The work describes in a 20-line standard stanza the lives of six individuals who were affected in some way by the holocaust. I tried not to just define each character by their status and circumstances, but also by a dominant emotion that would carry with them. The first character, Alfons, I share the closest connection with personally because he and I both are nineteen. I attempted to imagine how my life would be affected if I were forced to endure this event at a time of discovering I face now. Along with devaluation, expectations, and hopelessness as elements, what path was he set on by this exterior force on his life? The other characters are much similar in having faced normal human difficulties in their pre-holocaust lives, endured unimaginable hardship during the events that took place, and were forever disadvantaged and scarred by this portion of their lives in which they involuntarily relinquished control to a great evil. Each of the characters are distinct in their own unique experiences shaped by where they went, who they were before they became involved, and how they cope with these hardships. Each of the characters are also the same inasmuch as they are unsuspecting victims in a merciless campaign to de-humanize that which is different, an increasingly relevant concept as the post-modern age progresses in a globalized world of self-awareness shared in a space with that of many others different from ourselves.

Rationale: No one wants to talk about LGBT+ history. As if we didn't exist outside the AIDS crisis and our suffering in the Holocaust is just the word "homosexual" in the list of those who were wronged, easily skipped over. This piece was inspired by those whose suffering is seen as a footnote, because they deserve to be brought back to life. Paragraph 175 refers to a longstanding provision of the German Criminal Code that outlawed homosexual acts between men. Synopsis: Our main character Aloys and his lover Otto begin the story by hiding from the SS in an alleyway. They're torn apart but reunited months later, with whispers of Allied forces amongst homosexual-specific horrors. As expectations mount the two dare to dream of a life together, of happiness. When the Allies attack the camp a soldier gets into the homosexual part of the camp and orders them all inside so they're not shot. But once they obey he locks them in, rescuing everyone else while leaving them all to die.

The atrocities of the Holocaust have left many without grandparents, husbands and wives, sons and daughters; generations were wiped out, cutting family trees short and memories to never be made. This poem is in honor of my grandfather whom I never had the chance to meet, but also speaks for all who were lost from this tragedy in history, for all who have “a man they never knew.” Through the power of repetition, the message strongly conveyed in this poem is about what was taken—the future and the memories of what could have been. I was truly inspired by this concept and created a poem around the sensations that I have been robbed of. For that alone, I believe that this poem will resonate with those who have lost loved ones in the Holocaust and also trigger the image of what could have been if “the man I never knew” was here today.

When Dr. Schaefer first introduced the Skopp Project in class I was immediately interested because of my family's connection with World War II. Most of the men on my mother's side including my grandfather who fought on the beaches of Normandy brought or sent home memorabilia. This summer when we were cleaning out an old camp that used to belong to my Grandfather we found a box with a Nazi swastika eagle on it that was filled with various things containing swastikas. The box was very fresh in my mind when Dr. Schaefer introduced the project because I was very curious about, what actually happened in Nazi Germany. That is why i decided to participate in the competition, however that is not the motivation for my project. What really gave me the idea was a movie that 1 watched in my HIS285 class entitled Night and Fog, which depicted what the remaining death camps really looked like. The first thing that I noticed in the movie was that everything in the camp was a straight edged rectangle, it interested me because I had never really thought about the actual process of what it takes to plan the extermination of a race. Everything was carefully calculated and figured out, nothing was left to chance. What I want people to really reflect on is how something as chaotic as the Holocaust can occur in places that were so carefully planned and organized. My project is going to consist of a replica model of Auschwitz-Birkineau. I am going recreate the structures of the death camp on a scale thai everyone can grasp. The "ground" of the model is going to be a series of different poems that express some of the details of what occurred at that camp and different ideas that people have about the holocaust. Poems are the best way to get people to reflect and think about something because they in themselves have to be interpreted and reflected upon. The poems are also there to further demonstrate the chaos among the organization because of the ideas and feelings that they will express. The model of the camp shows the perfectly rectangular buildings while the poems scattered throughout represent the people and the ideas that died there and survived there. No one really ever thinks about the planning of the Holocaust, most think about how something like that could happen. The best way to understand how it happened through a visual aid is to depict the planning that went into it and show the destructive power of organized chaos. After all most people by nature are 50% logic and 50% chaos.

All four of my grandparents were touched by the events of the Holocaust. Every family origin story told to me either began or ended with this event. Today, as the generation that was directly affected by the Holocaust leaves us, I find myself with a need to learn more about my family’s personal history, because some things should not be forgotten. At the same time, my own life has taught me the importance of letting go of pain, anger, and especially of hatred. Currently, I struggle with my individual narrative of my family’s origin and history. The Holocaust is without a doubt an incredibly important event, having caused the movement and death of many family members. And yet, my grandparents also had long lives after, doing wonderful things with their lives. This poem was created in light of my growing understanding of the Holocaust, the current day and age in which we live and my own forming identity. What started as a series of one stanza Haiku eventually became one long poem. I had originally intended to create a group of small moments at different times and placed, all set during the Holocaust. Upon proof reading the poems, I noticed that all of them reflected specific moments that are embedded in personal narratives of my grandparents. Putting them together, I started to create my own personal narrative, ending the poem just before I move past my introduction. With all my life left to live and learn from, I felt that what is most important for me and my generation is to learn the stories and vow that we will pass on the stories and lessons from the Sho’ah, rather than deciding now what stories need to be heard.