Defiance Post 2

The tactics of the Russian and Jewish partisans are justifiable in a way and in a way it’s not. While they do need supplies and survival is important it doesn’t make everything they did morally right. Taking milk from the milk man and leaving some for him to take to the Germans was alright, but it was completely unnecessary, and wrong. Doing something because they have to in order to survive is different than doing something because they can.  The guerrilla war tactics used are also justifiable because there really are no set rules or moral codes in war. 

Defiance Post 1

In the movie Defiance the actions of Zus and Tuvia are not justifiable. They killed other people not as a form of defense, but for revenge of the death of their loved one. Revenge only leads to a cycle of hate. Stealing also isn’t justifiable. The war however does make it a little understandable. It’s hard to not empathize with them after having lost so much, and still being forced to face more hardships just so that they can live like human beings. Still that doesn’t make what they did okay, but it does make it understandable. 

Field Trip Reflections

One of the stages of genocide I saw at the museum was the eight stage denial.  Our tour guide mentioned numerous times that there are still some people who deny that the Holocaust ever happened despite the large amount of evidence.  Near the end of the war the Nazis also tried to destroy the death camps to hide their existence.  Another one of the stages of genocide I saw at the museum was dehumanization  the speaker mentioned a many examples of things Jewish people were not allowed to buy, store says that would say no Jews allowed, and a sign at a pool he use to go to that read no dogs, or Jews. 

Photo Comparison

First Photo: 

 Personal Photo:

Evidence that suggest life was normal for Jews prior to German occupation is the norms photos of them doing everyday ordinary things, from sitting in a class room, to talking with people on the street. There were also pictures of them celebrating important events, such as getting married.

While looking through family photos I found even more evidence to support that. Many of the pictures I found of Jews prior to the German occupation were similar to the photos in my family’s photo albums. The picture I choose to share was of my aunt’s third grade class. The reason I choose to share this photo is because it is relatively similar to the other picture I choose. They both are a class of kids posing for a picture with their teacher. Differences being the age of the children, and the time the picture was taken.

Photograph Project

This is a picture of a Jewish school in Cologne Germany. Cologne is the fourth largest city in Germany, and before the war it had a Jewish population of around 15,000. Before German invasion Jews in this town lived relatively normal towns, they went to school, work, and carried on with their lives like everyone else. When the Nazi part came to power in 1933 Jewish people is this down were faced discrimination, and the strict rule of the Nazi party.  This town came under Nazi rule in 1933 when the Nazi party came to power in Germany. Many Jews living in this town immigrated to other countries with the raise of Nazi power.  The majority of those who stayed would die in Nazi death camps. 

Changing Views

After studying the stages of genocide I realize there is more than just the killing of lots of people. It is a process of sorts that involves systematically killing a group of people based on their religion, or ethnic group. Genocide is also much more than just killing that group of people it involves classifying the members of that group, and dehumanizing them, and then denying that those killings ever even accrued. Now I realize there is much more to genocide than just mass killings, which is something I wasn’t aware of before.  Before learning about the Armenian genocide I didn’t even know who the Armenians were. I wasn’t aware before that people could commit mass killings and get away with it. 

What causes Genocide

I think that there can be lots of different causes for genocide. I think the main cause of genocide is one party feeling that they are for whatever reason better then another, or other parties.

Questions I have about genocide is what is genocide, and what causes something to be defined a genocide? How does someone justify genocide?