In Biology, I, with the help of Hunter Hurt, built two models of cells, one prokaryotic, one eukaryotic. I then made a brochure explaining the cell models. Below are the cells and the brochure:
Eva Galler – Holocaust Survivor
In English I, I have to write a report on a famous holocaust survivor. Not only did Eva Galler survive the Holocaust, She was also an amazing person. Below is the report I wrote.
Eva Galler
What makes a person a survivor? According to dictionary.com, a survivor is “a person or thing that survives” (dictionary.com, 2013), but it is much more than that. A survivor isn’t just some random person who survives something. A survivor is someone who strives and perseveres and does everything possible to make it through something. They work and struggle and take every opportunity that will help them. They don’t just survive; they strive to make a beginning when they get through something. These qualities make a person a survivor, and one person who has these qualities is Eva Galler.
Eva Galler was born on January 1st, 1922 in Oleszyce, Poland (John P Brooks and Family North Dallas Funeral Home, 2013) to parents Iva and Israel Vogel (Southern Institute, 2013). She had seven siblings: Hana, Pincus, Berko, Molly, Dora, Gezel, and Aariel, and six step-siblings: Isaac, Sala, Rebecca, Leo, Marcus, and Moses (Southern Institute, 2013). Her father was a relatively wealthy businessman who manufactured and exported Jewish paraphernalia such as Torahs (prayer books), prayer shawls, and mezuzahs, (Robinson, 2013) which were hand written scriptures that were placed in a box and nailed to the door frame (dictionary.com, 2013).
Early on in her life she faced anti-semantic feelings from her community (Galler, 2013). Boys at school hurled insults and said for the “Jews to [go to] Palestine” (Robinson, 2013). This was nothing, though, compared to what she would face when the Germans invaded. In Oleszyce, as in other communities, no one believed that the Germans would invade. They finally believed when the airplanes came, but by then it was too late (Galler, 2013). The Germans “bombed every inch of Poland” (Robinson, 2013) and then invaded with their army. The first time they only stayed in Oleszyce for fifteen days, and then withdrew because of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which divided up Poland and gave half of it to the Soviets, who took control on September 27, 1939 (Southern Institute, 2013). Under the Soviet rule life was bearable. “You suffered economically, you suffered politically, but you didn’t suffer because you were a Jew” (Robinson, 2013). Two years later, on June 22nd, Germany invaded Poland again, this time for keeps (Southern Institute, 2013).
Eva and her family awoke to the sound of gunshots, looked out the window to see what was happening, and saw that the Germans were marching through the streets and instantly gunning down everyone they met (Galler, 2013). The next few weeks were a nightmare for them. Jewish men had their beards cut off, the synagogues and their contents were burned, and everyone was starving (Robinson, 2013). A year and three months later, everyone was deported to the nearby town of Lubaczow, which had a ghetto (Galler, 2013). They stayed there for four months, crammed in like sardines with little food or water (Galler, 2013). Then came the final deportation.
On January 4th, 1943 the Germans started to systematically clear out the ghetto. The Jews knew that they were going to Bezlec extermination camp (McFee, 2013) and tried to escape detection (Galler, 2013). They were all found over the course of several days and packed into cattle cars to be deported (Galler, 2013) .
On the way to Bezlec, an opportunity for escape arose. A young boy tore the barbed wire from the window of the train (Galler, 2013). Immediately the young people on the train started jumping out the windows, including Galler and her two oldest siblings (Galler, 2013). She landed in a snow bank and was the only one of her family who survived the gunshots (Galler, 2013).
The first thing she did as a free person was to stand up and take off the Star of David armband she had been forced to wear (Galler, 2013). She then went off in search of food and shelter. The first house she came to, she was allowed to hide in a closet for several hours (Southern Institute, 2013). At the next house, a lady turned her away. She then hid in the barn with the new-born calf (Southern Institute, 2013). The owner found her and allowed her to spend the night in the house (Southern Institute, 2013). She eventually came to a market and was caught by Germans, who were rounding up anybody they could find to work (Galler, 2013). She gladly went with them because she knew that she would be given food and shelter (Galler, 2013). She was put on a train that was going to Vienna.
When the train arrived, the occupants were divided up “like [in] a slave market” (Galler, 2013). The first farm she was sent to she was badly treated (Southern Institute, 2013). A year later she got sick and was sent to a smaller farm where she was better treated (Galler, 2013). She had stayed at this farm for approximately three months when the woman in charge of the farm told her that she had to go to a confession and a communion service for Easter (Robinson, 2013). She was terrified the night before and came up with a plan. Instead of going to the Polish church, she would go to the German church because she spoke German well (Galler, 2013). She imitated what everyone else was doing and made it through the service without being caught (Southern Institute, 2013).
She stayed on the farm for nine more months until it was liberated by the advancing Red Army (Galler, 2013). She then moved back to Poland where she was reunited with Henry Galler, her childhood sweetheart (Southern Institute, 2013). She flew to Sweden in July 1946 and was joined by him in November of that year. They left Poland because it had become a communist nation and neither of them wanted to be part of that (Galler, 2013). They were married by a Rabbi on Christmas Eve 1946 (Galler, 2013).
In 1954 they moved to New York City. Eight years later, in 1962, they decided they wanted to move to a smaller city and so the whole family, which, by this time, included three daughters, Janina, Marilynn, and Linda, moved to New Orleans, Louisiana (John P Brooks and Family North Dallas Funeral Home, 2013). There, Henry started a custom tailoring business and Eva went back to school at the University of New Orleans. In 1985 she succeeded in earning a history degree from the university (Southern Institute, 2013). The Gallers were forced to flee from their homes in 2005 when hurricane Katrina devastated the city. They moved to Dallas, Texas where, on January 6, 2006 Eva died.
Eva Galler had all the key factors to make her a survivor: determination, courage, opportunism, and a little bit of luck. These qualities are part of who she is, as they are of all survivors. All survivors have these characteristics, but not all people who have these characteristics are survivors. There is something that is a little bit more in these people, something that cannot be put into words; and Eva Galler has the gift of that quality.
Works Cited
dictionary.com. (2013, December 9). Mezuzah. Retrieved from dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mezuzah?s=t
dictionary.com. (2013, December 9). Survivor. Retrieved from Dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/survivor?s=t
Galler, E. (2013, November 14). Survivor Stories: Eva Galler. Retrieved from holocaustsurvivors.org: http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/data.show.php?di=record&da=survivors&ke=6
John P Brooks and Family North Dallas Funeral Home, P. b. (2013, November 4). Eva Galler: Obituary. Retrieved from legacy.com: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dallasmorningnews/obituary.aspx?n=eva-galler&pid=16226642
McFee, V. C. (2013, December 11). Bezlec. Retrieved from jewishgen.org: http://www.jewishgen.org/forgottencamps/camps/belzeceng.html
Robinson, P. (2013, December 9). Eva Galler Interview. Retrieved from southerninstitute.info: http://www.southerninstitute.info/holocaust_education/eva_galler.html
Southern Institute. (2013, December 9). Eva Galler: Study Guide. Retrieved from southerninstitute.info: http://www.southerninstitute.info/holocaust_education/study_guide_eva_galler.pdf
Puzzle Cube
In Introduction to Engineering and Design, our first big project was to build a puzzle cube in Autodesk Inventor. The constraints were the following:
- Puzzle Cube must be made of 5 pieces
- Pieces must be made out of no less than 4 blocks
- Pieces must be made out of no more than 6 blocks
- Blocks must be 3/4″ cubes
- Pieces must be interlocking
- Blocks in one piece cannot be laid out in only 2 dimension
The above cube and pieces is my product for the project
Zombies Have Risen
In Biology I have to make a series of Emergency Alert Videos informing the public about a Zombie Disease. Below are all three of them. The first is dated March twenty-seventh, the second is dated April thirteenth, and the third is dated June twenty-seventh.