life has probably made a big impact on him and his family.

3. I think that the rescue of his father shoows how loving David is and how much he loves his family. Some of his qualities are being very lovingly and being loyal. He shows loyalty because he went back and saved his father even though it could have cost him his life. He shows being lovingly because he really cares about his family. "In the late morning, Mother asked, "Can we stop? I think the girls should ride for a while. And David too." "I'm not tired, Mama," I objected. That wasn't true but I didn't want her to walk along like a peasant." Overall, David is very a loving and caring person.

Aztec Mural Project Reflection

Name: Alexandra H.
Project Title: Aztec Mural Project
Class: Humanities
Dates: 5-05-08

Reflection:

The purpose of this project was to learn about the Aztecs. We were supposed to learn about their culture, their ways of living, what they ate, what they believed in, etc. In order to learn about the Aztecs, we made murals to learn about what they did in their daily life. We could chose from a number of topics such as sacrifice, the Aztec gods, etc. to focus our mural on. Another purpose of this project was to learn about the Aztec social classes, the food they ate, the Aztec markets, and overall, the Aztec culture.

In this project, I learned that the Aztecs believed that there were many gods. One of the most important gods in the Aztec culture was the sun god. They believed that if a sacrifice wasn't performed, the sun wouldn't rise in the morning. So if they didn't perform a sacrifice to the sun god, they would die. If they made sacrifices they thought that the gods would be pleased. I also learned that in Aztec culture they have social classes. At the bottom are the slaves and at the top are the Emporors/Epress' and their relatives. Also, I learned that warriors are very important to the Aztecs because they are the ones who keep the whole empire from being attacked.

I enjoyed this project because it was really fun painting the murals. I also enjoyed this project because it had a lot of art in it and I enjoyed drawing the symbols and learning about different cultures. I feel like I could have done better on this project because we spent too much time on our draft and not enough time tracing on our actual mural. Next time I would have spent less time on our draft and more time tracing. I think we should have started tracing on our mural sooner because we ended up hurrying to get our mural done and we had a lot of gaps on the mural where we were supposed to put images, but did not have enough time to.

Artifact/Document:
Artist Statement doc.

Weekly Reading Response to I ave Lived a Thousand Years

Name: Alexandra H Title: I Have Lived a Thousand Years Author: Livia Bitton-Jackson
Total pages this week: 83 Date: April 22nd, 2008 Pages: 140-223

Response:

Throughout the book, I was wondering why it was called "I Have Lived a Thousand Years". I thought it had something to do with her finally surviving the Holocaust and it might have felt like a thousand years to her or something. But then it finally says why it is called I Have Lived a Thousand Years and it all makes sense. What I thought was right and I think that it is kind of smart that Livia Bitton-Jackson put that as the title because it is kind of random, but it really goes with the book.

I think that Ellie should have gone back for her poems. If it was so hard for her to leave them behind and if they kept all of her poems that she has worked on for so long, why didn't she go back for them? She could have convinced her mom to go with her just for a short time to go back for her poems since they were one of the only posessions she owned after the war. And if she put so much time into them, why would she just leave them and go off to America?

Why do you think Ellis didn't go back for her poems?