Ebersole.AnneFrank

Rebecca Ebersole Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl

Affects and Themes of War:

Young Adult Literature

Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl

Perpetual Themes of War and the Holocaust

Introduction

The forever dreaded question rings in the air. “Why do we need to know this?” The teacher groans inwardly and searches for an answer that would satisfy the questioner.

Relevance. Students want to learn it, teachers want to teach it, but it’s harder to find in some subjects than in others. When teaching students in an English classroom, the texts being used and the themes being discussed often appear outdated and old. It’s hard to believe that

Beowulf has any relevance to the lives of 150 seniors in high school. But if a teacher can find relevance, even a thread of it, a unit can take on a whole new life. That’s why, when reading this diary of a girl who lived 70 years ago, current relevance and relatable themes are so imperative to the success of this unit.

When students first see that they will be reading this book, there is a plethora of reactions.

Some are excited, some have already read it, some tune out immediately and peg it as boring and unimportant. Often, you’ll see the boys grow wary when they hear they’ll be reading the diary of a young girl. How could they possibly relate to a little girl when they hardly understand them? Others find it intriguing: they’ll finally get to read one of those diaries about which they can only imagine and wonder. However, the actual diary can be quite surprising. Here, students do find the normal, everyday trials of being an adolescent, but they also encounter the story of a girl put in a situation that is difficult for them to imagine. That is where the hard part can come in. How do 21 st century students engage in a story about something they have trouble imagining? Imagination is crucial to successful reading, so if a situation is difficult to visualize, you might find students getting frustrated.

Using a number of supplemental resources, of a variety of mediums, I have listed activities, both independent and collaborative, that will connect students to the content personally and will make it relevant for them as students of the present-day classroom. There are two group projects, and two independent projects listed in the chapter. Some of the projects are more guided, and others allow more choice. Generally speaking, I try to give students as much choice as possible, because they feel as though they have more control over their work and also feel more connected to the assignment. I want to make sure students are aware that the issues presented in

Anne Frank’s diary are still relevant today. You’ll notice throughout the chapter that I’ve included



Young Adult Literature things such as current event articles and websites that connect the material they are learning about to world issues today. Many times, students who are presented with this text write it off because it happened so long ago. Today, we live in a country that has hardly been scratched by war, in a direct sense. All of our fighting has taken place abroad, and students in today’s classrooms have trouble relating to characters, whether fictional or real, who are experiencing war. The activities listed in this chapter take the experiences of Frank and relate them to experiences your students might face on a day to day basis, so that the events and characters in the diary don’t seem so alien. The book comes off as less foreign, and the students have less trouble getting interested.

You’ll find two major themes throughout the chapter, which honestly developed as I wrote it. The first theme you’ll notice is that of children in war. I find that this theme is very relatable to adolescent students because the children they are learning about are so close to them in age.

Also, because there is still a great deal of war going on around the world today, it is a very current issue. Students are impacted by the thought that people their age, and often younger, are experiencing things they never have to think about. Which brings me to the next theme that seemed to keep coming up; perspective. Putting students in the shoes of a character or person other than themselves can be challenging, but is worth the effort. Once they view an issue from the stand point of someone other than themselves, they can grasp it much more easily and are more likely to stay interested in it. Because most of your students have not experiences something akin to surviving a Holocaust, giving them a different perspective can be very beneficial. Focusing on perspective also gives students a chance to view issues with an open mind. When it comes to war and conflict, there often seems to be a right side and a wrong side. However, you can open the eyes of your students to the other side of issues to give them a better idea of what the issue is and how to react to it. Judgment is often passed quickly and swiftly, and a unit that focuses on perspective has the fringe benefit of teaching students to think through their opinions before making them concrete.

Supplemental Texts

Using supplemental texts can be an intimidating thing: there is hardly enough time during the year to fit in the assigned readings, let alone new ones. Also, student motivation to read outside the classroom can be low. The logical choice would be to use as few books as possible so that the instructor can keep the focus on at least one reading. However, bringing in outside sources can make students more interested in the topic. Let’s face it, assigned readings are not always the most interesting. As teachers, we might find the assigned texts fascinating, but for a student in middle school or high school, they can come off as boring or foreign. Bringing in other texts will help; you just have to use them in a way that best fits your classroom. If there seems to be motivation, have the students read the entire book outside of class. Or, read the book together in class. You can even copy excerpts for the class to read. If you choose effective ones, the message can still come across.

The first book is The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen. This story is a bit fantastical, which is why

I chose it. The book follows a girl, named Hannah in the concentration campus in Germany during the Holocaust, but it’s different than Anne Frank because it’s completely fictional, and it doesn’t try to hide it. Hannah actually travels back in time and finds herself in a concentration camp with her grandmother. She does not realize it is her grandmother until the end, which is when she realizes why she is there. Prior to her time travel, she dreads going to her family’s Passover Seder and has



Young Adult Literature grown tired of hearing her grandmother’s survival story. The journey gives her a new appreciation of what her grandmother went through. I think it will also give students a new appreciation, because they may find themselves feeling the same way as Hannah does at the beginning.

The second book is called Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt. This story is actually a civil war story surrounding a boy named Jethro. It might seem odd that I’m including a book about the civil war in this chapter, but it is a way to demonstrate to students that a theme of children in war is a common one. Jethro has glorified images of war in his head, until he actually has to live during one. I want students to see that no matter the time period or the place, children who are affected by war are often affected in the same way. They must grow up quickly, take on new responsibilities earlier than they might have during peace time, and have to witness things that they would not have had to if there had not been a war. Because there are wars going on all over the world at this time, I want students to grasp that children are often the unintentional victims, including today. I think they will be able to relate to characters like Anne Frank and Jethro, whether or not they are real or fictional, because they are of similar age and have similar thought processes. This book also presents the concept of perspective. One of Jethro’s brothers goes to fight for the South, instead of the North where they live. The family and his brother must deal with the consequence of this action. It’s important for students to see both sides of a story, especially that of war. We often only hear our side of World War II, but there is always a different side. Just like Jethro’s brother, the Nazis did something many believed to be wrong, but what is the other perspective? Why do people choose to make these decisions? These are all topics and questions that can make for great in class discourse if handled correctly.

Independent Activity #1

Adaptation of a Classic Story

This activity focuses primarily on perspective and why it was important both during Anne Frank’s time, and now.

Students will choose a children’s story and have it approved by the teacher. They will then write that story from a perspective other than the character from whose perspective it has been written.

Procedure

Students will read from the book Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt. If the instructor does not feel there is adequate time to read the entire book, he/she should choose passages that discuss

Jethro’s brother, Bill’s, choice to fight for the opposite side of the war.

Instructor can use clips from, or the entire movie of, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas to demonstrate a different perspective of the Holocaust. Be sure to get permission from parents when showing movies rated PG-13 or higher. You may also need to get school permission for a rating of

PG-13, and you almost definitely will need to if it is higher than that.

Note: These two sources allow students to see a different perspective of what is taken for granted as being right or wrong. It’s important that they realize there are shades of grey.




Using a movie as a media source can be greatly beneficial to a lesson if it is not used as the primary message. If it is followed up with activities and discussion, a movie can grab the attention of students and get them excited about what they are learning in that unit. Be sure to mention that

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was a book first. If you’re nervous about showing this movie to a younger class, you can choose to show them a scene or two, or even read them an excerpt from the book. The point is for students to see that even something as horrible as the Holocaust can have more than one side.

To supplement these materials, the instructor can hold group discussions, or small assignments that help students think from the other side of the line. This can be done with something as simple as Anne Frank’s Diary.

- What other characters in the story might have kept a diary during this time?

- How would the story be different if this character kept a diary instead of Anne?

When discussing Anne Frank, students can read the article by Judith Doneson, The American

History of Anne Frank’s Diary, in which she discusses how our view of the Holocaust has been

Americanized. As Americans, we’ve accpted this perspective as the truth.

- What does Doneson mean by “Americanized”?

- How might our perspective of the diary be different than those in Germany, or even

Britain, or Poland, places that experienced the war directly?

Through these sources and the discussions and activities that go with them, students are learning about perspective and how dynamic it can be, no matter how right or wrong.

Before assigning the narrative, try reading The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka out loud to the class. Almost all students of all ages enjoy being read aloud to. This book is basically what the students will be doing for their assignment. The author chooses to tell the story of the three little pigs from the wolf’s point of view. In all other versions of the story, the wolf definitively comes off as the bad guy, but here, the author makes him out to be not so bad. The students will be doing the same thing.

Here is a list of some classic fairy tales to get you started:

- Cinderella

- Beauty and the Beast

- Snow White

- Rapunzel

- Hansel and Gretel

- Rumplestiltskin

Of course, this list can go on for a long time, and you can extend yours if you want to. Your students will most likely find their own no matter how long your list is. It is up to you as an instructor how long you want their story to be. I would say a good number is about 5 pages, as there is often dialogue. If you have time in your unit, you can also ask students to illustrate. They could even just illustrate the title page. It’s up to you. Encourage students to share their stories, it will be entertaining and will probably show perspectives that you, and your students, hadn’t thought of.




Independent Activity #2

Expressive Poetry

It might be that some students have difficulty connecting to the Holocaust, but this is not the case for all students, or even most, I have found. Anne Frank’s story, and the stories associated with it, is ones that are full of emotion, and you will find students being impacted greatly by the topic. It may be hard for students to understand fully how it felt to be a part of the war in the way she was, but they will still grasp it on some level, and it can be difficult to deal with at times.

This assignment focuses on students expressing their feelings regarding the topic at hand.

Students will be asked to write a poem that expresses their feelings about the Holocaust and the materials they are seeing.

Procedure

If possible, get computer lab time and have students visit the site http://www.holocausthistory.org/ or if you can’t get lab time, have them do a little searching on their own at home, or at the nearest library. Give them free reign of the site. It is a reputable source and the information given is school appropriate. Allow them to search for what they want, and read about the topics that most interest them within the unit. There are videos, essays, and articles all relating to the

Holocaust. If there is time, you can allow students to go one step further and google search for certain topics that interest them the most. It would be a good side lesson to teach them how to find a reliable source on the internet, as opposed to one that isn’t credible.

Have students listen to, and read the lyrics of, the song Red Sector A by Rush.

All that we can do is just survive

All that we can do to help ourselves is stay alive

Ragged lines of ragged grey

Skeletons, they shuffle away

Shouting guards and smoking guns

Will cut down the unlucky ones

I clutch the wire fence until my fingers bleed

A wound that will not heal

A heart that cannot feel

Hoping that the horror will recede

Hoping that tomorrow we'll all be freed

Sickness to insanity

Prayer to profanity

Days and weeks and months go by

Don't feel the hunger

Too weak to cry

I hear the sound of gunfire at the prison gate


Are the liberators here?



Do I hope or do I fear?

For my father and my brother, it's too late

But I must help my mother stand up straight

Are we the last ones left alive?

Are we the only human beings to survive?

This song is an example of people being affected by the Holocaust enough to write a song about it and how they feel about it. Rush is a band that is somewhat recent, and was very popular for a while. Reading through this song will give them a sense of what their poem might look like or be about, and will also show them how pop icons are affected as well as everyday people.

Print out the article

Holocaust Liberators Mark 65th Anniversary of End of WWII by Bradley

Blackburn found here: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/gen-david-petraeus-honors-holocaustliberators-capitol-hill/story?id=10385583 .

It is an emotional story about the survivors of a concentration camp and the soldiers who freed them reuniting at the site of liberation. This will give students an idea of just how emotional this period of time was, and that these emotions still run deep. It is a current events article, proving that although the Holocaust happened a long time ago, it is still important today. What happened is an important piece of our history, and it should be remembered, not let go because of years passing.

If there is time, the instructor can show clips from the movie Freedom Writers. I don’t suggest showing the entire film because the point of the film is not quite what is trying to be achieved with this unit. The story centers on a teacher who turns an inner city classroom around using writing.

While an important lesson, it is how she does it that is most relevant to this particular unit. She teaches the students about the Holocaust. She takes them to the Holocaust Museum, she has them read about it, and eventually, they become so involved themselves, they raise money to fly a survivor over to the U.S. Showing clips of these students trying so hard to be a part of history could absolutely be instrumental to student interest.

This assignment should be somewhat general, to allow for student creativity. The poems should be expressive of true feelings, and students should not be forced to share them, but encouraged. The assignment can be done in class as well as outside of class as homework.

Group Activity #1




Presentation of a Scene

With this assignment, I tried to give groups some choice. At first, I wanted to have them act out a scene from one of the three books (Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, Across Five Aprils, and

Devil’s Advocate) that they have read in class. I later decided to let them present the “scene” in a way that they choose. As an instructor, I provide a list of choices, and they can decide how to present the scene. I also allow the students to choose their own scene from the book, approved by you first, to present.

Procedure

Groups should be smaller: Between 3-5 people to make the completion of the assignment more efficient.

Since you have already been reading Anne Frank outside of class and read Across Five Aprils for the first independent activity, be sure to read at least some excerpts of Devil’s Arithmetic. These three books are very different, but all have similar themes and the students can choose a scene from any of them.

Show the classroom clips from Schindler’s List, a movie about a man who lives in Germany during the war, and despises what the Nazis are doing. He fights it in his own way, subtly, so as to avoid detection and still make a difference. I wanted to show students this movie, because for one, it focuses on the Holocaust. I also wanted to use this because the movie is all in black and white, except for one character, who has a red jacket. This is done so that the viewer will remember the character, just like Schindler does. This is how the director decided to present the Holocaust, and I wanted to show students that they can be creative with their ideas.

Students should document any preparation that goes into this presentation. If it is a scene they are acting out, they need to provide their script, if they are creating an illustration, they need to specify who drew what. All group members need to participate in some way.

Ideas:

- Act out your scene for the class. Your group should not be improvising: come up with a written script and assign parts. If there are not enough parts for group members, be sure to include narrators.




- Create an illustration: Mural, stain glass window, story board…etc in which each group member participates by drawing a part of the scene you chose in the book.

- Rewrite the scene with a different outcome: Be sure that each group member writes a portion of the scene and note who has written what. When presenting this scene, you must explain what changes you made.

- Write a song about the scene: Tell the scene through rhyme and rhythm. You may do this a copula or play music to it. You may use the tune of a different song if you choose.

Warning! You will be singing this song in front of the class! Be sure to note which lyrics your classmates came up with.

As a teacher, you can come up with more ideas if you want, those are just the ones I came up with.

I wanted to be sure to hit each type of learner. Visual learners, kinesthetic learners, and auditory learners. Working in a group will allow for students to work together, so those who are worried about creativity might not struggle as much as they anticipate.

Group Activity #2

Service Project

This assignment will not actually be practiced by the students, but will just be the idea of a service project they could do to benefit children who are being affected by war today.

Procedure

For this project, the groups can be small or big. A community project can be seen as less intimidating if more people are involved.

Play the song, and provide the lyrics of, Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer

Me and all my friends

We're all misunderstood

They say we stand for nothing and

There's no way we ever could

Now we see everything that's going wrong

With the world and those who lead it

We just feel like we don't have the means

To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting

Waiting on the world to change

We keep on waiting



It's hard to beat the system



When we're standing at a distance

So we keep waiting


Now if we had the power

To bring our neighbors home from war

They would have never missed a Christmas

No more ribbons on their door

And when you trust your television

What you get is what you got

Cause when they own the information, oh

They can bend it all they want

That's why we're waiting


We keep on waiting


It's not that we don't care,

We just know that the fight ain't fair

So we keep on waiting


And we're still waiting


We keep on waiting waiting on the world to change

One day our generation

Is gonna rule the population

So we keep on waiting


We keep on waiting


Students should follow along with the lyrics as you play this song. Have a discussion with them about what the song might mean.

- What does it mean when Mayer says “waiting on the world to change”?

- Why might it be difficult to make a difference in the world?

- Have you ever made an effort to make a difference? What did you do?

- Why would you want to try and make a difference?

Show the students clips from the documentary Invisible Children to show them how a group of young, American boys are making their difference in the world. The documentary will also show them a real life situation of children being affected by way in today’s society. This video can serve as an inspiration to them.




In the same lesson as when you show them the documentary, you could also choose to read excerpts from A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. This book tells a similar story as

Invisible Children from a primary point of view. It’s a first-hand account of the affect of war on children.

The last thing students should do before getting started on their ideas is visit http://www.unicef.org/sowc96/1cinwar.htm

, which is a site by UNICEF regarding children in war. Showing this website (you can project it for all students to see, but I would recommend making a copy of the content for each student to have) will not only inform the students of the issue further, but can also serve as inspiration as to what they could do to help.

Students should create a project in which they somehow aid children in war. This can be for any war, in any country, and can be in the form of monetary help, physical help, or material help.

Because they are not required to implement the program, they can plan a big event. In Invisible

Children, the students went abroad themselves, so your students can plan this as well, although you might want to encourage them to plan fundraisers, events to raise awareness, and material drives (clothing, food…etc). Each project should be approved by you first to be sure that it is appropriate and manageable for each group. The students should put together their project, and then present it to the classroom with the goal to persuade. They should be trying to pitch their idea to the class as if they were a community in which they were trying to generate interest for participation.

All group members must document how they contribute to the project.

Conclusion

The material that can surround the text of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl seems almost infinite, and this is an advantage to you, the teacher. With so many options, it would be nearly impossible not to get students interested in what you are teaching. Including current events will demonstrate just how relevant the material is to the students. Including personal projects will allow students to connect with what they are learning.

We take for granted that the information we are learning is interesting. History like this is fascinating and mesmerizing, and we could spend hours pouring over texts and watching media that teaches us about it. But think back to when you were in school and try to remember you and your peers. How did it appeal to you then? How did you connect to something that seems so far away, both in distance and in years? It’s not an easy question to answer. Not only was it a long time ago, but schools and students were different when you were there. This is true of the most recent high school graduate, because schools are anything but static. They are changing every



Young Adult Literature single year. Students who graduate the year after will be entirely different than students who graduated the year before.

As teachers, we need to adapt. We need to stay current. This is why current events can be so beneficial to use. Articles that were just written is about as current as it gets. Eventually, movies get dated, and books become less accurate, but current events are always current. A student seeing that just recently a news story was published about an event that seemed so long ago could be a student seeing the topic as relevant for the first time. A current event article can revamp an otherwise outdated lesson.

The themes developed in this chapter are developed with one main purpose in mind; to benefit student achievement. When it comes down to it, you want your students to learn. Some instructors make the mistake of throwing information at their students for rote memorization, because on paper, it appears as though they are achieving something. You must, as an educator, take the initiative to produce actual student achievement. Prevent your students from memorizing; encourage them to actually learn the material. Genuine interest, which you will find these themes tend to generate, is your first step to this. Students will not learn, will not achieve, unless they are committed to the material. Just like you, they are aware of the tests at the end of the unit and how it reflects on them and their school. They want to do well on those tests, just like you do. Your goal should be to have them interested enough in the material, that taking a test on it becomes second nature. Keep it current, keep it real, and you’ll see results.

Rebecca Ebersole

Bibliography

Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl



Beah, I. (2008). A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and

Giroux (of Macmillian)

Blackburn, B., and Coolidge, R. (2010). Holocaust Liberators Mark 65th Anniversary of End of

WWII. ABC World News. Retrieved on 28 April, 2010 from http://abcnews.go.com/WN/gen-david-petraeus-honors-holocaust-liberatorscapitol-hill/story?id=10385583

Devito, D. (Producer) and LaGravenese, R (Director). (2007). Freedom Writers [Motion Picture].

United States: Paramount Pictures.

Doneson, J. E. (1987). The American History of Anne Frank’s Diary. Holocaust and Genocide

Studies, 2(1), 149-160. doi:10.1093/hgs/2.1.149. Retrieved 28 April, 2010 from http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/2/1/149

Frank, A. (1953). Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. New York, NY: Pocket Books.

Herman, D. (Producer and Director). (2008). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas [Motion Picture].

United States: BBC Films.

Holocaust History Project (2010, March 14). The Holocaust History Project. Retrieved 28 April,

2010 from http://www.holocaust-history.org

Hunt, I. (2002). Across Five Aprils. New York, NY: Berkley Books (of Penguin Group)

Across Five Aprils is a book that deals with a completely different situation than the one we see in Anne Frank’s diary. Here, the reader follows a boy caught up in the events of America’s Civil

War. Although it might seem odd to choose a book about the civil war for a chapter involving World

War II and the Holocaust, I found that there are prevalent themes in this book that match those of both the base novel and the other novel I chose. Having a book about a different time, place, and event but with similar themes shows that children in war all experience the same thing no matter where it occurs. This book is better suited for the earlier years of middle school, but can still be read in accordance with this chapter.

Mayer, J. (Songwriter/Singer). (2006). Waiting on the World to Change (Audio CD). United States:

Columbia Records

Molen, G. R. and Lustig, B. (Producers) and Spielberg, S. (Director and Producer). (1993).

Schindler’s List. [Motion Picture]. United States: Universal Pictures.

Rush. (Musical Group). (1984). Red Sector A. (Audio Cassette). Canada: Anthem.

Russell J, Bailey R, and Poole L. (Directors). (2006). Invisible Children [Motion Picture:

Documentary]. United States: Unknown



UNICEF (2005, June 28). Children in War. Retrieved 28 April, 2010 from http://www.unicef.org/sowc96/childwar.htm


Yolen, J. (2004). The Devil’s Arithmetic. New York, NY: Puffin Books (of Penguin Group)

This book ties in closely with the chapter because it deals directly with the Holocaust.

Through the eyes of a young girl, Hannah, the reader is transported back in time, literally. Hannah is a girl who is tired of hearing about the Holocaust and dreads going to her family’s Passover

Seder because of how dull and boring it will be. During the Seder, she finds herself transported back in time to a concentration camp, where she befriends another girl her age. Throughout the novel, she witnesses the Holocaust first hand and finds she learns a great deal from it. This is a young adult novel suitable for the upper levels of middle school and is a great way to incorporate a fictional story into the chapter. The time travel gives the novel a fantastic aspect and so could grab the interest of students more fully.

Ebersole.AnneFrank

Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl

Perpetual Themes of War and the Holocaust

Supplemental Texts

Independent Activity #1

Independent Activity #2

Group Activity #1

Group Activity #2

Bibliography

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Ebersole.AnneFrank

Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl

Perpetual Themes of War and the Holocaust

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Independent Activity #1

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Group Activity #2

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