Incorporating Literature
into the Study of the
Holocaust
The soul of man is a candle.
Proverbs 20:27
Pam Gannon
Teacher Librarian
September 2007
The “Whys”
“Our first task is comprehension,
understanding what at first seems
incomprehensible.”
Berenbaum, The World Must Know, p. 220.
Literature is a vehicle that can take us to that understanding.
The Incomprehensible
A Sample of Losses of Lives
2 our of 3 European Jews
9 out of 10 in
Poland
Lithuania
Latvia
Czechoslovakia
How to we comprehend that each number is
a person without listening to their stories?
Considerations When
Choosing Literature
• Goal or objective of lesson
• Age appropriate
• Readability
• Timing in the unit
• Choice of genre and form
– Fiction vs. nonfiction selections
• Remember, a memoir is an individual’s memory of the
events.
And…
• Accuracy/authority
– Events true to location and time
• Night Crossing by Karen Ackerman -many inaccuracies ex. describes a
nonexistent war between Austria and
German, 1938
– Doesn’t romanticize events
• Code Name Kris by Carol Matas
The Error of Omission
– Doesn’t perpetuate stereotypes,
misconceptions
• Through simplistic writing, ex. The Children We
Remember by Abells
“The Nazis hated the children because
they were Jews.” (unpaginated)
Lacks sufficient information about
antisemitism
Watch for what isn’t there
Toten & Feinberg, Teaching and
Understanding the Holocaust, p. 146.
Lastly…
• What gives you the “best bang for your
buck”?
• Will the piece of writing encourage and
lead students to examine their lives and
world to see how the theme connects
to themselves personally?
Starting Points
Key Concepts to understand
– Prejudice
– Stereotype
– Scapegoat
Activity
• Piece of scratch paper, fold “hot-dog”
style, place fold on your right.
• Part 1 Number from 1-5
• Turn paper
• Label Part 2, and number 1-5
Scoring
Points
Part 1
Part 2
0
Yes or no
No
1
Yes or no
Yes
2
Uncertain
No
3
Uncertain
Yes
Rankings
• 15 - 19 Points
Very open minded
honest, willing to study facts
• 10 - 14 Points
Average
•
5 - 9 Points
Likely to jump to conclusions
•
0 - 4 Points
Very prone to prejudice;
easily influenced by others
Discussion of Prejudice
1. What does this very unscientific
questionnaire teach us?
2. Can you really judge something if you
have had little or no experience with it?
3. Can you think of a personal experience
when judgments are made about others
without knowing the individual?
4. How can we develop the habit of not
being prejudice?
Other Kinds of Activities
• “The Hangman” (video or poem) by
Maurice Ogden
• The Terrible Things by Eve Bunting
• The Wave by Todd Strasser
Terrible Things Came for…
Came For
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Animal
Excuse
Discuss
Answer the following questions:
1. Since this is an allegory, what is a lesson that it teaches?
2. How does this story relate to the poems “First They
Came” or “The Hangman”?
3. Put the lesson in today’s terms. What is a dangerous
“Terrible Thing” you see in teens’ lives today? How do
you take the action described by Little Rabbit? In other
words, how do you stand up to the “Terrible Thing”?
Teaching a Historic Topic in
ELA
• Readers need historical knowledge
• Good Literature: a classic human
experience woven together by an art of
language
• Literature allows for a deeper
understanding and respect
History = Faces with Facts
“The largest single difference between
History and Fiction…is that each
establishes quite different relationships
between writer and subject, and writer
and reader.”
Literature = Faces with
Emotions
• Literature presents facts and people
and events
• Can “pole-vault” one’s imagination into
a world of increased understanding and
self-reflection
• Enables readers to transfer empathy
Literature in Social Studies
• Framework
– Introductory course
– Time Constraints
– Transmit information about broad periods of
history
• Literature
– Gives a face for the numbers/facts
– Allows students to construct meaning of an event
Power of Literature
• “Fiction and autobiography, if chosen
judiciously, have the power to foster historical
insight, knowledge, and understanding. By
showing how the events of a previous age
touched the lives of ordinary people, these
forms of literature inject vitality into otherwise
arid facts and thus help to excite and sustain
historical interest.”
Short, Geoffrey, “Learning Through Literature: Historical Fiction, Autobiography, and the
Holocaust.” Children’s Literature in Education. 1997.
Across Geographical Areas
and Time Periods
• Events and stories in context of place
and time
– Ex. Hungary 1942 vs. 1945; invasion of
Netherlands
• Balance of time periods, events
– Ex. Concentration Camps only focus of
Holocaust study
Across Time Periods
• Pre-World War II -- 1920’s, early 1930’s
– Often neglected study
– Important for students to see normal lives
of all citizens
• Photo Activity: Pre-World War II
European Jewish Life Photo Project
– Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Exemplary
Lessons initiative
1933-1939
Short Stories, Poem, Video
– Kristallnacht
poem “Crystal Night”
and survivor testimony on video
• USHMM Survivor Testimonies
– Kurt Klein: America and the Holocaust:
Deceit and Indifference
Compare the Experiences of Youth
– “The Ball” by Hans Peter Richter
from Frederich
– “Serving Mein Fuhrer”
• Alfon Heck’s biography written by Eleanor Ayer
• Confessions of a Hitler Youth -- Emmy winning
film in 1992
Kindertransport
Goodbye Marianne by Irene
Kirstein Watts
Also authored Finding Sophie
and Remember Me.
Kindertransport by Olga Levy
Drucker
1939-1945
•
•
•
•
Ghetto
Concentration Camps
Forced Marches
Resistance Movements
Island on Bird Street
Night
All But My Life
White Rose Society
The Man from the Other Side
• Hiding/Rescued
• Escape
Tak for Alt; Anne Frank
My Hundred Children
by Lena Kuchler-Silberman
Post WW II
Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming
Anton the Dover Fancier by Bernard Gotfryd
“I don’t know how to teach
literature.”
Always allow opportunity for
–
–
–
–
reflection
discussion
synthesis
comparison
…all higher thinking levels
Reflection
• Night by Elie Wiesel
– Dialectic Journal
Questions 2 sentence
summary
Response
Reading Strategies
• Most Important Word strategy
• Making Connections via sticky notes
• Four Corners activity
Synthesis
• What does it mean? So what?
One way the
character
changed
Something that
challenged you as
a reader
Something you
noticed
Something that
was missing from
the story
Comparison
• Characterization of a main character
– Elie Wiesel as a dynamic character in Night
• Orlev’s fictionalized autobiography of
Island on Bird Street
• Compare novel to The Sandgame
• Compare novel to the movie version
Good Literature…
• Content and visuals in text appropriate, not
overly graphic
– One Yellow Daffodil
• Personalizes the statistics
– Island on Bird Street
•Fosters empathy, compassion, and
involvement
–The Devil in Vienna
In Addition…
• Feature the Jewish experience, its
diversity and the specifics ordinary life
Number the Stars
by Joan Lowry Nixon
Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter
Good books
• Brings students from the Holocaust era into
the reassuring present, giving hope to the
readers.
– Gerda Weissmann Klein - All but My Life
• Challenges us to examine our lives
– Elie Wiesel - Night
• Spoke to fight apathy
and indifference
Resources
• Not all resources are created equal
– USHMM: Annotated Bibliography
Videography
USHMM: Teacher’s link
http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/
Yad Vashem
•Bibliography
•Online sales
New Title: Rutka’s
Notebook: January
- April 1943
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/bibliography/home_bi
bliography.html
Holocaust Teacher
Resource Center
• http://www.holocaust-trc.org
Tak for Alt (Thanks for everything)
Judy Meisel’s story
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Teacher Resource Center’s
Annotated Bibliography and guide to
videos
Additional Book Lists
Can be found on my webpage
http://lhs.lps.org/media
• What to Read and When to Read it:
Part 1 and Part 2
(Dimensions: A Journal of Holocaust Studies by Karen
Shawn)
–An ADL publication, but not on their website
• Using Literature to Teach the Holocaust by Carol Danks,
Regional Ed Corps
• Sydney Taylor Book Awards (Association of Jewish
Libraries)
Caution!
• Book Reviews, ex. Booklist
• Lists off websites -- libraries, educational
resource pages
• Always apply what you know about teaching
the Holocaust to your choices of materials.
Your students depend on YOU.
Remember the
Starfish
Become a reader and share your
“finds” with other Holocaust Education
Teachers.
Remember WHY we teach about the
Holocaust…and the parable of the
starfish.