Holocaust Expository Essay

The army officer is in the house, he says that the people in it can bring one suitcase. In that suitcase they can pack what they wish. It is all they will ever see again. Some pack their jewelry, hoping that they can by their way out of what is to come. Some bring clothes, that way they can still feel like humans when they arrive to their destination. Some do not bring anything, knowing that they will be dying soon anyway. The people in the house have an hour to decide what to take before they are kicked out of their house forever. The Holocaust is a time full of sorrow. It is something that is still talked about today and will always be talked about. It is talked about out of fear, fear that something like it will happen again. In school
every year the Holocaust is talked about, always in a different aspect. Sometimes teachers talk about how many of the Jews are killed. Other times they talk about how they were killed. They talk about the labor that they suffered throw, and their living conditions. The food they ate, the clothes they wear, the places the sleep, the torture they all face. Just everything that is terrible about it. Through all of this though, there are good people, people that risk their lives for the benefit of others, even in a place that is horrible. The lecture series that is offered here at Heidelberg talks about the children of the Holocaust and what they face.
When the story of the Holocaust is being taught in schools, they forget to mention the children. What the ones that live through it go through. They are so caught up in generalizing the Jews and what they go through that they forget to tell the different parts of the story. The women have a different experience then the men, and the children have a different experience from the men and women. By going to this event the audience gets to see the perspective of the children and how it feels to be a child in the
Holocaust. The event on Thursday the 10th of September talks about how children that go through a traumatic event learn to cope with it. It talks about how hard it is for some children to handle things, while others just brush it off. Then another speaker talks about how the arts can help children, and adults through traumatic experiences. The presentation continues to talk about a women who is an art teacher, she finds out that she is to be sent to a concentration camp and can pack one suit case. What does she choose to pack in her suitcase? She packs her art supplies, crayons, paint, paper, and markers, anything that can be used to create art. But she does not pack this stuff for herself, she packs this stuff for the children. The children are separated from their parents and will never see them again. They are then bunked by themselves in a camp. This art teacher knows this and she finds them. She sneaks in at night and teaches the kids how to make art. They use whatever they can find to create things. The lady knows that this is an outlet for the children, a way to keep them alive and give them something to look forward to. Even when she is sent to a different camp she leaves her stuff with a little girl so that they can keep being creative. This lecture turns out to be the best lecture that I have ever attended. I choose to attend this lecture because it deals with the arts. I am a huge believer in the arts program and how they have an effect on people. The arts can get anyone through anything, even children through the Holocaust. This lecture is not like anything I have experienced before. Doctor Carol Dusdieker does something in her presentation that is different. She sings the songs that the children write, she shows the art work, and shows the stories the children wrote. People think that children do not know anything, but they know a lot. The kids that are talked about are no more than 12 years old. Through their writing they express that they know they will not see their homes, parents, friends, families, or anything normal ever again. They are depressed and they do not see the world with color any longer. In all the years I have be taught about the Holocaust no one has ever told me about the children. I have never learned about this brave lady who packed her suitcase full of art supplies. And I have never heard the songs, or seen the art work, or read the poems that these children wrote. I would defiantly attend another lecture like this, or even about this topic again.
It is so well put together and it makes people feel as if they are the ones experiencing the Holocaust. I had tears running down my face a few times. (Okay more than a few) It is a moving experience and it is not set up like a teacher teaching it in school. The people that lived through this event came and talked and the people that are not a part of it but spoke about it dug deeper than just a huge amount of Jews dying. I especially liked this talk because all thought he Holocaust is a terrible time in history it talked about good things. This lady risked her life so that the children in the camp could have an outlet and stay alive. And the children make things that will last forever even though they do not. That is something that students do not get taught in school, but that I think has a bigger impact than a lot Jews
dying. The Nazi officer is outside of the door. He tells the people that they can pack one suit case. They can put in it whatever their heart desires. Jewelry, to buy their way out of the torture that is to come, or even food so they can eat. They have one hour to decide what they will take with them. What would you take, something for yourself, or something that will benefit others?