Janine Hamilton
0825778380
This presentation illustrates how the Durban Holocaust
Centre attempts to build a bridge between a history far
removed in time, space and place, from most of the
learners who visit the Centre, to the present realities of
the learner.
The slide show is a sample of a lesson that is taught after
learners have completed the introduction, short film and
hour-long guided tour which reinforces the content
knowledge and chronology of the history.
Our aim is to attempt to demonstrate the possible
relevance and significance the history could hold for
high school learners. We address this aim by posing the
question during the introduction:
What can the
Holocaust
teach me
about the
kind of person
I want to be?
At the same time we attempt to improve the
learners historical literacy by covering many of
the benchmarks outlined in “Conceptualising
historical literacy” by Maposa and Wasserman. A
summary of the major aspects of historical
literacy is outlined below.
Marshall Maposa & Johan Wassermann, Conceptualising history literacy – a review of the literature; Yesterday and Today No 4. 41 –
66.
Dimension/benchmark of
historical literacy
Sub-dimension
Knowledge
Events
Narratives
Conceptual understanding
Time
Causation and consequence
Motivation
Significance
Moral judgments
Change and continuity
Empathy
Source work (Historical method)
Sourcing
Corroboration
Contextualisation
Analysis
Evaluation
Explanation
Historical consciousness
Lesson
Learners, I want you to have a look at a photograph taken in 1938 in Austria after
Anschluss. It is a primary source. It shows Nazis who had pulled Jewish
shopkeepers from their shops and made them scrub the streets, sometimes
using a toothbrush.
M Silbert and T Petersen; 2007, The Holocaust , Lessons for Humanity (Published by the Cape Town Holocaust Centre) , page 38
1. Why would they do this? How do the Nazis want
the Jews to feel?
2. What is a “perpetrator?”
3. In this instant, can you identify the perpetrators?
4. Can you identify the victims?
5. What about the people at the back? What are they
doing?
6. They are sometimes called “bystanders”. Who are
they empowering by standing and watching; the
victim or the perpetrators?
So we have identified
Perpetrators
Victims
Bystanders
There is another group. This consists of people who try to
help the victims and stand up against the perpetrators.
They are Rescuers, Activists, Helpers or Resisters. We shall
call them
Resisters
7. If the Bystanders had wanted to support the victims in some way, what
might they have done? What are some of the possible choices they could have
made?
There are many very inspiring stories of
Rescuers and Resisters. Let us have a look at a
few.
The following photograph is of Oscar
Schindler
When interviewed Hugo Armann said:
“I did little, but if many had
done their little it would have
added up to much.”
M Silbert and T Petersen; 2007, The Holocaust , Lessons for
Humanity (Published by the Cape Town Holocaust Centre) page 58
Most of us imagine and hope that we might have behaved
heroically if we’d been alive during the time of the
Holocaust. Many of us hope that we would have chosen to
be a “Resister” or “Helper” in the face of such a crime
against Humanity. Some of us hope that when faced with
such a huge injustice against fellow Human Beings we would
manage, like Hugo Armann, to find “our little” as we choose
to help others.
The Holocaust did not start with murder; it started with racism, bullying,
prejudiced attitudes, discrimination and stereotyping.
Let us have a look at the Pyramid of Hate paying special attention to the first
stage.
One way to ensure that Genocide doesn’t happen in our community is to ensure that
we never make it to level 1, to the Prejudiced Attitudes described in the Pyramid of
Hate. We must choose to not allow the Prejudiced attitudes into our classrooms,
schools, communities etc.
Let us have a look at some every day scenarios where choices are made. The
challenge for us is to find “our little” when faced with social injustices, bullying and
any other social injustice.
We shall now look and some case study scenarios and answer the questions:
•Why is this behaviour unacceptable?
•What could/ should we do about it?
•What sometimes stops us?
1.It’s civvies day at school, and one of your friends makes fun of the way another learner
is dressed.
2.You notice a group of boys who regularly pick on a newly arrived immigrant from
Somalia
3.You see a couple of guys on the stairwell pushing a youngster around and calling him
“gay”.
4.Your granny comes for tea, and she makes racist comments.
5.Someone in your group tells a racist joke.
6.You hear someone from your school imitating another student’s speech impediment –
for a laugh.
7.A new girl arrives in your class. She is tall and thin, and doesnt speak much English. The
We read the following letter of complaint from Mrs
Gusenbauer to the Nazis authorities. Mrs
Gusenbauer lived close to the concentration camp
at Mauthausen and witnessed some of the brutality.
This is a primary source. Whilst reading Mrs
Gusenbauer’s letter of complaint, I want you to
decide whether you consider Mrs Gusenbauer, In
this instance, to be a Perpetrator, Victim, Bystander
or Resister/Helper.
Letter of complaint from Mrs. Eleonore Gusenbauer of Ried, the village
above Mauthausen, September 1941:
‘Inmates of the Mauthausen concentration camp are constantly being
shot at the Vienna Ditch work site. Those who are badly struck still live for
some time and lie next to the dead for hours and in some cases for half a
day.
My property is situated on an elevation close to the Vienna Ditch and
therefore on often becomes the unwilling witness of such misdeeds. I am
sickly in any case and such sights make such demands on my nerves, that I
will not be able to bear it much longer.
I request that it be arranged that such inhuman deeds will cease or else
be conducted out of sight.’
Dokumentationsarchiv des osterreichischen Widerstand, or Gordon J Horwitz, IN the Shadow of Death – Living
Outside the Gates of Mauthausen (The Free Press 1990), p. 35
Teacher notes
Learners then discuss whether they consider Mrs Gusenbauer, in
this instance, to be a Perpetrator, Resister, Bystander or Victim.
Usually they simply call out “Bystander” or “Resister.”
They are then asked to
1. Answer in full sentences. I think that Mrs G is a Bystander.
2. Use evidence from the text to substantiate their answers. I
think that Mrs G is a Bystander because she doesn’t really
care about what happens to the victims. She asks that the
brutal acts be “conducted out of sight.”
I think that Mrs G is an Resister because she is condemning
the Nazis. It would take courage to call Nazi actions “inhuman”
and “misdeeds”.
3. Put your answers in the 3rd person. It can be argued that Mrs
Gusenbauer is a Resister because she uses words like
“inhumane” and “misdeeds” and it was not easy to criticise the
Nazis.
Or
The words “conducted out of sight “ suggest that in this instance,
Mrs Gusenbauer was a bystander, because she seems primarily
References:
Sources:
Marshall Maposa & Johan Wassermann, Conceptualising history literacy – a review of the literature;
Yesterday and Today No 4. 41 – 66.
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem (www.yadvashem.org.il)
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (www.ushmm.org)
M Silbert and T Petersen; 2007, The Holocaust , Lessons for Humanity (Published by the Cape Town
Holocaust Centre)
Facing History and Ourselves 1994 Facing History and Ourselves Foundation, Inc
www.facinghistory
Dokumentationsarchiv des osterreichischen Widerstand, or Gordon J Horwitz, IN the Shadow of
Death – Living Outside the Gates of Mauthausen (The Free Press 1990