Interviewer: Jeremy Garsha
Interviewee: Lauren Winslow [UCSB Freshman in HM’s GE1ew class]
Prepared by Jeremy Garsha [3/03/03]
This was an interview conducted after Nina came and spoke to the GE class [2/25/03], in an informal Q&A session. Because Lauren had not been interviewed before Nina’s visit, much of the interview resembles the other three pre-interviews.
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Raw Transcript |
Edited Transcript |
Commits |
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Jeremy: Can you tell me what your major is here? Lauren: I’m a psychology major. J: What year are you? L: Freshmen. J: What kind of history have you studied? L: History? I took regular history classes in Highschool; US history, world history, that’s about it. J: Where did you go to highschool L: Royal Highschool in Ceedy valley [?]. J: Ceedy Valley [?] where’s that? L: It’s about an hour south of here, right outside of LA county. J: What was that highschool like? Was it a private school? L: No it’s a public school, a really big school it’s about 2500 kids. J: So you’re from the LA area then? L: Yeah, it’s still Ventura county, but its right outside of LA J: Have you ever been to the LA Musem of Tolerance? L: No, I haven’t. I’ve been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington dc though. J: IS that the only holocaust related museum you’ve been to. L: Yeah. J: How was that? L: I was in eighth grade so it was quite awhile ago. J: was it a class trip? L: Yeah it was with the school, we went to Washington D.C… I think I was kind of young…I guess I wasn’t that young, but I just think to really understand the holocaust you have to be a lot older. J: Before you guys went, did you get any background preporation in school? L: Um…I’m trying to think…I think we got a little bit. We watched part of a documentary or something just to get a little background. We had meetings, the kids that were going on the trip, we had a bunch of meetings and I think there we watched part of a video for sort of a preparation. J: Was this a trip to the DC area? L: Yeah, we did it as a whole… J: SO you were there to see other stuff while you were there? L: Yeah. J: If you think back, can you tell me the first time you heard anything about the Holocaust or learned anything. Think way back, what pops to mind first? L: I think it was probably seventh grade, maybe we just kind of heard a little about it, and then eighth grade, going on the trip, was probably me first real exposure to it…I think that is the first time I remember hearing anything about it was going on that trip. J: So then it was kind of through school that you learned about it. L: Yeah, it was through school. J: Did your parents ever talk about it to you? L: No, not specifically. It isn’t like they sheltered me from it, but I don’t think it ever came up. J: Did you watch any movies…like had you ever seen schindler’s list before this GE class? L: not before, I hadn’t seen it before this class. I mean I knew…I saw part of it actually, in my US history class, but just a few clips. I knew what it was about and everything, but I hadn’t seen it. I wanted to see it, but… J: When you were in Highschool did you read any liturture, Holocaust related liturature. L: Yeah, ninth grade, I think it was ninth grade, we read ‘Night’ J: Did you ever read ‘The Diary for Ann Frank’? L: Not in school, no, in the class [GE class] we’ve read some parts of it, but I haven’t read the whole thing. J: Did you ever hear a holocaust speaker before Nina? L: Once, in highschool, sophmore year I believe. IT was in a really big auditorum with hundreds of other kids, so it was a little different than what we did with Nina….so…I forgot her name, Rene Firestone maybe? Yeah, so she spoke, it was more like she was just telling us her story up on stage in front of hundreds of kids. J: Did it seem like she had said the story before? L: Yeah, it was really professional. I think she actually had worked with the Museum of Tolerance in LA…it seemed like she had spoken before. J: Do you remember any details from that? L: No, not really. It was really impersonal…I mean it was interesting to hear, but I don’t remember any of the details from it at all. J: How would you compare reading Night or reading holocaust related text in this class, with to hearing a speaker? L: Well, hearing a speaker, like when we got to talk with Nina…it was just so much more powerful. You’re reading something and it’s just like ‘okay, this is someone’s story, but who is this person,’ it just seems so distant. It’s still interesting to read and you still take a lot out of it, but just hearing an actual speaker is so much more powerful, it’s an actual person. You’re seeing them, and seeing their emotions while their telling the story, it’s hard, but I think you just really get more of a feel for what it was really like and just trying to understand what it would have been like to be her. I think you learn a lot more actually talking to someone. J: Let’s talk about the Nina Stuff then [HERE IS WHERE IT BECOMES A POST INT]. First of all, what were your initial reactions? L: It was really powerful…just cuz we got to read her story ahead of time, so it wasn’t like she was telling her story, it was really cool. We were just having a discussion with her since it was so small, it was like 20 kids or whatever, so it seemed really personal, like she was just having a conversation with us. It was the most emotional I’ve felt about the Holocaust, ever. Like when she was talking about her mother and started to get upset, that was hard, it felt like we were upsetting her by talking about this, but at the same time we knew she likes talking about it. I feel like I’ve learned a lot more about it just from talking to her, not necessary about Auschwitz or Brucnau, but…it was just really powerful. J: What sticks with you right now, after three days or however long it’s been? What one part of her story do you still remember. L: The part about her mother, just because she was so emotional about it, and I just couldn’t imagine that. She talks about it a couple of times, it kind of came up, and that was like the biggest part of her story it seemed like, and the most upsetting to her, so I think just because she was so emotional about it, it kind of sticks with me. Just trying to picture that. I’ve thought about it actually a couple of times since then, just talking to my mom, I can’t imagine knowing that your mother is there and you can’t do anything. She must have felt so hopeless when all of this was going on. That is what really sticks in my head. J: After Nina came, after Tuesday, what did you do next? Did you talk to anybody the Holocaust testimony you just heard? L: What do you mean? J: Did you go home and talk about it… L: Yeah, I know a couple of the people…like the people I live with in my hall, five of us are in that class, so yeah we were talking about it, we were just like ‘wow.’ We all went to lunch afterwards. It was really interesting because we go into that class, I mean it’s an interesting class but, just hearing someone else from the outside talk about it…it doesn’t really mean a lot, I know Dr. Marcuse knows a lot, but hearing it from him, it’s just like “whatever, he wasn’t there.” It’s not as interesting or meaningful at all. So we were just talking about how interesting that specific class was, and we really felt like the class had come together finally, just talking to an actual survivor. I think we all really enjoyed it. Then I talked to one of my other friends about it, just talking about my day, and it was like ‘wow, we talked to an actual survivor, it was really amazing.’ We just talked about how interesting it was. J: Have you talked to your mom since you heard nina? L: NO I haven’t talked to her at all yet. J: You just kind of thought about what it would be like.. L: Yeah, my mom and I are really close, and it seemed like Nina was real close to her mom, and I just imagined that feeling. J: Is there anything else you wanted to talk about? L: No, not too much. I just thought it was interesting how on Thursday, she came on Tuesday, and on Thursday we talked about her some more, and I wished I kind of had known while she was here that she had gone back to her hometown with Prof. Marcuse a few years back. And I wish I had know that while she was here, so we could have asked her some questions about how she felt about that, because we weren’t aware of that at all while she was in the classroom. Because someone asked her about how surviving the holocaust has affected her later in life…and she talked a little about that, but I think it would have been interesting to ask her feelings, and hear from her about how she felt going back and seeing her old hometowns. J: Dr. Marcuse had you guys write up some questions to ask her, right? L: Right. J: And you asked the first question didn’t you? L: Yeah, I did. J: What was that question? L: I was asking her to clarify the part when she, when they, had taken her to the mass graves, and I was confused first of all how she had ended up falling in, without being shot. I just wasn’t clear to me in the letter, somehow she fainted. So when she escaped from there, I was unclear how she had ended up at the farm house, and why she had left. Because all of a sudden in the letter, she’s like “I was there for a couple of weeks, pretty much just sleeping,’ and then she started talking about how she was in the forest surviving. So I was just confused as to why she had left. J: And what did you think about her answers to some of those questions? Did she answer them directly? L: Usually not. It was usually a pretty roundabout answer. But she kind of got to the point, and we kind of figured it out from what she said. But it was interesting how she would go off on these tangents. We’d learn more that way really, because she would answer a lot more than just the questions. J: Overall, how was it? Did help put a personal face on the holocaust. L: Yeah. Definitely. Even though I had talked to a survivor it wasn’t as personal at all, just because it was so big. J: This there anymore of a comparision between Nina as a survivor and the survivor you heard in seventh grade, besides the different settings? L: I think…I don’t remember a lot of details from the first survivor, so umm… I think her story was more simple. She was just in a camp, and she somehow survived. Nina’s story was a lot more complicated, as far as her moving around so much. So I think that was the main diference, but I don’t really a lot of details from the first one. J: Okay…thank you very much. |
Jeremy: Can you tell me what your major is here? Lauren: I’m a psychology major. J: What year are you? L: Freshmen. J: What kind of history have you studied? L: History? I took regular history classes in High school; U.S. History, World History, that’s about it. J: Where did you go to high school? L: Royal High school in Simi valley. J: Simi Valley, where’s that? L: It’s about an hour south of here, right outside of L.A. county. J: What was that high school like? Was it a private school? L: No it’s a public school, a really big school it’s about 2500 kids. J: So you’re from the L.A. area then? L: Yeah, it’s still Ventura county, but it’s right outside of L.A. J: Have you ever been to the L.A. Museum of Tolerance? L: No, I haven’t. I’ve been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. though. J: Is that the only Holocaust related museum you’ve been to. L: Yeah. J: How was that? L: I was in eighth grade so it was quite a while ago. J: Was it a class trip? L: Yeah it was with the school, we went to Washington D.C… I think I was kind of young…I guess I wasn’t that young, but I just think to really understand the holocaust you have to be a lot older. J: Before you guys went, did you get any background preparation in school? L: Um…I’m trying to think…I think we got a little bit. We watched part of a documentary or something just to get a little background. We had meetings, the kids that were going on the trip, we had a bunch of meetings and I think there we watched part of a video for sort of a preparation. J: Was this a trip to the D.C. area? L: Yeah, we did it as a whole… J: So you were there to see other stuff while you were there? L: Yeah. J: If you think back, can you tell me the first time you heard anything about the Holocaust or learned anything? Think way back, what pops to mind first? L: I think it was probably seventh grade, maybe we just kind of heard a little about it, and then eighth grade, going on the trip, was probably my first real exposure to it ./. I think that is the first time I remember hearing anything about it, was going on that trip. J: So then it was kind of through school that you learned about it. L: Yeah, it was through school. J: Did your parents ever talk about it to you? L: No, not specifically. It isn’t like they sheltered me from it, but I don’t think it ever came up. J: Did you watch any movies? Like had you ever seen Schindler’s List before this GE class? L: Not before, I hadn’t seen it before this class. I mean I knew…I saw part of it actually, in my U.S. History class, but just a few clips. I knew what it was about and everything, but I hadn’t seen it. I wanted to see it, but… J: When you were in High school did you read any literature, Holocaust related literature? L: Yeah, ninth grade, I think it was ninth grade, we read Night. J: Did you ever read The Diary for Anne Frank? L: Not in school, no, in the class we’ve read some parts of it, but I haven’t read the whole thing. J: Did you ever hear a Holocaust speaker before Nina? L: Once, in high school, sophomore year I believe. It was in a really big auditorium with hundreds of other kids, so it was a little different than what we did with Nina….so, I forgot her name, Rene Firestone maybe?, Yeah, so she spoke, it was more like she was just telling us her story up on stage in front of hundreds of kids. J: Did it seem like she had said the story before? L: Yeah, it was really professional. I think she actually had worked with the Museum of Tolerance in L.A.…it seemed like she had spoken before. J: Do you remember any details from that? L: No, not really. It was really impersonal…I mean it was interesting to hear, but I don’t remember any of the details from it at all. J: How would you compare reading Night or reading Holocaust related text in this class, with to hearing a speaker? L: Well, hearing a speaker, like when we got to talk with Nina…it was just so much more powerful. You’re reading something and it’s just like ‘okay, this is someone’s story, but who is this person?’ it just seems so distant. It’s still interesting to read and you still take a lot out of it, but just hearing an actual speaker is so much more powerful, it’s an actual person. You’re seeing them, and seeing their emotions while their telling the story, it’s hard, but I think you just really get more of a feel for what it was really like and just trying to understand what it would have been like to be her. I think you learn a lot more actually talking to someone. J: Let’s talk about the Nina Stuff then. First of all, what were your initial reactions? L: It was really powerful…just cuz we got to read her story ahead of time, so it wasn’t like she was telling her story. It was really cool, we were just having a discussion with her since it was so small, it was like 20 kids or whatever, so it seemed really personal, like she was just having a conversation with us. It was the most emotional I’ve felt about the Holocaust, ever. [see Jeremy's analysis] Like when she was talking about her mother and started to get upset, that was hard, it felt like we were upsetting her by talking about this, but at the same time we knew she likes talking about it. I feel like I’ve learned a lot more about it just from talking to her, not necessary about Auschwitz or Birkenau, but…it was just really powerful. J: What sticks with you right now, after three days, or however long it’s been? What one part of her story do you still remember? L: The part about her mother, just because she was so emotional about it, and I just couldn’t imagine that. She talked about it a couple of times, it kind of came up, and that was like the biggest part of her story it seemed like, and the most upsetting to her, so I think just because she was so emotional about it, it kind of sticks with me. Just trying to picture that. I’ve thought about it actually a couple of times since then, just talking to my mom, I can’t imagine knowing that your mother is there and you can’t do anything. She must have felt so hopeless when all of this was going on. That is what really sticks in my head. J: After Nina came, after Tuesday, what did you do next? Did you talk to anybody the Holocaust testimony you just heard? L: What do you mean? J: Did you go home and talk about it? L: Yeah, I know a couple of the people…like the people I live with in my hall, five of us are in that class, so yeah, we were talking about it, we were just like ‘wow.’ We all went to lunch afterwards. It was really interesting because we go into that class, I mean it’s an interesting class but, just hearing someone else from the outside talk about it…it doesn’t really mean a lot, I know Dr. Marcuse knows a lot, but hearing it from him, it’s just like “whatever, he wasn’t there.” It’s not as interesting or meaningful at all. So we were just talking about how interesting that specific class was, and we really felt like the class had come together finally, just talking to an actual survivor. I think we all really enjoyed it. Then I talked to one of my other friends about it, just talking about my day, and it was like ‘wow, we talked to an actual survivor, it was really amazing.’ We just talked about how interesting it was. J: Have you talked to your mom since you heard Nina? L: N I haven’t talked to her at all yet. J: You just kind of thought about what it would be like.. L: Yeah, my mom and I are really close, and it seemed like Nina was real close to her mom, and I just imagined that feeling. J: Is there anything else you wanted to talk about? L: No, not too much. I just thought it was interesting how on Thursday, she came on Tuesday, and on Thursday we talked about her some more, and I wished I kind of had known while she was here that she had gone back to her hometown with Prof. Marcuse a few years back. And I wish I had know that while she was here, so we could have asked her some questions about how she felt about that, because we weren’t aware of that at all while she was in the classroom. Because someone asked her about how surviving the Holocaust has affected her later in life…and she talked a little about that, but I think it would have been interesting to ask her feelings, and hear from her about how she felt going back and seeing her old hometowns. J: Dr. Marcuse had you guys write up some questions to ask her, right? L: Right. J: And you asked the first question didn’t you? L: Yeah, I did. J: What was that question? L: I was asking her to clarify the part when she, when they, had taken her to the mass graves, I was confused first of all how she had ended up falling in, without being shot. I just wasn’t clear to me in the letter, somehow she fainted. So when she escaped from there, I was unclear how she had ended up at the farmhouse, and why she had left. Because all of a sudden in the letter, she’s like “I was there for a couple of weeks, pretty much just sleeping,’ and then she started talking about how she was in the forest surviving. So I was just confused as to why she had left. J: And what did you think about her answers to some of those questions? Did she answer them directly? L: Usually not. It was usually a pretty roundabout answer. But she kind of got to the point, and we kind of figured it out from what she said. But it was interesting how she would go off on these tangents. We’d learn more that way really, because she would answer a lot more than just the questions. J: Overall, how was it? Did help put a personal face on the Holocaust. L: Yeah. Definitely. Even though I had talked to a survivor it wasn’t as personal at all, just because it was so big. J: This there anymore of a comparison between Nina as a survivor and the survivor you heard in seventh grade, besides the different settings? L: I think…I don’t remember a lot of details from the first survivor, so umm… I think her story was more simple. She was just in a camp, and she somehow survived. Nina’s story was a lot more complicated, as far as her moving around so much. So I think that was the main difference, but I don’t really [remember] a lot of details from the first one. J: Okay…thank you very much
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After the interview, Lauren
emphasized that she really wished she had known Nina and HM went back to
Poland. She also underscored that hearing HM talk about the Holocaust is
more like reading a text book, whereas Nina was live action. |
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