In reflecting on the day, please respond to the following:
1. What part of the symposium had the greatest impact on you personally? Why?
2. What general comments/feedback do you have about the event?
Thanks so much to all administrators and teachers for working with our very talented students to make this unique event such a success!
Desire For Change
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5 comments:
For me it is difficult to choose just one thing that had an impact on me. Personally, there are a number:
-I loved Max Eisen's comment that we all have to stop being bystanders and start being UPSTANDERS - I love that...
-I was so moved by all of the school's artistic interpretations of the various sections of the book. I can't imagine how much time and energy went into preparing all of that work. I felt honoured to be able to watch. Our students have so much talent and passion. We are clearly so fortunate to have teachers who care so much to invest the time that they did.
-I got the chance to speak with Nava Semel when all the students had left and she told me that she never reads her book, and how profound the experience was to be able to watch the students tell her the story that she wrote. I was without words...
I hope we can do this again!
Alex Pak
Mr. Racco – ENG2DY
Father Bressani Catholic High School
Overall, I found the subject of the Holocaust disappointing. The first major part of the Holocaust unit was the novel And the Rat Laughed. I was expecting a conventional loss-and-survival story; And the Rat Laughed was anything but. Although surprising, the setting and style of writing piqued my interest. As the story went on, however, the premise became more and more unbelievable until I could no longer take it seriously. While the story provided much insight into memory, travelling to the year 2099 where the story of “Girl&Rat” is famous, then back to the year 1942 where Father Stanislaw develops into a human rat, turns what should be a serious story into a silly one. Nevertheless, to me this story exemplified how important memory truly is, because memories define who we are. We must learn from our mistakes and treasure them, even if sometimes memories are too hard to bear alone.
Another major part of the Holocaust unit was the Symposium named “Desire for Change.” To me, the entire day felt like it lacked purpose and wasn’t very well organized; the holocaust survivor did not talk about anything in particular, Nava Semel talked about her book, while Ella Milch-Sheriff talked about her opera. While each were powerful presentations, together they lacked coherence. One part that was powerful, however, was the creative expressions from the students. All were interesting, well coordinated, and creative. These presentations will remain with me for a long time. The final ceremony of handing out the rocks was also potent; not only was it symbolic, but each and every rock was inscribed with different values, making them all personal.
During the symposium, actual videos of the horrors of the holocaust were shown. These videos were truly emotional: children lying on the streets hungry and sometimes maimed, and people wading through waves of carelessly strewn bodies to catch dead babies sliding down a chute just to be thrown away. These videos really accented the atrocities that were committed during the Holocaust. Watching the utter dead look in people’s faces is something I will never forget.
The opera based on the novel And the Rat Laughed surprised me with its quality. The music was definitely creative in its use of dynamics and staccato, and the Hebrew singing added an extra dimension to the show. The acting portrayed the hidden meanings of the novel perfectly while accurately presenting the various settings without confusion. This opera has been one of the first I’ve seen, and it truly gave an incredible and lasting first impression. The melody especially had me captivated when it correlated flawlessly to the performance onstage. I can appreciate how hard it must have been to coordinate such a large orchestra for 90 minutes; I find it hard just to play and practice the piano.
And the Rat Laughed contains a deep and meaningful insight to memory and how it makes us who we are (on a personal level as well as pertaining to all of humanity) but the mediums used to convey the message were too peculiar for me. I wish the book was something I’d be able to relate to more. Hopefully sometime in the future I’ll be able to garner a more fulfilling experience from this tale.
Alicja Dobrzanski
Father Bressani Catholic High School
Mr. Racco
ENG-2DY
Tuesday, November 24, 2009.
The Holocaust – and the entire Second World War for that matter – always bore an emotional significance in my life. My grandmother was born in Poland, 1928, and was only a child when the war broke out in 1939. I can definitely relate to the granddaughter in And the Rat Laughed. Getting the story of my grandmother’s experiences was always a struggle. Oftentimes, by the end, the discussion (under her direction) was led astray. Even now as I write this, I find myself at a loss of words realizing just how much of her life remained a secret to me.
The Desire for Change symposium brought a lot more meaning to what the Holocaust truly encompassed. It is one thing to hear about the atrocities and the sheer disregard for human life – and it is a completely different experience to view actual footage. What affected me the most was a video of two men who, with outstretched arms, were retrieving children's corpses, carelessly tossed down a chute. The two men would simply cast them aside – onto the piles amidst which they were already standing. I had to look away with tears.
The following week, our class went to view the opera based on And the Rat Laughed at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts. The opera was like none-other that I have seen. It was interesting to view the story in Hebrew. I experienced joy, sadness, and despair through a different dimension – sound. Despite the performance being in a foreign language, I felt like I understood the scenes as they transpired. The vocal and musical compilations were magnificently contrived and greatly responsible for the opera's overall success. It was as though I became witness to the Holocaust and finally scraped the surface of my grandmother’s untold story.
This past week, I deepened my knowledge of the Holocaust, allowed myself to be immersed into the shoes of the Girl-Who-Once-Was, attended the Desire for Change symposium dedicated to the lives of real children just like her, and viewed an opera that was based on all of these realities. I find it difficult to explain just how much I feel that these recent experiences have changed me for the better. I feel a sense of belonging and confidence knowing that I am now ready to be part of the crusade of Remembearers.
Daniel Pinto Ramos
Father Bressani Catholic High School
The Holocaust was one of the darkest times for our world. Not only did the Holocaust affect the Jewish people, but it also affected every single living person. When I entered the symposium I understood the facts about the Holocaust, but I never had any connection to it. Ever since I was little I always understood that the Holocaust was a dark time where many people died but I had never experienced enough pain to feel what the Holocaust victims felt.
At the symposium many schools had many great displays of the Holocaust but none had really gotten to my heart. When I heard the holocaust survivor’s story I began to sense the pain and suffering he and other members of his extended family went through. When he spoke about his cousin who was forced to stay in a hole inside a forest for over a year and a half, I imagined myself in that dark, cold, wet hole. I could feel the loneliness and hate for the Nazis, because they had no reason for all these murders.
When some of the students spoke about their trip to Auschwitz I became emotional because of the things they had seen and heard. They spoke of pools of ashes that once were beautiful people with wonderful lives but were then forced into a life of misery and pain. Then I understood the pain and misery the Holocaust survivors felt more clearly, yet what I felt was nowhere near the amount of aching pain and agony the Holocaust survivors felt.
As they began to show videos of the Holocaust I reflected on all the things that the Jewish people had to go through during those times. In the video, Nazis were sliding dead, starved Jewish children down into a pit along with many others. This reminded me of “Schindler’s List” when the Jewish people were being sniped by Oskar Schindler from a balcony if they were taking a break. Seeing as Oskar was one of the “good Nazis” this struck me with fear for the horrific torture methods the evil, heartless Nazis used on the Jewish people. I felt so useless because I knew that all those people suffered, yet I wish I could’ve helped them.
As the symposium had ended we were each given a rock in which we would place an imaginary word that described ourselves. Instead of describing myself I felt I would describe the Jewish people during the Holocaust, and I imaginatively gave the rock the word courage, because of all the Jewish people who had the courage to try and resist the Nazis as they took family members away, because of the courage that Jewish children showed in trying to escape this terrible disaster alive.
What had really made me emotional was that the Holocaust survivor with us was 15 when he had endured the treachery of the Holocaust. For a teenager to leave his beloved home and travel all the way to Canada must’ve been one of the hardest things for him to do. I imagined myself right now having to leave all my family, friends, and all the people I know to save myself from torment and persecution. I believe that if I were a Jewish person during the Holocaust I would’ve lost faith, but the Holocaust survivor and other Jewish people embraced their faith and had poured their love into God and asked for protection from the accursed Nazis. This inspires me to believe that God will always give you a second chance as long as you keep faith in him.
Daniel Pinto Ramos continued...
Much like in “And the rat laughed” I had imagined myself as the lonely Jewish person in the hole. I felt as she had felt; depressed, abandoned, and tormented. It must have been a physical representation of hell for the poor Jewish girl, but it also must’ve been hard for Nava Semel to write this story. She must’ve gathered up an enormous amount of courage to share such a personal, depressing story. As she spoke at the symposium she sometimes had trouble holding back tears. As her emotions began to spiral I became gloomy and felt a deep compassion for her.
Finally after this symposium I feel much more sensitive about racism. Not only to Jews but to everyone, because if the simple racism of one man could cause a world war, then I believe we must end racism as a whole in order to achieve an everlasting peace.
The “And the Rat Laughed” Opera was a very emotional play evoking sympathy to everyone in the audience. I was picturing myself in the shoes of the poor little girl suffering through all these horrible things. The costume designers did a very good job on the little girl’s costume as she looked like she had actually spent time in the pit. This added to the dramatic effect which further developed the character. The character costumes were very well made and they reflected the characters well. The way opera is sung it gives the play a sadder more emotional setting. The facial expressions of the actors/singers were very well defined and I could feel their emotions and their thoughts as they sang. Entering the Opera I thought it would be a waste of my life, but leaving it I was shown how interesting operas are and I can now say it is one of the best plays I have seen.
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