Berlin Memorial Activity 3.19.15

While doing the Berlin Memorial Activity in class today, I learned that Jews were not allowed to do many things. Of course I already knew that they were restricted from a lot of things but what I didn't know was that there are over 400 Jewish decrees! Some of them were outrageous! There were decrees stating that Jews couldn't attend school, couldn't own pets, or even go to bakeries. Those are just three of the 400 laws that were given to Jews. Other laws were extremely irrelevant like "Every Jew must change their middle name to 'Sarah' or 'Isreal'." Why is this important? Does their middle name really matter?

I think that this monument was built to remember all the people that passed away. By having a memorial it reminds people of the hard times that the Jews had to go through. By creating this monument it represents a tragic time in history, the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a very gruesome event that happened. By having a monument to show the public, I think they are hoping to not have a repeat. This memorial shows respect for those who lost their lives and represents the Holocaust and how serious it was.

As we did the activity and had people come up by the year these Jewish decrees were passed, there was a lot of variation. Some years there seemed to be many laws passed and others there were very few. I wonder why this is. One year (I believe it was 1939) almost the whole class went up to put at least one decree on the wall. This however was not the case in every situation. There were a few years when only one decree was posted on the wall and another were there were none. Most of the time there was more than one law posted on the wall they all had to do with similar topics. Some of the laws were about transportation, education, where you can and can't go, as well as what you can or can't own.

I think that one of the most challenging restriction I would have would be not being able to have a pet. I love animals! I personally have four dogs and if they were taken away from me I would be devastated.  Animals are truly a man's best friend and I personally can't live without them. I think it is pointless to take away someone's animals if they aren't harming others. Let them own pets if they want to, what is the big deal?!?