Anne+Frank+Group


 * Jigsaw Writing - Anne Frank Group**

__**Relation to the Essential Question-"What brings out the best and worst in people?"**__

Dominique- //"Tell the Polish and Allied governments we are being systematically murdered. Our entire people will be destroyed....Place this responsibility on the shoulders of the Allies. Let not a single leader of the United Nations be able to say that they did not know that we were being murdered in Poland and could not be helped except from the outside. The democracies cannot calmly put up with the assertion that the Jewish people of Europe cannot be saved. Armed with the facts, Shmuel Zygelbojm, the Bund's delegate to the Polish National Council in London, tried-and failed- to break through the world's silence. He killed himself." (Meltzer, 114-115)//

This quote reflects on our Essential Question-What brings out the best and worst in people? It was Shmuel Zygelbojm's duty to send out the message to the rest of the world about this genocide and he was able to do so. Though even though the whole world now knew, no action was being taken. Here Zygelbojm watched humanity itself have no care for its own people, which "brings out the worst" in them and the situation. Also, it brought out the worst in Zygelbojm because he now knew the world he was living in. This provoked him to commit suicide. Why would someone want to live in a world that shows the "worst" in people due the their lack of care?

Charisse-The Separation and the Torture of Farewells //"Children hung onto their fathers, wives to their husbands. They grabbed at pieces of furniture, doorjambs, anything to keep from being dragged away by the police. They clawed at their captors, fighting against death with hopeless desperation."//

This quote relates to the Essential Question, "What brings out the best and worst in people?", because even though the police were jewish, they tortured the Jews and took them to concentration camps where they would meet the Nazis. Why did they go against their own people? They only had two options and they were either, stay true to the Jew and die, or join the Nazis and live. The Jews choose to live,but was that such as "good" of them? To spare a live and kill millions. This quote only tells you about the torture of the Jews separating from their family. Imagine how it was to be in a concentration camp. Go to this link to watch the people of the Holocaust [|http://youtube.com/watch?v=6ZlGCs78KEI&amp;feature=related]

Chris- //"It was no secret in high Nazi circles that Hitler wanted to get rid of all the Jews. He had said that this was his intention. It was there on the pages of the Mein Kampf. And it had been repeated time and time again in his speeches and in the press. Again the question: Then why didn't the Jews and others believe what he said? ... But no evidence has com to light that the Nazis had prepared a plan for extermination. Only toward the end of 1940 did secret discussions of such a final solution begin." (Meltzer, 105)//

By reading this quote, we can point out that almost everyone living in the time period around the 1940s knew exactly what Hitler wanted and what his intentions were. The quote also shows us that nobody actually believed what Hitler said and people waited until it was too late and Hitler started his plans. This relates to our EQ "What brings out the best and worst in people?" The worst in Hitler was brought out because he planned to do bad things against Jews and start a genocide. The worst in the Jews was also brought out because they didn't do anything to stop Hitler.

__**Relation to the Whole Story**__

Seong Ae- Extermination of Jews //"Then he went to Lodz, to see how Jews were being gassed. He watched a thousand of them packed into buses with closed windows. Carbon monoxide from the exhausts were piped back into the buses. The buses were driven to pits, the doors opened, and the corpses shoveled out." (Meltzer, 106)//

This paragraph gives the reader information about how the Jews were killed. Basically, Jews were crammed in a small space, toxic gases would fill the room and they would die because of the poisonous gas. It did not take the Nazi soldiers a long time, since the gas had the ability to kill as much as it can in a very short amount of time. It was very easy for them to take thousands of lives away. But many weren't surprised by this. There were merely hundreds of other ways to torture and kill Jews. The gas chamber was one of the most repeatedly used ways to "eliminate" Jews, because it was very fast and effective.