Before the interview with Mr. Neumark I was very excited, but also a little nervous. The excitement centered upon the opportunity to interview someone with a very unique experience of the Holocaust, which I was able to read about in great detail from his book, and to be able to engage this individual with my own questions and reflections. However, my main concern was making Mr. Neumark uncomfortable or not knowing what to say to incite good, productive conversation. Of course, the Holocaust is a VERY sensitive issue, and it must be treated delicately to avoid offending people or making them upset or uncomfortable. Also, although I had a good set of questions prepared that I had Zenon approve before the interview, I knew that my goal was to make the interview like a conversation rather than a choppy question-answer session. I wanted my questions to have some kind of flow to them, and I knew that I'd have to use my intuition to engage Zenon in conversation but know when to move the interview along. I guess in summation, I knew I'd have to be very selective with what I said and how I said it.
Fortunately, Zenon established voice very well in his novel and I felt going into the interview that I knew his personality somewhat. Even during the Holocaust (although Zenon mostly avoided the graphic violence experienced by many people in death camps) he was able to enjoy the humor of irony and coincidence, which he expressed very well in his book. It was comforting to know that he could see the lighter side of things, so that perhaps he would be friendly and relatable during our interview. With this knowledge in mind my excitement definitely outweighed my nervousness, but you still must always be cautious when dealing with a sensitive issue...
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Before the interview I was excited but nervous because I had never met anyone that was a Holocaust survivor. I was excited about meeting someone who was a genuine part of history. Who had survived one of the worst atrocities in our worlds history. My thoughts were that Zenon would be a down to earth gentleman who had experiences to share like no one I had ever met or would ever meet. I felt it would be an experience of a lifetime in a impressive kind of way because he survived.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a testament to Zenon's resilience that the war never seemed to have affected his life in America. Contrary to some depictions we have seen in our course, he has built a happy and satisfying life for himself, it seems, in spite of the atrocities he has faced, especially in the loss of his family. He is a unique gentleman, indeed.
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