Berlin Memorial Activity Reflection

// Reflect on the Berlin Memorial Activity we did in class //   

 

   
    Based on the activity that we did in class today,  I learned a lot about the years preceding the Holocaust that I never really learned about in depth before. I had heard about the different legislations passed to take away the basic rights and needs of Jews, but I had never thought of how insane and real the decrees would be. For example, the decree that didn't allow Jews to have pets was completely insignificant to me, like why would Hitler and his regime even care about their pets. I also learned how smart Hitler was, and how he placed the laws during certain times, not too many at some points where there was media attention on Germany, while piling them when Germany was left alone.

    I think that this monument was built not only to remember the people that perished, but to remember what they had to go through. While at the same time, I think it was built to remind people of this tragic event in history, which is the Holocaust, in hopes that it won't repeat itself. Whenever memorials are built, they are to remind the public of something that happened that not only affected a group of people, or even an entire country, but the entire world. I think that the Holocaust completely affected the way the entire world acts now, and I think that this particular memorial was put out in a very public place so that people can read them and share them with others; to try and stop history from repeating itself.

    The activity that we did in class helped to show how the number of laws changed in certain years. For example, in 1934, only one or two people went up, but when it came to 1937-8, almost the entire class got up. I think that this helps to show the slyness of Hitler and his regime during this time, because every law was placed when it was because it was the "perfect time". For example, only one or two decrees were passed in the year 1936 because that was when the Olympic Games were held in Germany and that year Germany was an open book and they couldn't risk getting a bad rep or else Hitler's Final Solution would have never happened. While in 1937, a year after the Olympics, Hitler piled decrees like how Jewish men needed to have the middle name Israel, while Jewish women had to have Sarah as their middle name.

    Personally, I think that I would have the most trouble with the decree passed in 1938 which says that no one could go to school. I'm not a big fan of school now, and I want to leave as soon as possible, but having an education in the 1930s was really huge, and to have a career that actually payed off was granted to those who had an eduction. I also think that in the present day, we spend most of our day and half of our entire lives in school that I don't think I would be sane if I couldn't go to school and actually get a little bit of social interaction.

Comments: Gustavo, Jesus, Elenia