Victoria Rule

Profs. Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1103-011
29 Mar. 2016

Weekly writing 5
When I wrote my pitch for the multi modal assignment, I had high hopes for creating a
project unlike anyone elses. I wanted mine to be creative and set itself apart from everyone
elses projects. My idea was to create a journal that was supposed to be from the point of view
of a German SS guard during the Holocaust in order to showcase the treatment of the prisoners
from a guards point of view. I was going to soak the journal in a liquid mixture to give it an aged
appearance to add more authenticity.
As time went on and things kept getting in the way of my project, I had less and less time
to devote to creating the artistic portion of the project. In the end I created a PowerPoint
presentation that was meant to look like pages from a journal and I wrote my entries on the
PowerPoint. I honestly did not foresee how time consuming it would be to create an authentic
looking journal from 1945. As I made progress in giving the journal an aged appearance, I
realized that it would take days to allow the pages to be properly coated in the tea mixture and
for them to dry completely before being written on. Looking back on it, I probably could have
purchased a journal that had the look I was trying to accomplish with the tea bags.
My pitch proposal was a little nave, looking back on it, I did not take other things into
account and how time consuming the project would be. I was a little too ambitious and when I
realized that, I came to the conclusion that the journal idea may be best for the group
multimodal project since it requires much more time and man power to accomplish the desired

product.

I would love to share the idea with my group because I think the four of us would be

fully capable of combining our talents and producing a great authentic looking journal.
Although my representation of my ideas changed a lot from the beginning, my inquiry
topic stayed the same. Throughout my research, I dug deeper into what life was like for the SS
guards and their history rather than focusing solely on the prisoners. I found it interesting to
read about the things that the SS guards had done or confessed to. I learned many things that
do not necessarily justify their actions but it definitely proves that not all members of the Nazi
party were evil. My character shows mercy to prisoners while still remaining an authority figure
and that shows that you do not need violence to achieve a goal. My goal with this project was to
show people that although millions of people bought into a crazy mans ideas, it does not mean
that everyone wanted the result that came from their beliefs.
I believe that my representation of a Nazi SS guard was very realistic especially because
I represented one that actually had a conscience about the things that they witnessed. The
character in my journal entries was compassionate and confused at all of the violence
happening around her and even experienced a little bit of regret for signing on to be an SS
guard in the first place. Many guards experienced these same feelings while in camps such as
Auschwitz. Seeing so much death and brutality can change a person and their beliefs. I am
glad that I chose to use a guards point pf view because I think it is important that people know
that not everyone involved in the Holocaust and that believed in Hitler were monsters. Many
people just bought into the propaganda that he publicized and would do anything in order to
ensure a more perfect country.
Looking back on my project, I am very proud in what I was able to accomplish
with the journal entries. Even though I did not execute my ideas and information the way I had
originally planned, I think that it turned out great. I also received very positive reviews from the

members of my writing group. I am very excited to mention the idea of creating a journal for our
group project.