Text-based Descriptions – Through My Own Eyes (6.1)

Text-based description of visual content:

Sound: The entire video is backed by the song “Sparrow” by Miika Mettiainen


Text: Through My Own Eyes


Text: Anti-Semitism in Poland Should Not Stop Jews from Traveling There


Text: Prejudice against Jews in Poland climaxed during the Holocaust. The exact start of the Holocaust is hard to pinpoint, but events took a tragic turn with the Nazi invasion in September 1939.


Text: In 1941, Hitler ordered the mass destruction of all Jews of Europe in what he called the “Final Solution”.


Text: Between 1941 and 1942, six extermination camps were set up in Poland, the country with the largest Jewish population. These camps were near railway lines and situated far away from the public’s attention.


Image: Historical photographs from the Holocaust

Text: Approximately 90% of the more than 3 million Jews living in Poland were murdered.

Text: It has been reported that Poles played a significant role in the Holocaust by killing thousands of Jews or exposing them to the Nazis.


Image: Pictures of headlines from articles written about currently anti-Semitism in Poland

Text: Anti-Semitism continues to exist in Poland today

Text: Groups traveling to Poland today have experienced anti-Semitism ranging from demeaning souvenirs to terrifying taunting

Text: But the impact of the firsthand experience can outweigh the negatives


Image: Pictures of my high school senior class before our trip to Poland

Text: My trip to Poland; May 2013


Image: Globe depicting the flight from Houston to Poland


Image: Pictures from my trip of Majdanek Concentration Camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp, and other various camps.

Quote (2:26-2:39): “Prior to this trip, I had studied the Holocaust in school, visited Holocaust museums, and interviewed actual Holocaust survivors. While all of these were powerful experiences, none of them compared to actually walking on the soil where the horrible travesty of the Holocaust took place.” –Michael Horn, Tour participant

Quote (2:48-2:56): “Visiting the camps allowed me to have physical testimony—the ability to say, ‘I was there.’” –Stevie Glombicki, Tour participant

Quote (3:11-3:18): “We continued to reflect on that incomprehensible time during which man’s inhumanity to man spared neither the elderly nor the young.” –Lue Bishop, Tour participant

Quote (3:41-3:48): “I had the feeling that we were retracing the steps that so many Jews took; but unlike them, we would walk out.” –David Enav, Tour participant

Quote (3:54-4:01): “The experience made the Holocaust feel closer, more real, more tangible; it magnified the importance of making sure that nothing like the Holocaust ever happens again.” –Danielle Resh; Tour participant




Text: Music Credit: “Sparrow” by Mikka Mettiainen