Rosa Q & A Reflection

Yesterday March 16^th, Rosa paid a visit to my school. We welcomed her in the art room, refreshment were prepare for her (although we end up eating everything). She was there to answer our questions. She is a very polite woman, she has very good manner. She seems much older than her picture on the back of her book, after all it’s been years since she took the picture. Even though she is old, her eyes still moves emotionally, upon her well shaped face, I can tell she was a very beautiful woman when she was young. She came all the way to my school to answer the questions the students have for her after we finish reading her book.

There were a few quotes that caught my attention, such as the following:

“My mother just wanted to die, she gave up after my father and two brothers were sent to the gas chamber. We had to line up on roll call and if you were not there, you were killed. My mother just decided that she wanted to die and so the next day, she was not there.”

Hearing this quote once again remind me of the hardship she went through. Rosa was only 12 when she entered the concentration camp. During that period of time, Rosa’s mother gave up on living, leaving Rosa all alone in this world. Not only did she suffer physically from the beatings in the camps, she also suffered emotionally from the death of her parents. She is a very strong woman, I still can’t believe I actually saw her in person.

Another quote that stuck out to me from Rosa’s visit was:

"“I loved my son very much, I do not think my actions were the cause of his addiction, but I did contribute with constant donations of money to him.”

I recall that she mentioned her action was out of love, she love him so much it hurts to say no. I disagree with what she has done, she should have bite her lip and say no to him. One way to love other is to get them what they want, but that is not always the best choice, sometime you have to be a bit cruel to them for their own good. For example, some parents would take daily play time away from their kids (no T.V., no game, go straight home) so the kids would have more time to study. These kids end up with good grade and good grades. These kids might hate their parents at first, but as turn into adults, they’ll begin to thank their parents for preparing them so well.  In Rosa’s case, all I am going to say is “who can blame a mother for her love toward her kid?”

I want to make a comment on something Rosa said:

 “I think that everyone in this room should prevent something like the Holocaust to occur, again. You can only do this through education. Look at what is happening in Libya, the man is killing people because they want freedom.”

I agree with Rosa, education is the key to understand what is right and wrong in society. It is through the study of history that we learn about what had happen, how it happen, and how to prevent it from happening again. It is through education that I learn about the rights humans hold, and it must be through education that the men in Libya learn of their rights and realize that they hold so little of their rights. However, there was a president from a foreign nation that denies that the Holocaust has ever happen, maybe he is uneducated?