Class Summary 3/23

In today’s class, we talked about the ideas that Maus gave us about the Holocaust. One being the first generation survivors after the Holocaust and what struggles they might have faced such as Art’s struggles. We talked about the history of Poland before and after the Holocaust, and how the Jewish population was completely wiped out. The others who survived relocated to Israel and the Americas. We also talked about the lasting effects of the holocaust such as the emotional and psychological trauma.

In Maus, it shows an example of how someone might be affected by such traumatic experiences. Living in constant fear is something that these people faced. They were persecuted, tortured, killed. The first generation of the Holocaust survivors suffered for the rest of their lives even after years of it being over. They were forever marked by it.

Many Jews resided in Poland. They built lives there and they were stripped away.

We also talked about and responded to Maus. How does a graphic novel fit into such a serious period of time; It beautifully captures the emotions of the Holocaust and what types of things people were facing. We could see signs of how these events changed people forever. Their security was stripped away from them for no reason at all other than because of ignorant people.

We then got to how the class has been going thus far and what we have enjoyed or what we would have liked to change. I have really enjoyed the readings and the discussions we have had up until this point. I believe the literature we read helped me to better grasp the totality of what it means to have human rights. Our discussions in class also help bring new shared ideas between people and it helped me to better connect to the importance of studying these things.