Martin Spett Interview Reflection
Martin Spett Interview Reflection
By: Amy Scofield
Obviously, it was a great honor to hear Mr. Spett speak. He was excellent in relaying his story to us, had we not read his book. I think that we were given a lot of facts that we may not have known. For example, in describing his most horrifying memory, he told us that 7,000 people were killed in one week, and that in the population of 70,000 in Tarnow, 25,000 of them were Jewish-just under half.
One thing that surprised me, and not about Mr. Spett at all, was how long he talked for. I assumed that if he gave a speech it would be original, but it all came directly from his book for the most part, and since we were all given copies of it, I think it is safe to assume that we read it to be prepared for the assignment. He could’ve cut it down a little to give us more of an opportunity to ask our questions.
A theme that emerged from the speech was hate; living with it, fighting it and coping with it. Mr. Spett said that a typical day for him really involved living in fear of all that was happening around him, and he found his strength to speak about his life and tell his tragic story from a desire to promote peace and tolerance throughout the world.
I still have tons of questions that I would like to ask Mr. Spett. To go along with the theme of dealing with hate, I would like to ask how he felt about the civil rights movement that he encountered when he moved to the United States with his family, whether or not he took a more active role in it because of what happened to him or if he kind of shied away from it all, to avoid being targeted again. To introduce another theme, I'd ask him about his paintings. Something that I found interesting as I was reading his book was that he referenced his paintings at certain sections. I would like to know if he had them already or if he created them for the book.
Reflection on Martin Spett Interview/Speech
By: Danny Taveras
I did not know what to expect while walking into Leo 215 yesterday. I had seen pictures of Martin Spett in his book, but I was not sure what he would be like in person, which made me a little nervous. When he entered the room I was almost star struck because I had read so much about this man's life. I had come to admire his courage, not only during the Holocaust, but after while speaking out about the Holocasut. Martin Spett has dedicated his life to teaching people about the Holocaust in the hopes that one day bigotry and hatred will one day be no longer. I feel honored that I was able to listen to him tell his stories about his experience in the Holocaust.
I was very nervous to ask my question, especially when it got close to my turn. I was almost relieved when time ran out, and I was not able to ask my question. I now regret not being able to ask my question because I am in fact very curious to see how he would have answered it. Most of the questioned asked were open ended which gave Martin free range to answer them. I wanted to know if there was ever any talk of a rebellion against the Germans. This is a close ended question, and I think it would have been interesting to hear him answer it. Overall, the experience was very powerful, and I am grateful that I was able to be there for it.
Reflections on Martin Spett
By: Kayla Hutzler
Mr. Spett's presentation was riveting; I think he moved every single person in the room. No one spoke during him, there were no side conversations, I didn't see anyone on their cell phones, and when he started to run over time, no body started to pack up or move. His message was an important one, and because he believed so strongly in the message he was trying to get across, he passed on this feeling of importance to his audience.
I was very surprised as to how easily Mr. Spett remembered everything. When asked the question about an average day during Nazi occupation, Mr. Spett started to tell us about events, ones that hadn't been printed in the book, and it seemed as if they had happened yesterday for him. He remembered names and titles, places and locations, as if he had just been there recently.
I think an important theme that emerged throughout the presentation was his belief that we must stand up to intolerance, hatred and bigotry in order to make sure nothing like the holocaust ever happens again. One of his closing quotes was "Don't hate, hate is the worst enemy."
If I were to ask Mr. Spett one more question it would involve how he and his family were able to keep hope; to hold on to something that forced them to keep going in the face of such horrible human cruelty. Many times throughout his book he spoke of his mother's faith that God would help them; was he able to keep such faith? Were others in his Jewish community able to keep their faith in God or did he see many people turning away from the religion, possibly even hating their religion or God?
Reflection from Martin Spett Interview
By: Sarah Lutz
I liked the avuncular relationship that Martin formed with his audience. He told us right away to call him Martin.
As a student heavily involved in the Darfur conflict, I felt Martin's emphasis on this issue was commendable. He was able to take his experience and relate it to a present day issue that I feel not enough people know about. His comments and sympathy for the people of Darfur were sincere. Comparing the Holocaust to the genocide in Darfur made me think, are future generations going to investigate the brutality in Darfur as my generation has investigated the Holocaust? Will Manhattan College have a Darfur Resource Center in years to come?
A key phrase that is associated with the Holocaust is "never again". Well, ethnic cleansing is happening, again. Millions of innocent people are loosing their lives. They are being condemned for not what they did but for who they are.
Martin's speech motivated me. Currently I am running a fundraiser on campus with two coinciding events to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur. When I told Martin this he said, "Thank you." He was thanking me as if he was a Darfur refugee. I could feel Martin's empathy and appreciation for what I am doing.
Reflection on Interview
By: Sean
Overall, the speech was quite well done with a very emotional story being told. The interview part of the day was unfortunately cut short and no real ground breaking questions were able to be asked due to time. Martin is a real nice speaker who has no problem talking, but that is a good thing when it comes to the subject matter he is discussing. The one problem I had was mostly due to me when I asked my question on bigotry being written into US law on the basis of religious morality and Martin mistook me and talked about the need for religions to come together. I personally should have rephrased the question for Martin to make it more straight forward and should have not included Europe so as to narrow the scope. Over all though I believe Martin told a very emotional and informative story about his life during the Holocaust and I wish we had more time to question him.