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| Gerda Weissmann, age 16, in a Nazi identification photograph. When she was liberated, Gerda weighed only 68 pounds, had not bathed in three years, and her hair had turned white. |
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| Kurt Klein, an American soldier who came upon the abandoned women in Volary, gave this photo to Gerda. The two were married in 1946, and had three children and eight grandchildren. |
"Why? Why did we walk like meek sheep to the slaughterhouse? Why did we not fight back? What had we to lose? Nothing but our lives. Why did we not run away and hide? We might have had a chance to survive. Why did we walk deliberately and obediently into their clutches? I know why. Because we had faith in humanity. Because we did not really think that human beings were capable of committing such crimes." -- From All But My Life, by Gerda Weissmann Klein
In class, we read and talked about the poem, "The Divine." The video showed those in Gerda's life, who, in the midst of the Nazi persecution, showed compassion. (Frau Kugler, Merin, and of course, Kurt Klein).
In the comments section, please write one example of something that gives you "faith in humanity" today. (It might be something you see here at school, in the media, in the community, etc.) Write about one step YOU can take to illustrate or encourage "faith in humanity." How can you put "faith in humanity" into action and make this school, town, and world a better place? Use complete sentences and be mindful of writing rules.
*Lesson plan courtesy of Teaching Tolerance One Survivor Remembers Teacher's Guide, pages 42-43.
Something that gives me faith and humanity is my family because you will lose them some point in time. Faith and humanity would make this school a better place if people would not treat others poor.
ReplyDeleteSomething that gives me faith in humanity is kindness. The Holocaust started because of lack of kindness and tolerance. I think everyone overcame the Holocaust by being kind, forgiving, and lending a helping hand to one another. Things to keep the kindness going can be as simple as holding the door open for someone or including them in things. You shouldn't say mean things behind someones back or to their face either because speech is the first step in the ladder of prejudice which is what lead to the Holocaust. To keep faith in humanity everyone needs to start caring more about one another and less about just themselves and that will make our school town and world a better place.
ReplyDeleteI can find faith in humanity in my friends and family. My friends and family are nice and caring and you know you will never loose them.
ReplyDeleteSomething that gives me faith and humanity would be friendship. Everyone has that one friend or friends you can always count on. Just like in the holocaust Gerda always had a friend that helped her. Not only did she help her. They helped eachother throughout their really tough ups and downs that they had to live through in the holocaust, and to keep this faith and humanity everyone needs to be more trusting and not so deciving. Thats what I think will help our cummunity be a way better place to live in.
ReplyDeleteSomething that gives me faith in humanity is knowing that there is someone always there for you and will help you when ever times go bad or if you just want to talk to them. This will makes schools a better place because kids will feel more comfortable there if the person that is there for is in the same building as you if something goes bad.
ReplyDeleteSomething that gives me faith in humanity is knowing that whenever we have a tragedy in our world we always get back up from that tragedy. We always get back up and help each other, we come back strong and never give up in each other. One thing I can do to take a step to encourage faith in humanity is to believe in everybody and always have faith in people and know that if they did something wrong in there lives them one day they will be able to overcome that. To make this world a better place I can not rule out anybody and have faith in everybody.
ReplyDeleteSomething that gives me faith in humanity is kindness. Even though there are many bad people in the world, there are way more good people. There is kindness everywhere; for example, people hold doors for other people and they help pick up something when someone drops something. If we all just do one act of kindness, like compliment someone, we can make this world a better place.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that gives faith in humanity is empthy, It's nice to have someone who can see how you're feeling and is able to you up. I can step up by showing empathy towards others.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that keeps faith in humanity is forgiveness. If we never forgavive something then it would be really hard to live threw life not likeing someone and avoiding them when you could forgive them and dont have anything agaist them.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that keeps faith in humanity is my family. They give me faith in humanity by always being there for me and is always there to support me.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that gives me faith in humanity is hope, people need hope to keep going through life. I think everyone should have hope and then this world could probably be a better place.
ReplyDeleteone thing that gives me faith and humanity is my family because like whenever i need somthing or just need someone to talk to, i know that ther always ther for me to help me out big things that may happen, or even the smallest things.
ReplyDeleteOne Thing that still gives me faith in humanity is that even though all of these recent tradegies in the United Sates that have happened. Its that we as a country do take a while to cope with these tradegies but after a while we cheer our selves up and we dont give up on life and we still greive about these things but we still cheer our selves up, and we dont give up and we fight against the sadness.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that gives me faith and humanity is my family and friends, it shows that they care for me and respect everything I do and never doubt me. As for everyone.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that gives me faith in humanity is respect. That is one thing that didn't exist with most people in the holocaust. People around me respect one another and that comforts me that prejudice won't escalate as much as it did back then.
ReplyDeleteI think one example of faith in humanity was when 9/11 happend people gave blood and food for the cause and really came together as a nation and made the united States stronger.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that gives me faith in humanity is my family. My family is always there for me when I need them. Your parents help you more than you think, even though you may not appreciate it now you will in the future.
ReplyDeleteI find faith in humanity from the people in my everyday life who keep me going though the day that do thing from the kindnes of thair hearts just to make someone elses day better, or to make the world a better place.
ReplyDeleteI find faith in humanity from the improvements that this world has come to make. Improvements is the glue that keeps the word humans together instead of there being very separate groups that all get treated in different ways. As long as there is improvement there is love.
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