Reflection: Holocaust Video, Chapter 1

After watching the first chapter of the video of Oprah and Elie Wiesel at Auschwitz, answer the following questions on your own blogs.

Questions:

1. What details about the Holocaust experience became clearer or more vivid for you because of the video?

2. Describe the video techniques used to tell this story:

• Camera angles
• Graphics
• Interviewing
• Excerpts from the book

3. What is the "madness" the Oprah and Elie Wiesel speak of at the end of this section?

Responses:

1. After viewing the video, I now see how big and immense of Auschwitz was. Details about the hard labor, work, toil, and death was more vivid. In the book, I thought the women and children were sent to another camp, but actually they were thrown into the crematories the first night they arrived. They were stripped of their clothing as well. I didn't know about the gas chambers too much. I only recall it once in the book. The inhumanity in night is more clear. The way how the Germans placed 100 people in each train cart, where this was no air to breathe, no space to move, and just everything was totally inhuman. Seeing the videos and graphics of the Holocaust made me believe how real it was. When I read the book, I couldn't believe the things the Jews were put through.

2. The camera angles worked nicely. I liked how the camera focused on the two of them while Elie was telling his story. Like I said in the first response, seeing the videos and graphics of the Holocaust made me believe how real it was. When I read the book, I couldn't believe the things the Jews were put through. The interviewing gave more depth to the book and helped me to understand it clearer. Using excerpts from the book also helped by highlighting the terrifying things Elie saw during his experience at Auschwitz.

3. At the end of this section, the "madness" they speak of I think is the how unbelievably inhumane the Germans were. It was still hard for Elie to accept the horrors he experienced.