I learned about genocide a long time ago in Hebrew school, so it did not really change me when we learned about it this time. When I was younger and learned about the genocide of the Jews for the first time, it was confusing. I remember that I did not know why people hated Jews. Maybe it was because of something that happened in the past or maybe they just did not like Jews for some reason. I will always remember from Hebrew school learning about how brutal the Nazis were to the Jews. No one should be treated like that. In the movie Life is Beautiful, when Guido is brought back to an alleyway and shot, it happened so very fast. I thought that he would have gotten whipped or hit, but shockingly we heard gunshots. All he wanted to do was to see his wife. Guido getting shot so quickly was very upsetting to me. When we watched Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, I felt proud of him.  He went through so much trauma and horrible events, that I could not imagine how difficult...

Before we started studying the Holocaust, I thought that I would not learn much, and I might not connect to it very much because I have no connection to the Holocaust. But I could not have been more wrong. I have learned so much from this unit; it has changed how I see humanity forever. I thought that I would not get depressed when reading Night, but I was wrong. The story told in Night was so well said by a fantastic writer. Every time that I would read a chapter, I would be depressed, but I would have learned something new and interesting. Night is one of those books that makes you depressed when reading it, but you want to read more of it. The Holocaust museum was very eye-opening. I would never have thought that many things would have survived, such as the many things that they had on display. The images were gruesome but interesting. It is still hard for me to believe that there was a time in human history where people put other people into ovens, and gas chambers, and let them di...

My experience learning the Holocaust changed me because of what the Nazis did to the Jews and and how they treated them. I  knew a little bit about the Holocaust before but not all the details. When I was taught it I was so stunned I did not believe that this was even real. In the book Night Elie (Author/Survivor) did not believe what was happening to people at the concentration camp although he saw it with his own eyes. In the movie Life Is Beautiful a family was taken away to a concentration camp and trying to survive. This movie showed me what a concentration camp was like and how the Nazis treated the prisoners their. Also what work the prisoners had to do. What will stay with me from this unit is how the people had so much faith and hope while the Holocaust was happening.

When this unit started, I was briefly informed about the Holocaust, but I had no idea how gruesome and truly awful it was. It’s just shocking to me that something like that actually happened, and that it wasn’t that long ago. The whole concept of genocide just makes me sick. I mean it’s just horrific in so many ways that I can’t even explain. When our class went to the Holocaust Museum I was honestly moved from the images and for some reason the room full of shoes just took my breath away. I think it’s because all of it just didn’t seem real until I actually saw those shoes right in front of me. The main things that stuck out in my mind about this unit are: how easy it was for Hitler to rise to power and manage to kill millions; how terribly Jews were treated in and out of the concentration camps, and how so many people believed in the absurd idea of racial superiority.

Before starting this unit I did not fully understand what happened during the Holocaust. After going to the Holocaust museum, reading Night , and having class discussions I feel like I really get what happened during that event. This has really been a very emotional pass few weeks but I am very grateful that we are getting educated about this so future generations will not do the same thing. I see things differently now. During the unit I really saw haw innocent people were mistreated and how unfair it was. We are so lucky that this is not happening to us right now. While watching Wiesel's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, I really appreciated him wanting to share his truly amazing story with the world and how great it was the he survived something like that.

While I was learning about the Holocaust and other devastating genocides I felt many different emotions sad, surprised, and heart broken. These devastating events also changed me in many ways, especially when they talk about the Jewish children being ripped away from their parents and not even knowing why. This hit me because if I was in this situation I wouldn’t know how to handle myself because I have grown up with my mom and dad and I wouldn’t know what to do without them. Something that I will take away from this unit is never assume everything is okay in the world because the Holocaust was one of the biggest events in world history and not very many people knew about it or they knew about it and they didn’t believe people could be so cruel. One way that I look at history different now is people in different countries don’t have the same rights that we do in the United States. If people in some countries said something that their leader didn’t like they could be killed, while peop...