Tyler Young

Professor Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1102
21 January 2015
The story of Reva Kibort was very amazing and surprising to me. I was amazed and
surprised of how much she went through, and how she kept such a positive attitude during the
holocaust. Before I watched this video I had heard of the Warsaw ghetto but I did not know
really know what went on the ghetto. I knew that in the ghetto there was a lot of starvation but
that is all I really knew. I was amazed at what some of the people in the ghetto would do to
survive. I have never been in a situation where my only goal is to stay alive but it amazed me
when I found out that some of the people would pretend to be Arian. They would pretend to be
Arian and go over to the Arian side to smuggle food back into the ghetto. This amazed me
because if these people were to be caught smuggling food into the ghetto they would be killed
immediately. What surprised me about the ghetto is how the Germans would take groups of
people out of the ghetto and they would never come back again. Before I watched this video I
thought if you were in the ghetto you were not going anywhere.
What is most memorable to me from this video is how Mrs. Kibort kept such a positive
attitude through the whole thing. She went through an incredibly tough time and it did not seem
to faze her too much. In the she said I always believed I was destined to live this line is very
memorable. It is memorable to me because I do not understand how you believe you are
destined to live during a time like this. When there is so much death around and no order it
amazes me that she could be this positive. There is so much death in this time with the bombs

coming into the cities, Germans killing the Jews, sickness, and starvation. I think it is incredible
that you can believe you are going to live with all of this around you. Another thing that is very
memorable to me is how she did not break down emotionally during the holocaust. She could
have broken down emotionally but from what I understood from the she did not. I think this is
memorable because of what she went through. She lost a mother, father, grandparents, aunts,
and a couple of sisters. To stay strong after losing all of these relatives and what she was going
through is absolutely incredible to me. Another thing that is memorable to me from this video is
how she decided to come to the United States after she had been liberated. I think this incredible
after all she went through. She came to America with one of her older sisters. The reason I think
this is incredible because she left two more sisters back in Germany, and she came to the United
States not knowing the language or anyone besides her sister. This is incredible to me because
after all she went through she decided to come the United States knowing for a while it would be
tough. Another reason I think this is incredible because if this were me I do not think I could
leave my family behind in another country and come to a country where I do not speak the
language.
I learned a lot from this video. One of the first things I learned from this video is I had
never heard of the second and third camps she went to during the holocaust. I also did not know
that the Nazis would kill some of the children when they arrived at some of the camps because
they were not old enough to work. I did know that the Germans did not feed the Jews very much
at the camps but I did not know that in the soups there would sometimes be worms swimming
around in the bowls of food. I cannot imagine going what she had to go through and then being
able to sit down and talk about it over an interview.