Lit Circle Blog

The book that I was reading is called "The Boy on the Wooden Box" and it is about a boy named Leon who is the youngest survivor to be on Schindler's list at the age of 10. The book had many dramatic causes and shows how his life was in the ghetto. My question was how it changed his life during the holocaust. The holocaust changed Leon's life in many different ways during the holocaust. In the beginning of the book he was just an average kid who hangs out with his friends and having a fun time. Soon days when the holocaust started he changed a lot because of all the things he witnessed in the ghetto. He was scarred for life seeing all the things happening to his people.

There are many things in the book that the author used in a article that I read. In the book it talked about Leon hanging out with his friends and then hearing that he can't play with them anymore and that they never want to see him again. In the article it says "Followers of the Jewish faith were often viewed as strange outsiders by their Christian neighbors" This shows how many people were brainwashed and think the Jews were the actual threat which also caused Leon to lose his friends.

Another thing that the author used from information in the book is when the Nazis start taking over his town and sending them to the ghetto. In the article it says "In September 1939, the German army invaded the western half of Poland, marking the beginning of World War II. German forces soon forced tens of thousands of Polish Jews from their homes." In the book Leon witness is town getting taken over and his family being forced out of the house and sent to the ghetto. It shows how much the author put into when making this book to show the amount of emotions the readers have.

The Boy On The Wooden Box Blog

I'm currently reading a book called The Boy on the Wooden Box. The book is about a 10 year old boy named Leon Leyson who is the youngest survivor on Schindler's list. The book talks about Leon's life and survival in the holocaust with his family who were also on Schindler's list. So far on the book Leon is desperate and relieved that he made it into Schindler's list where he had a higher chance on surviving. He wasn't the only on to be on the list but also his parents and his only sibling who was alive. The book is truly amazing and emotional in almost every page.


The most interesting part in my reading is when Leon finally found his dad and brother who were hiding from the guards. He then learned that his parents and sibling were in Schindler's list where it could change his way in surviving but had to tell his mother. So he disguised as a women because of his hair and finally found her in a bed. He told her the great news and then ran back to the ghetto. This was interesting because for a 10 year old, he had the guts and the brains to sneak in the women section of the ghetto and being brave about sneaking it even tough he knew the consequences he would face if he were caught.

There are many problems that Leon had in the book and I've list 3 of his problems. His first problem is trying to take care of himself. This could harm him because since he's 10 he is too young to know how he should take care of himself by not getting into trouble or to do what he's supposed to do. Another problem is that he has to find his family because he doesn't want random strangers trying to take care of him. He knows that he needs his family in order to survive. His final problem is trying to make it to Schindler's list and this is one of his biggest problems because since his family in the list, he has to in order to survive because Schindler is trying to hep the Jews escape from the ghetto. This is also a huge problem because if he doesn't make it he would have to leave his family forever and could possibly die in the ghetto without his family with him.

I commented on Anthony's blog

Life is Beutiful blog

In the movie Life is Beutiful it is about a Italian Jew who gets sent to Auschwitz with his son during his birthday and to calm him down he has too pretend it's a game. While the movie is taken place during the Holocaust it does have some comedic events and humor. But however during the movie it has dark, sad, and heavy moments. The movie can be seen serious and humorous at the same time but it is mostly dark during some parts of the movie.

The book Night is about a man named Elie who has to survive Auschwitz with his father. Events in the book and in the movie have a huge difference in each other. The book and the movie shows a bit of similarities like when they get sent to Auschwitz. They both start in a town and soon after they get sent to the camps. The difference between these two is that in the book Elie goes to the camps earlier and in the movie they get sent in late. The book starts off in a different camp while in the movie they get sent to Auschwitz in the first place. Both the movie and the book have the father and the son start off but they're both different from each other cause in the movie the father is trying to help him son and in the book they both tried to help each other survive.

In the movie suspense is only seen near the end of the movie and in the book suspense is almost the entire book. The movie also has suspense but it features comedy while the book has no comedy. The suspense in the book is when Elie is starting to realize that his god is not real and how his father is struggling to survive and the next day he was gone while in the movie the suspense is when the uncle gets put into the showers and never came back and when the son almost went to the showers but he didn't go and finally when the father dies and the son doesn't realize it.

In the movie it shows how Life is Beutiful because no matter what the cause is, trying your hardest to keep someone alive without them knowing is beutiful not just for you but the person. It also shows life is Beutiful because there is always happiness even if it's the wrong time.

3rd quarter blog

The Biggest improvement I made in the 3rd quarter is using TIQA more often because now that I use it most of the times, it starts to get more helpful and easy. Although I do struggle  with it sometimes I still think I’ve made an improvement on it.

Something that i’m proud that I accomplished is passing a retake in Math because most of the time I fail a retake and can't do anything else. But when I passed 2 of my retakes I was very surprised and a bit happy that I did pass. If i were to not pass it I would’ve been stuck with a 2 or a 1 in my grades.

Something that was challenging was to study on multiple subjects. This was very challenging because I didn’t know what I should study first and felt like everything was important and had to study all of them at their same time. I’m starting to solve this by studying one thing and another the next day

Night blog

   Throughout the story I see a lot of changes that Elie faces. In the beginning of the book, Elie was very pious about his religion as in the beginning of the book, there are many different quotes that show how pious he is about his religion.  "why do you weep when you pray?' He asked me, has though he known me a long time." (2) This shows that whenever he prays he shows a lot of emotion showing how serious he is when he prays. Elie is also a very clam person in the beginning of the book and wanted to be ahead on his religion

   Elie starts to change when he arrived at Auschwitz as in the book it says "Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which depreiced me for all eternity" (32) he is basically saying that his god is silent and every prayer he made was nothing. Not only that but his behavior is starting to change after he realized his god is silent and also claiming that his soul has been destroyed. Elie is nbow only focusing on surviving and getting out alive. This is a huge change because in the beginning of the book Elie was calm and pious but now he is thinking that his religion is nothing but a silent lie and says surviving is his only chance.

   Finally the biggest change is when Elie found out his father died and this is huge because he felt freedom when he was taken away and he had no prayers and didn't weep. This is huge because after all this time of taking care of his father, he did it like he was forced to but now that he was taken he seeked freedom and the need to do anything without any worries.

Butterfly Project

At Terezin

"When a new child comes 

Everything seems strange to him.

What on the ground I have to lie?

Eat black potatoes? No! Not I! 

I've got to stay? It's dirty here! 

The floor-why look, it's dirt, I fear!

And I'm supposed to sleep on it?

I'll get all dirty!

Here the sound of shouting, cries,

And oh, so many flies.

Everyone knows flies carry disease.

Oooh, something bit me! Wasn't that a bedbug?

Here in Terezin, life is hell

And when I'll go home again, I can't yet tell"
Teddy 1944


Blogs that I commented on
Anthony
Lazar
Max
Andrew

Berlin Memorial Activity

The things that I have learned during the holocaust subject was that the jews were the ones who were most treated wrong. When Hitler came into power ,his first plan was to get rid of the jews but part of it has been stopped during the 1936 olympics in Berlin. He had to remove anti jewish items so German won’t look bad. Shortly after that Hitler started to make new laws and remove jewish rights.

The thing that I noticed about the laws in the past years were that the Jews were the only ones receiving restrictions and rules. Some years had short changed while some of the years had really big chances that took nearly every single one of their rights. Some laws affects their lifestyle and some laws can affect their emotions deeply.

The laws that I would have trouble the most would be No pets, No music, and no jobs and education. The pets would affect me because if I had a pet that I cared for months and it gets taken away from me like that, I would be really depressed. Music can sometimes feel relaxing but without music, the place just feels dead and uncomfortable. The no education and jobs can also be a huge problem because no one would be able to have money to afford clothes, food, shelter, and other things that require a lot of money.