Blogging About the Holocaust

A Timeline of Events: 

1933: 

• Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany (a country with a population of over 566,000 Jewish people).  
• Nazis establish the Dachau concentration camps. 
• Jewish shops boycotted 
• Nazis issue a decree defining a non-Aryan 
• Laws are passed prohibiting Jews from many things, such as: owning land, participating in any type of art form, and being newspaper editors. 
• 'Undesirables' were sent to camps, these included: the homeless, alcoholics and the unemployed. 

1934: 

• Jews are not allowed national health insurance, are prohibited from getting legal qualifications, and are banned from the German Labor Front. 

1935: 

• Nazis ban Jews from serving in the military 
• The Nuremburg Race Laws are decreed against the Jews, depriving them of their citizenship. They also included laws that prohibited Jews from marrying non-Jews, and having sexual relations with non-Jews. 

1937: 

• Jews are banned from many professional occupations such as being teachers, accountants and dentists. 
• The travelling exhibition, "The External Jew," opens in Munich. This promoted stereotypes of Jews and Nazi perceptions of their danger to the world. 
• A new concentration camp, Buchenwald, is opened. 

1938: 

• The Anschluss unites Germany and Austria, and Austrian Jews are persecuted. 
• German and Austrian Jews must have passports marked with a big red "J." 
• Jews are prohibited from all legal and medical practices. 
• The Night of Broken Glass- Kristallnacht. This was a night of extreme violence, approximately 100 Jews were murdered and 20,000 were taken to concentration camps. The windows of Jewish shops were smashed. 
• Jews are fined 1 billion marks for the damage done during Kristallnacht. 
• Jewish children are expelled from school 
• New concentration camps, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen, are opened. 

1939: 

• Germany invades Poland
• Jews in Poland are required to wear a yellow star on their clothes to be easily identified. 
• Nazis begin euthanasia on the sick and disabled in Germany  

1940: 

• A new concentration camp, Auschwitz, is opened. 
• The Lodz, Krakow, and Warsaw Ghettos are sealed off from the outside world. Locked inside the three are over 700,000 Jews. 

1941: 

• A new concentration camp, Majdanek, is opened. 
• The first 'death camp' was opened in Chelmno. 

1942: 

• Mass-gassing of Jews begins at Auschwitz. Bodies are buried in mass graves. 
• The Belzec death camp becomes operational. 
• "Final Solution" is implemented in which Nazi resolve to attempt to exterminate all 11 million Jews in Europe. 
• Open pit burning of bodies at Auschwitz begins. 

1943: 

• The Warsaw Ghetto uprising is the first resistance by Jews. 
• Nazis order for all gypsies to be taken to concentration camps. 
• Liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto. 
• Exterminations at Chelmno and Treblinka cease. 

1944: 

• Gas chambers in Auschwitz used for the last time. 

1945: 

• Remaining camps are closed and all evidence of their existence is destroyed. Any survivors are sent on Death Marches. 
• Hitler commits suicide and Germany surrenders. 
• Surviving Nazi leaders are put on trial.           

Definitions: 

Antisemitism: The belief or behavior hostile toward Jews just because they are Jewish.  

Concentration camps: refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined, usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy.  


Deportation: the expulsion of a person or group of people from a certain place. 


Ghettos: have been used to separate Jews from the rest of society for centuries, the ones used during the Holocaust differed because of the fact that they were a preliminary step in the annihilation of the Jews. 


Holocaust: destruction or slaughter on a mass scale. 


Kristallnacht: an anti-Jewish pogrom used by Nazi Germans. Known as the Night of Broken Glass. 

Commandments: 

The Sixth Commandment: You shall not murder.  

People involved in creating the Holocaust violated this commandment on a ridiculously huge scale. There were over 11 million people killed during this horrible time. They gassed, starved, beat, shot, and worked victims to death.  They had absolutely no respect for any of those peoples' lives. 

The Eighth Commandment: You shall not steal. 

The Nazis took every possession from the Jews, and the other people that they persecuted, that they owned. They enacted laws that took their homes and businesses away from them, and even their personal rights and liberties.  

The Ninth Commandment: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 

The Nazis created propaganda newspapers and exhibitions that gave false stereotypes against Jews, just to get Germans fueled up against Jews, and to justify their cause.  

A Blog Concerning Issues Related to the 5th Commandment

 Abortion 

This subject is tough for me to explain my view on. 

I'm not sure if abortion should necessarily be outlawed. That's taking away personal rights of the woman, and man, if it is the parent's mutual decision. If it is her body, and she is willing to do it, then that is her choice to live with. 

However, I myself, would never choose to do that. Personally, I think that once a baby is conceived, it is a living being. It should be allowed to live, to grow, to learn. I would not be able to kill my own child. 

I may be against taking away someone's right to decide for themselves, but why would someone choose to kill their baby? What instances and/or circumstances would lead one to terminate a pregnancy, and scratch out human life?  

Maybe the excuse is that you feel that you are too young to be a parent, and you would not do a good job at raising a baby. Well if this is the case, then you should not be having sex. Why should an innocent being be punished for your irresponsible decision? 

Or perhaps, the excuse this time is that the baby has a birth defect or some kind of disability, and you don't want to have to make it live that way, or you don't want to have to deal with that. When you make the decision to have sex, you are also accepting the fact that a child could be a possible consequence of this action. You should be able to love and care for that child no matter what. God gave that child whatever "defect" it may have because he knew the child could handle it,  and that you could handle it as well.  

If the child is a result of a rape....it is an unfortunate thing to have happen to any woman, no matter what. But if a baby comes as a result of that, the woman could always give it up for adoption. The woman may not want the baby because it's the "spawn" from the monster that raped her, but by killing a human being, how does that make her any less of a monster? 

If, for whatever reason, you do not want a baby that you are the parent of. Let it live, you may not be able to or want to take care of it, but I'm sure someone out in the world would. Put it up for adoption. 

I guess what I'm getting at here is that people's right to choose should not be taken away, but it doesn't necessarily mean I am for abortion. 

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.  

Everyone deserves the chance to live. You still have your freedom, so make the right choice. 

Self defense 

If someone is coming at you with the blatant intention of harming you in any way, by all means, do whatever it takes to protect yourself. 

This doesn't mean that you should use excessive force in stopping your perpetrator. It should be just enough to stop their attack on you, and safe yourself.  

Embryonic Stem-Cell Research 

I agree with the Church on this issue. It should not be conducting using stem cells from human embryos. If there are other, and equally efficient ways to conduct this research, and there definitely are, then those should be used instead. 

In place of using stem cells from human embryos, and killing the embryo, scientists should try and use umbilical cord blood, adult skin cells, and bone marrow. These methods result in no harm at all to the donor, and the human embryos that would have been killed in the research otherwise, will be able to live. 

"Blatant Disregard For Justice" - The Trayvon Martin Case

It seems to me like that for every step forward we make in this country, we take a giant leap back.

 With the issue of gender, with the issue of sexual orientation , with the issue of race, with anything concerning the acceptance of others. For some reason we just don't like to include those that are different from us.
Maybe because this country was built upon the belief of someone always being superior. Even before the United States was a country. We're never just equal, equality has always been a lost cause because someone always thinks that they are better.

Instead, we like to blame and ridicule and stereotype one another by our beliefs, the way we sound, and most often just by each others appearances. We don't take the time to get to know one another, to look beyond those stereotypes and see that not everyone fits the same profile. There are so many good people out there that get dragged down with the bad just because of "what" people think they are, and not because someone took the time to see "who" they are.

What happened to Trayvon Martin is a tragedy on a national scale.
And it should be.

The country needs a wake up call. To see just how much it has been digressing.

I'm just sorry that it took something so horrible as the death of someone like Trayvon Martin, young, healthy, a good kid with a bright future, to make the difference in maybe fixing this problem.

Trayvon Martin really was a good kid, like I said. According to his English teacher Trayvon was "an A and B student who majored in cheerfulness." Trayvon was out to the store to buy a bag of skittles and a can of iced tea and was busy talking on his cell phone to a girl his was close to back home on the day that he was unjustly shot and killed by George Zimmerman.

Now some people are saying that this case is being blown out of proportion by the whole "race issue," but I beg to differ.

George Zimmerman was, well still is I guess because he is alive unlike Trayvon, so is 28 years old. Weighs 250 pounds. And is a grown white male.

He has been a self entitled member of a neighbor hood patrol in his gated neighborhood in Sanford, Florida and has been 'fighting crime' based mostly on racial profiling. In the past 14 months Zimmerman has made numerous phone calls, 46 to be exact, to 911 to report several "suspicious persons." They all just so happened to be black, like Trayvon.

It is not just Zimmerman who resorts to racial profiling to "keep the streets safe." Just last year, the New York City Police Department stopped over 700,000 people. Over half of which were black and nine percent were white. Doesn't seem to add up when one figures in that over half of New York City's population is white. It also turns out that over 90% of these "suspicious persons" were innocent.

How surprising.

"When the police target specific groups of people at such a disproportionate rate, less-informed individuals will conclude that those groups must be more dangerous, regardless of the fact that most are innocent. It forces the targeted groups to live in fear and contempt of authorities, which in turn makes them look suspicious." 

Just a look at the Trayvon Martin case is convincing enough of the validity of this statement.
Trayvon was walking back to  the house of his father's fiance and due to the rainy weather, had sensibly put his hood up.
That is when Zimmerman started following him because he "felt threatened."

No.

Because Trayvon had his hood up. And because he was black. And because of this he was a "danger."

Trayvon Martin, left, and his perpetrator George Zimmerman, right.

 They say that justice is blind, and until George Zimmerman- hiding behind the Stand Your Ground law- is put behind bars, nothing could be more true.


Sources: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/19/justice/florida-teen-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2, http://www.thegrio.com/specials/trayvon-martin/trayvon-martin-15-facts-you-need-to-know-about-teen-shot-in-sanford-florida.php?page=2, http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/03/19/148905661/killing-of-fla-teen-trayvon-martin-becomes-national-story-about-race, http://www.thegrio.com/news/past-zimmerman-911-calls-war.php, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jess-coleman/if-i-were-trayvon-martin_b_1376095.html

The "R-Word"

The word "retard" is carelessly thrown around in everyday language, and is accepted as something 'okay' to say. However, the r-word carries with it the same weight as any other derogatory terms, like those used against people of different ethnic backgrounds or race or of different sexual orientation.It causesthe same hurt and damage to others.

How we speak and the language we use helps to form our perception of the world and others around us. Throwing around demeaning slurs like "retard" forms a negative perception of people with 'intellectual disabilities,' twisting them and turning them into something that they are not. It make others think that impaired people are stupid or losers.

When this happens, the way we treat these people who are cognitively impaired changes too.
I'm sure you can remember back to learning about the Civil Rights Movement in school?
The way that blacks were segregated from the "superior" whites before and during this time. They were treated as inferior and like they did not deserve better.

This is similar to how the problem is unfolding today with the way intellectually disabled citizens are treated in society.

The thought is, according to a worldwide survey of over 190 nations, because a person is "retarded" they should not be educated in the same schools, they should not be working in "mainstream" workplaces, and they should be pitied because they are not the same as us.

This view of people with intellectual disabilities is ridiculous, and it's all thanks to the everyday use of the r-word. Just because one person is different does not make them any less important than any other person. Once the world starts realizing this maybe there will be less hate and more respect and equality.

So next time you go to say the word "retard" to mean that something is "stupid," here's something clever, why not just try saying stupid? 

Sources: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/07/living/end-r-word/index.html?iref=allsearch

My Teacher Won't Let Me Swear on the Internet

And I think I'll be just fine with that.


Mostly because it's a rare occasion when I actually do swear on the internet. I just don't find it necessary. Especially when there are so many other ways, better ways actually, that I can find to articulate myself. I don't have to reduce myself to using vulgar and unintelligent sounding words to get my point across or my opinion out.
I think that when someone posts anything using profanity it makes other people less inclined to hear them out or even to continue reading. At least that's the way it is for me. Because dropping an "f- bomb" instead of explaining why something is so horrible, or why you don't particularly like something, just makes you sound angry and uneducated.

Now that's a bad move. 

 In today's day and age reputation is everything (like it or not). What you post online can negatively effect any positive and critical opportunities that lay ahead in your future. Things like which colleges you're accepted into, what jobs you're hired for and any possible career moves.

When you post anything on a social networking site, be it twitter or Facebook or any of those newfangled internet sites, just make sure to be careful what you say. You can always delete it, sure. But it will be out there, and you don't have as much control over who can read it and who can't, than you think.

World Resolutions

With a whole new year in front of us, what time is better than now to try and positively change the way we are living?

10 Worldwide Resolutions for 2012:

1. Honesty.

• Ever heard of "honesty is the best policy?" Well, obviously most politicians have not. (Among many other people, too...) Secrecy is everywhere and scandals are breaking out, in such a fashions that it seems to be every other week. Now, I'm sure that these kinds of situations, of lying and deceit, have been around throughout all of history, so it can only be considered somewhat normal. But it's never too late to change, right?

2. Acceptance.

• Of every race and gender and lifestyle. I know that you may not exactly approve of a certain lifestyle of custom, but the least you can do is try and still respect everyone. Discrimination based on gender or race, however, is just plain inadmissible.

3. Help given to anyone who needs it. The poor, starving, and sickly in every country.

4. No conflict.

• This one is hard, but try and be open to listening to other opinions.
  

5. Healthier lifestyles.

• It's not just America, that is bashed for the fast food, that is unhealthy. There are things many people, everywhere, can do to enrich their life, with healthier choices. No smoking, no drinking, avoid eating unhealthy foods, and choose to exercise more often.The better you feel, the better you feel about yourself.

 6. Take care of the Earth.

• It is the only one we have, after all... 

7. Stop the greed.

• A more equal distribution of the world's wealth doesn't sound so bad. Do these over paid celebrities and business men really need so much power and wealth? 

8. A separation of Church and State.

• It's already supposed to be part of America's Constitution, but somehow one always ends up influencing the other. They should be kept apart from each other.

9. Have confidence.

• Sometimes it doesn't matter what other people think of you. It is your life to live, the way you want to. If they cannot accept that, it's their problem. 

10. Be supportive.