Berlin Activity Reflection

  Before this activity, I didn't know much about Jewish decrees. Jewish decrees are laws that only pertained to Jews. These laws slowly took their lives away and later got rid of them. There were so many. During class we did around 88 (?) but that was only a fraction of what existed back then. It's so horrible how they slowly took away the lives of the Jews. In the first years, they prevented them from participating in clubs and took away forms of entertainment. Then, they took away their jobs, first getting rid of those that worked in the laws, then educators, and in a few years, any form of art was not allowed from them. In the 1940's, they began to now take away basic survival needs by prohibiting them from buying certain foods and collecting their clothes. Jews and the disabled were required to display that they were Jewish and disabled to the public. They were sent to concentration camps in these years and in 1944, there were no laws. That is because they have gotten rid of so many Jews that there are no people to put the laws on.

  The Berlin Memorial was built to remember these laws that were put on Jews. In 1945, documents were destroyed but having this memorial will educate many of the horrors of the past. The lamp posts all have different decrees. This will really make people think.

  I think that I would have the most trouble with the restriction on the arts. Art is expression and this is what helped a lot of people during this troubling time. They couldn't do much about it, but through writing or drawings, they can express their feelings and even show other people. When I'm upset (and not being lazy) I try to take it out by drawing or just basic writing. I think the reason they banned this besides making their lives miserable, was that they didn't want more people to know. If their work was published, people would know how the Jewish people feel and they wouldn't agree at all. This is just one of the laws that I would have trouble with.