Log 7a

After reading “Time To Think About Torture” by Jonathon Alter, I had two hotspots that caught my attention. The first one was on page 9. It talks about a “torture warrant”. This caught my attention because I had never heard of such a thing. It's weird that there would be a warrant that you could just just as easily as a search warrant. I do like how it goes on to say that a Harvard Law School professor said that “I'm not in favor of torture, but if you're going to have it, it should damn well have court approval”. I like this because if it is something we would have, I do agree that it should be something that the court should approve and it would make the whole situation easier, if it had to be done. I don't really understand what they would do with it though. Do they just catch whoever they're going after and just use a way of torture to get the information out of them? I could see how it could work and I could see how it couldn't. It does make me wonder how often a “torture warrant” would be used. Would it be used for the most extreme cases only? Or would it be used anytime officials want any kind of information at all?
My second hotspot was on page 9 also. This was where the paper quotes retired Col. Kenneth Allard. He says, “prisoners have only one objective-to end the pain.” This is a good point because when put under pressure, it's easy to lie. Especially when you just want to get out of the situation you're in. The prisoner's could easily just make everything up to avoid the torture. This is why I don't think it's a completely reliable technique. Officials could just be fed a bunch of BS and not get anything that they really need. At the same time though, we could just hope they are telling the truth. But hope isn't something that's solid enough to use in situations that deal with terrorists or murders. It's just not enough. Maybe we could give them a lie detector test as they spill out information. That might be effective.

In “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman” by Tadeusz Borowski, I had two hotspots. The first one was on page 158. This is when the people get excited about the transport coming. This is my hotspot because I think it's so sad that this many people have to get so excited about a train coming with clothes and food. If I was them, I would be just as excited to get those kind of things too because of the situation they're in. While reading, I just keep thinking that I would try to run if I was one of them even though I know that's not really an option because you'll more than likely die doing so. It's hard to think that the person with the most food has the most power. It's not even the best food. It's bread, onions and other things that you just have to throw together.
My other hotspot was on page 156. This was when it said “Sent all the way from Warsaw- only a week ago my mother held this white loaf in her hands.” This is a hotspot because it's weird that her parents know that she's in the spot she's in and the only thing they are doing is sending food. Of course that's nice of them but I would just think that they would be trying to do other things to get him back to his family. How do those people end up in those camps anyway? Are they just in the wrong place at the wrong time and get stuck there? As you read, you hear about the terrible conditions that they're all in and it kind of seems like they're just taking it. I know I'm not in their situation so I can't really judge what they are and aren't doing. I'm sure some of them tried to get away and it didn't work and that's why others haven't, because they've seen what could happen. It was just weird for me to read that the family knows where their son or daughter is and they only send food. Maybe that's all they can do though and they're trying the best the can at the moment. How do you deal with your child being in the Holocaust? That's just crazy.