Process Paper

The first step in starting my History Day project was to pick a topic. First, I searched for topics related to the theme of Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in History. Jotting down all the topics that interested me, I came up with about 100. Analyzing each one closely I reduced the list. Doing a small amount of research on each one, I narrowed them down further. Talking with my teachers, I finally decided on The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising for I was intrigued that even though they were segregated, the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto would fight to the death to avenge the wrongs and get revenge against the Nazis. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the largest urban revolt during the Holocaust, where oppressed Jews resisted Nazi oppression. After finding a topic, I conducted extensive research. First, I went to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) website and found oral testimonies. Ghetto Uprising. Besides getting books from various libraries, I also called the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage. They led me to an organization called Face to Face from which I watched oral testimonie. I searched newspapers and magazines on microfilm from 1943-1950 at the Cleveland Public Library (CPL). Going to the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) website, I set up two interviews with professors on the subject. During my research I found many intriguing and helpful sources. USHMM had great webpages including ones on Warsaw, The Warsaw Ghetto, and Operation Reinhard. The museum also had many oral testimonies by Warsaw Ghetto Survivors. Interviews with Dr. Peter Haas and Dr. Jay Geller, CASE college professors, were very helpful. In addition to these exceptional sources, the USC Shoah testimonies allowed me to experience vicariously the horrors faced by the survivors of the uprising.

After conducting my research, I started on my website. Using my experience last year in sixth grade, I picked my color background, decided on the tabs, and points for each page. Next, I added Google images and CPL photos. I downloaded music to my webpage. Using Audacity, a sound editing program, I cut the music to forty-five second clips which I added to my website. I finally cut videos of testimonies to include, using Real Player while continuously editing until I came up with a final copy. My topic about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fits this years theme well. After an Aryan looking Jew, Aalman Fredrych, snuck out of the ghetto and followed the resettlement trains to Treblinka Extermination Camp, the enraged ghetto inhabitants decided to revolt creating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Second, it was a revolution itself when Jews revolted against unjust Nazi regime. Finally, it triggered many uprisings in Sobibor, Minsk, and Bialystok, death camps. Moreover, it gave hope to the Allies that defeating Hitler was possible. Most importantly the Jews reaction showed the world that though Hitler could destroy their bodies, he could not take away their dignity and integrity.