Reonna Smiley

Professor Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1103
12 January 2016
Weekly Writing: 1
Like most citizens of America, I have my basic knowledge of the Holocaust and the
general idea of what occurred. It was a time period of mass genocide performed by the Germans,
led by Adolf Hitler, and directed towards any minority group deemed inferior to the Germans.
Although all minority groups were tormented and killed, Hitlers main target were the Jewish. To
be completely honest, I am not exactly sure why he chose them to invade, control, and kill. I am
not sure if there is a direct correlation between Hitler and his hate for Jews or it was just their
misfortune to be the blunt of his anger. If I am not mistaken, it all started out as the Germans
innocently asked the Jews to move out from their towns and into the camps because of the war
and that they can return post-war. I cannot remember where I got that tidbit of information, or if
it is even accurate, but I do recall learning or hearing that somewhere. To be completely honest,
that is the extent of my knowledge on the Holocaust. I have never actually been involved in a
course strictly, or even remotely, related to the Holocaust and all of its endeavors. I vaguely
remember watching the movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas in the seventh grade, and since
this was one of my very first exposure to the Holocaust, it stuck with me as the accurate
depiction of it. I dont remember much from the movie other than the little Jewish boy in the
striped pajamas was on one side of the barbed-wire fence and another little boy was on the other
side of the fence. Although the fence seems minor, it was the representation between being free

and being held captive. It all seemed to resonate with me once I realized that there was no mercy
rule for Hitlers actions, and that even children were a target. The thing that struck me most was
the end of the movie when all the people were forced into the gas chamber, including the little
boy in the striped pajamas, and were standing there naked and afraid as a thick mist came from
the ceiling. If I am not mistaken, during this scene the people in the gas chamber were frantically
screaming with fear and as the gas was being released, the scene switched to showing the outside
of the chamber, and then the screaming stopped. I clearly remember balling my eyes out because
of the reality of those people being dead and realizing this was a very real thing that happened in
our history. The second bit of knowledge I have received about the Holocaust came from my
tenth grade English class where we read the novel Night. I do not remember specifics from the
novel, but I do recall the general story line. I can recall the main characters being a family that
get separated, I think, from males and females and the males are shipped to a camp to work,
where they quickly realize it is really a death camp. The son and the father create, and cherish,
their extremely strong bond and their promise to stick together through all of their endeavors
throughout the camp. From what I can remember, they started off at a camp that was for working
only, where they were separated into groups by age and ability to work. I am not sure of the time
frame, but after some time they were relocated to another camp where food and water became
scarcer and conditions became worse for sleeping and working. After the constant relocation and
worsening of conditions, the father and son came to realize that these camps were not just a
safety outlet from the war, but concentration camps where people were being mercilessly killed
and tortured. They also came to the realization that they may not see their wife and mother again,
so the two men made a deal to not leave each others side, especially because the fathers health
was starting to deteriorate. At that moment I realized how severe their lifestyle of being in the

concentration camps were, and it resonated with me how heartless, destructive, and manipulative
Adolf Hitler was. As I was writing this paper, the main question I had was how the government
allowed Hitler to perform his mass genocide and why he got away with it for so long.