English Composition Essay, Research Paper

? You take a chance when you read. You risk an encounter with another persons ideas and experiences, and you may not ever be the same.?

Today I read two articles in our campus newspaper, The Preface. I took a chance by skimming through on finding any articles that shared my point of view or that would capture interest from me. I was actually very pleased to find an article that I believe to be outstanding.

It appears members from the Preface staff visited Washington, D.C. to see the National Holocaust Museum. As I began to read the article, as I am always in awe of the great tragedy so many people suffered during the Holocaust, I began to feel as if I myself were there. A great sadness overcame me, of the emptiness, and betrayal, and dehumanization these suffered by so many people.

I felt myself join the author in gently touching a train car doorway, that not all too many years ago several Jewish people had been herded into like mere cattle, either being sent into slavery or to be gassed too death. I too passed the pictures of branded men, and the boxes filled with shoes, that once upon a time held people with hopes and dreams like you and I in them. I read quote after quote, with the author, reminding me so very much of what happened during the reign of Hitler.

I pictured the video of Jewish people being used for hideous medical experiments. A man, who was forced to wear a mask cutting off his supply of oxygen, how long would it take for him to die? I felt the shame, the pain, and soul wrenching horror this man felt. As much as I possibly tried I know that the way I felt reading the articles written by Colleen Hahn and Rebecca Ferguson, expressing the way they felt touring this great and sad place could never compare to what it would actually feel like.

And to be a survivor, to know that entire cities of the people around you, the people you worked with, played with, laughed with, and cried with had been mass murdered. To know that your flesh and blood was so arrogantly and practically instantly taken away, and to know of the ways in which they has suffered before they died. To live with that knowledge, to live through the Holocaust and have survived. I could never get close enough to feeling how that would be.

This article has made such a tremendous impact of me. I gained experiences that I myself actually did not witness first hand. I gained these through the great expression and writings of two very talented authors, whom I was fortunate enough to read along with and tour The National Holocaust Museum. It was a great experience and I am happy to see such wonderfully delivered articles in our school paper.