First, we're going to talk about the houses.
The most of them, were very big houses in the middle of a garden with trees, plants, flowers...
You can felt the nature in all the parts of the house. In Spain, we live in buildings with eight or more floors, and the flats have 100 m2. In Germany, the houses have two or three floors, terraces, attics...
The german house of Neus
The house of my exchange partner are yellow and had a big garden with her rabbits and with one honeycomb to make honey. In the house they always have dinner very early. They didn't watch TV usually, but they like listen to music. Other detail is that they always get up early, including at the weekends.
The german house of Andrea
My house wasn’t very big. It had two floors, porch with one of them. They had a small garden with plants and flowers and they had a nice terrace. One night we had dinner in the terrace, and it was fantastic. Fresh air, no noise or television, or neighbors ... It's a perfect place to relax.
The mother spoke english very well, and this helped me, because I can spoke with her and also listening a good english. She was very funny, and she was very similar to my exchange partner.
I can't saw the father a lot because he works a lot so I didn’t have the opportunity to spoke with him much, but when I did I could see that he was a nice and generous men.
Janine, my partner was amazing. She was very funny and I could spoke with her abour everything. Now I really have a new friend in Germany.
The German house of Albert
First talk about the family. It was very german, had their customs :always leave the door open , and have a big breakfast. About six o’clock they have dinner...
The mother, Sabine, spoke a little Spanish and spoke English and Spanish, and she always helped me .
The father: Ralf spoke English more or less I understood him, was also very nice. The brother: Colin was very nice, spoke a little bit, I enjoyed playing with him at football or soccer.
And finally my exchange partner, Marc, spoke only in Spanish but I speak English with him. It was very nice and fun.
The German house of Carmen
The families were very friendly and the houses were bigger than the Valencia’s one. When the people came back from street, they put down their shoes in the entry. Some people have animals in their gardens, my pattern have rabbits and chickens.
The views were very nice. I could see the mountains from my bedroom’s window.A lot of houses were opened at the night, this was very curious, but the people didn’t steal in this country.
We're going to talk about the partners too.
First, we want say that we think that the partners were perfect, all of them or the majority.
In general everyone were good with his partner. It was a good choose, the partners are more or less perfectly. At the beginning of the exchange was a bit difficult to live with someone in your house you don’t know anything. When we stayed 3 or 4 days toguether we were like brothers.
We must remember that they are people that we have lived with them during 20 days.
Living in a different house is a little bit difficult, because you don’t know the customs, food... You get used to eating at one, dinner at seven... but only a matter of time.
When we did the exchange we have the doubt that us german families speaks or no english. Most of us had good luck, and the rest, didn’t have any problem because the partners helped when they needed.
As a comment on this. We’re impressed by the german people to the exchange because they speak our language very well, and in just a year and a half...
We want say thanks for the family, because they’re amazing and they try that we did feel like in our houses, and they did it. The atmosphere between us was very good. We did true friendships that will never forget, and will continue tokeep in touch through the Internet, and if we can, we'd to see each other time.
And although we know that separate us over 1000 km, we hope stay all toguether again.
CAMP DE CONCENTRACIÓ
Hitler, el füher nacionalsocialista va arrossegar el seu país a la guerra alimentant el seu desig de venjança contra els vencedors de 1948 i contra el Tractat de Versalles, va afirmar la necessitat d’expansió alemanya i va exaltar la superioritat de la raça germànica sobre tota les altres ètnies: jueus, esclaus, africans…
Els nazis van crear una sèrie d'instal·lacions de detenció per a empresonar i eliminar els “enemics de l'estat.” La majoria dels presoners en els primers camps de concentració eren comunistes alemanys, socialistes, social demòcrates, romes (gitanos), testimonis de Jehovà, homosexuals, clergues cristians, i persones acusades de comportament “asocial” o anormal.
El terme “camp de concentració” es referix a un camp en el qual es deté la gent, normalment sota condicions dures i sense respecte a les normes legals sobre l'arrest o l'empresonament. Els camps de concentració van ser una característica integral del règim nazi entre 1933 i 1939.
Amb l'inici de la guerra, els camps de concentració es van convertir cada vegada més en llocs on grups d'enemics reials o percebuts de l'Alemanya nazi van ser assassinats obertament o forçats a fer treball dur i sense sentit. Aquells forçats a treballar eren deliberadament desnodrits i maltractats amb la intenció que foren “aniquilats pel treball”.
Durant la Segona Guerra Mundial, metges nazis feien experiments sobre els presoners d'alguns camps. Després de la invasió alemanya de Polònia en 1939, els nazis van obrir camps de treballs forçats on milers de presoners van morir d'esgotament i fam.
Per a facilitar la “Solució Final” (el genocidi dels jueus), els nazis van obrir camps d'extermini a Polònia. En Chelmno, el primer camp d'extermini, els jueus i romes (gitanos) van ser gasejats en camions. Més tard van obrir Belzec, Sobibor, i Treblinka per a assassinar sistemàticament els jueus del Govern General.
També van construir cambres de gas per a augmentar l'eficiència del procés.
Els jueus en els territoris ocupats pels nazis eren sovint primer deportats a camps provisionals per a matar-los a causa del treball i més tard portaven a tots aquells que no hagueren mort a un camp d'extermini.
Camp de treball de Struthof
Un dia de l'intercanvi vam anar a un d'aquests camps de treball. De primer vam vore una càmera de gas que abans havia estat un saló de festa, ja que en front també hi havia hagut un hotel. La càmera de gas la va aprofitar el professor que va realitzar els experiments per demostrar la inferioritat d'algunes ètnies sobre altres. Va portar allà 86 persones, de les quals 30 eren dones i la resta homes. Tota aquesta pobra gent anava perquè pensaven que els anaven a dutxar. En primer lloc, van ser gasejades 15 dones i, després, la resta. Sembla increïble però en menys d'un minut totes estaven mortes. Els seus cossos van romandre a la cambra de gas fins al dia següent, que els netejaven i experimentaven amb ells.
En acabar aquesta breu visita, vam anar al camp de concentració de Struthof. Van començar sent 1000 reclutats i acabaren allà dins al voltant de 8000, tots repartits en 17 barracons. Varen passar per aquest camp de treball unes 50.000 persones de les quals 20.000 van ser assassinades en 3 anys.
En quant a la seua situació geogràfica, podem observar que està molt bé amagat. Es troba al vessant d'una muntanya, on ningú es podia adonar de tot el que hi succeïa. Hi havia 8 torres de vigilància per controlar-ho tot, només una persona va aconseguir escapar. Dins del camp de treball, les persones morien de moltes maneres: els pegaven un tir al coll, els espentaven uns damunt d'altres, eren obligats a suïcidar-se, els cremaven… O simplement, morien de fam, falta d'higiene o malalties.
En una sola habitació podien haver-hi al voltant de 25 persones de 3 fins a 46 dies on havien de sobreviure només amb pa i aigua. A més, hi havia unes cel·les més xicotetes on els tancaven durant 3 o 4 dies per tal de complir un càstig. En un altre barracó a banda, hi havia habitacions on portaven a la gent uns dies abans de ser executats. Una habitació tenia el sol inclinat per tal que la sang del mort esvarara millor i tinguera una neteja més ràpida. També es conservaven lliteres on tenien lloc experiments terribles
Finalment, els cremaven al crematori i les seues cendres eren escampades pel camp.
Experiència personal
La visita al camp de concentració va ser des del primer moment una experiència dura, era una sensació molt estranya ja que estar al lloc on van estar totes aquelles persones és una cosa que impressiona moltíssim. Tots miràvem totes les coses amb horror i desgrat, especialment l'habitació on els cremaven i les cel·les de càstig. La sensació d'impotència en veure tot açò era cada vegada major, et feien ganes de lluitar per un món millor al qual no es repetisquen errors del passat com aquests.
D'altra banda, les fotos i els documents exposats al museu ens van paréixer molt tristos i algunes, fins i tot, desagradables. En elles es mostrava l'estat malaltís de desnutrició de totes les persones que hi havia allà. Les imatges eren molt impactants.
No obstant això, conéixer el camp de concentració va estar una experiència bona perquè és necessari conéixer tota la història, tant les coses bones com les roïnes, i no oblidar mai tot el que van patir aquelles persones. Tampoc oblidar-nos de tot el dany que van causar els responsables dels assassinats.
A little of history ...
Hitler, Nazi füher dragged his country into war for fueling his desire for revenge against the victors of 1948 and against the Versailles treaty, saying the need for German expansion and exalt the superiority of the Germanic race over all others ethnic groups: Jews, slaves, African...
The Nazis created a series of installations: installation of detention to imprison and eliminate the "enemies of the state." Most of the prisoners in the first concentration camps were German Communists, socialists, social democrats, roma (gipsies), Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, Christians, clergy and persons accused of behavior "asocial" or abnormal.
The term "concentration camp" refers to a camp in which stops people, usually under hard conditions and without regard to legal regulations concerning the arrest or imprisonment. The concentration camps were an integral feature of the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1939.
When the war started, concentration camps increasingly became places where groups of royal or perceived enemies of Nazi Germany were openly murdered or forced to work hard and pointless. Those forced to work were deliberately mistreated and abused with the intention that they were "destroyed by labor."
During World War II, Nazi doctors did experiments on prisoners in some camps. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Nazis opened up labor camps where thousands of prisoners died of exhaustion and hunger.
To facilitate the "Final Solution" (genocide of the Jews), the Nazis opened camps for killed them in Poland. In Chelmno, the first extermination camp, Jews and roma (gipsies) were gassed in trucks. Later they opened Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka for murder the Jews of the Government General.
They also built gas chambers to increase the efficiency of the process.
Work Camp of Struthof
One day of the exchange we went to a concentration camp. First we saw a gas chamber that had once been a danceroom, as well as in front there was a hotel. The gas chamber was to did the experiments of the doctor who tryed to demonstrate the inferiority of some ethnic groups over others. It brought out 86 people, of which 30 were women and other men. All these people thought that they were going to have shower. First, 15 women were gassed, and then the rest. It seems incredible but less than a minute all were dead. Their bodies remained in the gas chamber until the next day, then they clean the bodies and experimented with them.
After this short visit, we went to concentration camp of Struthof. They started being recruited in 1000 and then, there were in around 8000, all distributed in 17 barracks. In this work camp, went around 50.000 people and 20.000 of them were killed in 3 years.
As to its geographical situation, we can see that is very well hidden. It is located in a hillside, where nobody could knew what was happening. There were eight watchtowers to control everything, only one person managed to escape. Inside the work camp, people were dying in many ways: shooting in their necks, pushing them when they were coming heavy things, were forced to commit suicide, they burn them... or simply die of hunger, poor hygiene or diseases.
In one room there could be around 25 people from 3 to 46 days where they had to survive with only bread and water. In addition, there were some smaller cells where closed for 3 or 4 days to meet a punishment. In another different bunkhouse, there were rooms where people had a few days before being executed. A single room had the floor inclined so when they died, the blood of the dead could be cleaned faster.
Finally, in the crematorium they burned them and their ashes were scattered in the countryside.
Personal experience
Visiting the camp was a hard experience from the first moment, it was a very strange feeling because it was the place where were all those people died and is something that impresses a lot. Everybody looked all things with horror, especially the room where the burned and punishment cells. The feeling of you can’t do nothing is very bad. We mustn’t repeat past mistakes like these.
On the other hand, photos and documents on display at the museum were very sad and some even unpleasant. They are showing the sickly state of malnutrition of all people was there. The images were very impressive.
However, knowing the concentration camp was a good experience because it is necessary to know the whole story, either good or bad things, and never forget all the people who suffered. Also, we haven’t to forget all the damage that caused all those responsible for the murders.
Lady Rincón, Yago Castelló, Irene Pérez, Marina Borredà.
Ací us deixem un powerpoint del viatge
