On the topic of ethnography
Step ONE:
You are going to put on your interviewer's hat and find THREE SUBJECTS (namely, A FELLOW STUDENT, who is not a part of the English 10 Honors community, a TEACHER, who does not teach within the Social Science department, and an unsuspecting CIVILIAN, a relative, a friend outside school, a parent), and ask them to tell you THREE things about the Second World War holocaust.
Step TWO:
Then you are to write these things down.
Step THREE:
You come to the blog, and let us know what surprised you the most about their answers.
posted by belag at Tuesday, March 28, 2006
4 Comments:
Anja's(11th grader)response:
-The holocaust was during the time of WWII.
-Hitler was the leader of the Nazi-Germany and actually that he was Arian.
-The most notorious concentration camp being Aushwitz
-Angela's(Italian teacher)response:
-The holocaust was during the time of WWII.
-Many groups were being organized by hitler's rule:Gypsies,communists,polish people,etc
-the Jews had to wear a symbol to identify them: The Star of David
My Father's response:
-the intentions of Hitler and the Nazis was to exterminate the Jewish population from the European territories which they occupied.
-The most notorious concentration camp being Aushwitz.
-one of the many orders by the Nazis was for every Jew to wear The Star of David on a visible place on one's body.
To be honest, nothing really surprised me by the comments. All 3 people told me general information that i had known before.:))))))))
Wednesday, 04 April, 2007
Teacher:
1) 5-6 million killed in the camps
2) Auschwitz & Treblinka were some of the worst
3) At the beginning of the war, and later on also, people thought they were just going to work or to be relocated. This shows the skill, efficiency, and slyness of the Germans in this "perfect murder."
Student
1) Concentration camps were for jews
2) Jews were killed in gas chambers
3) Total isolation of the jews in the camps
4) Hitler was, theoretically, part jewish and obviously a non-aryan
Other
1) The magnitude of the entire Holocaust(the scale, horror, death rate, conditions)
2) Many people knew about it, did nothing, and later claimed they had no knowledge of it
3) Shocking how many people survived under such extreme and horrible conditions
I expected most of these answers or something similar to them. What I didn't expect was how much some of the people wanted to talk about what they knew. I personally don't like talking about the Holocaust simply because it was commited by humans against humans and in a way, everyone is responsible for it, however, a few of the people went on and on about what they knew about the Holocaust and I had to almost nail their mouths shut.
Another thing that I should have expected but I was still shocked when I realized it was that the level of details and thought put in the answers greatly varied with the age of the person I interviwed. The students stated mostly basic information and had a lot of small details but didn't see anything else. The older the adults that I interviwed got, the more involved and detailed answers were given. Some of it was basic but many of the responses were stating how it affected the world and looking at the concequences and scale of the Holocaust rather than just that is killed a bunch of people.
A final thing that I have noticed is how many people think that it simply happened to jews. While they were certainly the majority in the camps, there were many others as well such as crippled and handicapped people, gypsies, homosexuals and many others. The Holocaust happened to all of these people but it has been the jews that have pushed their story to the top.
Smith
Thursday, 05 April, 2007
Here are the results from my “interviews”:
Teacher Aleksandar’s response:
-It is mostly known as the Jewish Holocaust
-It happened during the second WW
-The Jews and the other groups of people like the Romas, Slavs, Homosexuals and political opponents were treated as second class citizens
-The Germans controlled the minds of the prisoners, told them as much as they should now, often lied
-The prisoners were dehumanized, striped from all of their possessions
-Different groups of people wore different symbols to be recognized, the Jews wore the star of David
-5-6 million died
-The prisoners were taken by cattle wagons on many trains
Friend Kika’s response:
-Happened during WW2
-The word holocaust comes from a Greek word
-Auschwitz is one of the most known concentration camps and gas chambers
-The Jews, Romas and many other groups of people were killed in gas chambers and by shooting
-There were ghettos
- Jews wore the Star of David
-Prisoners had to work a lot
-Many movies about the Holocaust, The Pianist, La vita e bella
-Experiments were done on people
-Many survivors
My mother’s response:
-Jews, Romas, homosexuals, mentally challenged and disabled people were taken as prisoners by the Germans during the second WW
-Many concentrations camps, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Birkenau…
-6 million people were killed
-The prisoners were tortured, worked difficult jobs, dehumanization
-Dr. Mengele, made experiments on people
-The hair from the dead was used for making bags and other things
-The people were taken into ghettos before being taken to the camps
-Wore different symbols for recognition
-People were deported by trains
-The Holocaust was something inhuman which should not happen again
-Many memorials today
The responses I got were satisfactory. What surprised me is the fact that these people are from different generations and they all knew pretty much about the Holocaust. My mother even showed me real pictures taken by her from Auschwitz and Treblinka.
Friday, 06 April, 2007
good work ethnographers.
remember the cardinal rule in ethnography: objectivity, towards the subject matter and the responsee.
Monday, 09 April, 2007
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