Alyssa's Reaction to Watching The Last Days

After meeting with Renee, our group decided to view Steven Spielberg's documentary that she participated in, The Last Days. While we had heard Renee's story first hand, she gave not only more detail, but in the documentary we got to see her firsthand reactions to stories she had shared with us, such as her meeting with Dr. Munch and her experience going back to her hometown in Hungary and finding her house. The documentary not only followed Renee and a number of other survivors as they went back to Auschwitz and their hometowns across Eastern Europe with their families, but it also showed detailed footage of the camps. Some of the footage was extremely difficult to watch, and I know myself and some of the others needed to look away at times.
But for me, the most moving part of the documentary was watching Renee's experience in her hometown showing her husband and daughter what it used to be like for her growing up. It was so sad watching her go up to her childhood house and then tell her family she wished she had never come back. But as sad as it was to watch, it also made me want to go back to Poland where my family is from and go back to Auschwitz. Although I have been before, I never felt once would be enough and watching the documentary inspired me to go again this summer. Overall, listening to Renee's stories and experiences makes me even more grateful to her and other survivors that they did survive and are open about their horrific stories so that not only will it not happen again, but I get to be here and be safe as a Jewish person in both Europe and America.