Trujillo, District 9, Let's fit into the box

It was extremely clear how District 9 was able to really portray all of the genocides we have studied over the course of eight years. What it shows me is that it all seems to come down to appearance. Well, physical appearance and cultural standings and beliefs. The people who don’t fit into the mold that others have made for them are immediately cast out and in the most extreme of cases, tortured and killed.

They’re not good enough, not fast enough, not light enough, not Christian enough, not beautiful enough, not straight enough, not human enough…

Excuse me, what? Not human enough? Aren’t we all human beings? I mean, we all look too damn alike to be anything else. But what District 9 portrayed was that these people, who were just a little different, just a little bigger than the tiny box they were being squeezed into, were looked at like aliens, like beings that didn’t deserve love, compassion and equality.

I look at the film Bent and Good and see men who were treated like aliens, like beings that didn’t deserve to life because of sexual preference. They looked the same as everyone else; you probably couldn’t tell one of these gay men from their Nazi counterparts, but they were persecuted and executed for not fitting in the box.

I look at Hotel Rwanda and see Africans against Africans, Africans against their own people (as if there aren’t enough problems in Africa threatening to wipe out thousands even millions every day). No, let’s kill each other off because some of us have been treated better. Let’s kill each other off because you’re lighter skinned or your nose isn’t quite as long as mine. Because, as Wikus Van der Merwe would say, you are a prawn.

It’s disgusting.

Prawn, a derogatory term used by the non-aliens in District 9, funny because it’s like Judenscheisse, Hitler’s personal favorite to use towards Jewish people. It’s also like cockroach, a term used to address the Tutsi people. Have I forgotten redskin, injun, Uncle Tom? All terms meant to dehumanize.

And what is more disgusting is that all of these genocides, the Holocaust, Rwanda, the Native American genocide, Apartheid, all of these attacks against other human beings keep happening and they keep destroying the good in people. All of these disgusting names and terms keep happening as we are constantly faced with the need to bring ourselves above everyone else and as we continue dehumanize people.

As said in the “Native American Genocide” article: “For us the shadow is psychic energy that may take on negative qualities that manifest outward as acts of violence and fear when inner knowing and responsibility fail. Acts of genocide and oppression can be seen in this light”.

When there is fear because we might not be the ‘big man on campus’ or because we see something that is different or that goes against what we might think is right, this is where we make the mistake of thinking that there is only one select way that people can be.

Trujillo, Hotel Rwanda and Murambi

Young Tutsi boy bearing machete scars

Genocide is horrible across the board. No matter what the genocide, what the war, who the opposing people are, the fact remains: innocent people are being killed. There are humans killing humans with no mercy and with the intention of stamping out a people that are devout to a particular culture. It's disgusting no matter how you look at it, and every single genocide we have looked at is equally as disgusting. No one deserves being killed in cold blood, no one deserves having their culture forcefully and violently taken away from them. These people are all innocent.

The Rwanda genocide was, in the simplest way, a method of revenge, of the underdog (the Hutus), a people who, long ago, were deemed different and of a lower class in Rwanda. This is a constant battle, a constant war between the Tutsi's and Hutsu's. Long ago, this division of people was decided by the Belgians and the decision was made because of lightness of skin, daintiness of the nose and long limbs. It was said that the Tutsi's were a tall, light and regal people. While I don't think that this genocide can be placed on any one people or any one event, the separation of the people of Rwanda was the turning point.

In Murambi: The Book of Bones the man who made my skin crawl would be Dr. Joseph Karekezi (a Hutu) who was manipulative, self-interested and cruel. This was a man married to a Tutsi woman and who had fought passionately against the cruelty shown to the Tutsi people. He had been a strong advocate for equality amongst the people and had come to have a position of trust and power. However, all the tables turned when people had found out that he had been secretly funding the Hutu movement. He then used his position of importance among the Tutsis to build a shelter for them so they would be safe from the Hutus. This is where 50 thousand people died because of him. Where 50 thousand people's blood was spilled when this man called in the Hutu killers.

He then also led his wife and own two children into the 'safe camp' and into their deaths. They were Tutsi were they not? They also deserved to die did they not?

Trujillo, week 6 - Sarajevo

The opening scene of "Welcome To Sarajevo" astounded me. It was so unbelievable in fact that I spent quite a lot of time re-watching it, making sure that what I had seen wasn't a figment of my imagination and it wasn't something I was misinterpreting.

I kept thinking over and over, Are they filming a movie? Where are the microphone men? When is that woman going to get up? Is someone gonna call cut soon?

It took me a second to realize that this was real life... and that the people filming were apparently just there to document, not to help out (as was stated by a very shaken up camera man halfway through the movie). I was so angry for a minute or two (maybe for the length of the movie...), angry at the people who were watching others die, who were basically ignoring the fallen, using them as 'necessary' sacrifices for their documentaries, filming the horrors of genocide and death without lending a physical helping hand.

I guess it was important though, important to see what was happening in Sarajevo and the news wouldn't have been able to get out if every single reporter and camera man had dived to the rescue of a poor woman or child getting shot at. It makes my heart hurt, but I guess it's true.

It seems to me though, that the filmmakers and the reporters seemed to be to emotionally detached from the whole situation. Wouldn't seeing dead bodies with limbs ripped apart in the middle of the street bother you? Wouldn't the image of a bride on her wedding day being shot at rub you the wrong way?

Maybe that's why they were constantly drowning themselves in alcohol, keeping their heads down and ignoring what was around them... if they acted out, they would die. And I guess that goes against the basic instinct of survival.

My anger was appeased a little when I saw how the reporters would get so incredibly angry when their extremely important and eye opening newscasts would be replaced and brushed aside for news of the royal British family. People didn't seem to really care, because it wasn't happening to them.

That seems to be such a pattern with humanity. As long as it's far away from here, we might send a little money, we might shake our heads and we will definitely switch the channel, but we will forget it the next day. It's just not happening at our front door. While Welcome to Sarajevo showed the views of outsiders more than anything, the book The Cellist of Sarajevo really delves deep into the relationship of the locals with this genocide, and the fact that no one really seemed to care.

The novel really brought into light the dehumanization of these people, being shot and killed with nothing to spare. It is distinct in the novel the thought that there are no people, there are no humans. There are just the good guys and the bad guys, and each side is pointing the finger... and the gun.

Trujillo, The Pianist

Szpilman, The Pianist


Coming from a musical background and having spent most of my life studying the musical arts, I can't help but feel that this book and film do turn heads to the long stated thought that music tugs at hearts and minds.

There are some unsettling differences though, between the book and the film. We know that literature, when converted into film, usually changes and adapts to a select time frame and audience. Unfortunately there were quite a few moments that the film failed to capture.

In the book, we read a small tidbit about a man that they called the Old Doctor. A man, a pediatrician, who devoted his life to children, especially marginalized children. The Old Doctor, while he could've escaped the ghettos and ultimately saved his life, joined a dozen orphaned Jewish children that he adopted. The book mentions a small boy with an incredible talent for the violin and how he had captured the heart of the Old Doctor. It is this boy who unknowingly leads the procession of children to their deaths in a gas chamber while giving them a last moment of happiness with music.
This moment is not shared in the film.

I must say that in the film, Wladyslaw Szpilman is ultimately saved because of his musical abilities. His ability to perform a flawless Chopin piece attracted the attention of a German soldier who clothed him, fed him and gave him shelter. 'For love of the music' wouldn't you say?
This assumption though, that it was only the German soldier's love and admiration of music is infinitely wrong. While it may have played a small part, the film fails to mention what the book says clearly: that the German Soldier was a devout Catholic, opposed to everything the Nazis said and ultimately looking for ways to protect others. When the German soldier says "Don't thank me, thank God. It's His will that we should survive" the soldier doesn't mean that Szpilman should survive because of his talent, but because he his a child of God who shouldn't die by any hand of man. I believe we see here a Catholic's true perspective.

"Love your neighbor as I have loved you."

Trujillo: Little acts can turn into big ones

Every rock represents someone that was alive because of Schindler and his list... and his compassion.


In times of desolation and in times of despair some people stand up and fight for what is right. It's not something commonly done, for fear of what the consequences might be, and it is never something left ignored. What I mean to say is that acts of kindness and compassion never go unnoticed. Especially during WWII and the Nazi occupation. To stand up to this evil higher power can, and probably did mean, certain death. To stand up for what was right, even if you were standing alone, meant that the probability of survival for yourself has gone way down and it is the most basic of human natures to strive towards survival. It takes a great deal of courage to ignore your own nature of survival in order to protect someone else's.
In Good Evening Mr. Wallenberg, we see the perfect example of a man that has to choose between morality and certain job and social obligations. We see a man that, even though the moment and fear dictated that not impede in the Nazi movement (as a a Swedish, and therefore neutral, Diplomat) and limit his involvement with the Jewish people, he went a completely different way from what was expected of him.
Wallenberg definitely went through a huge risk in order to save the Hungarian Jews from an imminent death. I was incredibly surprised when he stopped and boarded a train already packed with people and demanded their release while SS guards were watching only a few feet away. It surprised me to see the emotion of this movie, how Wallenberg, even having so much to lose, did not sto fighting for the Jewish people and got them passports to be able to get out of Hungary safely.
It was interesting watching Schindler's List again. I watched it once in highschool and thought it so incredibly raw that I haven't watched it since, not until now. I can never get over my original feelings for Schindler and how careful he had to be to keep his facade going. How he had to pinpoint times where he had to be a bit harsher to the Jewish people he brought to his camp so that the Nazis didn't take them away from him. I've always thought about how the Jewish people, even though they obviously would like to be back to the better days with their families and friends intact, understood what Schindler was doing for them. It's why my favorite part of the movie (if you had to choose a favorite part) is the end, when the children (now adults) get together after Schindler dies and go to his grave. They understood what he did, even if they didn't understand why he did it.

Schindler and Wallenberg were two of many. Their stories were remembered and told because they were great deeds of compassion and humanity. But we have to remember that there were people who did smaller things, shared bread with their Jewish brothers and sisters, sheltered one of them from the Nazis. There are many Jewish people who survived the Holocaust because of small acts, small things that other people did that in the life of that survivor, was the act that saved their lives.

Trujillo - Even within the victimized, there are victimizers.

A traveling exhibit by the U.S Holocaust memorial exhibit

We are members of the human race. A race that is known throughout history as one that destroys their own in petty wars and jealous rages. A race where men victimize each other.

The film Bent shows the story of a particular man, Max, who begins his story being a victimizer. He sleeps with men and women left and right, playing with the emotions of especially his young dancer friend and roommate Rudy, who he seems to have some sort of a relationship with. Very quickly, as the film progresses, we see the horrible turn of events, where Max and Rudy are persecuted for being gay.

I believe that the point in which Max truly became a victim in the film is when he was forced to deny his friendship with Rudy and when he was forced to beat him. Here, the most basic animalistic tendency showed... the want and need of survival. Here, compassion was taken away and replaced with mind altering fear.

It was interesting to see the humanity of the victimizers (mainly the SS guards) in this film. It was interesting to see that while they still tortured these men and women, they were human too. They needed water to cool down and could fail a few times trying to light a cigarette. They played like children in the snow and drank and had fun. They did all these things with the victims in the concentration and work camps suffering and dying in front of them. They had already lost sight of the humanity of the people in front of them.

Unfortunately, you see Max revert to his ways as the victimizer as he forces Horst to join his work, a job that clearly drove Horst mad much sooner than it did Max, a job that Horst obviously never wanted to have. A job that forces Horst to fall in love with a man that can't love back. Even within the victimized, there are vicimizers.

Good, a play about a man who decided to join the Nazi party to advance his career, portrays the main character as the victimizer. What other title would joining the Nazi party give you, his advancements on euthanasia helping the party annihilate millions of lives? But my, aren't we quick to judge. Couldn't one argue that Halder, the protagonist, was a victim of a movement? Not really given much of an option?

Trujillo - Dehumanization

Bunks in Auschwitz

There is a rational explanation... isn't there? The Final Solution was, well, a solution to something was it not? There definitely has to be a reason for the murder of so many people.

Or maybe, on a cold January day in 1942, The Final Solution was the answer to a madman's rantings. Total elimination. Total Annihilation. No true reason at all.

Elie Wiesel's account on what happened to him and his family during this time is incredibly moving. You can see clearly how the dehumanization process began, stripping a promising and intelligent young man of his home, his friends, his family and finally, his God.

I was surprised at Wiesel's calm voice in the beginning of the book. Questions such as 'Isn't he worried?' 'Aren't they coming for him?' and 'Why aren't they moving!?' flitted through my mind as I turned the pages. When Moishe, a bard-like character, and Wiesel's mentor, comes back to his hometown to warn his people about all he had witnessed and all he had had to endure, they scoffed at him, believing he was crazy.

Now, many years later and many history classes later, now that we know what happened in those years, we're screaming at Wiesel, thinking him and the other villagers fools, begging them to heed Moishe's advice, to listen to all that has happened to him, to believe the survivor! But, alas, aren't we all blind to bad news? Preferring not to believe it, preferring even, to remain in our versions of perfection.

Children subjected to medical experiments in Auschwitz.[from The Pictorial History of the Holocaust, ed. Yitzhak Arad. New York: Macmillan, 1990]

These were my thoughts as the story progressed, as Wiesel and his people were removed from their homes and placed in ghettos (dehumanization begins). But, life in the ghettos wasn't that bad was it? I mean, they were a midst their own with no gestapo or other foreigners around. They still handled their affairs within their communities, appointing different jobs to different people. But I was screaming at them, telling them to leave, to run, to save themselves and everything that had grown dear to them. 'You don't know! You don't know and you don't see!' and sadness grew inside of me.

And now, fear. People say that fear is the unknown, or an extreme negative sensation that comes from pain or the feeling of a threat. And we all know that that's where we're headed.

Day by day the Wiesel family saw more and more of their friends and family leave them, going towards the unknown, praying. Finally, it was their turn and they were ushered, as they had seen many people before them, into cattle compartments. Here, after days of suffering, they were greeted with the lie 'Work will set you free' and the smell of burning flesh in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Then comes the separation of family, the death of the mother and sisters, the small acts of kindness that restore at least a bit of faith in humanity and then the cruel reality which rips it away again in an instant. I can't stress it enough. Dehumanization.

That was what was looked for and needed in order to make the killing of so many human beings possible. The less someone resembles a human, the less someone is treated like a human... well, the easier it is to see them as animals.

And I can bet that is what many of the people who sat down together on January 1942 to eat, drink and plan out one of the most horrible moments in this planet's history thought.

Trujillo Introduction

Hello! My name is Mar Trujillo. I was born in Caracas, Venezuela to a very large Cuban family and was raised in Miami Florida. I spent the summer teaching at a 7 week summer camp and was blessed enough to be able to go on a mission trip to Cuba (my very first time in 'La Patria' or The Homeland). I am a Music and English Writing double major with a minor in Psychology (hopefully). This fall will start my Junior year at Loyola and I'm extremely excited to start it off with this Holocaust class. I've always been disgusted, intrigued and fascinated with holocausts. With the potential that human beings have to destroy. With the need and the want to be above others. I guess, more than anything, with the psychology of it. That's what I'm most interested in studying, the 'why?', and what I'm most frustrated about is how we will never know the answer.