Freedom

            Gerda was able to be freed from German hands before they were able to kill her. However, her family did not meet the same fate. They were murdered sometime throughout the war. She lost her best friends Ilse and Suse during the march, which took over two months. While being freed Liesel, her last remaining friend, dies. As Gerda looked at her, she said that, “A solitary tear ran down her cheek” (Klein 215). It was liberation day and she had made it. This was what she and her friends had dreamed of for years. Unfortunately, Gerdas’ happiness was shadowed by the fact that she was now alone. She had no family and friends.

            She did meet a soldier on V-E Day. His name was Kurt Klein. He was also a Jew, but had managed to escape before the war started. Gerda and Kurt fell in love and eventually got married. While she was still imprisoned she dreamed of having a baby. She had, “The thought of a baby, warm, new, clean as freedom itself” (Klein 155). This is something that kept her going. It kept her from giving up even when the work or journey seemed impossible. She managed to survive hunger, disease, physical beatings, and the pure hatred of the Nazis. I thought that this book was excellent. All Gerda longed for was to have a family, her family. In the end even though hers was killed she was able to start a new one with Kurt. This book far surpassed my expectations. It is filled with vivid details of her life during the many years she was imprisoned. I get a sense of determination from reading this book. Gerda persevered under daunting odds. This gives me inspiration to complete my dreams.

Gerdas' Determination

            Gerda is going through things that most of us today can’t even imagine what they would be like. Her biggest problem is dealing with the fact that her family is split. She has guilt because she promised her father that she would stay with her mother at all costs. Whenever she gets a letter from him he asks why she had left her mother. Unfortunately, Gerda never gets to tell her father the answer because the Germans kill him. Gerda is also writing to her brother Arthur. She notices that her brothers’ writing is not the same, and that it looks as though he is in pain when writing (133). When she receives a letter from him she gets a sense of reassurance (134). However, this was the last letter she ever got from Arthur. She said that he, “Sensed it would be,” his last message, and that maybe he, “Paid for writing it with life itself” (Klein 134).         

            She and many of the other girls are then moved to another camp. This camp is much worse than the camp they were just at. The woman in charge carries a whip, and uses it to motivate the girls to work (145). While Gerda is cleaning parts of a loom a worker tries to bribe her to have sex with him. When she refuses he says that she will be sorry (148). And it turns out to be that she is. She is put to work unloading flax in the daytime and at night she unloads coal from the trains. This constant work causes her to become physically and mentally exhausted. She even thinks of committing suicide by jumping in front of a train. Finally they are moved to another camp where she is with her friends from the previous camp. Gerda just learns to buckle down when things get tough. She always remembers the promise that she gave to her father, and strives to keep it even when times get rough. I know that most people couldn’t work day and night for four days straight. It takes a dedicated individual that wants to live to keep on going, and that is exactly what Gerda is.

Challenges

“Oh God,” I prayed, as Mrs. Berger came out of her room with a pile of mail” (Klein 121). This is Gerda praying during mail call at the work camp that she has been sent to. She sent a letter to her father in hope of finding out where he was, and where her mother was. When it is time for mail call she hopes that she has received a letter, but at the same time she hopes that she doesn’t. This is because she doesn’t want to hear bad news from her father.

            Since my last post the Weissmann’s have went through many more challenges and difficulties. They have been forced to leave their homes and have been separated. Also a SS Officer came to the door of their house and said that he needed to see Gerdas’ father. He had hidden in the closet and Gerda refused to tell the officer anything. He pulled his pistol and threatened to shoot her. She still would not give him an answer. By doing this Gerda showed that she was extremely brave, and that she was willing to sacrifice her own life for someone she loved.    

            They were ordered to the train station, and the men were ordered to board a train heading for a labor camp. Then her mother and she are separated, and Gerda is sent to a labor camp. As she is driving away in a truck she hears her mothers voice saying, “Be strong…Be strong” (Klein 92). These are the last words that Gerda ever heard from her mother. I can only imagine what it would be like to be separated from my family and then find out that my parents were killed. Gerda has continued to show strength and will not let them kill her. As I read this I felt bad for those who have gone through such tragedies. I think that for those who survived it is a terrible thing to have to live without their families, and many of them without knowing where they’re buried.

Stress Journal

Hi everyone! I’m back again to talk about stress. This time I will be talking about stress journals. A stress journal is something that is supposed to help you evaluate your stress. It shows a stressful event, a reaction, and a coping response. This journal is designed with the idea that you will be able when you are stressed and how well you cope with it. With recording my stress for approximately a week I found that I don’t really have as much stress as I thought. I think our minds allow us to blow things out of proportion. Even though we feel stressed I find that my stress came from primarily one thing. College Classes! At this point in the semester I am under a lot of stress. I have two novels to read, a group paper coming due for Psychology, work due for College Writing, and an Art project. This is probably the heaviest load thus far in my “college career.” I think that keeping this stress journal maybe has stressed me out a little more than I already was. It just reminded me of the things that I wanted to put out of my head. Obviously But, I guess I have to suck it up and continue pushing through. Below is the chart that I filled out with directions from webmd.com. If you would like to see the article you can follow this link http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/stress-journal-topic-overview .

Time	Stressful Event	Reaction (behavior,thoughts)	Coping response
Fri 1928 (02/24/12)	Late for movies	Told my friend to drive fast and run a stop sign	Not Sure
Sat 1200	Drive home from Clarion on snow covered roads	Feared wrecking my car.	Drove slow and put on light music
Sun 1845	Still hadn’t done my Ethics homework due Mon.	Weight on my chest, constantly in back of mind	Made myself sit down and do it.
Mon 1410	Read part of my book for Psych project	I need to read this fast, I hope it is interesting	I am going to make myself read a little bit each night
Tues 1215	I have a lot of papers and books to write and read	Constantly on my mind	Not Sure
Wednesday 1900	Have to go to meeting which will cause me to lose time for studying	Constantly on my mind, can’t get to sleep. It is past midnight and still awake.	Just have to do a lot more work on the weekend.
Thurs 0530	Somehow forgot to write blog.	I think, “Can I get this done in time?”	Write it at 5:30 am.