You can see people who look a lot like me guarding the gates that keep people in the Gaza strip trapped and starving. As are those dropping the bombs on Gaza. Of course the people launching crude rockets out of Gaza that kill Israelis (including Israeli babies) also look a lot like me...

Aren't those all you??

It gutted me and still guts me because it doesn't have to be the title characters. It happened to people beyond the scope of the book. Some works are like macros of man's inhumanity to man. Or any implacable horror. I can't distract myself from the reality of the pain suffered with the narrative. The storyline won't trump history.

Absolutely.

I admit, I honestly don't know how to respond to that because I don't quite have a grasp on what I want to say or how I want to say it. I wonder if reading it as an adult and being somewhat ... not jaded per se and to say "used to it" is wrong also ... prepared for the horror of it made me concentrate on just the book and the narrative and the family. The discussion in class will go way beyond the scope of the book. My personal feelings go way beyond the book. But to get through the book so I can do my responses and talk about beyond this book, I had to be able to read it almost with blinders on.

Gah. Does that make any kind of sense or am I just Bullshit in a Sweater?

There have been some discussions in the Jewish press lately about the best way to teach Jewish kids about the Holocaust. When I was a kid, it was pretty graphic -- we were shown films of bulldozers pushing over piles of naked dead bodies when we were around fourth grade or so. It seems that the trend in Holocaust education now is more stories about kids who survived the Warsaw Ghetto and things like that.

I'm not sure which is the better approach. The kind of lessons that we got were really too much for us to process at that young an age, and we felt horribly guilty if we closed our eyes or turned away. But the new books, all about people who fought back and survived, seem to paint an inaccurate picture.

You can see people who look a lot like me guarding the gates that keep people in the Gaza strip trapped and starving. As are those dropping the bombs on Gaza. Of course the people launching crude rockets out of Gaza that kill Israelis (including Israeli babies) also look a lot like me...

Aren't those all you??

First two are Israeli army. Third is Palestinian militants.

Does that make any kind of sense or am I just Bullshit in a Sweater?

You gotta do what you gotta do. I'm chronically incapable of disengaging, so I intend to avoid the subject matter entirely. Can't imagine what would make me watch Schindler's List, for instance.

When I was researching the Holocaust, I watched Schindler's list two times. And couldn't sleep for days.

But ultimately, that movie relates back to the SS officer pictures. The people doing evil and the people doing good could be anyone, could be us. The two men, Schindler and Ralph Feinnes charcter are sort of the same kind of men-- weak, liking nice things, and decent enough blokes in fair weather, but not too evil and not too good. What makes one do very evil thhings and one do very good things? Either one of them, in a way, could be us.

When I was a kid, it was pretty graphic -- we were shown films of bulldozers pushing over piles of naked dead bodies when we were around fourth grade or so.

I didn't cry at Schindler's List, and I think a lot of it had to do with being overexposed to real Holocaust footage throughout years of Hebrew school before the movie came out. There was just nothing in there quite as graphic as the stuff I'd been seeing for years already.

I don't remember a lot of education about the Holocaust as a kid. When I saw Schindler's List, it really broke me. It's one of those I wish I could watch again because it's such a good film (the performances, the cinematography especially) but I just can't.

I will say it was quite an experience to be in a theater and see it, though. The silence and the sounds of crying were really powerful.

Schindler's List destroyed me. It's on that list of movies I can never ever see again, even though it's a magnificent film.

I will say it was quite an experience to be in a theater and see it, though. The silence and the sounds of crying were really powerful.

Yes, this. When it was over, and I could talk again, I looked at my best friend (who saw it with me), and said "I feel like everyone in this theater should go out for a drink together."

t edit And I'm with Amy and Aimee on never seeing it again. I'm glad I saw it, and it was stunning and powerful (and I'm always amazed that Spielberg made it in the same year that he made Jurassic Park), but I never want to see it again.

I will also never buy Em a red coat.