After Helen meets with Monika

After Meeting with Monika, both ladies went on to share their stories with the whole world in the documentary inheritance. Helen was reluctant at first because she was the daughter of the mn who abused her and killed others when he was still alive an running the Krakow-Płaszow concentration camp. Monika had grown up being told that he father was a great man who dies fighting for his country on the battlefield. It wasn´t until her mother told her that she would die like her father that she found out the truth from her grandmother the man he actually was. Later in life wanting to learn more about her father she decided to watch Schindler's list in which she learned a whole lot of information regarding her father. Having been shown all this information she became mad at Spielberg for telling her through the film what her father had done. The film and a holocaust survivor documentary helped reminded her of Helen who she had been told about a few times growing up but never met and her house. After they meet  Helen goes on to say,¨Monika, she accepted the fact that her father was a killer, but she still wanted to defend him. She said to me that, "They all were doing it." I said, "But he was the one that gave all the orders." So, it's just like she still protected…"They all were doing it." It just, like, annoyed me, you know? It's hard for me to be with her because she reminds me a lot of, you know…she's tall, she has certain features. And I hated him so. But she is a victim. And I think it's important because she is willing to tell the story in Germany. She told me people don't want to know, they want to go on with their lives. And I think it's very important because there's a lot of children of perpetrators, and I think she's a brave person to go on talking about it because it's difficult.¨

Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig

Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig was the maid of SS officer Amon Göth who would physically abuse her. She was originally from Kraków where she had been living with her family up till when the Nazis invaded Poland and forced her and her family into the Kraków-Płaszów labor camp where she was forced to work until on her 3rd day she was complimented by Göth on her washing skills and was ordered to work as his housemaid in his villa just outside the camp. In the villa, she shared a room with Helen Hirsch who is shown in Schindler's list.  Along with Hirsch having interactions with Schindler, he would also offer hope to Rosenzweig such as ¨Remember the people in Egypt? They were freed. So you will be, too.¨  As of 2015 she is still alive and in 2004 she appeared in a film with the daughter of Göth, Monika Hertwig despite being hesitant at first due to her experience with her father.

Anne Frank

One of the most known victims of the holocaust, Anne Frank was a little girl whose diary she left behind captured her life in the time before her and her family were found and captured by the Nazis. Her story has been read in different countries in different languages. Having said this, the book is banned in several US states for different reasons such as saying that the book contains pornographic messages and some countries that are anti-semitic. However, through the book we see a glimpse into how a little girl saw what was happening around her. We learned of her families plight and struggle.

Nazi Twins experiments

The atrocities that were done in the diffrent camps are well documented in those that weren´t death camps solely. One of the well known camps during the nazi regime is aushwitz which was a multi-camp that housed and killed people. Aushitz however was also the camp where men, woman and children were experimented on. One of the well known cases are those of twins who the moment they were spotted getting of the trains were snatched away. Documents suggest that there were abut 700 pairs of twins that were experimented on. In many cases when one of the twins died the other was killed. It is thought that the nazis were interested in the genetics of the twins and how they came to be. Twins that had survived were young and forgot what they went through or they doent entirely remebr what happened but many do say that some twins were injected with bacteria to give them diseases and some twins had their organs harvested without anestisia 

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30933718

Ilse Koch

Ilse Koch was the wife of a Colonel who was in charge of the Sachsenhausen camp.  In the summer of 1937 he was transferred to Buchenwald which at the time was a new concentration camp. What we know about her started upon her arival to the camp. According to sources she would go around the camp and choose prisoners with tatoo markings that she liked and would have officers take the prisoners away to be killed and have their skin with their tatoo cut off and tanned so that she could use it later. She used human skin to make Lampshades, bookcovers, and gloves and added them to her collection that she had now stareted to amass. In addition to using skin to make these items, she would have prisoners perfrom harsh physical actitivies to tire them for her won amusement.

After WWII  Ilse and her children moved to a suburban neghborhood where she was rrested and tried for her crimes. HEr sentance was reduced to much outrage and then she was arrested once again for her treatment of prisoners. She would go on to hang herself in a women prison in 1967

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ilse-Koch

http://www.auschwitz.dk/Women/Koch.htm

First They Came

During my further studying of what occurred during the holocaust to all victims, I remembered about a poem that I, and perhaps you too, read that has a powerful message and shows just how the bystander effect can hurt those who are not having anything done to them.

¨First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.¨

This poem helps to show why many people who weren´t Jewish or communist did anything to stop behaviors that were taken by the nazis. They were not the ones being targeted by the government and for that they were grateful but when they themselves were now the ones who were being targeted they all of a sudden are asking for the same help that they didn't give to others before them.

The St. Louis

The St. Louis was a German Transatlantic liner that left from Hamburg, Germany. The liner was headed for Havana and was a link to the states that some Jewish people, and a few other minorities, wanted to escape further persecution that the Nazis would bring to them. Many of the passengers had applied for US Visas and their plan was that they would be getting off in Cuba until their visas got accepted. However, when the liner arrived at Havana only 28 passengers were allowed to disembark while the rest couldn´t. The liner was given orders to turn back towards Europe despite passengers pleading to the then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt asking or them to be allowed to head to the US. The liner turned back but it was agreed that instead of taking the passengers back to Germany they would be taken to different European countries such as Britain, the Netherlands, and France. many of the places with the exception of Great Britain were all taken over by the Nazis and hundreds of those former passengers fell victim to the Nazis. Had the US and Cuba accepted the Cubans and set aside their antisemitic views, these people who attempted to escape would have lived.

Martin Luther King Day

Martin Luther King Day is a holiday that is celebrated throughout the United States and in Japan on the third Monday of every January. While it is widely celebrated today, Martin Luther King Day was first proposed in 1960 but it wasn´t until 1980 that the proposed holiday was accepted and passed through congress with a 78-22 win which president Ronald Reagan signed into effect immediately. However even with the holiday having passed in congress the actual holiday was officially celebrated until 1983 and even then entire states didn´t accept it. Southern States were reluctant to accept it but eventually they paired the day with Robert E. Lees Birthday which is still happening to this day. Other states like Arizona fully accepted the new holiday when it first happened and then backtracked until eventually voters decided to celebrate the holiday. 2000 was the fist time that the entire US celebrated Martin Luther King day. Japan had accepted Martin Luther King day after he had reached out to them in an effort to try to connect the east and the west in solidarity.

Columbus and his impact

Many of us are well aware of Columbus day and that there are people that celebrate it but what many don't know is the backstory to that day and the impact of his landing in what is now an island in the Bahamas.

August 3, 1492, Columbus landed in what he thought was India on his trip to find a different route to the indies. Though he claimed to have been the first to have discovered the Americas there have been many ancient artifacts that show that the Vikings had in fact been the first people from the east to have discovered the land. What this day became known as was Columbus day to commemorate the discovery of the Americas but the events that happened after the discovery are anything to celebrate about.

Columbus and his crew were greeted by Lucayan-Arawak natives who he called Indians thinking that he was in fact in India. The natives offered the crew food and their knowledge is a nomadic tribe but Columbus used that to his advantage. In his own words, he called them stupid and ignorant for not knowing what a sword was and subsequently cutting themselves. In his journal, he accounts how he stole many of natives from their homes so that he may learn about the land and where their gold was hidden. As time progressed he stole children and women and offered them as rewards to people which lead to the creation of a slave trade and sex trafficking. The natives that were still fine had experienced many cases of abuse, such cases were documented in many accounts that say that he would cut off the hands or thumbs of these natives. Eventually, the last remaining full-blooded natives were wiped out in this genocide and replaced with slaves from Africa and their half native children. His atrocities didn't go unpunished and he was sentenced for his abuses in his later years. In recent times there have been efforts to change the name of Columbus day to natives day or something similar so that kids aren't taught to look up to a man who led the genocide and enslavement of an entire population.

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncol1.html

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-kasum/columbus-day-a-bad-idea_b_742708.html

http://rapidcityjournal.com/lifestyles/people/top-atrocities-committed-by-christopher-columbus/collection_76ebb2b8-f63d-11e3-a137-001a4bcf887a.html#1

Creepypasta

Creepypastas are horror related stories or images for the entertainment of people. I know for a fact that my brother looks at creepypastas on youtube. While most times they do cast some doubt in your mind or if its really there are times where the story fits a show or would likely have happened during a period of time these stories are fictional. That doesn't mean that there are kids out in the world who look at creepypasta and think that these stories are real such as with the two girls who were going to kill their friend in the name of slender man. What do you guys think about creepypastas and have you read/heard any?

Document 15 Witness 2 info

In my slides I stuck to information that was given to us in the reading about the second witness and her statements. A simple search on google however on her racist Facebook post popped up many articles which all were published in December of 2014. In those articles we are given her name and we find out that the entire account was indeed fabricated. To double check that these articles were indeed about her I took notes on some quotes that the articles used and found that they matched with those of witness 2 that I talked about in document 15. We are shown some of her comments and her facebook post. Her false account of what had gone down on that fateful day is what these articles believe may have impacted the thoughts of the jury in their decision to not charge officer Wilson with anything. In these articles we are told that she had testified before for another case and that her account was ruled false because of mental condition and she was blatantly racist.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/witness-40-ferguson-grand-jury-racist-liar-report-article-1.2047404
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/unmasking-Ferguson-witness-40-496236
http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/14/justice/ferguson-witnesses-credibility/index.html

Tom Cotton

Tom Cotton is a senator from Arkansas who is known to deliver for his donors. He is likely to replace Mike Pompeo as the current CIA director and is liked by many Republicans because he is a highly known Trump supporter and has been shown to defend donors who've gotten in trouble. If Tom Cotton does become the new CIA director, he has the power of changing findings that show that Trump has had no connection to Russia. He has also been heard as stating that he doesn't believe that waterboarding is torture and is opposed to the Iran Nuclear Deal. I personally didn't know about Tom Cotton but did any of you know about him? Also, what are your thoughts on him as possibly being the next CIA director?

Today Trumps former National Security advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations with the Russian ambassador last December. This makes him the first the first senior white house official to pledge cooperation in the investigation of election meddling. Michael Flynn took the plea deal given to him in exchange for not getting all of the charges he would've gotten had he not taken it. Flynn admitted to calling senior transition official who was with other members of Trumps Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to communicate about what they should tell the Russian ambassador about the US sanctions before Trump was president. This came the day before Vladimir Putin announced that he would not retaliate against the sanctions immediately. The same day trump tweeted support for Putins decision which brings even more questions as to if Trump was involved in this as well.

People with power using Tabloids

Recently I was watching a video about the sexual allegations in Hollywood and within the video mentioned that Harvey Weinstein  was using tabloids to smear and decrease the credibility of his accusers and journalist. Screenshots of conversations Weinstein had between him an the tabloid writers show that he indeed used his power to make his allegations seem as less important and focus on trying to lower the chances of people believing the accusers and making it harder for other accuser to try to come out against him. Upon looking more into this I found that this is used by many people in power when they're caught in a sex scandal or a political thing and found that Donald Trump himself has used such tactics during his presidential run. What are your thoughts on this and did you know about Weinstein being caught.

Sunny Von Bülow

It's been 37 years since Sunny went into her second coma in 1980 and almost 10 years since she passed away. while still married to Claus von Bülow as we all know she had been in a coma before but in 1980 during her second coma she didn't wake up. Sunny died 28 years after she went into her coma, in what many articles described as a sad life, in her retirement home at the age of 76 in 2008. Claus went off to live in England and when interviewers brought up Sunny's death showed no emotion but said that it was sad to hear. What are your thoughts on Claus not showing emotions and how do you think media outlets covered Sunny's death

New First in America

On election days a couple days back there were several people who were elected to positions in office in what became a day history was made. In Virginia, Danica Roem won against Republican lawmaker Robert Marshall who drafted a  bathroom bill that would've forced transgender individuals to use the bathrooms that didn't correspond to their gender identity. Danica Roem won the election and became the states first transgender lawmaker in what many in the LGBT+ community and allies celebrated and when asked about her opponent her response was"“I don't attack my constituents. Bob is my constituent now.” Many other transgender individuals also won positions in other states such as in Palm Springs and Andrea Jenkins, the states first openly transgender woman of color in Minneapolis to the city council.

Outside of LGBT+ community, there were huge victories for people of color as well in various positions. One of the most known is Montana who elected their first black mayor who also happened to be a refugee. Wilmot Collins unseated incumbent Jim Smith, who had held the office since 2001. Charlotte voters elect their first African-American female mayor Democrat Vi Lyle and in the state of New Jersey Democrat Ravinder Bhalla, a two-term city councilman in Hoboken, is becoming the states first Sikh mayor. In Topeka, Kansas, Michelle De La Isla became the city’s first Hispanic mayor and the second woman to be elected to the office.

Their wins were wins for people of color and people in the LGBT+ community. Even in times these times we're living in these elections shows that there are people in office who care about their citizens and aren't letting things stop them. Many of the people of color faced racial posters that attempted to make them look like walking stereotypes but they fought on. Many of these outstanding people such as Danica Roem went door to door and got involved with their community while their opponents didn't. Anyways I'd like to know your opinions on these results and what this could mean in the current administration.

Prussian Blue

Prussian Blue was a band nationalist pop group made up of fraternal sisters Lynx Gaede and
Lamb Gaede. They were formed by their mother April Gaede and lamb Lennon Gaede who started the band in 2003. Their songs were those that promoted indirect hate and the group often referred to the Holocaust as being a myth.

So here's a little of their life before and after the band.
The fraternal twins were born on June 30,1992 n Bakersfield California to German American parents. They were homeschooled by their mom, who herself was raised in Nazi ideology by her father, using the very same ideology. They were raised told being that Hitler was an amazing man and denying all nazi wrongdoings. The twins first performed at euro fest 2001, a white nationalist festival where they sang. The following year they learned how to play instruments and in 2003 appeared on a VH1 special hate rock and then on a BBC documentary Louis and the Nazis. The duo released their debut album towards the end of 2004 but after 6 years the twins decided to stop touring altogether. When they decided to stop touring they had a new album coming out that was very different from their first album which spewed hate.When asked about why they stuck with the name Prussian blue they said that it was a nod to their German heritage and later said that it raises the question of the lack of it in the gas chambers which they said should show that the killings within these chambers never happened. In 2011 they publicly said in an interview with The Daily that they no longer were white nationalist and were liberal. Many suspect their change to liberalism was due to the fact that one of the twins started using marijuana to help lower the symptoms of cancer and became active supporters for the legalization of marijuana

http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2005/10/27/the-bittersweet-melody-of-racist-tunes/
https://journalism.nyu.edu/publishing/archives/pressethic/node/594
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/yvba8m/hello-v11n10
http://www.ashford.zone/2015/09/kkkkids-where-are-they-now