I+Have+Lived+Synopsis

__Day 1, May 29__ Today in class we disscussed the first 5 chapters of our new literature circle book, "I Have Lived a Thousand Years". So far we have come to realize the book is focused a around a 13 year old girl who lives in Hungary during the World War II, and the Holocaust, her name is Ellike Freidman.Elli is a person who likes to be with to be with others like most teenage girls, unfortunetly in the book it seems like the only one that can understand her is herself. You can see this in the first few pages of the book " I do not leave the house for nearly a week. Mummy pleads, her voice gentle and sad, 'Elli, let's thank God for being alive. Let us thank God for being together, in our own house. What's a yellow star on a jacket? It does not kill or condemn. It does not harm. It only says you're a Jew. That's nothing to be ashamed of. We're not marked for being criminals. Only for being Jews. Aren't you proud of being a Jew?" In our opinion its not that she is ashamed she meerly being a teenage girl and like most pre-teen girls she is being superficial its not a crime its a phase, but along with that comes other issues caused by outside judgments from people that are not of the same religon or racefor exampple we have a friend who will remain anonymous who come froma country and was a certain religon until she came to america and learned that her religon was ridiculed and not very well known so she chose to become Catholic and ignore the specifications of her old religon such as eating pork.

[|Auschwitz Death Camp]
 * NOTE** :Very graphic pictures

Comment from Gia: "Its scary what things people can do to other people. They're like animals, only worse because at least animals kill to survive in the circle of life. People kill to be awful; to gain power..."

[|Budapest,Hungary] This is was Elli's hometown, where the Nazi army invaded and captured her to then take her to [|Auschwitz, Poland], the largest known death camp of the Nazi's, she was one of the few survivors.

Do you think //JEW// is a rascist term? (LEAVE A COMMENT SAYING YES OR NO) -__Reasons why we think it isn't__: Ms. Sarah suggested that it is just a word to state a religon, such as "yes she's a jew" or "whats your religon? oh, im a jew" -__Reasons why we think it is__: The term "Jew" is a racist term when used in a wrong manner such as "oh, there that jew" or "what a jew". The book has a chapter where Elli is walking down the hall and 3 boys sing a song "hey jew girl, jew girl", which is meant to insult her. Other religons dont have that.You don't hear people saying "oh shes a 'cath' (catholic person) or a 'mus' (muslim person)".
 * __TAKE A POLL:__**

__Day 2, June 2nd__ Today, in class, our group continued to discuss our book, "I Lived a Thousand Years", and we came to a point where we went away from issues of the Holocaust. We started discussing how there are issues going on today that are very similar to the Holocaust. It is a group of people that gather together a group of people and then killed them. We do bot understand why people aaround the world know about this, and don't even try to do anything about it to end it. There is a genocide occuring right now in Darfur,Sudan, and people are sending money and help, but still it isnt enough to cover for the thousand of lost loved ones. Also, there are present hate groups called the Neo-Nazi's. They are recreating all the tragedies that have happened in the holocaust. This is happening now, and our question is, if people know about these issues, why are they donating money to halp save the people instead of putting an end to it first. We are now putting money into helping those in need of it. This will keep happening until all the people are dead and there will be no one to donate the money to. Instead, we could help stop these hate groups from attacking, and then no more people will be tortured and killed by them.

---Hate Groups going on right now: http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/type.jsp?DT=9

---Information about Auschwitz death camp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp

---Description of death camp (contains a picture of the enterance gate with the saying that we talked about in class: "Arbeit Macht Frei") http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/31

The group also had some questions: ---Group answer: Jews were facing a type of aristocracy that affected their lives graetly. The Jews did not rebel because this was the first time that such a tragic event occured and affected their lives, they were too worried about what else might happen if they tried something as risky as trying to run away from the Nazi or the Einsatzgruppe, or if they talked back to them telling them to stop what they are doing. They were not ready for anything so tragic to happen to tham. It came as a shock, and they didn't know how to react to it. Taking chances was too risky. ---Group answer: The job of the soldiers was to make the lives of Jews miserable. I think that if they were caught being in any contact with the jews and it wasn't in order to torture or kill them, there would be consequences. Someone in my group also mentioned that if they were caught helping the Jews hide, or help them in the sense of giving them advice on how to escape the genocide, or the plans of the Nazi's that were strictly top-secret, then the soldier would be breaking Hitler's laws, and Hitler would not be afraid to kill the soldier.
 * 1) 1) Jews were overruled and opressed at all times in Hungary. Did they ever rebel?
 * 1) 2) There were soldiers that were in relations with the Jews. Due to the fact that they weren't allowed to be in relations with them, were they punished by their leader, afterwards?

We were discussing how female Jews could sometimes get away with being Jewish and they wouldn't be taken away to the concentration camps. We were wondering how males can never get away with it. There was a ceremony called the Brass that only the Jews followed. If males were asked to pull down their pants, they would have to do it, and it would be very obvious if he was Jewish or not. Although women could sometimes get away from the Nazi's, they will still suffer because their sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles etc. (all their loved ones) would be taken away, and killed. They suffered greatly, and it impacted their lives greatly.

Day 3, June 4 In class we continued to discuss our book: "I have lived a thousand years". We started to discuss this idea if a person would put his or her family before themselves and we came up with different answers. We discussed this because the Jews were facing the same things at this time period. We wanted to think like we were one of the people who were captured along with our family. Me (Baris) and Mohammad Afshar said we would risk our lives to save our family while Laura wasn't really sure what to do in a situation like that. Michelle said that she would risk her life for her family but it depended on the way she died and the type of situation she was in. We then thought more deeply in to this question and came up with another question: If you were to save one person in your family who would it be? Laura said here brother, I said my little brother, Mo said his mother and Michelle said her grandpa. These were hard decisions to make. It really depended on who you feel most affectionate about. The next question's answer might be very obvious but in our case it was weird. Me, Mohammad and Laura said we would risk our lives for family rather than friend and Michelle said friend rather than family. Your answers really depend on who you are. This all relates to Elli because when she was in the concentration camp, she had friend and family and most importantly her self in the situation. We wondered what this girl would do a lot because she has a weird personality. She imagines a lot and she likes to be with herself. The second main question we discussed was; Why cannot Elli picture herself in a concentration camp instead of living her normal life as a 13 year old girl? My group came up with the following answer: Elli obviously likes to imagine a lot. She feels embarrassed of that especially when she is noticed. She cannot imagine herself in a concentration camp (even though she has experience imagining things) because she doesn't want to except the fact that she is going to Auschwitz and the environment she is in affects her (spiritually, mentally and socially) Auschwitz is a very scary and inhumane environment. An example in the book where she is scared and imagines again is when she sees dead people on the ground. Another example is when her braided hair is shaved off. It hurts her a lot, she cries and prays for it to be done quickly.

[|Disturbing picture of Jewish man]

This is a picture of a man in a concentration camp, he is a prisoner.

[|Dead bodies]

A picture of dead people's bodies in concentration camp

Day4, June 9 Today in class our group had some really strong ideas based on the time period. We based most of our ideas with personal comments. Q & A : -How do you think Elli's mother is changing Elli ? Since she looked like an Aryan, the guard didn't believe that she was Jewish. So he sent Elli and her mother to the right were they would survive. -How do you think Elli's emotions towards her mother will affect her in the future ? It will affect her in a very huge way if she doesn't have her mother's connection. Because id you rarely walk to your mother then you would be lost. And get into bad habits that will be hard to break.

http://www.israelnewsagency.com/holocaustchildren.gif

this picture shows an effect on people during the holocaust

http://caosblog.com/images/barackenbergenbelsen.jpg

this picture shows how people lived during that time period.

Day 5, June 11 Today in class, we discussed our book __I Have Lived a Thosand Years__, and we were talking about why Elli, the main character in the book, didn't want to listen to her father efore they had set off for Auschwitz. Her father had hiden all the family jewls and treasure in the backyard of their house in Somorja. Elli didn't want to know the location of these valubales because she knew what her father was talking about: He had told everyone in the family about this, because he made sure that if anyone survives the concentration camps, then they should come after these. It was deeply upsetting, but Ms. Sarah told us that Jews that faced these situations knew that the camps were no stroll in the park. Later on, when they arrive at the ghetto (before going to Auschwitz), Elli hides her poems notebook, the only belonging that wasn't burned by the SS soldiers. She feels guilty that she is the only person the has kept her most valued treasure to her self, and so she gives it to a soldier that she trusts. She asks her to keep it until the war is over. Me (Mohammed) and Laura agreed that we would do the same. Baris didn't know what he would do, and Michelle said she would just burn it if they didn't. Some of us wanted to know how the Nazi's distinguished the Jews from regular people (besides the male ceremony), and the answer is that Jews were forced to wear the Star of David on their clothes, a way to distinguish them. Most Jews saw this as something they were proud of, and so they were never embaressed in front of other people while Elli didn't go out for a week. Everybody in my group said that they would be proud if they had to do the same regarding their own nationalities and ethnicities.

Day 6, June 13 Today, there were only two people in our groups, and so we didn't really have much of a discussion. We did speak about the Holocaust, but not that extensively as to start an argument. We did however, ask a few confusing questions, such as what was the main reason that Hitler actually acted in this manner. Hitler's father whipped him with a belt just for fun. It was a sport to him. Could this have caused the crisis that is known only as the Holocaust? Another point that came to our mind was that most Jews had faith that they would survive. Faith is needed by all human beings in any way, or else we wouln't have souls and emothions within us. So, did the Jews that lost faith tried to run away, knowing that they wouldbe shot? Did Hitler have faith in what he was doing was wrong? How?