I went to listen to David Fishel tonight to hear his account of his times in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. It really affected me to hear from someone who was actually there tell some of the atrocities that were committed by the Germans and the kindness of the soldiers and German people who weren’t soldiers.

His experiences were amazing that he could survive at such an age in the worst conditions known to any man.

Hearing his stories of his time in the camps, losing his family, and seeing what he saw really made me think and will stay with me and remind me that we can’t let such atrocities happen again and remind me how well-off I am and what small problems I have is nothing compared to what others have gone through.

It makes me mad that the state department knew what was going on in those camps and didn’t do anything to stop it sooner or slow it down by bombing more targets that would stop the Nazis from continue on without harassment. Also it makes me mad that we did not get in to stop the atrocities in the former Yugoslavia.

One thing that really bothered me tonight was during a time when some photographers were standing up in the crowd of people and pointing their cameras at Mr. Fishel acting like they were there to capture a weak moment of Mr. Fishel and exploit it in their news story.

I thought that was really unprofessional of the photographers to be standing up snapping pictures of Mr. Fishel during a weak moment for nothing more than to exploit them.

Not only were they probably bothering Mr. Fishel, but blocking other people’s view since they were standing in the midst of the crowd. I can’t get over what they did especially considering what Mr. Fishel was talking about, and it insulted me that they can be that heartless for pictures for some story when Mr. Fishel is talking about something so hard and dramatic that he had to go through.

I think these photographers should think about what they are taking pictures of, have a heart in times like that, and take your dumb pictures from the back of the room since you had some really good zoom lenses and there is no reason you couldn’t have done that in the first place.

Alex Farley

Freshman

Agricultural Systems

Technology