{"id":193,"date":"2009-02-02T10:36:43","date_gmt":"2009-02-02T17:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pueblowarriors.wordpress.com\/?p=193"},"modified":"2009-07-15T11:43:24","modified_gmt":"2009-07-15T18:43:24","slug":"sophomores-attend-holocaust-education-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/2009\/02\/sophomores-attend-holocaust-education-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophomores Attend Holocaust Education Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday January 31st, twenty eight Pueblo Sophomores attended a Holocaust<\/a> Education Program at the JCC. \u00a0They heard life stories from survivors who retold the horrible truth of the Holocaust. \u00a0As one survivor, Bill Kugelman told his life story, students were in complete silence and brought to tears at times. \u00a0Bill was also brought to tears. \u00a0Although he had told his story times before, he said that his \u201cheart was bleeding\u201d as he recounted the sadness, grief and inhumanity of the Holocaust. \u00a0He mentioned that he did not like to read about the Holocaust, watch movies about it or discuss it, but that he allows himself to be torn apart by retelling his experiences so that we would not forget it and would stand up when an injustice is occurring. \u00a0\u201cI do it for you. \u00a0I allow myself to be torn apart because you have to hear it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students were struck when he showed them the number that the Nazi\u2019s had tattooed on his arm. \u00a0Isabel Jimenez said that for her, this was the saddest part of his story, \u201cwhen he showed us where they tattooed his number on his arm, and he no longer had a name.\u201d \u00a0Many students were shocked at the role that education played in making the monstrosity of the Holocaust possible. \u00a0They were able to look at children\u2019s books which spouted Anti-Semitism. \u00a0Another student, Jasmine Magdellano was struck by one woman\u2019s story. \u00a0She recounted watching her mother being taken away from her because she could not walk after being transported for five days in a cattle car. \u00a0Her mother was tossed into a truck by SS guards and driven away. This was the last time that she saw her. \u00a0Although these sophomores have been learning about the Holocaust and have read Night, many commented that it sounded almost unreal. \u00a0Derek Gunnels said that he was surprised at how similar Bill Klugelman\u2019s story was to what he read in night. \u00a0What really stood out to him was the idea that one of the worst violations of the Holocaust was the fact that it stripped one of their humanity. \u00a0Bill Kugelman made this point, as did Elie Wiesel in Night. \u00a0A member of the audience asked Bill how he regained his humanity. \u00a0He explained that it was only through time, through rubbing shoulders with other humans and through finding support.<\/p>\n

The overall message that unified the survivor\u2019s stories was the fact that hate was the root of this inhumanity. This is what hate does when it is allowed to fester and grow. \u00a0We hear the figures so often- over eleven million were killed in the Holocaust. \u00a0Six million of those were Jews. \u00a0 Mr. Kugelman pointed out that when we hear those numbers, we are not sure what they mean. \u00a0But that every one of those million-every one of those people had a family, had a husband, a wife, a mother a father, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister. \u00a0Every one of those murdered lives is precious and lost. \u00a0Even just one life is significant, whether it is a million or 1. \u00a0This stood out to me.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve watched the atrocities of Darfur unfold, I wonder, is this what it was like? Around the world, people \u201cheard stories\u201d of the atrocities that occurred in the Holocaust as they were occurring. \u00a0Even prior to Hitler unleashing WWII, they knew that particular groups were being targeted. \u00a0But who took action to prevent the stories from multiplying- to prevent the victims from multiplying? \u00a0Was there a unified organized international movement to help? \u00a0No. \u00a0There wasn\u2019t. \u00a0In fact, at the Evian Conference, European nations closed their borders to Jewish refugees. \u00a0Hitler scoffed at this and the Holocaust was allowed to occur. \u00a0It was only brave individuals who attempted to organize and do whatever they could to help at least one person and in turn helped generations. \u00a0There were political reasons as to why a nation could not help. \u00a0Some refugees that arrived off the coast of Florida (Cuba) were turned away and sent back to Europe, only to be placed in concentration camps. \u00a0Whether someone is Jewish, Sudanese, Mexican, Christian, Muslim, Palestinian- a life is a life. \u00a0We should do what we can to help each other. \u00a0I hope that my students pulled this idea away from what they\u2019ve learned. \u00a0Allowing bullying, harassment and hatred to occur only aids the oppressor. \u00a0It is what allowed the Holocaust to occur.<\/p>\n

Below is a summary of Bill Kugelman\u2019s life:
\nBILL KUGELMAN<\/strong> was born in Sosniwice, Poland in 1924 where he lived with his brothers and sisters. \u00a0Following the German invasion, the family was forced into a single room in the Srodula Ghetto. \u00a0In 1942 Bill\u2019s family was sent to the Annaburg labor camp in East Germany. \u00a0In 1944 the Kugelman family was sent to Auschwitz\/Birkenau. \u00a0From here, his mother and sisters were sent to the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. \u00a0Bill and his brothers were sent to Landsberg Labor Camp, a sub camp of Dachau, where his oldest brother was killed. \u00a0After being evacuated to Allach, another sub camp of Dachau, Bill and his brothers were liberated.\u00a0(taken from the JCC website)<\/p>\n

[Via Andrea Ayala]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday January 31st, twenty eight Pueblo Sophomores attended a Holocaust Education Program at the JCC. \u00a0They heard life stories from survivors who retold the horrible truth of the Holocaust. \u00a0As one survivor, Bill Kugelman told his life story, students were in complete silence and brought to tears at times. \u00a0Bill was also brought to … Continue reading Sophomores Attend Holocaust Education Program<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12,15,34],"tags":[75],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pA2u4-37","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":685,"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions\/685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pueblowarriors.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}