Sharing a Story; The Reason I study the Holocaust.

On Footsteps, we have asked people to share their stories, their connection to the Holocaust. Of course not everyone has a direct connection, we have grandchildren of SS guards, of Nazi Criminals... Everyone from different backgrounds sharing their stories. So I thought, instead of paining everyone with my story via Footsteps, I would post it here, it's nothing special of course, I have no direct connection to the Holocaust. I just feel a deep sense of meaning when I think of my life, working against the rise of racism and making sure that this never happens again. 

This is a brief story of how I came to be part of a wonderful team, and started to fight against the rise of hatred in this world. 

Post-Poland Thoughts

After a few days of being alone, having time to think, to be in this shell (in other words my bedroom) just to reflect on the week which has just past us. I realise there is still so much hatred in the world, still so much discrimination, even to people who are just wanting to make a difference. The power of having a surname which represents something, even if you are nothing like your relatives. 

 Not knowing what the future will bring excites me a little, hoping that some how we can make a difference, that we can educate people in such a way that they also feel the same as we do, that we want to make a brighter and safer future, which doesn’t involve hating because of who we are. We all, this week changed, even if it was only a small percentage of us that did, I already feel myself wondering what more we could do, what other things might help even that tiny bit to step forward, just one more step, to raise awareness and stop this hatred which swarms through our world like the plague. 

Poland; Journal Entries.

I am finding it hard, too hard to speak of how I feel, unable to talk about my own deep feelings on what I saw, I thought I would post sections of what I wrote during the week, of course a lot of personal moments have been taken out for personal and private reasons... This is probably the easiest way for me, to express my feelings.

This isn't going to be extremely historic, I already know. It's more about my own emotions, feelings and thoughts throughout the trip.

Auschwitz-Birkenau; Schmerzhafte Trauer

Auschwitz-Birkenau, the camp which is so vast you can spend hours walking round and still miss so much of the history of this dreadful place. The gates were covered by the tent so that is why there is no photo of the snow covered gates which symbolise the whole camp in the modern day photographs. Of course we were there for the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, something which I felt honoured to attend, standing in the freezing cold for 4 hours was nothing, as we kept saying 'we are cold in 8 layers... imagine the poor prisoners who hardly wore any clothing at all' It really does make you feel emotionally unstable, just walking through this vast land.

Auschwitz Main Camp; Aller Anfang ist Schwer

Spending four days around Auschwitz, and two afternoons at Birkenau was extremely hard, this is why the article gained the title 'Aller Anfang ist Schwer' meaning 'All Beginnings are hard' This was my first time going to the grounds of Auschwitz, luckily I was with a group who mostly had been before. The first time we arrived, it was getting dark, the snow was falling and the grounds were white. It was such a weird situation to be in, the ground which we walked on had once been scattered with ash, to make it easier to walk on through icy weather, the ash coming from the burning of the bodies which were constantly murdered because of hate.

Sightseeing in Poland.

On the 24th I arrived in Poland for the first time, it was cold and the snow was starting to fall, I didn't know what I was to expect of this week, how much I would be seeing, what I would see. It was all so new to me. We were staying in the Jewish Quarter of Krakow, (Yes it is also where parts of Schlinder's List was filmed, but I don't want to go into that) We headed straight out to explore, I saw so much beauty in a city which once had been captured and tarnished by the Nazis. Seeing Wawal Castle, how it over looked some of the city, remembering that once Hans Frank lived there like a King, a king of a country his 'men' had captured. It was all very surreal to me. 

Why Josef Mengele?

I get asked a lot of the time what made me choose Josef Mengele as a focus to why I am writing about the Holocaust and why I have been so interested in the Doctors and the experiments which were done during World War II. This post will be about the reasons why and how I focus on the doctors of the Holocaust and what made me decide that Josef Mengele would be the focus of my writing, my studies and my book.

I of course am not saying I am not interested in other officers, of course that is completely wrong. I have always looked at the Holocaust in a whole, I don't only read about experiments or only read about Mengele. I do focus on the Holocaust as its full form so to speak.

Places to Visit

As someone who adores history, there has always been certain places which I want to visit, some are more of a need now than a want. Auschwitz will be of course mentioned, I am yet to go but in 19 days I will be in Poland ready to go there. These are not all WWII areas, some date back to dynasties in China, as I have always had a keen interest in The Three Kingdoms of China. This will probably become more of a bucket list of places I need to one day go to. These places will be a varied list of places which include shrines, temples, prisons and camps. Also Memorial halls as some do not have structured buildings to use as memorials etc. I have been to many places, including Churchill's war rooms, some of the remaining preserved trenches, so many of these won't be mentioned on the list.

A/N: I will continue to add to this list as time goes on. This was going to be a 'page' but Blogger didn't want that to happen!

Introduction to the Blog

Hello! Welcome to the History Journal.

 As a small introduction I thought I would introduce myself, my work and my aims for the future, as 2015 has finally come I thought it was about time I started a blog to keep myself and my friends up to date with the work in which I will be taking part in from now on, it's a big and exciting project which I am extremely looking forward to carrying out.

First of all, my name is Jessica, I'm in my twenties and I'm British. I am actually a qualified ESL teacher (this means I can teach English as a second language with over 300 classroom hours under my belt) however teaching however fun it was for me, I had a yearning for another subject which I have always held close to me. This would be History. I love history, I always have since I was a little girl listening to my Grandparents talk about the war and our family members who fought in the war. It was always a topic at school I really enjoyed and got good grades in too. Now it is my career choice, one which wasn't really accepted at home in the beginning.

My work mainly insists of writing my very first book, this book is a biography of the Nazi Doctor Josef Mengele (Before you say there is loads of books on Josef) this one is completely different, it's the complete truth, no lies, just the truth. Written with the help of documents from the era it will educate the readers more than any of the past Mengele books which have been released.

This isn't the only project. Later this month I will be travelling to Poland, with a group of extremely intelligent people, who you can easily find via my twitter. We will be at the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, which is a real honour as I have yet to visit the camp itself. While we are there we will be making an international pledge to put a stop to anti-semitism, prevent right-wing parties from gaining too much power in the world and making sure History does not repeat itself. This wouldn't of been possible without Rainer Hoess (Grandson of the Commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoess) who we work closely with, and will be from now on!

This leads towards greater things, more involvement with history work, meeting important people and speaking to countless survivors, this is why I have made this blog, to be able to share my experiences with a close connection. This is also a way for my family to keep up to date with what I am doing when I am not in England.

I hope you will enjoy this blog, have a look around and learn about the work, the history and the future.