A Commandant's View

I thought it was unfair that he had to do the job of liquidations. Stangl had taken months to get used to doing his job, seeing the naked, poor, grimy bodies of the victims. The way Stangl described what he had done, it did not change much of my opinion of the Nazis. The part that it did change was that I thought they would be a little bit more regretful of what they had done. Also, I thought that he would think that he could have had the chance to try to stop the cruelty of the Nazi's ways, but he said he "no, no, no". He thought that he had NO chance in changing history in a good way. Stangl said "This was the system. Wirth had invented it. It worked. And because it worked, it was irreversible.” This is why he thought he could not change anything to be less cruel, although, I thought Nazi's would regret their decisions more than they do in reality.

In order to detached himself from what he was actually doing during his job, he had thought of good thoughts. This reminds me of when my parents used to tell me to have good thoughts once I woke up from a nightmare. This is the same situation, but 100 times worse. Although this strategy eventually worked for Stangl, it took him months to get used to the liquidations of humans. He had tried to avoid thinking about what he had done at night when he went to bed, by drinking, drinking, and drinking more alcohol. Personally, I think no matter what the strategy, it should not had been used, the brutality of the situation should not have been avoided, instead, acted upon and rebelled against. Although these are my thoughts from my point of view, Stangl just did not want to bare with living and thinking about what he had done and see about so many people that were killed unnecessarily. His tactics worked for him, so in a way, his tactics were good because they were successful.

Based on Stangl's responses, I do not think he regretted what he had done. He states, "'No,' he said slowly, 'I can’t say I ever thought that way.' He paused. 'You see,' he then continued, still speaking with this extreme seriousness and obviously intent on finding a new truth within himself, 'I rarely saw them as individuals. It was always a huge mass. I sometimes stood on the wall and saw them in the tube. But – how can I explain it – they were naked, packed together, running, being driven with whips like...' the sentence trailed off." This was his answer to when he was asked this question: “There were so many children, did they ever make you think of your children, of how you would feel in the position of those parents?” His answer explains that he did not think about the people individually, he did not care for them, because they were in huge masses. If he did not care for the people, then that gives him a reason not to regret what he had done. Also, another quote by Stangl was, “No, I don’t mean to; of course, thoughts came. But I forced them away. I made myself concentrate on work, work and again work.” He said this about when he was asked if he ever thought about what he did, when he went home at night. He also said he drank to clear his mind from it. This shows that he tried not to remember what he had done to so many innocent people, so it makes it harder for him to regret anything. Overall, I think he may have regret what he done a little bit, but majority, no, he did not regret.

Steve Jobs

In my opinion, this speech was very well done. It shows me a new way of thinking about careers that I have never imagined about. What Steve Jobs have said indeed surprised me, and I now know how to think of life: To live with the choices that I make everyday without regretting them, as if I were to die the next day. He has changed my point of view, therefore I find his speech utterly inspiring. Also, the metaphors and similes that Steve had used in his speech were clever. For example, "I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. This was when he got fired from the job that HE started. The way his speech was formed, well put together and inspiring, also the choice of words and metaphors/similes made his speech very well done in my eyes. A quote that really inspired me was "'If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.' It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ' If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something." I am now considering, just from reading his speech, to use this way of thinking towards each day. Overall, I thought his speech had a good choice of words, metaphors/similes, and on top of all, it was inspiring.

I think Steve Jobs is a inspiring, smart, experienced, wise man, even if he did not graduate college. The reason why I say that he is inspiring is because he inspired me to think about life in a better way, so I would not regret what I have done, and love what I am about to do. Like everyone else in the world, I would like to be as happy as possible and do the things I love. He is a smart man, obviously he needs to be in order to create Macintosh/Apple products. Although he did not graduate college, he did what he loved and this made him even smarter. The more a person loves something, the more they are commited they are to it, the more commited, then the more you learn about what you love. Steve was an experienced and wise man because he has gone through a lot in life, he experienced many situations of downfall and uprise. He was adopted, he did not graduate college even though his parents promised his real parents that he would, and he has gone through the phases in life where he does not know what he loves. Being through these experiences strengthened him, and made him a wise man. Wise enough to know how to live his life and inspire others by it.

This speech was effective on the impressions of people who plan to graduate college. This is because Steve Jobs himself was supposed to graduate college, but while taking it, could not find what he loved in life. He could not find the value in going to college everyday learning about things that he did not plan to use or remember in the future. A lot of his parents money was going towards college as well, the more reason to drop out. Therefore, he did, he dropped out and went on a journey to find what he loved in life and take action upon it. Yes, he did trip once in a while on the rough road, but everytime he had tripped, he had got up and tried again. His uprises were successful in the end, and that's what counts. He did his best, and thought about how he was going to get and do what he loved, and he did. This tells people who plan to go to college, that if they are not finding any intrests in it, do not spend your parents money on an expensive college, just go out in the open and adventure. Adventure to find what you love.

Steve Jobs

I think this is a very well written speech and what makes it good, is that it does not just say all the things that people want to hear, but also what people do not want to hear. In the speech, Jobs talks about living everyday to its fullest because you only have one life so you should live it well along with a personal story. In my personal opinion, I believe that Steve Jobs is a very intellectual man, who does not just role with the punches but takes lemons and makes lemonade out of them. He is also the type of person who does not take life for granted and all of these qualities, in my opinion make him seem like a good person. His speech makes me feel this way because he often talks about life experiences and how it was not always easy but to be truly successful, you have to do what you love. Job's speech was effective and appropriate for a graduating college class because at that age, they are all going out to start a career and he is trying to impress on them that they should not just settle on a mediocre job, but to do what they love.

A Commandmant's View

I believe that this story does change my view on the Nazi officials that ran the death camps. I still believe that they should be held accountable for the crimes that they committed but that they were just doing their jobs and as soon as they were just programmed to think of the people as "cargo." In order for Stangl to cope with his horrific job he would also go to bed with a bottle of brandy and drink his problems away. He also tried to create a special place for himself such as gardens, new barracks, new kitchens, barbers, tailors, shoemakers, carpenters. This was obviously not a good tactic because he was drinking away his problems and separating himself from what was really going on. I believe that Stangl does regret what he did because later on, during a trip he went on there was a little girl and when they made eye contact he just felt for all of the innocent people that were walking to their deaths, and he was a part of it. Talking about it, I think, also stirred some of his emotions and made him feel guilty, for what he could have prevented.