Survivors

These are some of the remarkable people I met at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. They are survivors of the Holocaust.

Survivors

 Henry Greenbaum

 Martin Weiss 

 Halina Peabody

 Michel Margosis

 Susan Warsinger

 Sylvia Rozines

 I wrote a outline and created a PowerPoint presentation for her talks to school groups

 Fred Kahn

 I wrote a biography for him

 Fred Kahn

 Susan Taube and Louise Lawrence- Israels

Henry Kahn

Their stories can be found at https://www.ushmm.org/remember/office-of-survivor-affairs/survivor-volunteer

Watch Your Attitude!

      I looked at public attitude in two ways. First I assessed how antisemitic attitudes changed, then I assessed how attitudes towards the holocaust shifted throughout. I found, without a surprise, that antisemitism was highest in the 1930s and spiked again in 1939, then in 1941 antisemitism in Flagstaff dropped. In 1950 we see an irregularity and a possible outlier in the data. This trend shows that people were ill-informed and mislead.

      In order to address attitudes towards the Holocaust I came up with four categories. After reading all of the articles I found that major attitudes included disbelief that Jews are being murdered, blaming Jews, belief that Jews are being murdered, and action against those murderers. I read every article and placed it in one of the above categories corresponding to the attitude portrayed in the article. My results were relatively inconclusive. What we can see is that blame spiked in 1939 and again in 1951. Also action had sporadic spikes. One of the most interesting occurrences is that disbelief spikes at the same time belief, action, and blame spikes.

      Attitude changed drastically throughout the course of time. The biggest change we see is that of the shift from high levels of antisemitism to practically none. 

   

They said what?

Public opinion can often be hard to analyze because there are always multiple points of views. Do to this we have to evaluate general trends. I read the all of the articles in the Northern Arizona University paper that corresponded with opinions towards Jews. From 1933 to 1955 public opinion drastically changed. First I recorded the amount of articles that mentioned one of the following key words: Jew, Jewish, Jews, Israel, Poland, Zion, Palestine, Hitler, Nuremburg, Nazi, Draft, Selective service, Judaism, Yom Kippur, Kosher, Chanukah (various spellings), Bris (various spellings), Bar Mitzvah, Purim, Passover, Seder, Shabbes (various spellings), and Shul. With these key words we were able to find articles that discussed public opinion towards Jews.The results are illustrated in the graph below.

The most surprising results showed a drop in talking about opinion from 1940 to 1941. I found this alarming because this is at the very beginning of World War 2. Along with shifts in occurrences of key word mentions, the shift of public opinion was greatly altered. Throughout the 1930s and a majority of the 1940s Jews were often blamed for the events that were occurring; one article even claims that the Jews were just lying to get attention. This article was published in March of 1933. As time progressed opinions slowly changed to recognize what was truly happening in Europe. In 1951 a program was created called Brotherhood Week. This program was created by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. A couple of weeks of the year they put on Brotherhood Week which puts on events to encourage the acceptance of those from every religion, especially Jews. From 1933 to 1955 public opinion from Jews shifted from blaming them and persecuting them to holding events to promote unity between students.






(First article mentioned on the right, Brotherhood article below.)








The things that people will believe and promote can be unbelievable. I encourage you to do a lot of research before you decide to choose a stance on a situation. If you are educated we can make sure a event like the Holocaust never happens again.

The Kaleidoscope

"I love and support Jews but you are going to hell because you don't believe Jesus is our savior." This is one of many comments that visitors have approached survivors with. As you can imagine comments like these upset our survivors. After telling this story to a friend of mine I was asked, "So if there are so many religions with so many gods, whose God is the true god?" After extensive thought this is the answer I came up with.

Imagine a kaleidoscope. At the bottom of the lens there is one image; however, depending on the angle that you're looking through you will see different images. Every single picture seen is a beautiful one. Now think of different religions as the different angles when looking through the lens: no matter what angle you look through you see a breathtaking image. Everyone is looking at the same image or same "higher being"/god but through different angles or different religions with different practices, these practices are like different ways of appreciating the astounding images.

So the next time you think about disrespecting or persecuting a religion I would like you to think about a kaleidoscope. Although different angles produce different images they are all beautiful and ultimately one. You don't need to believe or practice other religions you do need to respect them. Part of respect is not demeaning their beliefs and not pushing yours on them. The only way we can insure that an eve
nt like the Holocaust doesn't happen again is to respect different religions, whether you agree with their beliefs or not.

Always remember every image is beautiful and ultimately one image that is viewed through different angles.

The Kaleidoscope

Arrival

Greetings,

I arrived to Washington D.C late Friday evening after a grueling day of travel: ever since I have been crazy busy. Yesterday I had orientation, where we went on a tour of the museum and were introduced to museum happenings. Today was my first official day and, to say the least, it was FANTASTIC!
I was introduced to the Survivor Affairs program and what I will be doing. First I was brought to my cubicle, where I will be working on many projects. Then we went into the museum where I met three of many survivors. Afterwards, I shadowed a facilitation of a survivors program. This is where groups come to the museum to listen to survivors tell their stories. The job of a facilitator is to make sure everything is in order with the group and the survivor and then facilitate introductions and questions. I will be shadowing 2 more of these events and then facilitating one of my own next week. I also, got to get started on getting to know one of the survivors I will be working closely with. I have so much ahead of me and I am beyond excited.
In addition, I had a shift in my research project. I was originally focusing on the difference between public and personal opinion; however, due to a shift in accessibility and circumstances I am only able to focus on public opinion now. I have in depth graphs and results to come.
As for my experience in Washington D.C. I love it! I love the weather and the big city life. I love the metro and the food trucks. I have been to the smithsonian castle and walked most of the mall, which has been outstanding. I am lucky enough to be here for the cherry blossom bloom. I will be here for peak bloom and the festival. Thus far, just seeing the beginning of the blooming is breathtaking. My experience so far has been absolutely amazing and I cannot wait for what is to come!

 

Thanks for reading,
Kari Joy







*more survivor stories and research updates are to come!

Why should you listen?

     It is hard to listen to survivors' stories. It isn't fun or enjoyable, but it is IMPORTANT. We need to listen to these stories. We have all heard that "history repeats itself." This is often true and we are the ones who can break this trend. We need to hear these stories, understand these stories, and feel these stories. By experiencing these stories secondhand we can recognize similar situations happening today. If we can recognize them, we can stop them. Saying that "history repeats itself" is not okay, it should not be something that we except. The Holocaust was one of the most tragic events in history. We have to listen, understand, and feel. We have to make a difference. I know it is hard, but it is IMPORTANT. So try. Try to listen, to understand, to feel, to make a difference.

"Sense of Impending Jew"

Greetings Everyone!
   
     Today, I began to delve into the research portion of my project. I got my first glimpse of how emotionally heavy this project will be. I started off my day by interviewing the granddaughter of a holocaust survivor. It was interesting to hear how events so far removed from her have affected her being and presence everyday.
     Her Grandmother's story, a holocaust survivor:
Her Grandmother was a Ultra-Orthodox
Jew in her 20s when the Nazi's invaded their boarding town of Miory, Belarus. She and her mother hid in a local families barn, while the rest of her family was separated and hidden. When the Nazi's came through she hid in the stables with the animals; her mother came looking for her calling out "Gita, Gita.." but she knew something was wrong so she didn't come out. Then her family was rounded about and murdered. Later that night, she ran out into the woods and found Jewish people hiding out. They lived in the harsh conditions of the woods for the 2 years after. They sent out men on missions and some would come back but most wouldn't. Only 30 people survived out of the entire village. When she got news that the war was over, she returned to her town, but was still unsure of the Nazi presence so she moved to a displaced-persons camp, where she met her husband who worked in a work-camp in Siberia for 6 years. He died recently after due to liver complications he developed at the camp. Right after they met they got "married out of convenience" because they heard married couples got easier passage to the United States. They settled in Brooklyn, New York in what now is a Hassidic, ultra-orthodox, community.
     We then started discussed how it has affected her, the granddaughter of the Holocaust survivor. She discussed how she carries around a constant anxiety because of this "sense of impending doom" or as she likes to call it a "sense of impending Jew." She described this constant feeling of being on edge as being "truly ingrained in her DNA."
     It was interesting to see how this fear and experience transferred down three generations. Surviving the holocaust is something the entire family will continue to experience and live with from generation to generation.

Thank you for reading!

*names and specifics are not included out of respect for the interviewee.