Today, on our bus ride from Berlin to
Warsaw, we watched a movie called, The
Pianist. This holocaust-related movie takes a realistic and grim view of
the time in history our course is focused on. The Pianist follows a famous Polish-Jewish
pianist as he transitions from being considered the best pianist in Poland, to
a war torn, hardened survivor of the Holocaust.
Since we were making our way to Warsaw,
Poland a movie focusing on the events that occurred in Warsaw during the
Nazi-German occupation, was significantly important considering the context of
the trip to Warsaw. Also, since I
know we will be focusing on Jewish heritage in Warsaw, the idea of exploring
national/religious identity was also necessary.
The movie really helped me visualize the
events of the holocaust in graphic detail, and gave me a much more enhanced
understanding of the experiences of Jewish life in Warsaw during the war. I
felt that the movie for everyone in general described the holocaust in a way
that books cannot.
-Carson B.
What I witnessed on the walking tour of Warsaw was the
effects on the architecture of Warsaw after WW2, and in particular, the Warsaw Uprising. During the
Warsaw Uprising the people of Warsaw retaliated against the Nazis. In the process 80% of the architecture
was destroyed and 700,000 people died.
After the uprising the people of Warsaw had to repair
all the broken buildings that were destroyed, and tried to salvage everything
they could that was original. As the tour continued, I was reflecting on how
the world was an awful place to live through during that time, and how it has
changed so much from then.
Another thing I witnessed on the walking tour of
Warsaw was a statue of one of my favourite scientists; Nicolaus Copernicus.
Nicolaus Copernicus is a famous Catholic scientist who discovered that the
earth was not the center of the universe, and that there is an infinite cosmos
with infinite amounts of worlds and stars. I did not know that Copernicus was a
part of the history of Warsaw and knowing that he was a part of that history
made me understand a bit more about Warsaw and the events that occurred in it.
-Keith
O.
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