![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr >:(
Friday, October 7th, 2005 05:50 pmToday in Subject Studies we had to do an activity for a KS3 subject to help pupils to develop an understanding for any one of four concepts. They were:
What we wanted to try and show was that there were other victims of the holocaust too and we wanted people to consider why it is that they recieve very little publicity. I did a little research and came up with the following figures:
Well, at the end of our presentation the best anyone could say was that it was "Brave" to try and tackle it. The way everyone responded it was like I was an anti semite or something and that's not how I meant it. The way I look at it, we are so aware of what happened to the Jews in the Holocause because of three main reasons. One, the plight of the Jews was very easy to publicised. It was a visible and highly shocking tragedy that was much more acceptable to the populice of 1945 than the plight of the eastern europeans or the Homosexuals. Two, the Jewish lobby was very voluble about what had happened, partly because they were more acceptable than any of the other groups who suffered. Noone in 1945, when it was still illegal in many countries would stand up and say "I am a homosexual and I was taken to Auschwitz and tortured. Most people like me died there". Thirdly, the Jews were a lot easier and still are easier to sympathise with. The Gypsies still suffer unbelievable racism and persecution almost everywhere in the world, so people do not find it as easy to empathise or sympathise with what happened to them.
What made it all worse was that while Kerry, the seminar leader was saying about all her concerns (including that pupils would leave saying there hadn't been a Holocaust) the Jewish woman in our group, who had been a voluble agreer when we were doing this and certainly hadn't objected was agreeing with everything Kerry said. I felt sick and like I was some dirty holocaust denier anti semite. I know that I am poor with words on the spot but I am sure that's not how I meant it :( I also felt like I'd ridden roughshod over everyone else's wishes and felt shitty cos of that too :( Maybe she didn't speak up because she was too intimidated.
Even worse, at the end I overheard Kerry tell Megan that even when the groups are split boy/girl the noisy ones who always speak are the same. I know that was directed at least part at me and now I feel awful like I'm really mouthy and stop other people from being able to contribute or ask questions.
Bad day. Feel so crap :(
*This makes about 6 million poles killed in total during the war
- There is a difference between saying a date is important and a date is historically important
- What is historically significant changes as time passes
- The Historian determines what has become historically significant
- Historically significant is a cultural dependent
What we wanted to try and show was that there were other victims of the holocaust too and we wanted people to consider why it is that they recieve very little publicity. I did a little research and came up with the following figures:
- There were between 5.1 and 6 million Jewish victims. This includes between 3 and 3.5 million Polish Jews
- There were between 2.5 and 3.5 million Gentile Poles killed*
- Between 200,000 and 800,000 Roma and Sinti Gypsies died under Hitler's regime
- Somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 people with disabilities were murdered
- There were between 10,000 and 25,000 homosexual victims
- 2000 Jehovah's Witnesses also perished
Well, at the end of our presentation the best anyone could say was that it was "Brave" to try and tackle it. The way everyone responded it was like I was an anti semite or something and that's not how I meant it. The way I look at it, we are so aware of what happened to the Jews in the Holocause because of three main reasons. One, the plight of the Jews was very easy to publicised. It was a visible and highly shocking tragedy that was much more acceptable to the populice of 1945 than the plight of the eastern europeans or the Homosexuals. Two, the Jewish lobby was very voluble about what had happened, partly because they were more acceptable than any of the other groups who suffered. Noone in 1945, when it was still illegal in many countries would stand up and say "I am a homosexual and I was taken to Auschwitz and tortured. Most people like me died there". Thirdly, the Jews were a lot easier and still are easier to sympathise with. The Gypsies still suffer unbelievable racism and persecution almost everywhere in the world, so people do not find it as easy to empathise or sympathise with what happened to them.
What made it all worse was that while Kerry, the seminar leader was saying about all her concerns (including that pupils would leave saying there hadn't been a Holocaust) the Jewish woman in our group, who had been a voluble agreer when we were doing this and certainly hadn't objected was agreeing with everything Kerry said. I felt sick and like I was some dirty holocaust denier anti semite. I know that I am poor with words on the spot but I am sure that's not how I meant it :( I also felt like I'd ridden roughshod over everyone else's wishes and felt shitty cos of that too :( Maybe she didn't speak up because she was too intimidated.
Even worse, at the end I overheard Kerry tell Megan that even when the groups are split boy/girl the noisy ones who always speak are the same. I know that was directed at least part at me and now I feel awful like I'm really mouthy and stop other people from being able to contribute or ask questions.
Bad day. Feel so crap :(
*This makes about 6 million poles killed in total during the war
