Silly Flim, watch a holocaust documentary - Paper Clips (2006) Discussion

[–] kaneforgov 18 years ago

Acknowledgment of the suffering of one group of people does not diminish the injustices carried out against others. Sorry you’re “really tired” of it, but many people will work to make sure the world never forgets.

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[–] anapp 18 years ago

cdmitchell, who are you to determine whether one group "suffered as much or more" than any other? how is the amount of suffering of a group of people at all a measurable quality? exactly how did you come to the conclusion that one group suffered more or less than another?

that's possibly the most ignorant statement on any of these boards.

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[–] Falfa81 18 years ago

Whether there be no measurable way of which was worse, you cannot fault his logic. I have seen numerous films about the Holocaust. But I have never seen a film or documentary on what Stalin's rule did. The holocaust went over 6years...less when the actual concentration camps were used. Stalin's communist reign lasted for years and years. Whole families imprisoned just because they disagreed with something. Off to the Goolags for the rest of their lives.

Though I see little remembered of this.

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[–] ebay-76 18 years ago

Well why don't all of you lazy people get off your big fat mouths and DO something instead of critizing.

All you do is make yourselves seem more ineffectual when you fault the efforts of others twho HAVE found a way to make a difference.

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[–] mnndt 18 years ago

he did make a difference, because we were talking about it.

point remains valid. this is nothing new. I might watch the film, but i have seen this same stuff repeated on english tv so much, that I too am becoming tired of it.

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[–] Falfa81 18 years ago

Alas I too (being in the UK) have already gotten my fair share of Holocaust programs. Its the same formula, tell about who died how awful the Nazi's were, etc. I personally have not seen one documentary on other tragic events like communism in the USSR.

I am fine with people trying to learn about what happened in inventive ways, but this is just a holocaust documentary that broke the cammels back.

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] baby8687 17 years ago

okay first off, funnybunny where have you been going to school where you are just hearing about stalin for the first time in your high school's marching band? that's rediculous! and falfa and cdmitchell, I'm sorry that you're so tired of hearing about the Holocaust, but first off no one is forcing you to watch the movie. If you know you don't want to hear about a subject, maybe you shouldn't spend money on watching it. Second, when you say that people just had to disagree with Stalin and they were imprisoned, obviously the MANY movies you seem to have seen on the Holocaust have had no effect on you because Jews just had to be living in the wrong country in the wrong time and they were killed. Entire cities were wiped out. So again, sorry if you are sick and tired of hearing about the Jews and the Holocaust. Maybe when it's your families people are persecuting you'll begin to understand.

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[–] ngraver 17 years ago

Is anyone out there getting the point of this project? This principal should be commended for her obvious devotion to introducing her students to the aspect of diversity in a community obviously lacking in this regard. This documentary draws its inspiration from the fact that everyone in this community drew together and supported the students and educators in this quest. Genocide is not a new topic, but the introduction of altruism into our curriculums is a relatively new idea, and using the Holocaust as an example of why altruism is imperative becomes ever clearer as students move up the grades and begin to study other pogroms such as those initiated by the Stalin regime, the current situation in Darfur, and the recent horrors in Ruwanda. The point of the documentary was not to engage the viewer in another Holocaust documentary, but to point out the way in which a rural principal took the bull by the horns and decided to make a change in her community that has grown to epic proportions. The project continues yet today. Busloads of Holocaust survivors visit the memorial annually, and the town continues to welcome them with open arms. As horrific and tragic as any genocide is, perhaps we can walk away from this video knowing that someone had the initiative to take one small step in helping students understand WHY something like this happened, and to help them learn a lesson in diversity which will serve them well in their future endeavors.

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[–] drgonzoishere 17 years ago

As I've said in other post's, it would have been a better idea to really grab the bull by the horns and teach the kids about slavery and the lynchings that took place in there own state and racial tension that still exists TODAY How many years will it take until this is taught to the new generations?

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[–] hagaren0 17 years ago

Er...if you watched the movie closely, they DO mention the state's legacy of the Scopes trial and the KKK, as well as the "typical Southern racism" against blacks, and furthermore how this project helped absolve those stereotypes. I live in a former slave state, and you can rest assured that we most definitely get it shoved down our throats in school how terrible the South's legacy of racism and slavery is, but even after reading Uncle Tom's Cabin I still find the Holocaust a striking and effective example of the extremes of prejudiced beliefs.

Sometimes, studying the effects of prejudice in another culture can help people better understand their own prejudices, and where they'll lead. Even regardless of this, the fact that they TRIED to do something, anything at all, do remove these beliefs in a town where the children almost certainly would've gone into the big, wide world with them intact is commendable, at least from my perspective.

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[–] vixnix 17 years ago

IAWTC. It baffles me that one could watch this film and not understand that the point was to examine our own prejudices, and consider whose prejudices might encompass us.

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[–] hnbrody 16 years ago

If you havent seen odcumentary's about the tragic deaths in the Russian revolution and before that in Russia, perhaps you dont watch the history channel. They are there. Your chiming in with Mitchell only reveals your veiled prejudices. If the truth and emotion breaks your camesl back , maybe your camel has as weak a spine as you.

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[–] hnbrody 16 years ago

Actually the Holocaust began in 1937 with the establishment of Buchenwald as the first camp. The actual period was for over eight years...actually going back to the persectutions, book burnings and riots. There is no shortage of accompanying victims to the Jews in the holocaust, including 2 millions Gypsies, and equal numbers of Russians, Poles, hungarians along with Homosexuals and other undesireable groups.

No one disputes the purges under Stalin and Lenin. Nor is much made of the attrocities committed by the Russians agfainst Jews over many years, including the Czarist inspired cossack raids and Pogroms and the mass evictions of Jews from their homes and forced exile. The Russians, Lithuanians and Estonians accounted for at least a million more murders as they annhilated whole Jewish communities including a large section of Vilnios, the Lituanian capital.

Much of the so called atrocities you describe in russia were part of the war between the white russians and the red russians as documented in historical books. The nature of the Czar was to freely murder and supress the people resulting in the Revolution which carried on the slaughter but of the Bourgoise. Was this a holocaust or a revolutionary state of constant terrorism ?

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[–] prudhocj 13 years ago

Falfa81 wrote - "Whether there be no measurable way of which was worse, you cannot fault his logic. I have seen numerous films about the Holocaust. But I have never seen a film or documentary on what Stalin's rule did. The holocaust went over 6 years...less when the actual concentration camps were used. Stalin's communist reign lasted for years and years. Whole families imprisoned just because they disagreed with something. Off to the Goolags for the rest of their lives.

Though I see little remembered of this."

Dear Falfa81 - I'm going to guess that the "81" in your id is your birthdate?! In any case, here's why it's risky to display what knowledge you think you have for all to see on the web............making a big deal over Stalin and his misbegotten rule pales beside your lack of knowledge of a much bigger deal. That would be the number of people in China that Mao starved to death attempting to collectivize the farms there as recently as the late 60's! How many died........30 million (far more than Stalin's record)? And Mao ruled longer than Uncle Joe to boot. So, if we're going to compare history and what we THINK we know it would pay to KNOW your history first! I'm just sayin'.......

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[–] corrrgj 16 years ago

very true!

homosexuals, gipsies, people that were against national sotialism and jews

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[–] hnbrody 16 years ago

So you get really tied of hearing about the Jews being slaughtered. Perhaps you get tired of hearing of the American Black man's struggles and subsequent lynchings and persecutions along with any other minority that isnt related to you. If you admired the kids who took part in this project you certainly don't have the courage to experience as they did. For your information, this film is a documentary....one about human beigs learning about the world as it is and of compassion for others. If you find this film silly, it tells more about you, than the film.

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[–] jamie-desposito 16 years ago

Why does the suffering of Jewish people have to take away from everyone elses? It just doesn't make sense. My Grandpa was in this documentary, and I think that he suffered so much in his life that his story deserved to be heard. People still deny that this tragity even happened, and soon, all the survivors. My grandpa is an amazing man. He was a great father to my mom and her sister, and an amazing grandfather. I just wish I could have met the rest of his family. His only other surviving sister died around two years ago, she was 102. My grandpa is 88. How much longer do the rest of them have on this planet. I think that instead of worrying how this is taking away from how much others have suffered, we should remember that those surviors in the film aren't going to around forever. They're living history, and they're amazing people.

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[–] warrior_poet1314 16 years ago

In regards to why there aren't documentaries in relation to Stalin, and the Khmer Rouge and other atrocities, I think there are a few basic reasons.
1. THere are literally thousands, of startling images with which we can remind ourselves of what horrible things happened during the NAzi holocaust.
2. Aside from the images, there are thousands if not millions of written records by the nazis themselves that document what they were doing, as it was a very ordered systematic approach to this evil thing.
3. There are more survivors which trickled into other cultures to tell their stories than under any of these other regimes.
4. The jews are focused on because they were the largest targeted group and they had the greatest voice afterwards.(in that era how many homosexuals would stand up and claim their orientation and tell their story public, how many invalids, mentally handicapped etc could tell their stories?)

Certainly there are probably more reasons, but there is no reason to become resentful or hostile because the jewish people are focused on, a logical analysis will tell you why.

I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man...

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[–] WarpedRecord 13 years ago

I have to say I agreed with you during the first half of the film, but once the students started meeting with Holocaust survivors, I found this extremely moving. This is one of many films addressing the Holocaust, not the best and not the worst, but still worthwhile.

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