Guestbook & Reflections

When someone thinks of the Holocaust and everything that happened they usually feel sad and don't really understand why someone would ever do this, and this is how I felt when my teacher, Mr. Reese, took my classmates and I to the Holocaust Memorial. Once we got there we all shook hands with one of the survivors and they took us inside a classroom where the survivor talked about how he felt and what he and his family went through to survive. Every time I go to the Holocaust Memorial it reminds me of the saddening event that many people went through and hearing a person talk about their experience during the Holocaust made it feel even more realistic. Then, we went outside and a man taught us a lot about the Holocaust and how everything in the Holocaust Memorial represents something. After this field trip i realized that anything can happen and nobody should take life for granted.

Alejandro Rodriguez Holocaust Memorial Reflection Mr.Reese English I Honors Period 5 1/25/15

Mr.Reese decided that periods 3, and 5 are going to be the first two periods of his class to visit the holocaust memorial on January 12, 2015. I was able to see the large green hand from a distance as I was walking towards the holocaust memorial. When the two classes finally reach the holocaust memorial, an elderly man came and introduced himself to the two classes. He asked period 3 to go inside the building to hear the story of a holocaust survivor. The elderly man asked my class to follow him while he explained how the holocaust started and ended. As we were following the man, he was telling our class how the holocaust happened. He also told our class what some flowers in the trees represented. Our class followed the man into a dome that ha a golden star on top of the dome. There was tunnel that or class went into that led to the green hand. In the walls inside the tunnels, there were names of the camps that treated the Jewish population horribly. As our class walked through the tunnel, I saw a statue of a mother holding his son that was crying. When our class reached the hand, the first thing I notice was all the walls that had the names of all the Jewish people that weren’t able to thrive and live their life to the fullest. Our class walked back to the entrance a couple minutes after reaching the hand. After our class got to the entrance, the third period class left the building and went on the same tour that our class went. We went inside the building, and met the holocaust survivor. The holocaust survivors’ name is Allen Hall. After about forty minutes, I heard Allen’s’ life story of the holocaust. Allen had many events during the holocaust which made him very lucky. One of Allen’s lucky events was that he found sugar to make sugar water for his brother that was recently born, and getting sugar in Germany at that time was very hard. When Allen finished telling his story, our class went outside and, reunited with the other class. We walked back to school, and went back to our classes.

On January 12, 2015, my english teacher took our class to visit the holocaust memorial. We firsts listened to a survivor, Mr. Hall tell his story trying to survive through the holocaust living in a small closet, eating potato peels from the trash. Everyone was touched by his story, it was an awful childhood he had and no one ever deserves to go through that. Then we went around the memorial; we started by the Anne Frank quote and the statue, "Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart." Anne Frank was just a child and despite everything that was going on in her life at that time, she still looked for the best in people and never gave up hope. We started walking to this hallway full of pictures of events from the holocaust. It gave me an idea of how badly people were treated. Then we went to the hand statue and you can see naked people climbing, people dying on the floor. It was heart breaking. People are so cruel, how can humans do this to other humans? how can people let that happen? This trip inspired me to take a stand and help people. No one should ever go through this again.

Holocaust Memorial blog entry and reflection

Maia da Cunha Mr. Reese Period 5. 1/24/15 English honors 1

On January 12th, 2015 our class took a field trip with our teacher Mr .Reese to the Holocaust Memorial Museum .We went with another class (his 3rd period). When we first got there we started to walk around. The first thing we talked about was the Anne frank quote and the statue of the mother holding her children with a scared look on her face. After we started to walk around there was a wall full of pictures and our tour guide was talking and explaining the situations of the horrific things that were happening on the streets during the holocaust .After we finished talking about all the pictures we went in side the hand, We saw all the statues and there facial expressions. You could see the sad /desperate/ scared look in there eyes. It had given me the chills. When we where done looking we went inside a room and a holocaust survivor started to talk about his experience about how many times he was close to not surviving this horrible experience, it was interesting.

On January 12, Mr. Reese took two of his classes to the Holocaust Memorial. We personally got to shake a Holocaust survivors hand, Allan Hall, and hear his story on trying to live, in his young ages, through this genocide. Once Hall started talking, everyone in the room immediately had sympathy for him. He lived under a desk in a small closet in a building with his mother. They lived off of eating potato peels that the Nazi's working above them, threw in the trash. His father came in and out trying to hide and not seek attention. No one should ever have to go through such misery but it's life. We were then escorted out by a volunteer to the tour guide. We learned the meaning of everything in the memorial. The different colors of flowers, the marble on the wall, the floor, the statues, the tunnel, the music, the ceiling etc.. When our guide was speaking to us about the things the Nazi's did to innocent people, I looked at my classmates faces and saw a face of "how can someone ever do this". This was all a very cruel genocide and I'm glad that people were able to survive it. I'm sure we're all very thankful we got the chance to hear the story of a survivor told by himself and learn more about the meaning of the memorial. This trip inspires people to do better things in life and it shows that ones death will matter no matter who or what they are.

Saenz, Azul English 1-Honors P- 3 1/24/14 On January 12th, my classmates and I visited the Holocaust Memorial. The volunteers led us to a room where we heard a man speak about his experience through the years of the holocaust . He explained to us how he and his family fought their way to survival. The story had inspired the whole class. Later, we followed a volunteer down to the memorial wall. I was immediately filled with sadness once I saw how many names of the holocaust victims were carved. My heart broke when the volunteer told us that they used gas chambers to murder the jews. I am glad that I got to visit the Holocaust memorial because it had helped inform me about things i hadn't known. I think the monument should honor and respect the victims of the holocaust. It should show the importance of this moment in history.

Mr. Reese English Honors I period 3 Holocaust Memorial Reflection Blog On my trip to the holocaust memorial with Mr. Reese's 3rd period class we first went to a small room in the back and heard a a live testimony from a holocaust survivor named Allan Hall. He explained his story of what he went through at the age of four and on how he felt blessed because of the so many times he was saved from life and death situations. He goes on to tell the story of the last time he saw his grandparents and how his father barely was able to buy him from a concentration camp.After the hearing our group was taken on a tour through the memorial. We started off on a statue of a woman trying to protect her children and quote by Anne Frank behind it saying "...Then in spite of everything, i still believe that people are really good at heart..." which shows a lot of optimism by her and hope. As we continued through the memorial we walked through tunnels which portray a variety of pictures and descriptions of many Jews being tortured and abused by Nazi SS soldiers. Then we get to a light of eternal fire which never goes out to represent eternity in all the fallen victims and surviving victims of the holocaust. We then passed through a tunnel which has inscribed on the walls the names of the most infamous concentration camps of the holocaust. Additionally the tunnel goes downward to represent the walk to the gas chambers the Jewish victims had to make, and along the walls are tiny folds of the outside world which was the kind of view the Jews had while on the train towards the concentration camps. At the end of this tunnel is a little girl reaching out and crying begging for you to help and as we passed her we see a giant hand with hundreds of people trying to climb up as a significance of last hope. On a wall surrounding the hand are the names of registered fallen victims of the holocaust. Lastly, on the way out is the woman again fro the beginning except this time she is lying on the floor with her two children dead and having no hope for a future. Another quote is behind them but this time it is not as optimistic as the first. It goes on to say "Ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us only to meet the horrible truths and be shattered." Overall i believe this experience can really have an impact in someones life as to remeber and honor those who have fallen victim to the tragic happenings in the holocaust.

On January 12th, our class took a field trip with our teacher (Mr.Reese) to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. Mr.Reese took his 3rd and 5th period classes with him. The first thing that we saw and talked about with the exhibitor was a statue of a women and her two kids holding on to her. You could see the pain and terrified look on their faces even though they were just statues. As we went on with the tour of the museum, there was a line of pictures and explanations of concentration camps, Jews suffering, things that were happening on the streets during this horrible event, etc. The pictures and the information under the images looked very brutal, as well as sounding brutal also. Carrying on, we went to a circular cover that we stood under and gazed at a fire that never goes off. We also had a quick glance at the entrance right before the ramp at a Jewish star which was located on the top of the covers roof. We then went on down the ramp closed in with walls on the side with names of some of the concentration camps. Once we reached the hand we were able to walk around and see the many significant details around it. You were able to see the pain and scared eyes in the statues both on the ground and climbing up on the hand. it was almost as if they were reaching for help. When i went to the other side of the hand i saw the tattooed number that the Jews received if they went to concentration camps. The hand can mean many different things to many individuals. For me, it meant that the Jews saw hope and were reaching for it in such a way that it was just above their finger tips. Just about when we were gonna leave the hand our tour guide told us an interesting story about a little girl whose statue was at the museum in front of the hand. We were then lead to another statue of a family that had died (they were all laid down beside each other). Every picture and statue had precise detail. After the outdoor tour we headed into a room where we all sat down and listened to a holocaust survivors chilling and scary story of how he almost didn't survive through the holocaust. He was only a little boy going through this traumatic event. The holocaust memorial gives family members of those who died , survivors, Jews or even just people that want to learn about this certain subject a peaceful time to think and remember the lost ones of this terrible time.

Peter Pincay Holocaust Memorial: Mr. Reese blog entry/Reflection English I Honors Period: 5 19 January 2015

On January, 12th, 2015, Mr. Reese took his 5th and 3rd period class on a field trip to the Holocaust Memorial at Miami Beach. When we arrived at the Memorial, The first thing I saw was the giant arm that I earlier learned signifies the final reaching out of a dying person. The figures attached to the giant arm sculpture seemed to signify the pain victims of the Holocaust felt. As the tour guide was ready to begin the tour, we began by analyzing the statue of a mother holding her two kids. The statue seemed to give the idea of the mother and the kids already knowing what would happen to them, so they just huddled close and shed tears together. We then went through the tunnels hearing the voices of sad children singing, and examining the artistic details all around the walls of the tunnel. All around the walls we saw the names of some of the concentration camps, pictures of many victim's experiences during the Holocaust, and a list of names of all the Holocaust victims. We then went inside the testimony room to hear a live testimony from a Holocaust survivor. The testimony was a deep and terrifying story of Allan's life before, during, and after the Holocaust. This monument should accomplish many things for anyone who visits. People who visit the memorial for the first time should learn about the experiences Holocaust victims went through, some of the dark motives Adolf Hitler had when he started the Holocaust, and the reason the memorial was built. People who visit the memorial should never forget the traumatizing experiences Holocaust victims went through. The memorial is a peaceful looking area with its lily pads, flowers, and artistic design. The memorial gives the visitor a peaceful and quiet environment to fully memorialize those who were lost in the horrific period known as the Holocaust.

On February 18th, 2014, professor Elosegui took her "Introduction to Ethics" class on a field trip to the Holocaust Memorial at Miami Beach. There the students met Henry Flescher, a Holocaust survivor. During the activity, students heard Henry's narrative about his days at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. They were able to ask him questions and gather enough information for their research project. They were fascinated with the spirit and positive energy that this survivor revealed to them. In addition, they explored ​the memorial and, as spectators, they became part of this beautiful masterpiece. Here, The artist Kenneth Treister, combined multiple arts to deliver a powerful meaning to the viewer, Life. The artist integrated architecture, sculpture, photography, music, and gardening to transport the viewer to 1945 Europe. FNU students were part of a unique and life changing experience filled with enormous amount of human emotions, beauty, horror, and reflections. At the end of the activity, students were transformed and with tears in their eyes they thanked the survivor and the professor for such a cathartic experience.

http://www.fnu.edu/florida-national-university-students-attend-holocaust-memorial/

BY: Daylen Elosegui

FLORIDA NATIONAL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ATTEND HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL

http://www.fnu.edu/florida-national-university-students-attend-holocaust-memorial/

A beautiful memorial, both architecturally and for what it represents. A peaceful place to reflect on the past. Thank you.

Visited March 2013