Describe the areas the Orpah and Elie Wiesel visit in Chapter 2 & 3.
They visit the thick, concrete gas chambers that were responsible for the biggest mass killings. They went through the blocks, including the 'prison in the prison' where mostly political leaders were tortured. The museum was another place they walked to, where there were the actual personal belongings of the murdered people.
Why do Oprah and Elie Wiesel refer to the camp as a "death factory"? how was it "industrialized"?
The camp pushed out deaths regularly everyday. They murdered over hundreds of people daily, whether it be through the crematory, gas chambers, or torture. Death was the result from all of this, in a way making it their factory's "product". By the gas chambers and the canned poison, it created an easier, faster, and larger scaled way of termination, thereby "industrializing" the production of deaths.
What is the significance of the hundreds of labelled suitcases? of the baby clothes? of the shoes?
The labelled suitcases stand for all the innocent lives lost. In the video, they showed that the owners of the suitcases would write their name on it, thinking that their possessions would be returned. The baby clothes are especially sad because innocent babies were instantly killed, as they were not fit for labor and were of no use. Elie Wiesel had said that the shoes could show if the person was a dancer, a poor, or a rich person. Every pair of shoes there had an owner that had lost their life in the holocaust. Elie Wiesel had mentioned that the world was less of these people, some who could have been very influential in terms of positively impacting society.
How is this video different in video technique and style from most videos or movies that you are used to seeing? (think about your answers to question 2 on the previous reflection)? Do you think the difference in style was effective? Why or why not?
This type of documentary is different than most that I've seen because the interview was conducted on the site of location, instead of a sit-down interview with b-roll of the buildings. It is very effective to this type of story, as we can see both Elie Wiesel's and Oprah's emotions and reactions to the significance of the buildings.
After watching the video and reading the book, what is your impression or response to this thing called the Holocaust? How did the experience of watching the video differ from that of reading the book for you?
Although the book was a very detailed account of Elie Wiesel's experience with the holocaust, watching the video made this experience seem more real to me. The video put a face on the story, as well as displayed the real buildings, the real shoes, the real cans of poison that were actually used at that time. It became so real for me through the movie, versus the book, because these kinds of events aren't supposed to happen in real life. They are so...extreme that it sounds like it was taken out of a horror movie or something, but it has actually happened, and that the really scary part.
