Perpetrator Observation Report

A majority of the exhibit was technology based or was made up entirely of dioramas. It was very interesting to discover that the museum uses a mediated based approach to inform their audience of the events that happened during the time of the Holocaust. To heighten the experience, the museum hands out cards with pictures of Jewish people who were affected by the Holocaust. At the end of the tour, there is a scanner that will reveal the fate of the person on your card. I received Peter Freistadt. Peter Freistadt was born on October 13, 1931, in Bratislavia, Czechoslovakia. With the arrival of anti-Semitic laws in the 1940s, him and his family had to wear the Star of David on their sleeves and a brand. The star branded them for all to see that they are jewish. They were required to hire a non-Jewish man to overlook their family owned business. They were forced to leave their home. Peter Freistadt was one of the lucky few to escape the ghettos, and the horrors that followed. There was one section within the exhibit called "The Hall of Testimony". This is where you can hear the stories of Holocaust survivors. This provides live testimony of the events from the period and semi fills the void that was caused due to the previous lack of artifacts. The Museum honors the survivors in a permanent exhibit titled “Witness to Truth”. The

With this book, Wiesel has helped to ensure that the holocaust is never forgotten. The events that he and the other Jews endured and put in this book are memorable to any reader. Jews whose job were to help in the crematories, sometimes even help with putting others to death is pretty memorable. One man had to put his own father into the furnace (35). This is very memorable because they had to watch others just like them being burned to death, and one day others might have to do the same to them. They had to work in a place full of the dead, until they themselves were put to death. Another memorable event was when the dead bodies were thrown off the wagon (94) as if they were useless weight. That was memorable because those people had a previous life, with families that loved them, and their dead body meant absolutely nothing to the SS. It is moments like these must be remembered, in honor of the diseased. As Wiesel said, “For the survivors who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and the living...to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time” (XV). Using good imagery and drilling the suffering of those who lived in these camps into the reader's mind, he has helped assure that

In this book, the author describes the long process it takes to create a national museum that will commemorate the Holocaust. He covers issues such as, the location of it, the design and construction aspects of the museum building. He informs readers about how they’ve tried to represent the Holocaust through the museum with sensitivity. I will use specific facts from this book to show that this museum was built with the help of many and required a lot of thought into it. I will show that this museum does in fact show sensitivity to an individual.

While walking in to an art gallery, everyone had a moment of stopping in their tracks to be memorized by a painting or a drawing. Only to think about what that art is about and the meaning behind it. Especially at a holocaust museum. There are many works of art about the holocaust. The prisoners had a life story to share. Also, the people who did the art works had to be careful, not to be caught by the Germans. The reason for this, was it was illegal to draw what's actually happening in the camps. Few of the prisoners were "privileged" to make art for the Germans, to only draw or paint what the Germans say. The prisoners were only chosen, because they were talented enough. But for the prisoners who weren't "privileged" had to be smart, by

All of the prisoners experienced terrible things that changed the way they processed situations. Something that no man would have let slide by occurred during the death marches. The book says,”He must have died, trampled under the feet of the thousands of men who followed us.” Before the Holocaust nobody would have let a young die like that. They would have cared, and

Upon arrival at Birkenau, the Jews are forced to leave behind every little item they brought along with them. Wiesel states “The beloved objects that we had carried with us from place to place were now left behind in the wagon and, with them, finally, our illusions” (Wiesel, Night 29). Slowly, the brutalization the Jews undergo transforms them into new, unrecognizable shadows of who they once were before the Nazi invasion. The unfortunate destiny of the Jewish population being forced to leave behind their material possessions tragically begins to remove all indications and reminders of who the prisoners once were. These appalling acts of abducting one’s possessions is just an introduction to all of the pain and suffering the Jews endure once entrapped behind the gates of Birkenau. In an analysis by Friedman, he furthers that “Suffering pulls us farther away from other human beings. It built us a wall made of cries and contempt to separate us”(206). The robbing of the Jews' possessions contributes to a path of suffering for the prisoners; this deterioration leads Wiesel and the other prisoners to create emotional and mental barricades that separate them from each other, and ultimately, their true inner

“The Transformative Power of Holocaust Education in Prison: A Teacher and Student Account,” is an article written by Anke Pinkert and the Co-Authors Michael Brawn, Jose Cabrales, and Gregory Donatelli. Anke Pinkert is a professor of undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Illinois. She has specialization on various topics such as memory studies, holocaust representation, and mass incarceration in films and media. In this article, Anke Pinkert shares the experience that introduces an artifact that is presented on the use of class readings and discussion on Holocaust in developing a critical engagement with the past and present imprisonment, and confinement discourses in the United States. It notes that this commitment challenges the stereotypes of incarcerated people as dimensional survivors, victims, convicts, or criminals. She begins building her credibility with the personal facts and reputable sources. Towards the end of the article, her attempts to appeal readers’ emotions strengthen her credibility and eventually, her argument.

The basic division in the structure of criminal courts is between the lower criminal courts – the local courts, Children’s court and Coroner’s court – and the higher criminal courts – the District Court and the Supreme Court. In observing proceedings at the Local, District and Supreme Courts over a period of three days a number of aspects of the criminal justice system were made apparent. The administration, processes and practices of the criminal trial are extremely varied dependent upon the level of criminal court being observed. The distinctions between the workings of the two courts revealed a number of the differences between summary proceedings and trial upon indictment. The cases observed served to

As thousands of people were being deported into the concentration camp they didn’t know who they were even standing next to or even having the thought of going into the pits of hungry lions. They were like rats trapped in the corner by the Nazi officers who were like cats ready to prance at them. As they were assigned to their barracks they relieved triangles made of fabric sewn on the jackets and shirts (“Nazi Concentration Camp Badges”). The badge of shame had seven different types of colors, and each color had a specific meaning (“The Holocaust Revealed”). I think that these triangles helped to identify the different types of people easily for the Nazi officers.

For example, the Dallas Holocaust Museum (DHM) purchased a train car and placed it as the entranceway into its core exhibit. As such, the train car functions as a literal entry way into understanding the Holocaust. In October 2016 the DHM announced renovation plans for the exhibit. The plans call for the continued used of the train car as a place to walk through wherein guests will exit the car “into the killing center exhibit” symbolising the transitional moment of victims towards their extermination. The hope is to physically convey deportation experiences whilst immersing visitors through active engagement with artifacts. The goal is to identify with victims and survivors on an emotional level whilst also providing material substance to

I went to this memorial site by myself on the Sunday to compare and contrast the differences between this concentration camp and Ravensbrück. Through the exportation of this site, I noticed many individuals with “selfie” sticks and using them in order to take “selfies” throughout the site. I noticed people even taking these types of pictures in the memorial part of the camp. This was by far the most disgusting and disturbing area that I found people taking “selfies” in because it is where the SS guards had the crematoriums, the gas chamber and where the guards would shoot the prisoners. This thoroughly disgusted me the fact that people thought this was a socially acceptable practice to take “selfies” in the a place of such destruction of human

The book, Survival in Auschwitz, depicts the story of an Italian Jew in a a concentration camp with unfathomable conditions. The prisoners here are treated as animals and pieces, their primary task to serve the German officers. The SS officers, and all the other men in a position of authority at this camp, try their very hardest to break the souls of the captives and reduce them the number tattooed on their arm. While the Nazis try to destroy the men in many ways throughout the course of this novel, the two things that demonstrate their dehumanization most strongly, are? the process the prisoners undergo upon arrival at the camp, and the way the selections of who will live or die are carried out.

Museums related to the Holocaust are seen by some to be a “necessary evil.” How can we comprehend the catastrophe that is the death of eleven million? However, even if we might not be able to understand their suffering, we need to understand the history of the Holocaust. For years, Holocaust museums have relied on art, exhibits, and testimony to convey the story of the Holocaust. Yet as we progress further into the twenty-first century, all the survivors will pass, and the means of conveying must change. For instance, the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center have plans to put in place a VR (virtual reality) exhibit that lets you ask questions to a “virtual” survivor of the Holocaust. While this innovational use of VR is impressive,

In Auschwitz Jews, among others, were burned and killed mercilessly. “ If anyone goes missing you will all be shot like dogs.” This show that they don’t refer to Jews as human beings but as filthy dogs. SS officers didn’t care if you lived or died they just wanted to torture and murder you. This just shows how dehumanizing Auschwitz can be on Jews.

In “Maus” of Spiegelman, the author was smart and creative on choosing graphic novel to describe and enhance his point of view on “his experience as a prisoner in Auschwitz (one of the main prison camps) during the Holocaust.” By using the graphic novel, the author can approach to his audience easier on talking about a historical event and make it more interesting than other tedious historical event that happened in the past and was written as notes for next generations to read and know what had occurred in the past time. Under his talented illustration, Spiegelman has depicted clearly the life of a prisoner in a prison during the Holocaust time. One thing I notice from the graphic is that all the characters are wearing masks.