From Professer Denis' lecture addressing the Holocaust, I learned that the Nazi targets included people other than Jews and gypsies. They included homosexuals, cripples, the mentally ill, powerful political figures and lawyers, and basically anyone who was not Arian. I always think that's strange considering Hitler had brown hair and brown eyes, and Arians are supposed to have blonde hair and blue eyes.
I was surprised by the amount of art that liberators found throughout the camps. I would have guessed that all of the artwork would have been destroyed by SS Officers. I was more suprised to learn that some SS Officers buried the art outside of the camp for the prisoners, and that they would barter pictures for food. The peoples' desperation hit home when Prof. Denis talked about the death penalty that came with anti-Holocaust artwork, yet so many people took that risk for the sake of telling the world what really happened.
What I found to be the most interesting point of Prof. Denis' lecture was how many camps there really were. I had only heard of a few, less than ten, so I was very surprised to learn that there were approximately 15,000 camps in all, and that all of the death camps were in Poland.
Listening to Prof. Denis speak about the holocaust put into perspective for me the agony that holocaust victims had to endure. All of the photos and art work of cramped barracks, watery broth in giant barrels, victims stacked in mass graves, and the lack of shame that the SS Officers showed when they killed victims made me realize that I could never even begin to imagine what tese people endured, and that made me thankful that I get to live in this generation.
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