Immersion Novel Final Post

From reading my novel, The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank, I collected a ton of knowledge about the Holocaust. One piece of that knowledge is the fact that the Jewish weren't exactly alone, they had help, only sparsely, though. Through the black market and certain Germans, they could be hidden and be able to buy necessary things to live through the black market with their own form of currency. I also learned that experiencing the war and desolation of it all became a usual thing that the Jewish people ended up getting used to, as Anne Frank grew into the constant bombing, but was still slightly surprised unpleasantly by that. Perpetrators were all of the men who took place in getting the Jews to concentration camps, as the collaborators were the supposed "tattle-tales", those who gave away hiding spots. What happens at the end of my book is that Anne writes her last entry, and was sent to a concentration camp. This shows how the Holocaust was not all happy endings at all, people died and families were split.

Memorials and Emotions

The memorial that had the most impact on me was easily the Sculpture of Love and Anguish at the Miami Holocaust Memorial. Despite the fact that it isn't being seen in person, it has a powerful effect within the view of it. The memorial is of a hand splayed out and reaching from out of the ground, made of figures of human beings who seem to be seeking a way out. The health and being of the figures themselves strung a lot at my emotions. The humans seem to be extremely skinny, starved almost, and some are young children! There is a huge age range here, making you feel... 'woah' in all different ways. I think that this memorial is symbolizing the fact that the Jewish people were all part of each other through the horrific event of the Holocaust. The memorial also has the numbers carved into it, showing how that specific hand is a Jewish person's hand. In all, it exaggerates the connection between the people, putting aside the pain infliction and hurt, physical and mental.

Anne Frank #2

In the novel, or rather diary, The Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank herself doesn't have multiple visible or blatant inhumane characters at all. There is one woman, Mrs. Van Daan, who does act inconsiderate and slightly inhumane, but she never abuses the others. She is occasionally cruel to Anne, it seems mostly out of anger at herself or what's going on in the world. Mrs. Van Daan is possibly jealous of Anne in her adolescent beauty. The Nazis and German officers themselves are extremely inhumane. Anne was telling about how the officers would search houses, and if Jewish were found, them and the whole family had to leave the house and go with them to the concentration camps. Margot (Anne's sister) was supposed to go to a concentration camp, but they evaded that fate, leaving a mark on them and leading to potential death if found. Anne speaks more about the humane things rather than the inhumane acts. People have started a black market for the Jewish, having their own currency so that the people who are in hiding can survive. That is extremely humane, and shows how everybody has each other's back, for the most part. The house that Anne and her family takes shelter in is very humane. They submitted a sheet, a sheet to accept more people to where they are. That's extremely considerate of them. The overpowering of acts of humanity over the inhumane acts show how no matter how bad things get, there will always be more rescuers than perpetrators in the end.

We're Cooked!

Kristallnacht fits in the metaphor of the "frog in boiling water". This is true because of the fact that instead of starting off with a full genocide (the boiling hot water instantly), it is started up by a small spark, Kristallnacht (the slow increase of heating), and continues on from there gradually. The frog finally dying/burning to death in the pot in the end of the Holocaust, as most people had just given up and gotten used to the terrible way of life that had introduced itself years before. The frog blatantly represents all of Hitler's victims (the disabled, Jews, etc.), and the pot itself is just Hitlers plans. The water is obviously the increasing amounts of attacks on the minorities in trial to destroy their race. The metaphor of the "frog in boiling water" plainly represents the Holocaust itself. The beginning of the boiling would be referred to as Kristallnacht.

Anne Frank #1

The way that Anne Frank herself introduces characters is rather vague, as she paints them without many details. She mainly paints out their personalities through describing what is going on at that time. There is not much physical description at all because of the fact that Anne is writing herself a journal and not a book. There is not much dialogue, but more description of what conversations go on and the summarization of those conversations, the main point of each one. Anne Frank herself is the most important person in this story. So far, I have collected the facts that she's blunt, funny, mature and a bit lonely. Anne doesn't have many girl friends, which makes her feel out of place. She's a Jewish girl who is actually rather intelligent and wise for her age. Another vital character in this story I feel will be her parents. This is because of the fact that they have control over her. They are the ones who took her to shelter away from the war. Her parents are very serious about what's going on and selfless, putting their children first and risking their lives for the children. Anne Frank and her parents themselves will have a huge impact in the plot.

Threading Fiction and History

The inhumanity and discrimination of the Holocaust is shown by literal and figurative representations. As shown in all three visual representations of the Holocaust and the nature of the whole event, the scarring event in history was jam packed and dilated with a lack of connection between others because of the non-significant and small details that presented themselves to the foreign eye. In the project "What Does Humanity Look like?", the overall representation of humanity was connection through emotion and assisting others when they need it most. This is the pure essence of humanity, it is what brings people together and persuades them to put aside their differences and grasp that loving essence. The Holocaust was short of just that spirit of humanity. In the veiled book, Terrible Things, each group of animals was taken away according to their differences. This completely manifests the terrible nature of inhumanity by itself, and the constant lack of that essence needed in order to obtain humanity. The Holocaust itself showed how it needed that essence. Hitler and the Nazis both discriminated against the differences of others, committing genocide because of the simple and almost unseen differences.