Thursday, October 30, 2008

Birkenau to Buna


1. When Elie arrives at Buna an inmate says, "Buna is a very good camp..." Explain why he would say this. Compare and contrast Birkenau and Buna.
The inmate says Buna is a very good camp because Buna was a work camp instead of a death camp. The Jews did not have to be afraid for their lives all the time here. At Buna, the Jews worked for small rations of food and were not beaten unless there was a reason. This is unlike Birkenau where they were in constant fear of extermination. The officers at Birkenau hit anyone they could reach for no apparent reason. In addition, there was not a constant food supply at the camp for the Jews.


2. The French woman who consoles Elie asked to be sent to work in the concentration camps as a civilian worker. Explain some possible reasons why she would request to leave her home to go to Poland where discovery would mean instant death.
She enlisted to work at the camp because if she would have been discovered in France they would have sent her there as a prisoner of the camp. She was a German-Jew who had false papers to pass as Aryan so she was not discovered as a Jew with her family. The Germans were invading France and she did not want to be discovered and sent straight to a death camp.


3. Elie says he marched for four hours to get from Birkenau and Buna. Why would it take so long? He was still in Auschwitz. Go to the USHMM website and watch the presentation, look at the maps of Auschwitz, and determine the distance from Birkenau and Buna. Use the picture with this post to help you. Here is another link to information about Buna.
We cannot determine an exact answer to why it would take so long. However, we have a couple different reasons to answer this. One reason it could have taken so long is because of the route they took. There are a few different routes they could have taken. They probably took one of the longer routes to get there. Also, there were about 100 Jews marching and Elie says they were walking slowly because the guards were in no hurry. They passed through the towns which could have made the march take even longer.

9 comments:

Lindee said...

It was pretty good. It was true that if she didn't leave her home she could've gotten killed. Maybe add more to the third question, but it was good. They were answered very educationally.

Andrea said...

I agree with you. And also with Lindee. If she didn't leave her home there was the possibility of her getting killed. She did what she thought was necessary to survive, which in the end she did the right thing. And in the third question you could have added more like the effects of the weather and the health they were in. Overall a good post though. It really made me think.

Anonymous said...

I like what you have said, it makes sense to me. I also like the way organized your post, the questions numbered with the answer. But on question three I think that they took so long because the Nazis probably didn't go the direct route. I mean, why would they? Other than that good post.

Jackie G. said...

I really liked your post and I would have never thought that if she didn't ask to work in the camp that she would be a prisoner there. That was some good thinking on why she had volunteered to work.

Nikki W. said...

I agree with your answers to your questions. I like how you answered #3. There could be many reasons why it took so long but we dont know for sure why it did since no one was there. I like your post. Good Job!

***SHANO THE DRAINO*** said...

I agree with your post for the most part. You did a good job of describing your post and backing your answers up with detail.

Missouri State Single Season Strikeout King said...

I don't ever remember reading that the weather was bad or had any effect on how fast they marched.

Jack Marie said...

I like the answer to #1. My group said the exact same thing! About the difference between Buna and Birkenau! A work camp to a death camp. But other than that, I agree with your other 2 answers! Good Job!

Siebz said...

Good post, but I do have to disagree a little bit on number 1, the condition in Buna was no different then Birkenau, except that it was a camp with a factory where they still needed more people alive then a camp with no factory. But they were still probably beaten for no reason.