Colby Geisinger
WWII Day Reaction Journal
I thought that WWII Day was a great idea and I am very thankful for the guest speakers
to come in and tell their stories, and the teachers and students that made it all possible. My
reaction to the events of the day was very positive. It was positive because I really wanted to
hear what the speakers had to say because I knew that it was a great learning experience that
doesn’t happen very often and I wanted to make the most out of it. Of the sessions that I
attended, my absolute favorite of the stories was Mr. Fayerman’s story about his life in the
concentration camps. This appealed to me because all of the other speakers were veterans and
didn’t know what it was like to be within the camps. Mr. Fayerman was able to describe details
of moments within the camps that he remembers to this day very clearly. He even remembers
what one man told him before his death, and that changed his outlook on things and somewhat
inspired him to write his book. This experience better helped me understand WWII because
rather than reading from a book over and over again, these speakers were able to describe what it
was like to actually be there. They were able to paint pictures in my mind of what it was actually
like which a history book isn’t able to do. I could also sense their emotions when they talked
about the events that they went through, sometimes they would be happy and other times they
would feel sadness. One of the new things that I learned was from the speaker who was a gunner
in the Army Air Corps and I never would’ve been able to learn that in class. He talked about how
it was the one of the most dangerous jobs because he sat in a glass ball towards the rear
underbelly of the plane with very little room. He had to sit with his feet as high as his head and
the gun between his legs. It was so dangerous because since the glass ball was only large enough
for himself and the gun, he was the only person on the plane who was not able to wear a
parachute and if the plane went down he would have to abandon his position and climb up out of
the ball just to get to his parachute. He was very fun to listen to and I learned a lot from him
Colby Geisinger
WWII Day Reaction Journal
which I wouldn’t have been able to learn in class. I felt that all of the speakers enjoyed talking to
us and that they were full of fascinating information. Although I learned a lot, I wish we could
have had more time to hear the speaker’s stories; it just seemed to me that they were just full of
so much more information than they had time to tell. The only suggestion would be to ask for
some more time so that the students can maximize the opportunity to learn as much as they can
in this once in a lifetime experience. All in all, it was a great day, I had a lot of fun hearing the
speakers, and I learned a lot of things in which I normally wouldn’t have been able to learn.