Poetry Essay

Brian Rose
Ms. Melville
English 1
December 18, 2008

Even though "Just" seems like a simple poem, it actually is quite meaningful. What makes “Just” such a great poem? Well this is a great poem because the author, Itka Zygmuntowitz, uses the three major poetic devices of Sound, Imagry, New Perspective. Because of its use of poetic devices, “Just” is a great poem and shall be hailed as one for all time.
One of the major poetic devices that is used in “Just” is the poetic device of sound. There are different ways of using the poetic device of sound. In the poem “Just”, the author uses repition and rhyme. An example of repition in the poem is the word “Just”. Itka Zygmuntowicz uses the word “Just” to start almost every line. There is also a different use of sound. The poem also uses rhyme. Every two sentences forms a rhyming couplets. An example of the use of rhyming couplets is in the first line of the poem. Line 1 ends with “plain”, and line 2 ends with “fame”. This poem can be classified as a good poem because it uses the poetic device of sound.
Another poetic device that you will find in the poem “Just”, is the use of imagery. Two types of imagery that are used in “Just” are Sight and Hearing. An example of the use of sight is in line 1. Line one is the sentence “Just a woman simple and plain”. My observation of this line is an image of a woman, not very well dressed, no make up, and her clothes are probually cheap. An example of the use of hearing is in line five. Line five is “just a friend to share laughter and tears”. In this example, you hear a woman crying and a woman laughing.
There is another poetic devise in the poem “Just” is its way of giving the reader a new perspective of something. There is two different ways of using New Perspective in the poem “Just”. The poem “Just” uses similie and personification. An example of similie is in line eight. Line eight uses “with the right to live like any other”. In this sentence, Itka wants to convey that just because she is Jewish, she should not be treated any differently than anyone else. An example of personification is in line 7. “Just a child of a Heavenly Father”. The hevenly father term refers to God. Even though most religions think of God as real, it has never been proven that there is a God. So because God is a myth, it would be giving human qualities to a myth.
In this essay I have shown why “Just” is a good poem. It is a good poem because it uses poetic devices. “Just” uses sound, imagry, and new perspetive. You should go out and buy the book, “You Only Have What You Give Away.” “Just” should be haild as one of the best poems of all time because of its use of the three major poetic devices.

NHD Annotation # 1 New Topic

Interview with Itka Zygmuntowicz
Neal Rose / N. Rose Locksmith
November 22, 2008

Please Note - This Interview was Impromptu and no dialougue was recorded. This is a primary source because I am doing this annotation based on the information given by Neal Rose, my father.

My father is a locksmith. He recived a call on Nov. 20,2008 to go out to a house in the northeast section of the city. When he arrived he was greeted by a little old lady named Itka. Itka's purse had been stolen and her keys were in her purse. She wanted my dad to change the locks so that the person who stole her purse would not have access to her house. My dad changed the locks and Itka was happy. My dad was compensated and my dad left. On November 22, 2008, Itka called again. She claimed that she was having trouble with the new lock. My dad went back to her house. After examineing her lock, my dad concluded that the lock was in the same condition than it was before. She said that my dad might have broke the lock. My dad said it works fine. Again, Itka said it was not working. She said this some more. My dad started to get angry. She argued with my dad some more. After a few minutes of argueing, Itka put her hand on my dads sholder and said " we should not argue, no one is right." She also said that she has been through so much fighting that she did not wan to fight anymore. Itka then rolled her sleve up and revealed numbers that were tattoooed on her. She said that she was a Jewish person that was born in born in Poland in 1926. In 1941, when Itka was 15 years old, the Nazi troops took Itka and her family to the Auschwitz aoncentration death camp. Theese numbers signified what the Nazis called her. She had a way of calming my dad down.
This Interview has helped my project because it shows how a person who has had so much pain in her life could still cherish life as much as she did.

NHD TOPIC Selection Essay

Brian Rose
Mr. Brasof, Ms. Garcia – Thompson, Ms. Klose
Historiography, Technology, Art History
November 27, 2008

Itka Zygmuntowicz was born in the year 1926, Itka was born and raised in Ciechanow, Poland. When she was 15 years old, the Nazi troops took her and her family to the infamous Auschwitz concentration death camp. She survived this terrible time and she shares her experiences with school children all around the United States of America. She has dedicated her life to teaching people about the Holocaust and remembering all of the victims. She is a member of the Memorial Committee for the Six Million Jewish Martyrs of the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Association of Holocaust Survivors in Philadelphia. She is also a poet and recalls her experiences in her poetry. Her poems are so inspirational and heartfelt. She is an inspiration to all people who think they are in a bad situation. If she can survive the Holocaust, other people can survive anything.
Itka was a survivor of the Holocaust. She escaped from the concentration camp. She survived a time of total carnage. She was a witness and a victim of the torture and abuse of the Nazi’s. She has solved the problem of the lack of awareness of the Holocaust. She travels to schools all over the United States and teaches students about the Holocaust. She tries to inspire people that they can get through anything. She shows the human resiliency to survive. Her poems show us that we can make it through anything. When you read her poems, you can feel all the pain and suffering she went through.
This year’s National History Day Topic is “An Individual in History, Actions and legacies”. Itka fits into this category because of her will to survive and her courage to overcome challenges that face her. She has been dedicated to teaching young adults about the Holocaust. She tries to help people remember all of the victims of the Holocaust and get more people to respect them. You can ask any person who has met her and they will tell you that she is an inspiration to all. I am pleased to be able to meet her. I am going to meet her and I am going to record the whole interview. I am going to include the interview in my project.
I am now going to recite one of Itka’s poems so you can hear for yourself how inspirational and heartfelt her poems are.
This Poem is from Itka’s book “You Only Have What You Give Away”.
“The Silent Voice” (Itka dedicated this poem to all those whose voices have been silenced forever in the Holocaust from 1933 – 1945)
When ages of civilization crumble to dust,
And death is raging supreme.
When the devil is crowned by the power of deceit,
Then freedom is a far away dream.

When all you’ve loved is taken from you,
And you are stripped to the bare bone. When all moral boundaries and laws are broken,
Then you are in hell with Satan alone!

When Jews are depicted as subhuman, as “vermin”,
And brute force and evil prevail,
When doctors and nurses turn children to corpses,
Then all logic and reason fail!

When the whole world remains dead silent,
With the exception of just a few.
Then they grant Satan license and opportunity,
To murder in the gas chambers God loving Jew!

When men and women are kept apart,
And new life is not conceived.
When there is no sound of laughter and song,
How can God by man be perceived?

When the mass murder of the Jews becomes legal,
Under the banner of ideology or God’s sacred name,
Then it is not the victim’s but the Nazi murderers,
Who did not resist Satan and defied God’s name.

When living skeletons are marching at gun point,
Through the gates of Auschwitz in long columns of five,
Cold starved, forced to hard labor.
What power on earth gave them the strength to survive/

When all head are shaved, all human rights are denied,
And all wear the same kind of tattered striped dress.
When the worship of God becomes a crime,
Then the whole world is in a terrible mess!

When Hitler’s dream becomes a reality,
And the Nazis send Jews to the left and to the right,
Then such men are not ruled by God’s divine power,
By their own burning ambition for power and might.

When the’ so called’ “Superior Aryan “Nazi race,
Used their knowledge, technology, and skill,
To murder six million Jews mealy for being born Jewish,
But that’s not God’s, but Hitler’s democratic will!

PLEASE READ

To whom it may concern,
I could not find enough information about Dean Kamen to do all of the assignments. I have switch topics and i have made a new topic selection essay.

Nhd Historical Context Time Line

Itka Zygmuntowicz
1. Impact of Event - The Nazis set up the first concentration camps in Dachau Germany. The first inmates were 200 communists.
Event - The Beginning of the Holocaust. The Nazi party takes power in Germany. Adolf Hitler becomes Chansler or Prime Minister of Germany. The Nazi party starts to suspend civil liberties. Books that are considered "Dangerous" to the Nazi beliefs are taken and burned.
Date – 1933
Biography – After World War 1, Adolf Hitler gains hostility against Jewish people and wants payback.
2. Impact of Event – Hitler combines the positions of Chansler and President of Germany in order to gain more power.
Event – As his first change, Hitler rules that Jewish newspapers cannot be sold in streets.
Date – 1934
Biography – Hitler felt that the Jewish writers would try to damage his reputation and he wanted to make his image as clean as possible.
3. Impact of Events – The Nazis persecute any people who do not agree with the Nazis’ views.
Event – The Jews are deprived from their basic rights.
Date - 1935
Biography – The Nazis power are getting stronger. They make their power known and tell people to agree with them or you will be punished.
4.Impact of Events – The International Olympic Games were held in Germany in this year and the Nazis take down all of the boycott signs so they look good in front of the rest of the world. The Jewish people are left to fend for themselves. This is the beginning of very hard times for the Jewish people. The Nazi people try to take all rights away from Jewish people. They are segregated against. 30,000 Jewish people are arrested.
Event – The Nazis boycott Jewish owned businesses
Date – 1936
Biography – The Nazis declare that the Jewish People were no longer allowed to vote.

5. Impact of Events - The Jewish people are left to fend for themselves. This is the beginning of very hard times for the Jewish people. The Nazi people try to take all rights away from Jewish people. They are segregated against. 30,000 Jewish people are arrested.
Event - The Nazis annexed Austria. On the holiday of Ristallnacht, the Nazis terrorize Jewish people throughout Germany and Austria. The Nazis impose laws to segregate the Jewish People.
Date – 1938
Biography - The Nazis leave the Jewish people in poverty. They imposed laws to hurt the Jewish people. They don’t let the Jewish people have enough money to survive. When the Nazis invaded Poland, Itka Zygmuntowicz’s house was invaded by Nazi troops. They took her and her whole family to Auschwitz death camp. When they arrived, they immediately put a tattoo with numbers. They were no longer referred to as their name, but they were referred to with their number. After the marking, they were taken through a hallway. They walked through the hallway until they reached a fork in the hallway. At the fork, there was a Nazi doctor with white gloves on his hands. The prisoners of the Nazis were told to form a line. When they reached the doctor, he told each person individally which direction they should go. He told Itka to go to the left and the rest of her family to the right. All the people who were told to go to the left would survive, but all the people who were told to go to the right were led into a gas chamber where they were killed. Itka was the only person of her family to survive the concentration camp. Some of the Nazi segregation laws are… Jews must carry id cards and Jewish passports are marked with a "J."; Jews no longer head businesses, attend plays, concerts, etc.; all Jewish children are moved to Jewish schools; Jewish businesses are shut down; they must sell businesses and hand over securities and jewels. Jews must hand over drivers’ licenses and car registrations; Jews must be in certain places at certain times.
6. Impact of Event - Germany takes over Czechoslovakia and invades Poland. Britain and France declare war against Germany.
Event – World War Two begins.
Date – 1939
Biography - Hitler starts to intensify the segregation laws. Hitler orders that Jews must follow curfews; Jews must turn in radios to the police; Jews must wear yellow stars of David.
7. Impact of Events – Poland is the central area for the Nazis to house the German Jews.
Event – The Nazis begin transporting German Jews to Poland. World War Two begins.
Date - 1940
Biography – The Nazis started forcing the Jewish people into poverty stricken segregated neighborhoods. It resembled African – American segregation. They transported the Jews into concentration camps like Auschwitz. Then they started the first Mass Murder of Jews.
8. Impact of Event – The Nazis attack Jews throughout Western Europe.
Event – The Nazis invade the Soviet Union. They limit more rights of the Jewish Prisoners.
Date – 1941
Biography – The Nazis start to take over Europe. They force all their Jewish prisoners into the segregated neighborhoods. They started to take away more of the Jewish peoples’ rights. They told them that they could not leave their homes without permission from the police. They say that the Jews cannot use public telephones.
9. Impact of Event - The Nazis start to talk about the Final Solution, to kill ALL Jews in Europe. This is the spark of World War Two.
Event – The Nazis want to kill all European Jews. They take all rights away from Jews. They told the Jews that they cannot subscribe to newspapers; keep dogs, cats, birds, etc; keep electrical equipment including typewriters; own bicycles; buy meat, eggs, or mild; use public transportation; attend school. The segregation of the Jewish people was worse than the segregation of African Americans.
Date – 1942
Biography – The segregation laws intensify even more. I don’t know for a fact, but I think that the Nazis wanted less of the Jewish people’s belongings to clean up after the Jewish people are dead.
10. Impact of Event – The Nazis have killed a lot of Jewish people. The Jewish streets are deserted and the segregated neighborhoods look like ghost towns.
Event – Most of the Jewish population is dead.
Date – 1943
Biography – The Holocaust is close to being over. By February, 80 to 85 percent of all Jewish people who died in the Holocaust have died already.
11. Impact of Event – Hitler continues trying to kill more Jewish people.
Event – Hitler attacks Hungary and captures most of Hungarian Jews.
Date – 1944
Biography - Again, Hitler attacks a country and tries to kill more Jewish people. Hitler transports 12,000 Hungarian Jewish People to Auschwitz where they are killed.
12. Impact of Events – World War Two ends. The remaining Jewish people like, Itka, are freed and transported to displaced persons facilities.
Event – Hitler is defeated and the Holocaust is finally over.
Date – 1945
Biography – Troops from major European countries defeated Hitler and the Nazi party. Itka is freed. The death camps are cleaned out and emptied.
13. Impact of Events – The Nazis is prosecuted for war crimes of the Holocaust and Justice is served.
Event – An International Military Tribunal (or court) is created by Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union. The court meets in Nuremburg and the Nazis are put on trial for their crimes.
Date – 1946
Biography – The Nazis are punished for their crimes and justice is served. The Nazis will pay for all the carnage and deceased people they called.
14. Impact of Events – The U.N. feels that the Jewish people should have a land for themselves where they can live in harmony.
Event – The U.N. gives the Jewish people the British Controlled Palestine.
Date – 1947
Biography – There were a lot of Jewish people who were displaced from their homes. After World War Two ended, the Jewish people had nowhere to go. So the U.N wanted to gave them a place to go. So in 1948, the land was officially granted to the Jewish people. This is now a part of Israel.

Mini - Research Paragraph

Brian Rose 

Ms. Melville 

English 1 

November 26, 2008

I constructed  my bill of rights project based on the question "is the death penalty a constitutional punishment, why or why not?". I wanted to get more of my classmates' opinions' on this issue. The theories of most of the classmates that I've interviewed  were based on the "eye for an eye theory". Most of my clasmates believe that if you kill you should be killed. But on the other hand, Nick had a different opinion. He said that "it depends on the circumstances". I feel that if you kill you should be killed so I agree with my classmates. I am on the same page with my classmates. I believe that the eye for an eye theory is a great idea. Therefore, it should never be abolished.  

Final Copy Critical Essay Number 1 The Power of Stories in Animal Farm

Brian Rose

Ms. Melville

English 1

October 29, 2008

 

         In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the saying “only the strong survive” prevails. The difference is, it’s not the physically strong, but the mentally strong that survive. By mentally strong, I mean people who master the story, not people who let the story master them. In Animal Farm, you have to assert yourself. You can never question the pigs, and you need to get along with them. It is conducive of your survival to not let all the stories master you. The people who told stories and the people who didn’t believe them survived. In Animal Farm, the way you respond to the stories has a strong connection to your ability to survive.

         One way to be portrayed in Animal Farm is to be to master the story. One example of a character that masters the story is Squealer. He can add spin to any story to trick the animals. Squealer can change a story to make Napoleon look great. A perfect example from the story is when the other animals found out that the pigs were sleeping in the farmhouse beds. “You heard then, comrades, that we pigs are sleeping in beds. A bed is mealy a place to sleep. A bail of hay is a bed.” If you remember, the 4th commandment says, “No animals shall sleep in beds”. So if no animals shall sleep in beds, the pigs shouldn’t sleep I beds either. Because Squealer masters the story, he survives. 

         On the contrary, George Orwell portrays Boxer in a totally different way. One-way, Boxer is portrayed as the animal that lets the story master him.  Boxer was a pushover who did whatever he was told. Another way George Orwell portrays Boxer is, he always believed that Napoleon is God. Boxer worked himself until he couldn’t work anymore. He always thought, "I will work harder, I will work harder".   Finally, He worked way past Napoleons retirement age. So when he was so old that he couldn’t work any more, he went to Napoleon. Napoleon lied and was so greedy and he was so selfish for the only person who really obeyed him, Napoleon instead of granting Boxer retirement, he sold him to the slaughterer that would parts of Boxer to make glue. 

         Another example of George Orwell portraying a character of mastering the story is Frederick and Pilkington. They master the story by adding spin to the whole story of the rebellion. They said that the rebellion would not last. They said that the animals are stupid." They animals will need humans". Another example of them adding spin to the story of the rebellion is when they said that the animals are not going to survive. "Who will feed them"," Who will clean their stalls".  Another example of them adding spin to the story is when they say that they will kill each other. They said that the "terrible wickedness will get to them". They said that the animals would practice cannibalism. For mastering the story, Fredrick and Pilkington  survive. 

         The way you decide to respond to the rebellion decides your fait. The point is that Squealer masters the story, and he survived. Boxer lets the story master him and he dies. Frederick and Pilkington master the story, and they survive. Animal Farm has a strong connection to the crisis in Russia during the 1940’s. The Russian people let Stalin’s stories master them. The people who did not petition Stalin died. The Russian people and Boxer made the mistake of letting the story master them.