Blog #4

Karl from Emil and Karl and Bruno from The Boy in the Striped Pajamas have a lot of differences and similarities. First off Karl and Bruno aren’t Jewish. They both live in Europe, but not the same area. Karl lives in Austria and Bruno lives in Germany. Bruno and Karl know what it feels like when they leave people they really like. Karl’s parents got taken away from him and that was very difficult. Bruno had to leave his friends and relatives behind when they moved. Another similarity between Bruno and Karl is that they both became very close friends with a Jewish boy. Bruno met a Jewish boy named Shmuel and they become best friends. Karl becomes best friends with Emil and they stay together all the time. Karl and Emil both slept with each other, got adopted by the same lady, and spent all their time together. Karl and Bruno both face obstacles when trying to help their friends but they both seem to overcome them. Bruno seemed to be more sensitive than Karl. Karl sort of goes with the flow of things because most of the book him and Emil are trying to escape. Karl also doesn’t have a family to be supportive of him and someone who he can really talk to he just has Emil. Bruno on the other hand has his whole family to talk to and communicate to. Also Bruno comes from a rich family where as Karl it’s just him because his parents were taken away so he has to do everything on his own. I think that Bruno has an easier life because it’s not like him against the world; he has a family that will get him things and help him out in tough times.

blog #3

So far in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Bruno has been pretty sad and surprised. Bruno is a nine year old boy who gets frustrated easily and wants know everything. He has a father who is a Nazi soldier and is highly ranked because he spent dinner with Hitler. His mom is very nice with him and try’s to comfort him. He also has a sister named Gretel. The family is very wealthy and has a big house. They live in Berlin, Germany. All of this changes when his family has to move because of his dad’s job. They move to Auschwitz. Soon after the family arrives Bruno becomes very unhappy and doesn’t like where he is at. He left his family, Grandparents and his three best friends. He was very close to Karl, Daniel and Martin. They used to play together and hang out a lot and now they are gone. He is also very unhappy with the house because he went from living in a huge house to a house with three floors and has barley a yard. I know how Bruno is feeling because when you’re nine years old the only thing you want to do is play. So far the book is good and I can’t wait to read more.

Blog #6

1. The images that were the most powerful to me were seeing the dead and starved bodies. The reason that it affected me most was because it showed how badly the Jews were being treated. The messages that the pictures showed were that the Nazis’ were evil. They killed 12 million people just because of their belief, disease or what they wanted to be in life.
2. The Nazis’ dehumanized Jews by taking them away from everything and making them slaves. They took away all their freedom, tortured them, starved them and most of all killed them. The way that Gerda Weissmann worked to overcome dehumanization was she never stopped believing she was going to get out of the concentration camps. Gerda and a few friends that she meet inside the concentration camp talked to each other to try and ease their mines off of all the bad stuff that was going on around them.
3. If everything was taken away in my life the thing that I for sure would want to have my family together because then I would feel safe and important again instead of being alone and just being a number. I would also really want to be able to play sports because that just one thing that I love to do. I think that I take my family for granted because I always think like I will see them later but I know that in sometime I won’t be able to see them, so I need to stop taking them for granted because they are what is essential in life.
4. I see a lot of persecution happening in today’s world. In Darfur there is genocide going on right now, and there is terrorism going on all over the world right now. I think that the United States of America is being targeted because we’re considered to be the best nation in the world. This puts a big target on our back because everyone wants to be best. I think that a big group of the terrorists are targeting us because they aren’t happy about what we are doing in the Middle East. What can be done to work against such prejudice and intolerance is try to and promote peace.
5. The heroes of the film are all of the survivors of the Holocaust because they went through extremely hard and terrible times and to make it through that is incredible. I also think that the United States of America and all the other countries that helped the people to be free again are heroes as well. What they did that makes me hopeful is they stopped a huge army that was killing millions of innocent people and lead them to freedom because they cared about other people and the soldiers were selfless. What I can do to make the world a better place is to promote peace. The reason that promoting peace is the best thing that I can do is because if everyone is peaceful then there won’t be violence in the world.

Blog 2

In the last two chapters Emil has been picked on horrible because he’s Jewish. Karl was standing next to him and trying to stop the kids from bullying him but it simply didn’t work. The reason it didn’t work was they were outnumbered by at least five. The kids were spitting in Emil’s face calling him names and hitting him. I’m wondering how the teacher just let this go on? Later as I read on it told me that she was simply just too weak to stand up for them. When the teacher asked what was going on and why they were picking on Emil one kid said “We’re beating up Emil, he’s just a filthy Jew.” They also said “Everyone beats up Jews nowadays. Emil’s a Jew, he’s not our equal.” I can infer that these kids didn’t just start doing this they must’ve learned it or saw it from their parents. I can also Infer that these kids parent hate Jews because kids at the age they are don’t just randomly hate people because of their religion they have to be informed about it. My question to the parents is why do they think they are so much better than Jews? What is wrong with being Jewish? And why teach kids to hate other kids? I’m so glad that I was not in Emil’s shoes because I can’t even start to imagine how he must feel.

The book I’m reading is Emil and Karl by Yankev Glatshteyn. Karl is the protagonist in the story. This takes place in Vienna Austria. Karl lives by himself now that his mom has got taken away from him. Right as he watches his mom get taken away, one of the three men say “Just wait, you little bastard, until we come for you.” This made Karl panic because he knew that it was just a matter of time before he gets taken away. After some thinking Karl realizes that he is going to go to Emil’s house. The only thing that he was a little hesitant about was Emil’s mom a few days earlier said “you mustn’t, Karl, do you understand, you’re not allowed to play with Emil. It will only make trouble for us. You’re a sensible boy, Karl, please, don’t come here any more, try to understand.” I can see how this could have been for Karl. I would be pretty hesitant to go to Emil’s house if his mom told me, but under the circumstances he is facing I would do exactly what he did and go to Emil’s house because that is the only safe place for him.