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Teacher Guide: We Survived The Holocaust

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We Survived the Holocaust

 Teacher Guide

Copyright 2022 Frank W Baker
Written by Hanah Baker

 

Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

                        –Winston Churchill

 

Felix Goldberg tasked Frank Baker to use his speech to carry his and Bluma’s stories on to others. Frank accepted – he created a website, Stories of Survival (www.StoriesofSurvival.org). Ever the overachiever, Frank didn’t stop with the website. He brought their stories to life with this thought-provoking and informative graphic novel, We Survived the Holocaust.

He then tasked me to construct a guide for teachers wishing to use this novel in their classrooms. Hopefully, within this guide you will find a few strategies and techniques you can use to assist your students in their reading and enable them to use the message from this book as a catalyst for encouraging and practicing tolerance.

 

First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

                        –Martin Niemoller

 

In a way, we fear that maybe that’s why we survived—so we can tell the story.

                        –Bluma Tishgarten Goldberg

 

Bluma and Felix were brave enough to speak out – to tell their stories. I think we should listen. I think we should learn.

 

Hannah Baker

 

 

Using the Guide

How to Read a Graphic Novel

Lesson Plan Components

Formats and Techniques for Daily Reading

Preparing to Read

Introducing We Survived the Holocaust

Chapter/Sections

Vocabulary

Quotations

Strategies

Guiding questions

Post Reading

Extended Inquiry Opportunities

Resources

Jewish Customs and Traditions

Vocabulary Master List and Vocabulary Strategies

Strategies Used for Reading and Writing

Quotations

Bibliography

Standards

 

 

 

 

Using The Guide

When I was asked to write the teacher guide for We Survived the Holocaust I thought of teacher guides I had used in the past – what I liked, didn’t like, and what I found helpful. The most helpful guides did more than offer guiding questions. They offered ways for my students to do more than read and then answer those questions. They provided ways for me assist my students in becoming engaged, active readers and to write with purpose.

It is my hope that this guide will do that for you. You will find those guiding questions but we know students need to do more than just read and answer questions – if they’re going to learn, they must do far more than that. They need to know how to interact with texts. They need to know how to apply strategies that increase their understanding of texts, to infer, to reflect, to summarize, to analyze what the author did to give meaning to the texts. They need to know how to question the text; how to generate their own questions related to the texts; and how to seek answers to those questions using reliable resources. They also need to know how to communicate their learning to others clearly and coherently.

Strategies to use while reading are included in this guide along with pertinent vocabulary, suggestions for extended inquiry and, yes, those guiding questions.

More importantly, I want you to use this guide in a way that works for you and your students – you know them better than anyone else. You decide the time frame – do you want to focus on a chapter a day, or divide the novel into equal portions for each day? Do you want everyone to be working on the book as a class, individually, or in small groups? A sample lesson plan is offered but it can easily be adapted to fit your needs. The key word here is ’guide’ – the materials are here to help you. I hope they do.

 

How to Read a Graphic Novel

 

To read a graphic novel, much less a wordless one, many essential literacy skills are required, including the ability to understand a sequence of events, interpret characters’ nonverbal gestures, discern the story’s plot, and make inferences.

–International Society for Technology in Education

 

We Survived the Holocaust is a graphic novel. Do not let that deceive you into thinking that makes it an easy read. Graphic novels are not to be taken lightly. To the reluctant reader their visual format is more enticing than page upon page of words.

Graphic novels assist students in building critical reading skills: using visual information to determine vocabulary meaning, character and plot development, to use text evidence to  make inferences, to use information presented in a different media to enhance understanding of topics and ideas, and to examine author’s craft – how are illustrations, captions, narrative boxes, frames, and word print used to convey meaning.

Graphic novels read directionally as standard text – left to right, top to bottom. Elements found in graphic novels:

  • Panels – the box or section with an image and text
  • Frame – the border surrounding the panel
  • Gutters – the space between panels, these indicate a change
  • Dialogue – words or thoughts of characters, pay attention to the shade of the text to determine the way the speech is delivered (normal voice, shouting, whispering)
    • Speech Bubbles – spoken dialogue
    • Thought Bubbles – cloudlike shape to indicate a character’s thoughts
  • Motion Lines – determine movement (direction and force)
  • Sound effects – these help set the scene and/or indicate something off scene (could be used to demonstrate examples of onomatopoeia)
  • Captions/Narrative Boxes – separate section of text that provides information on background and/or setting

When looking at new pages pay attention to the layout of the page; for reluctant or struggling readers this will give a preview of events moving the story forward. Also, look closely at details of body language, facial expressions, items, and locations within each panel.

In previewing each page you might use the See-Think-Wonder strategy (https://pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/See%20Think%20Wonder.pdf ) Students would answer to – In this panel/On this page What do you see? What do you think about that? What does it make you wonder?

Model how you might use the illustrations found in a panel/on a page to answer posed questions. For example, use leads such as What evidence do you see that supports ____? Reinforces? Answers?




Above, used with permission of the author. Source: How To Read Comics

 

 

Lesson Plan Components

This guide is divided into teaching sections that match the chapters in the novel. They can be combined if you wish to work with more than one chapter at a time.

Each section provides:

Vocabulary

Because this is historical non-fiction, vocabulary will also include characters important to the time, names of locations, and historical acts important to understanding the events as they occur. Vocabulary strategies for increasing retention and understanding can be found in the Resource Section.

 

Quotations

Quotations are from Holocaust survivors, military personnel, and historians. These may be used as initiates for quick writes to start the day, as reflective quick writes to end the day, or used in strategies such as Go To Your Corner.

 

Strategies

Strategies are provided for text interaction. The strategy listed for each chapter is only a suggestion. You could use any of the other strategies found in the Resource Section or one you have found to be successful in your teaching experience.

 

Guiding Questions 

Guiding questions may be used for whole class discussion. If students are working in small groups they may be used in small group discussion or you could give a different question to each group and then have groups share their question(s) and synopsis of their answer(s) with the class.  Students could also respond to questions individually in their journals.

 

 

Formats and Techniques for Daily Reading

Journals, Note taking, and Reflection

Students should keep some form of journal while they are working through this novel to record thoughts, questions, information for discussion, reflections, quick writes, etc. The format can be consistent day to day or can change depending on the emphasis for that day’s lesson.

Journals can take the standard – date and notes on what was read – form but students may need help in directing their thoughts on what was read. Here are a few suggestions:

Double-entry journals are similar to the standard journal. Pages read would be found on the left side of the page and summary of what is read, interesting or confusing vocabulary, questions about the reading, reflections would be found on the right.

Pages Read Summary/Vocabulary/Questions/Reflection
Pgs.10-22 Hitler’s power is beginning to grow. Felix and Bluma’s lives seem normal.

pogram – interesting word, what is it

Why are books burning, what’s so dangerous about books

Hitler is obsessed with power and stopping Jews, dangerous time ahead

 

 

Two-column Notes/Journals

T-charts

Notes Thinking
Bluma’s village is burned

Her family moves in with a relative in the country (page 27)

If Bluma’s village is burned and the family has to move in with relatives in the country what happens if they are found there?

 

 

Facts Inference
Books are being burned.

(page 19)

Hitler wants to control what people read and have to depend on him for information.

Gist Statements

These can be written at identified intervals (per paragraph/page/chapter)

Key Words Summary
disinformation

propaganda

delegitimize opposition

cultural front

In order to eliminate Jewish materials and control what, where, and how people get information, books are burned.

 

Character Journals

Felix Goldberg and Bluma Tishgarten Goldberg are the primary characters in this novel. Students can use the suggested Character Journal chart to keep track of both characters or part of the class may chart Felix and part of the class chart Bluma. There are extended character study possibilities in the Resource Section.

Character Action/Event Character Reaction/ Trait Event Location
Felix Felix is recognized as a Jew when he going to try and find his parents and put on a different train Felix jumps out of the train while it is moving

Shows determination

Transport train between Lublin and Warsaw
Bluma Cela gets Typhus, has little food, and is weak, Bluma is afraid she will die Bluma sneaks out at night and takes an apple from the Mess Hall

Shows bravery

Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp

 

Talk It Out/Reading Like a Writer

Students need to be able to analyze techniques used by others to engage their audience. When reading fiction or nonfiction texts students should become adept at being able to answer the following questions:

  • What is your first impression of this text?
  • What do you notice/what stands out? Underline, highlight, or make note of elements that catch your attention; repeating lines, words, phrases, vivid images, etc.
  • How effective is the beginning? The ending?
  • What transitional techniques has the author used idea to idea?
  • How is the piece organized? Does it work? Why do you think the author chose this organization? (This question can be asked at the completion of the novel.)
  • What techniques could you use in your own writing?

 

Start-ups and Wrap-ups

Quick writes are often used to provide an introduction to the day’s work. Quick writes are exactly that – quick. A passage or quote may be read, an illustration or a video may be shown, or a question might be posed. Students are only given a short amount of time to respond – start at 2-3 minutes and then as they become more accustomed to thinking quickly time can gradually be expanded – 5 minutes maximum.

Depending on how much time you have for each class it might be that you only allow 2-3 students to respond or ask them to turn and share their response with another student.

 

Possibilities for wrapping- up the day are:

Create a blog, commentary, news broadcast, tweet of what you’ve read/learned today (or learned to date.)

Exit slips can be used as a ticket out of the door. These can be written on paper, notecards, or post-its.

Examples of questions that could provide Exit Slips:

What surprised you?

What changed, challenged, confirmed your thinking?

What new idea or facts did you learned from _____________?

What is confusing you?

What information are you lacking?

I learned ___________ but now I wonder____________

 

Chapter Introductions

Illustrations are important features in all books. In graphic novels, they are critical. Make a point to examine closely the illustration at the beginning of each chapter. What clues can be found to help predict what information/events they may learn next.

 

Map Timeline

Map Timelines can be used in conjunction with the Character Journals. Visually tracing the path characters take increases students’ comprehension of the trials of the novel’s characters. Use these maps of Poland, Germany, and the United States. As you read you will mark the journeys of Felix and Bluma using one color for Felix and one color for Bluma.   (Maps below are from the Stories of Survival website.)

 

Preparing to Read

In following the journeys of Felix and Bluma, students will do much more than reading. They will be questioning, sharing thoughts, collaborating with others, researching, and writing. While your students may be accustomed to working in small groups and participating in classroom discussion, the material in this novel might be sensitive to some.

If you don’t have classroom rules for discussion, you may want to establish a few. Suggestions for rules might be:

  • Listen with respect. Think about the speaker’s perspective before rushing to judgement.
  • Avoid accusatory statements (for ex., “well you think”). Stick to statements such as “I think, I believe, I wish.”
  • The classroom is a safe space for risk in thoughts, comments, or questions.
  • Share time for talking.
  • Agree to disagree.

This novel was written to tell the stories of Felix and Bluma Goldberg but it was also written in a way that teaches what happened to bring about the Holocaust and what it was like to live through that time period. So, whether you are an English Language Arts teacher or a Social Studies teacher you will be teaching about or in some cases, introducing the Holocaust.

What might you want students to learn about that time period? Hopefully, they will gain a historical perspective of events that led to the Holocaust; an understanding of what happens when political power is allowed to perform unchecked; and a recognition of the potential for similar events currently or in the future.

Decide how you will guide students through reading the novel. Will you read together, individually, in small groups – probably a little of all three. Will you read during class, assign sections to read at home and then discuss and work through connected strategies during class, or a combination of these options?

 

As you work through the novel don’t forget the power of modeling. It is critical for students to see and hear how practiced readers and writers approach particular tasks.

Note: If you wish to dig deeper into events of the Holocaust, Echoes and Reflections: Leaders in Holocaust Education, Teacher’s Resource Guide. (Anti-Defamation League, USC Shoah Foundation, and Yad Vashem. (2014) is an excellent resource. Here you will find lesson extensions along with photos, primary, and secondary documents.

Additionally, other relevant sources can be found in the Bibliography.

 

Introducing We Survived the Holocaust

Prepare and post these four quotes:

For me, being a Jew means feeling the tragedy of yesterday as an inner oppression. On my left forearm, I bear the Auschwitz number.

–Jean Amery, survivor

 

Escape was not our goal since it was so unrealistic. What we wanted was to survive, to live long enough to tell the world what had happened in Buchenwald.

–Jack Werber, survivor

 

Our immortality comes through our children and their children. Through our roots and branches. The family is immortality. And Hitler has destroyed not just branches and roots, but entire family trees, forests. All of them, gone.

–Amy Harmon, survivor

 

For your benefit, learn from our tragedy. It is not a written law that the next victims must be Jews. It can also be other people. We saw it begin in Germany with Jews, but people from more than twenty other nations were also murdered.

–Simon Wiesenthal, survivor and author?

 

Have students read the quotes silently or read the quotes to them. Ask – where do think these came from, what are they about? If they are able to answer correctly ask them what clues did they find that provided the answer. If they were not able to answer correctly, read the quotes again this time stopping to note important clue words that would help in determining the answer.

Have students look at the quotes again and notice that all the speakers have something in common – what? They are all survivors. Tell students they are going to be reading about Felix and Bluma Goldberg and their experiences surviving the Holocaust.

Ask students to write or tell what they already know about the Holocaust. Give them an opportunity to share. Provide this definition of the Holocaust from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC.

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. “Holocaust” is a word of Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire.” The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were “racially superior” and that the Jews, deemed “inferior,” were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived “racial inferiority”: Roma (Gypsies), the disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others). Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals.

If possible, read Eve Bunting’s Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust. If you are unable to find a copy, the premise is that at one time all the animals live together peacefully until something (terrible things) comes looking for creatures with feathers, followed by bushy-tails, things that swim, sprout quills. Each time a group is taken the other animals do nothing. Little Rabbit keeps asking why, what was wrong with that particular animal. Each time he is told to be quiet, it wasn’t his group they were after. Then one day the white rabbits are all that’s left of the forest animals, but soon they (the terrible things) come looking for all the creatures that are white – and no one is left to help them. Little Rabbit hides and when all his friends are gone, he comes out of hiding and goes to tell others what happened – hoping they will listen.

If you are unable to secure a copy of Bunting’s book you can substitute and read the Martin Niemoller quote found at the beginning of this guide:

First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionists. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Ask students for their reactions to the book or the quote, what is the intended message? While none of your students have experienced the Holocaust, ask if they have ever been in a situation where someone was being bullied, shunned, or treated poorly. What was their reaction? Have they ever been in situation where they were the one being bullied, shunned, or treated poorly? How did they feel? Did anyone help? [These may be sensitive questions for some of your students – don’t require an answer from all, give them the option to respond in writing – not to be shared – or just ask students to think about those questions without asking for a response.]

Tell students the novel is primarily the story of Felix and Bluma but it is also the story of what happened to others targeted for persecution.

Show the cover of the book. The title makes it evident what the book is about but what else do they notice? Who are the people on the cover? What items are found on the cover that would be connected to the Holocaust?

Tell students that before they read, during their reading, and after their reading they will have questions and as they read they will find answers to those questions or they may use any unanswered questions as an opportunity for research.

Designate two areas of the classroom – one area for questions, one area for answers. These may be sections of classroom walls or large chart paper. Ask students to write any questions they have before reading on post-its and to place these post-its on the area designated for questions. You might want to read through the questions and group like questions. Tell students that as they read, when they have additional questions to place them in the question area. When they find answers while reading, they should move the question and its answer to the area designated for answers. Make note daily, if possible, of post-its moved from question to answer. At the end of the novel, unanswered questions can be used as opportunity for research.

Point out to students We Survived the Holocaust is a graphic novel. While most if not all students have familiarity with graphic novels, review the elements of graphic novel and briefly describe what to notice in the set-up of panels and illustrations.

Let students know there are two resources at the back of their books that will be useful during their reading – the timeline and the glossary. As chapters are read make a point to check the maps and refer to the timeline to get a more global perspective as to the events occurring during the dates related to each chapter.

 

Prologue

Depending on the grade level of your students they may not be familiar with the term, prologue. Talk with students about the purpose of a prologue. After reading, how does this work as prologue – what is the intent here?

Vocabulary

atrocities Hitler
exterminated Holocaust
Goldberg, Bluma Tishgarten Nazis
Goldberg, Felix

 

 

Quotations

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.

                        –Elie Wiesel, survivor and author

 

For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.

–Simon Wiesenthal, survivor and author

 

Strategy

Review the Question and Answer areas. Have any questions been answered? Are there additional questions to be added?

Guiding Questions

Looking at these facts, how many did you know?

How does it make you feel that Hitler and the Nazi Regime were able to exterminate 11,000,000 people 11 million?

Why do you think we still have people who deny the Holocaust ever happened?

Remembrance

In this chapter we meet the Goldberg children: Esther, Karl, and Henry. They are traveling to the cemetery to visit the resting site of Felix and Bluma Goldberg.

Two Jewish traditions are introduced. A Mezuzah is attached to the front door. This is a box containing parchments of biblical reference: it blesses those who enter and exit.  It is a sign of faith, symbolizing the home as a temple. While at the gravesite Esther, Karl, and Henry collect small stones and place them on the tombstone. In biblical days people were buried under piles of stones – today stones are left in remembrance and evidence of a visit to the grave.

Vocabulary

covenant Greenberg, Esther Goldberg Mezuzah
Columbia, SC Hebrew Miller, Cela Tishgarten
Goldberg, Bernard homestead survivors
Goldberg, David immigrant Tishgarten, Luba
Goldberg, Henry legacy United States
Goldberg, Karl

 

 

Quotations

We must be listened to: above and beyond our personal experience, we have collectively witnessed a fundamental unexpected event, fundamental precisely because unexpected, not foreseen by anyone. It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.

                        –Primo Levi, survivor and author

 

Never forget.

                        –This phrase can be found on many of the Holocaust memorials.

 

Strategy

Found Poetry

If students have never created Found Poetry, you might want to do this first one together as a class. Start small, limit words to10-20. Have students offer words and/or that are important to the chapter, begin to rearrange the words into a poetic format.

Example:         Left the Old World behind

Beat Hitler

Beat the Nazis

They survived

Built a legacy

Now at peace

Never forget

 

Guiding Questions

What do you notice on the first two pages to give you an indication the characters are Jewish? Why are these elements important to Jews?

What clues are given to tell you their parents were not originally from the United States?

What is meant by the phrase, “And it’s up to us to write the next chapter.”

Esther, Henry, and Karl pick up stones to place on the gravestone of Felix and Bluma – this is a tradition in the Jewish community. Are there particular traditions in your family?

 

Beginnings (January 1917 – Spring 1939)

This chapter will require extra time. Here is the explanation, an accounting of the events leading up to the Holocaust. There is a great deal of information provided – take time to discuss its importance and the relation of the ending of World War I to the beginning of World War II.

If students are not familiar with (or do not remember) the Treaty of Versailles review the key terms:

  • Germany is banned from joining the new League of Nations
  • The Rhineland is demilitarized
  • The area known as The Saar and its coal-mines are given to France for 15 years
  • Germany’s territory is reduced by 13 percent.
  • Germany must reduce its army to 100,000 men
  • Germany may only have six battleships and may have no submarines
  • Germany may no longer have an air force
  • Germany must accept blame for starting World War I (War Guilt Clause)
  • Germany must pay $31.4 billion in reparations

Felix (Fuel) Goldberg and Bluma Tishgarten are introduced. At this time their lives are relatively normal. This chapter also introduces the reader to Adolf Hitler and begins to chronicle his rise to power and the formation of the Nazi party.

The story begins to show the reactions of antisemites. If they are not familiar with the term antisemitism, a definition can be found in Echoes and Reflections (pg 55).

Antisemitism is the term for hatred of Jews as a group or a concept. Hatred of Jews has existed since ancient times, and in the nineteenth century it was being influenced by modern scientific ways of thinking. The word “antisemitism” was coined in Germany by political activist Wilhelm Marr to represent this newer way of thinking. “Semitism” supposedly expressed all things Jewish, since at the time national groups were frequently defined by their language and the traditional language of Jews is Hebrew, which is a Semitic language. Of course there is no such thing as “Semitism” and all speakers of Semitic languages never belonged to the same national or ethnic groups.

Antisemitism may take the form of religious teachings that proclaim the inferiority of Jews, their supposedly evil nature, or other negative ideas about Jews. It may include political efforts to isolate, oppress, or otherwise injure them. It may also include prejudiced or other stereotyped views about Jews derived from racial or other ideologies.

Vocabulary

acquired Goebbels, Joseph Poland
Allied Powers Goldberg, Frank propaganda
Antisemitism Goldberg, Leon provocations
Aryan Goldberg, Regina puppet state
Austria-Hungary Great War racism
Bolshevism Hebrew Reich Citizenship Law
boycott Hitler, Adolf relinquished
Britain incumbent reparations
caricature intimidation retribution
Central Powers Italy Russia
Cheder Judeo Bolshevism Serbia
coercion Kalisz, Poland Shabbat
communist Kristallnacht slandering
Concentration Camps Law for Protection of German Blood and German Honor Soviet Russian
consolidate Lenin synagogues
coup Lusitania territorial buffer
Czechoslovakia manifesto Tishgarten, Genya
decimated Marxism Tishgarten, Haskell
Decree of Passports of Jews Mein Kampf Tishgarten, Kalma
destabilize Munich, Germany Tishgarten, Rachel
dwindled National Soviet Worker’s Party Tishgarten, Sarah
Enabling Acts Nuremberg Race laws Tishgarten, Yentala
exploited Orthodox Treaty of Versailles
facilitate Ottoman Empire virulent
foment pathogen vulnerable
France Pinczow, Poland World War I
ghettos Pitsudski, Jozef
German pogrom

 

 

Quotations

In every revolution, it has been the rule to brand political opponents as enemies of the Fatherland and so to justify completely depriving them of legal protection and property.

–Carl Schmitt, author, Die Diktatur

 

The [Nazi] government will regard its first and supreme task to restore to the German people unity of mind and will. It will preserve and defend the foundations on which the strength of our nation rests… In place of our turbulent instincts, it will make national discipline govern our life.

                        –Nazi proclamation to the German people

 

Each activity and each need of the individual will be regulated by the party as the representative of the general good. There will be no license, no free space in which the individual belongs to himself. The decisive factor is that the State, through the Party is supreme.

                        –Adolf Hitler

Strategy

Cause/Event/Effect Chart

For example, the event statement for this chapter might be – Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor. The format of the chart would be:

Actions leading up to Hitler’s appointment

Event Statement – Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler Chancellor

Effects of Hitler’s appointment to Chancellor

 

Guiding Questions

Why is Poland considered a puppet state? What is the advantage to Germany or to Russia to have Poland under their control?

Look at the caricature of the Jewish Bolshevik. This is antisemitic propaganda. Analyze the image – how is it propaganda? What  might it convey to the reader of about Jewish people?

How might the Treaty of Versailles be considered a precursor to the beginnings of World War II?

Examine the image of Hitler and the Jewish caricatures at the bottom of the page. Use the visual and written clues here to write a brief impression of Adolf Hitler.

Compare the lives of the Tishgartens and the Goldbergs at this point in time to your own.

Joseph Goebbels initiates several actions against the Jews. Books are burned – what would be the purpose behind this burning? How are the books a threat? Does this remind you of another book (Fahrenheit 451)?

Make a chronological list of the laws enacted against Jews – what is the effect?

Examine the page showing David Goldberg removing the Mezuzah. The Mezuzah is important to him and to his family – why would he want it removed? How do you know it is hard for him to take this action, what do you see on his face?

 

World War II (September 1939)

Hitler’s government begins to grow in power and, in an attempt to reclaim old territory and acquire new territory invades Poland. England and France pledge to come to Poland’s aid but as the narrative boxes states, “too little, too late.” World War II begins. The German army invades Bluma’s village and her family must flee to the home of one of her uncles. While there, their mother tells Bluma and her sister Cela they must run, run to the woods. Although they do not want to leave their mother they do as she says and seek shelter in the woods.

Vocabulary

Blitzkrieg

Manifest Destiny

Molotov-Ribbontrop Act

Mutual Assistance Treaty

Polish-Soviet War

Mutual Assistance Treaty

United Socialist Soviet Republic

Second World War

Treblinka Concentration Camp

Quotation

I didn’t know that this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever.

                        –Elie Wiesel, survivor and author

 

Strategy

I Notice – Looking at Illustrations

Look at the bottom panel of the page showing villagers running from the burning of their village.

Ask:

  • What do you notice, what is happening here?
  • What techniques has the artist used to invoke meaning?
  • What reactions do you have when looking at this illustration?
  • What questions do you have about this illustration?

 

 

Guiding Questions

Bluma’s village is burned – what purpose is served by burning people out of their homes?

What is meant by the phrase ‘shifting elastically’ in the narrative box discussing Poland’s eastern border? What is causing this to happen? What effect might that have on people living in that area?

What would Hitler gain by breaking the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact?

Bluma’s mother is looking out of the window. Does she like what she sees? How do you know? What do you think she sees? What makes you think that?

If you were Bluma or Cela what do you think you would have done? Why do you think they were willing to run?

 

Captured (September 1939 – October 1942)

The story weaves between Felix and Bluma.

Felix is drafted by the Polish military, captured by the Germans on Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year) then sent to a POW work camp, Stalag III-A in Brandenburg, Germany. At this point in time Germany honors the guidelines of the Geneva Convention in treatment of prisoners. Key points of these guidelines are:

  • Prisoners must be treated humanely and protected against acts of violence, insults, and curiosity.
  • Prisoners have the right to have their person and their honor respected.
  • Prisoners may keep their personal articles (except for weapons), military papers, helmets, gas masks, money, identification papers.
  • Prisoners should be evacuated within the shortest possible time after their capture to areas far enough from combat for them to be out of danger.
  • Prisoners may be sent to a town or other area where they may be bound not to go beyond set limits.

These rules are no longer honored once the Nazis move to eliminate those considered inferior.

From Brandenburg Felix is assigned to a ghetto in Lublin, Poland. He is then assigned to the ghetto in Warsaw and is able to board a train to Tuliszkow to search for his family. While on the train he removes the Star of David from his jacket but is recognized by a guard as a Jew. He is taken off the train, beaten by the SS, and placed on a train to Warsaw.  Determined to find his family, he jumps off of the Warsaw train. Unfortunately, he is captured and placed on a *cattle car to Auschwitz.

Meanwhile, Bluma and Cela continue to hide in the woods. They exist by searching and begging for food from villagers in the towns. They are exhausted and feel they can no longer survive when an announcement is made into the woods – come into the town, tomorrow. Bluma and Cela are scared but feel the only thing to do is to surrender. The sisters are rounded up with the other women, placed in a *cattle carbound for Hasag Slave Labor Camp where they enter into slave labor at a munitions factory.

*Cattle cars were the primary means of transporting prisoners to concentration camps. They were wooden freight cars approximately 28 feet by 7 feet. The average transport time was four days with at least 100 people per car – no windows, no food, no bathroom. Mark off the dimensions of a cattle car so that students have a visual of the size.

 

Vocabulary

Bradenburg Juden scrounging
cavalry Kielce slave labor
compatriots Lublin Stalag III-A
concussive munitions sweep
Czestochowa Ghetto POW camp Tuliszkow
eradicate proposition verboten
Geneva Convention Rawitsch Warsaw
Hasag Slave Labor Camp Rosh Hashana work camp
herded Schutzstaffel (SS)

 

 

Quotation

We were in the ghetto for six weeks under terrible sanitation conditions. We were freezing, we had very little food to eat. One day the train arrived…they pushed into one cattle car as many people as they possibly can—so that we were crushed like sardines. There were no windows on the cattle car. When the sliding doors slammed closed on us the only light came through the wooden cracks.

                        –Billy Harvey, Auschwitz Survivors Recall Harrowing and Heroic Moments From

                                                the Death Camps

 

Strategy

Go To Your Corner

  • Place one of the following words in each corner of the classroom: daring, brave, foolish, determined. Tell students to think about the actions of Felix in this chapter. Which word best describes what those actions say about him. Choose one word and stay in that corner.
  • Discuss with the other students in that corner why that word is your choice.
  • Have groups share their discussions.

 

Guiding Questions

Look at the sign in the panel illustrating the Lublin ghetto. What does the word verboten mean? What clues did you find to help you determine that meaning?

When Bluma and Cela are in the woods the narrative boxes let us know they are exhausted, what visual clues do you see to reinforce that fact? In the second panel on that page there is a speech that is much lighter than the others – why is that?

Bluma and Cela are frightened, not sure what they should do when the announcement is made to turn themselves in the next day. The speaker says they will not be harmed and will be taken care of – is this a true statement? What would you do? Explain your decision.

At the Hasag Labor Camp there is a supervisor that Bluma says made everyone shake with fear. Why? What visual and word clues are here to tell you about their treatment?

Bluma and Felix are transported on cattle cars – look at the wording regarding how they are placed on the cars. What do these words and their treatment while being transported tell you about the Nazi’s feelings toward them?

Felix was a Holocaust survivor, what actions do you see in this chapter to let you know that Felix has survivor instincts?

 

Auschwitz Concentration Camp (October 1943 – January 1945)

Felix is sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Auschwitz was the largest camp. Jews (960, 000 died), Non-Jewish Poles (74,000 died), Romas (21,000 died), Soviet POWs (15,000 died), and citizens of other nations (15,000 died) were kept there.

The phrase ‘final solution’ is mentioned in this chapter. In January, 1942, German and Nazi officials held the Wannsee Conference to discuss the implementation of “The Final Solution of the Jewish Question.” Reinhard Heydrich, an SS General in charge of the Reich Security Main Office stated:

During the course of the Final Solution, the Jews will be deployed under appropriate supervision at a suitable form of labor deployment in the East. In large labor columns, separated by gender, able-bodied Jews will be brought to those regions to build roads, whereby a large number will doubtlessly be lost through natural reduction. Any final remnant that survives will doubtless consist of the elements most capable of resistance. They must be dealt with appropriately, since, representing the fruit of natural selection, they are to be regarded as the core of a new Jewish revival.

No one at the conference questioned whether this should be enacted but instead discussed how it would be enacted.

Felix is tattooed at Auschwitz – only those selected to work/live were assigned numbers. Conditions are described as subhuman and Felix witnesses and survives several atrocities.

 

Vocabulary

Auschwitz – Birkenau delousing Mengele, Josef
Brzezinka final solution Neu-Dachs
crematoriums Himmler, Heinrich queue
culling Jawarzno Sonderkommandos

 

 

Quotation

They brought us into Auschwitz. I could see the chimneys burning, smell the smoke. I did not think about it. They gave us tattoos: 33076. I did not have a name anymore; just a number.

                        –Sara Polonski Zuchowicki, survivor

 

Strategy

Create a Tableau

  • Place students in small groups.
  • Have each group choose one moment from the chapter.
  • Create a visualization of that moment as if frozen in time.
  • Have the class guess the moment represented. If they are unable to guess, have group members provide clues to help them with the answer.

Guiding Questions

The entrance of Auschwitz is known as the “Gates of Death.” Why?

Felix goes through the process of selection – selection for what?

Josef Mengele determines life or death by directing prisoners left or right. Research Josef Mengele, why is he known as the “Angel of Death”?

The conditions in the camp are described as subhuman. Defend that statement. Why did they treat the people this way?

A narrative box claims the phrase at the main gate, ‘Work sets you free’, is a cruel irony. Why?

The last page of this chapter begins with a panel showing men in shackles and ends with the camp bombed by the Soviet Air Force. Is this a good thing? For whom? Look at the face of the prisoner and of the soldier – which one thinks the bombing is a good thing?

 

Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp (January – March 1945)

Bluma and Cela are moved to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. Bergen-Belsen housed Jews, POWs, political prisoners, Roma, ‘asocials”, criminals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals. Approximately 50,000 prisoners met their deaths here.

Bluma and Cela have their heads shaved and are sent to the showers – one shower room is set for disinfecting. The other for extermination. Their treatment here is similar to Felix’s treatment at Auschwitz – humiliating and subhuman.

Many of the prisoners here succumbed to Typhus Fever. Two such prisoners were Anne Frank and her sister, Margot. Cela contracts Typhus and Bluma is afraid she will lose her sister. Bluma is convinced that for Cela to survive she must have food so during the night Bluma sneaks to the Mess Hall and takes one of the apples she sees in the window. She takes the apple back to Cela who is grateful and promises to survive another day.

Vocabulary

Belsen Frank, Anne sadistic
Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Frank, Margot shorn
darts gingerly Typhus
exodus roused Zyklon B gas

 

 

Quotation

It’s a notorious thing that people in the camps survived in pairs, or some other people that were taking care of them. My aunt, my mother’s sister heard that our transport came in, so she came to find us, Auntie Berthe. We were still crying for out mother. She did a secret exchange… and took us into her block to take care of us. When people say, how did you survive? We lived for each other.

                        –Mindu Hornick, Auschwitz Survivors Recall Harrowing and Heroic Moments

                                                            From the Death Camps

Strategy

Found Poetry

Use the section describing Cela contracting Typhus and Bluma searching for a way to help her survive. Choose 10 – 25 words/phrases to create a Found Poetry summarizing this event.

 

Guiding Questions

Based on the behavior of the soldiers and the information provided in the narration box at the bottom of the first chapter page, predict the treatment Bluma and Cela will receive.

Compare the treatment Felix received at Auschwitz with the treatment Bluma and Cela receive at Bergen-Belsen. Is it welcoming? Friendly? Humiliating? Subhuman? Explain your characterization of treatment given.

Anne Frank and her sister Margot were also prisoners at Bergen-Belsen. Create a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting the lives of Anne Frank and Bluma Tishgarten Goldberg. *Note – this assumes students have knowledge of Anne Frank and her life. If they have no knowledge at this point, research could be conducted at the end of this novel on Anne Frank and a Venn Diagram be created after that research.

Bluma finds three apples but only takes one, why?

This chapter illustrates the relationship of Bluma and Cela – describe that relationship, use evidence from the text.

 

Death March (January – February 1945)

After the bombing of Auschwitz by the Soviets, the prisoners are forced into a march with over 60,000 prisoners 170 miles to Gross-Rosen and then placed on transport to Buchenwald. While on the march Felix is reacquainted with David Miller whom he met at Jaworzno. They would become lifelong friends. Those prisoners deemed too weak to make the march were executed. Those who could not keep up were executed.

On the march a villager takes pity on them and offers boiled potatoes. The SS Guards allow them to be fed but demand they may only take one potato. Felix is able to secure six potatoes.

One of the prisoners on this march is Elie Wiesel. If possible, pull any of his books you can find or read selections from his works for students to compare with the events in this novel.

Many of the camps sent their prisoners away on Death Marchs as Allied Forces moved closer: Auschwitz – 60,000; Buchenwald – 30,000; Dachua – 28,000.

Vocabulary

Buchenwald liquidated   Rogoznica
Death March Miller, David   Wiesel, Elie
Gross-Rosen

 

 

Quotations

If we don’t stand up for others when they’re persecuted, we lose the right to complain when it’s done to us.

                        –David Steinman, survivor

I remember those who showed me kindness even if it was a risk to themselves.

                        –Helen Rieder, survivor

 

Strategy

I Notice – Looking at Illustrations

Look at the page illustrating the Death March. It begins “The SS kept the marchers moving at a trot.” Look closely at each of the panels on this page.

Ask:

  • What do you notice, what is happening here?
  • What techniques has the artist used to invoke meaning?
  • What reactions do you have when looking at this illustration?
  • What questions do you have about this illustration?

 

Guiding Questions

Why is this called a Death March? What would have been the purpose of such a march?

How do the prisoners help each other on the march?

The narrative box on the page depicting the march says, “Efforts to survive drove the marchers to the unthinkable…” What was unthinkable? Why might it be considered unthinkable?

A farmer tries to help the prisoners by providing potatoes. The narration says that “Some tried to help.” but, “Most did not.” Why would more people not be willing to help? What would you do? Why do you think the guard allowed the prisoners to take the potatoes?

Felix manages to take not one but six potatoes. What does that tell you about Felix?

 

Dachua Concentration Camp (February – April 1945)

Again, Bluma and Cela are up for selection. They are forced to strip and walk past the SS. Their bodies are emaciated but are deemed strong enough to work so are sent to the right – they will be allowed to survive a while longer.

They are once again herded up for transport by cattle car to Dachau Concentration Camp. Dachau contained Jews, German Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists, and political opponents. It was a forced labor camp with 32 barracks. The ‘courtyard’ was used for execution by firing squad.

At Dachau they are assigned to work on Messerschmitt fighter plans. It is their job to paint the swastika on the tails of the planes. One guard does not like Bluma’s work and threatens to separate the sisters if she does not pay more attention to her work.

Bluma and Cela fear they may not be able to survive much longer. They’ve done everything together and are determined to survive – together. They express hope in the rumors that the Americans are close and will soon be free.

 

Vocabulary

Augsburg Station conceal Messerschmitt
Autobahn Dachua Concentration Camp Scheppoch Forest
Burgau decentralized swastika
camouflage Judenschwein

 

Quotation

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small face of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.

                        –Elie Wiesel, survivor and author

Strategy

No More Than Four

  • Ask students to review the information found in this chapter. Determine the most important events in this chapter.
  • Write a summary of the chapter in four sentences or less. If they are working in groups then each group would write a summary.
  • Have students share their summaries; keep a tally of what they consider most important.
  • Write a summary as a class.

 

Guiding Questions

Throughout this book there have been examples of dehumanization. Analyze some of the ways this has happened – what is the purpose? What effect might this have on someone’s will to live?

Compare the behavior of the guard here with the guard at the munitions factory where they were first taken. Why do they both practice intimidation?

Discuss the irony of asking a Jew to paint a swastika and what it represents (to the Nazis) on a plane.

Why would the Nazis be putting airplanes together in the forest?

Where do Bluma and Cela get their strength? What do you think would happen if they were separated?

 

Liberation (April – May 1945)

The chapter begins with Felix at Buchenwald. Instead of falling out for roll call he hides; he feels if he goes on the work detail he will not be coming back. He hides under the barracks for three days. Thankfully, the American military arrives to liberate the camp. Felix exclaims it is the “happiest day of his life!”

One of the military personnel is General Dwight D. Eisenhower. He is shocked by what he finds and asks other dignitaries and media to come and record what is found. He also has the villagers come to view the camp. Many of them claimed not to know about the conditions of the camp. They are made to bury the dead.

Meanwhile, Bluma and Cela have been transferred to a Dachau subcamp in Kaufering. They see someone approaching and are grateful to see American soldiers. The soldiers are shaken by what they find.

In April 1945, Hitler shoots himself, General Alfred Jodi agrees to an unconditional surrender of Germany. In May of 1945, Victory in Europe is declared by the Allied Forces.

Vocabulary

bestiality imminent liberate
carnage Jodi, General Alfred   salvation
Eisenhower, General Dwight D Kaufering Victory in Europe Day

(V-E Day)

 

Quotations

All I could tell you was that it was quite dark, I saw just kind of darkness, and we didn’t know who’s alive and who’s not alive. I was in very bad state, I was already among the dead, and then I looked up. It was a man. I saw tears in his eyes, and M & Ms in his hand.

                        –Edith Eger, Auschwitz Survivors Recall Harrowing and Heroic Moments

                                                From the Death Camps

 

The thinks I saw beggar description… The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were…overpowering…I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’

                        –General Dwight D. Eisenhower, letter to General George C. Marshall

 

I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I have reported what I saw and heard but only part of it. For most of it, I have no words.

                        –Edward R. Murrow, broadcast from Buchenwald

Strategy

Go To Your Corner

  • Place one of the following words in each corner of the classroom: shocked, ashamed, indifferent, defensive.
  • Tell students to look at the panel showing the villagers coming in to view the camp. Which word do you think would describe their reactions to what they see? Choose one word and stay in that corner.
  • Discuss with the other students in that corner why that word is your choice.
  • Have groups share their discussions.

 

Guiding Questions

Why is Felix going into hiding a bold move?

Look at the illustration of Felix greeting the Americans -what does his body language tell you about his feelings? Explain.

Note the faces on the military personnel – how are they feeling?

Why does General Eisenhower want so many to come to the camps? Why does he want the villagers to come?  What would be the purpose in having the villagers bury the bodies?

When the Americans enter the camp where Bluma and Cela are prisoners the soldiers are greatly affected. One says, “They had seen death and suffering on battlefields all around them. But not like this.” What makes the sights in the camp different from the battlefield?

Compare the treatment of the prisoners by the Nazis and by the Americans.

Analyze the page showing soldiers celebrating V-E Day. Discuss the significance of where soldiers are placed in relation to the Nazi building?

 

 

Landsberg, Germany (May 1945 – September 1949)

Felix, Bluma, Cela, and David Miller are sent to a Displaced Persons camp in Landsberg, Germany. The camp was at one time a prison – Adolf Hitler was imprisoned there in 1924. This is where he wrote Mein Kampf. He was kept in cell number seven, a number that became a part of Nazi cult. During the war it served as a concentration camp – 14,500  died there.

At Landsberg Bluma and Cela find out that no one in their family survived. Felix finds that his brothers Leon and Bernard survived but no one else.

As part of their re-acclimation Bluma learns to be a seamstress and Felix continues to learn more about printing.  They begin to make connections with other residents and through a friend of his, Felix is introduced to Bluma.

Their relationship grows and they are married. Cela is also married – to Felix’s friend, David Miller. Wedding traditions are introduced in this chapter: the couple is married by the Rabbi underneath a canopy called a Chuppah, stepping on and ‘breaking the glass’ in a bag, and the cheer of Mazel Tov (congratulations).

The Goldbergs have their first child, Henry, and once again Felix and Bluma have a family.

 

Vocabulary

bantering Displaced Persons (DP) Camp Landsberg
Displaced Persons (DP) Camp
Chuppah dispossessed Mazel Tov
confiscate glass shattering quota
diaspora hearkening Rabbi

 

Quotation

Despite everything, I believe people are really good at heart.

                        –Anne Frank

 

Strategy

A Retelling (Can be small group activity or whole class)

  • If working in small groups, give each a pair of dice, or a bag with slips of paper numbered 2 – 12. (If using numbered slips put the pulled number back in the bag after each pull.)
  • Have students review the information and events included in this chapter. Tell them they are going to rewrite the chapter.
  • Roll the dice or pull a number from the bag. Write a sentence to start the retelling using the number rolled or pulled. For example, if you roll or pull the number five, your sentence might be, “Felix and Bluma are freed.”
  • Roll/pull a number again. Write a sentence to continue the story with the designated number of words. However, this sentence cannot begin with the same word as the previous sentence. Continue rolling the dice/pulling numbers until the retelling seems complete.
  • Have groups share their retellings.

 

Guiding Questions

After Felix, Bluma, and Cela find who in their families did not survive and who did, the narrative box says, “Reunions were bittersweet…” Explain this statement.

Felix says the picture he took of Bluma is “the most important picture that he’ll ever take.” Why is this picture so important?

Felix returns to Bluma’s apartment with the photo he has taken. Look at the panel showing the hand turning the doorknob. What is the significance of this illustration? What might is symbolize?

What elements/traditions do you see that are important to a Jewish wedding?

Notice the faces during and after the weddings. What do you see here? How are these faces different than the faces in prior pages?

 

America (September 1949)

Felix, Bluma, and baby Henry board a ship to America. Cela and David are currently in America and will help the Goldbergs adjust to American life.

In 1948, President Truman signed the Displaced Persons Act. This allowed approximately 140,000 immigrants from the war to enter America. Two organizations: the United Service for New Americans (USNA) and the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA). They helped immigrants in several capacities: helped to learn English; provided financial assistance to acquire new job skills; assisted in dealing with anti-immigrant discrimination; secured medical (heart, tuberculosis) and mental (PTSD) assistance.

The Goldbergs arrive in New Orleans, Louisiana. From there they board a train to Columbia, SC.

Vocabulary

boarded fetid porters
Bremerhaven Louisiana stewards
conductors New Orleans

 

 

Quotation

I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

                        -Anne Frank, survivor

Strategy

Create a Tableau

  • Place students in small groups.
  • Have each group choose one moment from the chapter.
  • Create a visualization of that moment as if frozen in time.
  • Have the class guess the moment represented. If they are unable to guess, have group members provide clues to help them with the answer.

 

 

Guiding Questions

Felix lists his expectations of what he will find in America: “I expect life. I expect liberty. I expect that we’ll pursue happiness.” Where have you heard these words before? How would Felix be familiar with those terms?

Bluma says they will be “together.” What is the significance of that word? Why is it important to Bluma?

When Felix says “our flag, our country” what does that mean about any feelings he may have for Poland?

Compare and contrast the train ride the Goldbergs take to Columbia to train rides they took as prisoners.

 

Columbia, South Carolina (1949 – 1972)

The Goldbergs settle in Columbia, SC. They receive assistance from the Hebrew Immigrant Aide Society (HIAS). The HIAS was founded in 1881 to help Jews escaping pogroms. They have resettled Jews in America, Canada, Australia, and South America.

In Columbia, Felix finds work as a janitor; secures a loan that allows him to buy out his employer and open two retail stores. The family also grows – Karl and Esther are born and the family is able to move into a new, larger home.

Felix hangs a Mezuzah at the new home – a comforting sign of faith, endurance, hope, and love.

Vocabulary

affix deranged sanctified
collateral Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society Tile Center

 

 

Quotation

Maybe people had no choice but I wonder sometimes what would have happened if everyone without a choice would have made the choice anyway. If we all chose not to participate. Not to be bullied. Not to take up arms. Not to persecute. What would happen then?

                        –Amy Harman, survivor

Strategy

Cause/Event/Effect Chart

The event statement for this chapter might be – Felix finds work as a janitor.

The format of the chart would be:

Events leading up to Felix becoming a janitor

Event Statement – Felix finds work as a janitor

Effects of Felix finding work

 

 

Guiding Questions

Bluma recalls their first days in Columbia, “I had less than a dollar in my pocket. I had a young baby. And I spoke no English.” What thoughts do you think Bluma and Felix might have at this point?

Look at the page where Felix finds work as a janitor. Compare/contrast the top of this page to the bottom. Based on what you have learned about Felix’s character throughout this novel, are you surprised? Explain your answer.

After Felix and Bluma move into their new home a Mezuzah is attached to the front door. The Mezuzah has been seen in this novel before, where? What is the significance of the Mezuzah?

The author uses the Mezuzah at the beginning and at the end of this novel. This is known as a circular approach. What does that mean? How is it an effective technique in telling story?

 

 

Epilogue (Today and Tomorrow)

As with prologue, explain the meaning of the term epilogue and its purpose.

Bluma and Felix are seen telling their experiences to others. In answering the questions of their children, there is a review of some of the events told. Felix is still haunted by his memories and shares them with his son Henry. The family prospers and continues to show their pride in and support of Felix and Bluma.

The final page “reminds us of our duty to never forget the six million who lost their lives and make sure it never happens again.”

Vocabulary

gallow shoah unflinchly
prominent stark unvarnished

 

 

Quotations

I don’t want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death.

                        –Anne Frank, survivor

                       

Strategy

No More Than Four

  • Ask students to review the information found in this chapter or to be especially challenging, the novel as a whole. Determine the most important events.
  • Write a summary of the chapter/novel in four sentences or less. If they are working in groups then each group would write a summary.
  • Have students share their summaries; keep a tally of what they consider most important.
  • Write a summary as a class.

 

 

Guiding Questions

Using the information and illustrations seen on the page showing Felix and Bluma talking to their children, explain the term “passing on the torch.”

What questions would you have of Felix and Bluma?

One of Felix’s sons says, “He defeated Hitler by surviving.” Explain that statement.

Felix and Bluma survived. What could you do to honor their memory?

 

 

Post Reading Possibilities

  • This is a powerful, often times emotional, novel. At the completion of the read allow students time to write their impressions, feelings, reactions. Asking any who wish to share what they have written can help initiate discussion on their overall reactions to We Survived the Holocaust.
  • Review the Question and Answer Areas. Have all questions been answered? If not, where could the answers be found? Conduct research to find those answers.
  • Ask students if this story reminds them of any other books, stories, films, television shows, or current events. Compare/contrast these stories to the story of Felix and Bluma. What common theme is there?
  • Have students respond to one of these TDA questions.
    • Bluma’s ability to stay with Cela was important to her survival. Write an essay explaining this statement. Use evidence from the novel to support your response.
    • Felix possessed survivor instincts. Write an essay defending this statement. Use evidence from the novel to support your response.
  • Examine the format of movie posters; discuss elements found on these posters – for example, does it catch your attention, what on the poster gives you an idea of the movie genre? The main point of the movie? Are there interesting phrases or quotes? Create a movie poster for We Survived the Holocaust. If you choose to promote a movie with actors – who would you cast in the lead roles?
  • Write an ABC Book – these are not just for primary students. And, are not an easy write. Creating ABC books on a particular requires a depth of knowledge and vocabulary related to the topic.
    • Create a chart with blocks – one for each letter of the alphabet.
    • Write vocabulary important to the topic in its correct letter block, if there are multiple words for a letter, decide which word is most important – provides information critical to the topic.
    • Review the blocks. Are there blocks that have no words. If so, revision might be needed – look to see if there is information in another block to can help fit the empty block? For example, if the topic is weather and Q is the empty block, quiet might be used to emphasize the way it sounds outside on a quiet snowy morning.
    • Students can create ABC books independently, in small groups, as a class, or you might assign letters to groups or individuals. (Group 1 – letters a-e)
  • Create a character collage.
    • Choose a character from the story.
    • Create a collage using pictures, drawings, phrases, textiles, colors, etc. to represent the characteristics/personality/experiences of your chosen character.
  • Create a character circle.
    • Choose a character from the story.
    • Draw a large circle on a sheet of paper.
    • Place the name of your character in the center of the circle.
    • Words, phrases, events, character point of view thoughts are written around the character’s name in the circle – no visuals, words only.
  • The last question for the Epilogue chapter asked how students might honor the Goldbergs. Students might discuss ways in which they could honor all Holocaust survivors or create a memorial for those who did not survive the Holocaust.
    • Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children’s Holocaust Memorial describes the experience of students at Whitwell Middle School in Whitwell, Tennessee. These students decided to create a memorial to the six million who lost their lives in the Holocaust horror. They decide to launch a campaign to secure six million paper clips – one for each life lost. They succeeded. The book and the website (https://oneclipatatime.org/paper-clips-project/ ) chronicles their journey.
    • Brainstorm possibilities for memorials your students could create or could be part of. What would it take to create that memorial. Create a plan of action.

 

Extended Inquiry Opportunities

  • Research any unanswered questions or new questions as a result of end of book activities.
  • Research the lives of Nazis referenced in the novel – Adolf Hitler, Josef Mengele, Henrich Himmler – what was their role in the Nazi party? How did they contribute to the suffering of those held in concentration camps.
  • Explore additional political writings, editorials, from this time period. Included in the Resource Section is an editorial from a newspaper toward the end of the war in Europe on Hitler. Have students read the editorial and answer the following:
    • How does this fit the format for editorial, persuasive, or argument writing?
    • What techniques – words, phrases, organization – does this piece use?
    • What do you perceive as the overall intent of the message – was the author successful? How or why not?
    • Does this relate to any current or local situation?
  • Holocaust survivor and author, Elie Wiesel, is reference in the Death March chapter. Read one of his books or talks to others concerning his time as a concentration camp prisoner. Compare what he writes to the experiences in this novel.
  • Anne Frank is noted as a member of Bergen-Belsen, the camp also holding Bluma and Cela. Read the diary of Anne Frank, research her life. Compare/contrast Anne Frank’s life to Bluma’s.
  • There are several Holocaust survivor websites – research and/or listen to testimony from other survivors. Are there stories similar to those of the Goldbergs?
  • What changes have been made in laws since the Holocaust? Are there safety measures to prevent this happening in the future?
  • Research current events – do similar movements or the potential for similar movements exist today? (Genocide, prejudice, discrimination, etc.)
  • Write a guide, website, pamphlet, or create a public service infomercial offering tips for tolerance and what to do when you witness or find yourself in an intolerant situation.

 

Resource Guide

 

Jewish Customs and Traditions Found in We Survived the Holocaust

Home Life

  • Cheder Cheder is an elementary Jewish school. Students learn from the Talmud and how to read Hebrew.
  • Mezuzah – The Mezuzah is a box attached to the doorway of Jewish homes. A piece of parchment inscribed with a biblical text is found inside the Mezuzah. It is a sign of welcome and has been hung on the doorway of Jewish homes since biblical times.
  • Shabbat – Shabbat recognizes the Sabbath, a day of rest, a slowing down of life. Weddings and funerals are not permitted on Traditionally, Shabbat begins with the meal on Friday evening. Candles are lit, blessings are said for spouses, children, wine, challah (bread), and the meal is eaten. Services are attended at the synagogue (house of prayer) Saturday mornings; lunch is eaten; rest and quiet in the afternoon; and then, “when three stars are visible in the sky or a blue thread is indistinguishable from a white thread held at arm’s length” (it becomes dark),

Holiday

  • Rosh Hashanah – Rosh Hashanah is the celebration of the Jewish New Year. As with Shabbat, the holiday begins with an evening meal. Jewish families establish their own special traditions around the meal, and the decorations. The meal begins a ten day time for reflections and repentance.

Life and Death

  • Weddings – Jewish weddings are held under a canopy supported by four poles. This canopy is called the After the oaths a glass, placed in a bag, is stepped on and broken. This practice has occurred since the writing of the Talmud. Various explanations have been given for this practice: it is a reminder of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem; it is a reminder of the sorrow and losses suffered by Jews and a hope for violence free future; broken glass can’t be mended, marriage is irrevocable, the breaking glass protects the marriage – “As this glass shatters, so may our marriage never break.”  At the end of the ceremony all observers shout their congratulations with “Mazel Tov!”
  • Death – From the time of death until the burial the focus is on honoring the deceased. The funeral takes place as soon as possible but may not be held on A service may be held at the synagogue and a brief service at the graveside. At graveside a Mourner’s Kaddish is recited – there is no mention of death in the Kaddish, it praises God for the gift of life. From the time of the funeral through the next seven days Shiva is observed – the focus moves from the deceased to the bereaved. During shiva mourners do not go to work or take part in activities out of the house. Mirrors are covered in the house. When friends and family visit the graveside afterwards small stones or pebbles are left on the gravestone. This custom goes back to biblical times when the dead were buried under piles of stones. These small stones are left today as a remembrance to the person(s) buried.

 

Vocabulary and Vocabulary Strategies

 

Vocabulary Master List

A B
acquired

affix

Allied Powers

Antisemitism

Aryan

atrocities

Augsburg Station

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Austria-Hungary

Autobahn

 

 

Belsen

Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp

Berlin Opera Square

bestiality

Blitzkrieg

boarded

Bolshevism

Bolshevist Movement

boycott

Brandenburg

Bremerhaven

Britain

Brzezinka

Buchenwald

Burgau

 

C D
camouflage

carnage

caricature

cavalry

Central Powers

Cheder

Chuppah

coercion

collateral

Columbia, SC

communist

compatriots

conceal

concentration camps

concussive

conductors

consolidate

coup

covenant

crematoriums

culling

Czechoslovakia

Czestochowa ghetto

 

 

 

 

 

Dachau Concentration Camp

darts

Day of Remembrance

Death March

decentralized

Decree of Passports of Jews

decimated

delousing

deranged

destabilize

diaspora

Displaced Persons Camp

dwindled

 

 

E F
General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Enabling Acts

endured

eradicate

exodus

exploited

extermination

facilitate

fetid

Final Solution

fomented

forced labor

France

Anne Frank

Margot Frank

G H
gallow

Geneva Convention

German

Germany

ghettos

gingerly

Joseph Goebbels

Bernard Goldberg

Bluma Tishgarten Goldberg

David Goldberg

Felix Goldberg

Franka Goldberg

Henry Goldberg

Karl Goldberg

Leon Goldberg

Regina Goldberg

Great War

Esther Goldberg Greenberg

Gross-Rosen

 

 

Habsburg Empire

Hasag Slave Labor Camp

Hebrew

Hebrew Immigrant Aide Society

herded

Heinrich Himmler

Paul von Hindenburg

Adolf Hitler

Holocaust

homestead

 

 

 

 

I J
Immigrant

Imminent

Incumbent

Inferior Race

Intimidation

Italy

 

Jawarzno

General Alfred Jodi

Juden

Judenfrei

Judenschwein

Judeo-Bolshevism

 

 

 

 

 

K L
Kalisz

Kaufering

Kielce

Kristallnacht

 

Landsberg Displaced Persons Camp

Law for the Protection of German and German Honor

legacy

Vladimir Lenin

liberate

liquidated

Lublin

Lusitania

Louisiana

M N
Manifest Destiny

manifesto

Marxism

Mazel-Tov

Mein Kampf

Josef Mengele

Messerschmitt

Mezuzah

Cela Tishgarten Miller

David Miller

Moletov-Ribbentrop Pact

Munich

munitions

Mutual Assistance Treaty

National Socialist German Worker’s Party

Nazis

Neu-Dachs

New Orleans, LA

Nuremberg Race Laws

 

 

O P
Orthodox

Ottoman Empire

pathogen

Pinczow

Jozef Pitsudski

pogram

Poland

Polish-Soviet War

porters

POW camp

prejudice

prominent

propaganda

propositions

provocations

puppet state

 

 

Q R
queue Rabbi

racism

Rawitsch

reacclimated

refugee

Reich Citizenship Laws

Reichstag Building

Reichstag Fire Decree

relinquished

reparations

retribution

Rogoznica

Rosh Hoshana

roused

Russia

S T
sadistic

salutation

sanctified

Scheppoch Forest

Schutzstaffel (SS)

scrounging

Second World War

Serbia

Shabbat

shoah

shorn

shetetl

slandering

slave labor

Sonderkommantas

Soviet Russia

stark

stewards

survivors

swastika

sweep

synagogue

 

 

 

Territorial buffer

Tile Center

Genya Tishgarten

Haskell Tishgarten

Kalma Tishgarten

Luba Tishgarten

Rachel Tishgarten

Sarah Tishgarten

Yentala Tishgarten

tolerance

Treaty of Versailles

Treblinka Concentration Camp

Tuliszkow

Turek

Typhus

 

U V
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration

United Socialist Soviet Republic (USSR)

United States

unvarnished

 

verboten

Victory in Europe (V-E) Day

virulent

vulnerable

 

W Y
Warsaw Ghetto

Elie Wiesel

W

work camp

World War I

 

Yom Hashoa
Z
Zyklon B gas

 

Strategies for Reinforcing Vocabulary and Word Meaning

Strategy: ABC Chart

This strategy allows students to explore vocabulary introduced in literary and non-literary texts.

  • Provide students with an alphabet chart (see example below) or have them create their own.
  • As they read, have students identify words that are: unfamiliar, specific to the reading, used uniquely, interesting, etc. and place under the correct letter in their chart. [This may be done with individual readings, small group readings, or whole class readings.]
  • Ask students to explain why words were chosen.
  • Students may explore the meaning of the unfamiliar words, and/or add the words they have chosen to their writing journals.

A – B                           C – D                          E – F                            G – H

I – J                             K – L                           M – N                         O – P

Q – R                          S – T                            U – V                          W – Z

 

Strategy: The Most Important Words

This strategy can be used prior, during, or after a reading or when working through a unit. It provides multiple opportunities for students to use and become comfortable with new and/or content specific vocabulary. Note: you determine the number of words 5-10

  • Introduce a topic or a reading selection (literary or non-literary).
  • Have students either 1) use prior knowledge to individually create a list of what they consider the 5-10 most important words to that topic or 2) after reading a specific piece determine the 5-10 most important words of that reading.
  • Place students in small groups to discuss their lists. As a group, decide on the 5-10 most important words.
  • Ask groups to share their newly combined lists, discuss as a class. As a class, decide on the 5-10 most important words.

Adapted from A Handbook of Content Literacy Strategies by Elaine Stephens & Jean Brown

 

Strategy: Word Sort

This strategy helps students see the relationship among words in common texts.

  • Provide students with a random list of words related to the unit of study or place each word on a notecard.
  • Have students review list/cards then group words with common elements.
  • Have students create category headings.
  • Ask students to share categories and why words are placed in those categories.
  • If done in small groups, compare category lists.

 

 

Strategy: Assembly Line Stretch

Reluctant writers and students with limited vocabulary background have difficulty developing extended sentences. This strategy offers a way for students to work as a team to practice developing such sentences. [Wordless picture books or primary books are good materials resources for this strategy.]

  • Place students in small groups. Provide each group with a picture from a book, magazine, or article. Write a simple sentence for each picture (, e.g.The dog has a ball.)
  • The first student in the group adds a word to the sentence (The dog has a red)
  • After adding a word, the student passes it on to the next student to add a word. Continue passing the sentence until all in the group have added a word to the sentence.
  • Have groups share their pictures and stretched sentences.

 

Strategies Used for Reading and Writing

Strategy:  A Retelling

Student writers often begin sentences with the same word (I, The, etc.)  This lesson shows students a unique strategy to build variety into your sentences. (You will need a large foam die prepared so that four is the lowest number on a side, or a pair of dice from a game. If you don’t have dice, write the numbers 1-12 on slips of paper and place those slips in a bag. Note: if using number slips be sure to put the slip back in the bag after each pull.)

  • Choose a piece of writing – book/book chapter, story, article. The piece may be fiction or non-fiction. After reading, tell students they are now going to rewrite the story.  This would be done with whole group or in small groups.
  • Roll the die or pull a number slip from the bag. Ask the students to write a beginning sentence about the book using that number of words.  For example, if you roll a five, your sentence might be, “There was once a princess.”
  • Roll the die or pull a numbered paper again, call out the number it lands on, and write a sentence to continue the story. However, this sentence cannot begin with the same word as the previous sentence.  Continue rolling the die and writing new sentences until the story seems complete.
  • If working in groups, share the retellings with the class.

 

Adapted from 6+1 Traits of Writing, the Complete Guide for the Primary Grades by  Ruth Culham

 

Strategy: Cause/Event/Effect Statements

This strategy helps students analyze evidence surrounding an event.

  • Place an event statement in the center of a page.
  • Jot notes above the statement on what caused or led up to that event.
  • Jot notes below the statement on the effect/what happened as a result of that event.

For example:

Causes: jot notes providing causes/ what led up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor

Event Statement: Pearl Harbor was bombed.

Effects: jot notes providing what happened as a result of the bombing of Pearl Harbor

 

Strategy: Character Collage and Character Circles

Analyzing a character’s thoughts, feelings, actions and representing that analysis visually offers a means of helping students connect with that character.

  • Chose a character from a reading, movie, television show.
  • Create a collage (pictures, drawings, phrases, textiles, color, etc.) to visually represent the characteristics and impressions of the personality chosen.
  • For Character Circles – draw a circle, place the character name in the center, representations are limited to words, phrases, dates, etc.

 

Strategy: Create a Tableau

Ideas or events don’t always have to be written. The use of tableau allows students to use facial expression, gestures, and body  language to convey a message or summary of an event.

  • Choose one moment from the story being read.
  • Create a visualization of that moment as if frozen in time.
  • If the audience does not guess the correct moment from the visualization let group members give clues – one at a time.

 

Strategy: Editorial, Persuasive, Argument Analysis*

In order to write effective editorials, pieces of persuasion, or arguments students must first be able to analyze techniques used by others to sway or inform their audience.

  • Provide students with an editorial, a persuasive article, or an article that presents an argument.
  • Ask:
    • How does this fit the format for editorial, persuasive, or argument writing?
    • What techniques – words, phrases, organization – does this piece use?
    • What do you perceive as the overall intent of the message – was the author successful? How or why not?
    • Does this relate to any current or local situation?

*An editorial is included at the end of the strategy section.

 

Strategy:  Found Poetry

Found poetry allows students to play with print.  Poems can be created using fiction or non-fiction materials.

  • Read a chosen story/selection.
  • Discuss: initial reactions/connections to the selection, words or phrases that identify the selection, words or phrases that created an image in the reader’s mind.
  • Pick out 10-40 words that are unique to and help identify the selection.
  • Arrange these words/phrases into a poetry format. Additional words may not be added.
  • Example: Once upon a time

Hearth

Cinder girl

Cruel step-sister, step-mother

Invitation to the ball

Fairy god-mother, pumpkin, horsemen

Clock strikes midnight

Glass slipper

Happily ever after

 

Strategy: Go To Your Corner

This strategy allows students to look at more than one option in answering a question or more than one example of an element of writing.

  • A question, quote, word, illustration, piece of work, etc. is placed in each corner of the room.
  • A question is given to students. (For ex., g. which word best describes the main character? Which quote best fits the theme of this story/unit?)
  • Students walk around the room, choose one answer, and stay in that corner.
  • Students in each corner discuss why they have chosen the representation in that corner and provide a summary statement to the class on their choice.

 

Strategy: I Notice – Looking at Illustrations

This strategy encourages students to slow down, make critical observations, and learn to make jot notes.

  • Provide students with a photo or illustration.
  • Ask:
    • What do you notice, what appears to be happening here?
    • What techniques has the artist/photographer used to invoke meaning?
    • What reactions do you have when looking at this photo/illustration?
    • What questions do you have about this photo/illustration?

Strategy: No More Than Four

This strategy helps students decide on the most important events/facts in a reading. Limiting the number of sentences provides a nice, tight, summary.

  • Choose a text – fiction or nonfiction – for students to read.
  • Ask students to determine the most important events or points of the text read.
  • Write a summary of the text in four sentences or less.
  • Have students share summaries; keep a tally of what was considered most important.
  • Discuss the summaries and ask how important events or points were determined.
  • Write a summary as a class.
  • As a variation – ask a question concerning a reading or related to the course of study. Answers are limited to four sentences.

 

Strategy: Poster Power

Posters offer a vehicle to communicate meaning and main idea. In the case of a movie poster they also need a way to visually persuade someone to want to see the movie.

Examine the format of movie posters; discuss elements included in the posters – ex. how does it catch your attention, what on the poster would give you an idea of the movie genre, the main point of the movie, is there a catchy phrase or quote, etc.

Create a movie poster for _____________. If you chose to promote a movie with actors – who would you cast in the lead roles?

 

Strategy: Question Wall/Answer Wall

These allow students to begin to gather their thoughts when beginning a new unit or being introduced to new material. Unanswered questions can then become opportunities for research.

  • Announce the unit of study.
  • Ask students to begin to compile questions they have related to the topic. Depending on the ability level of the students these may be recorded by the teacher or students may write them on post-its, notecards, or on chart paper.
  • Designate one wall in the classroom as the ‘Question Wall’ and one wall as the ‘Answer Wall’. Review questions and post on the ‘Question Wall’. (It might be helpful to categorize the questions.) Add any additional questions that may arise during the study.
  • Tell students that as they conduct their research (individual, group) and attend to whole class lessons to listen or look for answers to posted questions. As answers are found write the answers and move the question and its answer to the ‘Answer Wall’.
  • Review ‘Answer Wall’ at the end of the study. Were answers found for all questions? If not, why do you think an answer wasn’t found?

 

Strategy: Talk It Out/Reading Like a Writer

In order to write fiction or nonfiction effectively, students must first be able to analyze techniques used by others to engage the audience. When reading fiction or nonfiction texts students should become adept at being able to answer the following questions:

  • What is your first impression of this text?
  • What do you notice/what stands out? Underline or highlight phrases or words that catch your attention; repeating lines, words, or phrases; vivid images…?
  • How is the piece organized? Does it work? Why do you think the author chose this organization?
  • What transitional techniques has the author used sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph, idea to idea?
  • How effective is the beginning? The ending?
  • Has the author used techniques such as ‘show not tell’, ‘snapshots’, etc.?
  • What techniques could you use in your own writing?

For use with Editorial, Persuasive, Argument Analysis strategy

 

London has heard a report that Hitler has been assassinated—a story which unfortunately has found no confirmation.

There’s another report of a split in the Nazi party. It’s said the fuehrer is being thrown over in favor of Gestapo Chief Himmler, the bloody minded wholesale murderer. To this a British spokesman has replied that the Foreign Office is operating on the theory that the fuehrer still is in control, with Himmler in command of defense forces. The spokesman added that all sorts of stories are going the rounds about Hitler, all of which could be true but most of which probably are not.

Positive knowledge of Hitler’s passing certainly would have a vast repercussion. Gen. George C. Marshall, U.S. Army chief of staff, recently told the Senate Military Committee that death or capture of the Nazi chief would contribute tremendously to a collapse of the German military machine.

That assay fits a view which this column often has voiced and has carried a step further. Having studied Hitler at close range in Germany I have ventured the belief that he is the mainspring of Nazism—that in fact he and Nazism are one and the same thing, and that his death or incapacitation would produce a collapse both of the military machine and of the government.

The Nazi regime has been a one-man show, in the sense that Hitler always has had the final dictatorial word in everything. The general public has accepted him almost without reservation not only as temporal but as spiritual ruler. This accounts for the fact that Himmler and Propaganda Minister Goebbels have been careful to issue their orders in the name of Hitler.

Because of these unusual circumstances it strikes me that the Allies will have given the death blow to Nazism when Hitler is liquidated. Of course it will take time to clean up the evil which he has done, but there would seem to be no great cause for worry about the continuation, and especially the spread, of this obnoxious ism. A study of Mein Kampf and the Nazi doctrines as laid down by Hitler fails to reveal any sound reason for Nazism’s survival.

As a matter of cold fact Hitler’s government has been just another of those absolute dictatorships such as the world has known for centuries. He added some frills, including his messiahship, but essence of his doctrine has been total regimentation of the nation, including iron-clad control of the press so that the public could be kept in ignorance of the truth where it suited the fuehrer to suppress it.

Hitler has made one notable contribution to the knowledge of mankind. He has demonstrated that the mentality and outlook of a great country can be totally changed in a short time if the government assumes complete control of the education of the young. The generation of youngsters whom he took in hand a dozen years ago when he came to power, today are the fanatics who are prepared to die for him or commit murder for him. He hasn’t changed all the old folk, but he got about the last mother’s son of the new generation.

Of course to freedom loving people it’s an evil thing for any government to have a power to regimentation which permits it to control the mental processes of the entire nation. However, the world may profit from Hitler’s exhibition of what intensive education can produce. It at least will be a warning to other nations not to let that sort of dictatorship creep up on them.

There’s no reason as I see it, why any country in the postwar era will have use for Nazism—unless some budding Hitler is looking for dictatorial power. The fanatical German Nazis may continue to give the Allies trouble for a time by underground activities, and we shall have to “uneducate” the German people so to rid them in time of Hitler’s teaching, but I believe Nazism will pass out when Hitler passes.

 

Mackenzie, D. (1945, April 12). The Times War Analyst. The Palm Beach Times.

 

Quotations

Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

                        —Winston Churchill

 

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

                        —George Santayana

 

To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive, to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.

–Elie Wiesel

 

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.

                        —Elie Wiesel

 

I didn’t know that this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever.

                        –Elie Wiesel

 

Bread, soup – these were my whole life. I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time.

                        –Elie Wiesel

 

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small face of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.

                        –Elie Wiesel

For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.

                        —Simon Wiesenthal

 

Foe your benefit, learn from our tragedy. It is not a written law that the next victims must be Jews. It can also be other people. We saw it begin in Germany with Jews, but people from more than twenty other nations were also murdered.

                        –Simon Wiesenthal

 

It seems almost blasphemous to attempt to make sense out of the senseless slaughter of six million Jewish men, women, and children. The photographs, film footage, diaries and memoirs of survivors are excruciating. And yet, the responsibility to remember is absolute and, in some sense, sacred.

It is terrible to remember. It is worse to forget.

                        —Anita Diamant, Living a Jewish Life

 

First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

                        —Martin Niemoller

If we don’t stand up for others when they’re persecuted, we lose the right to complain when it’s done to us.

                        –David Steinman

 

Nothing belongs to us anymore; they have taken away our clothes, our shoes; even our hair; if we speak, they will not listen to us, and if they listen, they will not understand. They will even take away our name: and if we want to keep it, we will have to find ourselves the strength to do so, to manage somehow so that behind the name, some of us, of us as we were, still remains.

                        —Primo Levi

 

We must be listened to above and beyond our personal experience, we have collectively witnessed a fundamental unexpected event, fundamental precisely because unexpected, not foreseen by anyone. It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happy anywhere.

                        –Primo Levi

 

Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for me. Not only because I’ve never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old school girl.

                        —Anne Frank

 

I don’t want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death.

                        —Anne Frank

 

Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.

                        —Anne Frank

 

The young are not afraid of telling the truth.  

                        —Anne Frank

 

I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

                        —Anne Frank

 

I remember those who showed me kindness even if it was a risk to themselves.

                        –Helen Rieder

Maybe people had no choice but I wonder sometimes what would have happened id everyone without a choice would have made the choice anyway. If we all chose not to participate. Not to be bullied. Not to take up arms. Not to persecute. What would happen then?

                        –Amy Harman

 

Our immortality comes through our children and their children. Through our roots and branches. The family is immortality. And Hitler has destroyed not just branches and roots, but entire family trees, forests. All of them, gone.

                        –Amy Harman

 

For me, being a Jew means feeling the tragedy of yesterday as an inner oppression. On my left forearm, I bear the Auschwitz number.

                        –Jean Amery

 

Escape was not our goal since it was so unrealistic. What we wanted was to survive, to live long enough to tell the world what had happened in Buchenwald.

                        –Jack Werber

 

They brought us into Auschwitz. I could see the chimneys burning, smell the smoke. I did not think about it. They gave us tattoos: 33076. I did not have a name anymore; just a number.

                        –Sara Polonski Zuchowicki

 

Once we were forced to wear Jewish stars, that was terrible, suddenly we were singled out. We were

different to our neighbors. My father was taken away from us. His businesses were confiscated, and honestly I don’t know how our mother fed us.

 

                        –Mindu Hornick, Auschwitz Survivors Recall Harrowing and Heroic Moments

                                                            From the Death Camps

 

 

It’s a notorious thing that people in the camps survived in pairs, or some other people that were taking care of them. My aunt, my mother’s sister heard that our transport came in, so she came to find us, Auntie Berthe. We were still crying for our mother. She did a secret exchange…and took us into her block to take care of us. When people say, how did you survive? We lived for each other.

 

                        –Mindu Hornick, Auschwitz Survivors Recall Harrowing and Heroic Moments

                                                            From the Death Camps

 

 

We were in the ghetto for six weeks under terrible sanitation conditions. We were freezing, we had very little food to eat. One day the train arrived…they pushed into one cattle car as many people as they possibly can—so that we were crushed like sardines. There were no windows on the cattle car. When the sliding doors slammed closed on us the only light came through the wooden cracks.

 

                        –Billy Harvey, Auschwitz Survivors Recall Harrowing and Heroic Moments

                                                            From the Death Camps

 

 

Who they wanted stay alive, go to the right; who was condemned to die, go to the left. Most of the children were bitterly crying, didn’t want to be separated from their mother, so the young mothers went to the left, to the gas chamber.

 

                        –Billy Harvey, Auschwitz Survivors Recall Harrowing and Heroic Moments

                                                            From the Death Camps

 

 

Once a day you got a bowl of soup—they called it soup. I don’t know what it was, it wasn’t fit for an animal. No utensils. Five to six people have to share it, so we handed it from mouth to mouth, back and forth until the soup disappeared.

 

                        –Billy Harvey, Auschwitz Survivors Recall Harrowing and Heroic Moments

                                                            From the Death Camps

 

 

People were dying left and right from hunger. When they died, we took their clothes off to try to keep warmer. When we arrived back to Buchenwald, they came to collect all the dead people from the cattle car to transport them to the crematorium. I was frozen. I was put among the dead people. When I arrived to the crematorium, the prisoner who worked there discovered that I was still alive. He saved my life. I woke up in the barrack. When I opened my eyes I thought I was in a five-star hotel. Nobody was hollering at me. Nobody was beating me. I was age of 21. I weighed 72 pounds.

 

                        –Billy Harvey, Auschwitz Survivors Recall Harrowing and Heroic Moments

                                                            From the Death Camps

 

 

All I could tell you was that it was quite dark, I saw just kind of darkness, and we didn’t know who’s alive and who’s not alive. I was in a very bad state, I was already among the dead, and then I looked up. It was a man. I saw tears in his eyes, and M&Ms in his hand.

 

                        –Edith Eger, Auschwitz Survivors Recall Harrowing and Heroic Moments

                                                            From the Death Camps

 

 

The Holocaust was the most evil crime ever committed.

                        –Steven Ambrose

 

 

In every revolution it has been the rule to brand political opponents as enemies of the Fatherland and so to justify completely depriving them of legal protection and property.

                        –Carl Schmitt, Die Diktatur

 

The [Nazi] government will regard its first and supreme task to  restore to the German people unity of mind and will. It will preserve and defend the foundations on  which the strength of our nation rests…In place of our turbulent instincts, it will make national discipline govern our life.

                        —Nazi proclamation to the German people

 

 

Each activity and each need of the individual will be regulated by the party as the representative of the general good. There will be no license, no free space in  which the individual belongs to himself. The decisive factor is that the State, through the party, is supreme.

                        –Adolf Hitler

 

 

The things I saw beggar description…The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were…overpowering…I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’

 

                        –General Dwight D. Eisenhower, letter to General George C. Marshall

 

 

We are told that the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. Now, at least, he will know what he is fighting against.

 

                        –General Dwight D. Eisenhower, touring Buchenwald

 

 

I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I have reported what I saw and heard but only part of it. For most of it, I have no words.

 

                        –Edward R. Murrow, broadcast from Buchenwald

 

 

Never forget.

                        –wording found on several  memorials

                       

 

Bibliography

Holocaust Education Resources

 

World War Two

Ambrose, S. (2001). The Good Fight. Atheneum.

  1. (2015). (Revised). World War II: The Definitive Visual History from Blitzkrieg to the Atom

            Bomb. DK Publishing.

 

Hitler, A. (1999). Mein Kampf. Houghton Mifflin.

 

*Turner, D. (2015). Simple History: A Simple Guide to World War II. CreateSpace

Independent Publishing Platform.

 

Ward, G.C. and Burns, K. (2007). The War: An Intimate History 1941-1945. Alfred A. Knopf.

 

Holocaust Literary and Informational Texts

Adler, D.A. (1997). Hiding From the Nazis. Holiday House.

Adler, D.A. (1987). The Number on my Grandfather’s Arm. Behrman House.

Adler, D.A. (1995). Yellow Daffodil: A Hanukkah Story. Gulliver Books.

Argaman, I. (2016). Bear and Fred: A World War II Story. Amazon Crossing Kids.

Bartoletti, S.C. (2008). The Boy Who Dared. Scholastic.

Bartoletti, S.C. (2005). Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow. Scholastic.

Benn, R., Ellis, J.G., Ensor, J.W., & Wade, R. (Eds.) (2022). The Ones Who Remember:

            Second-Generation Voices of the Holocaust. City Point Press.

Boyne, J. (2006). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. David Fickling Books.

Bunting, E. (1980). Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust. The Jewish Publication Society.

Conrad, R. (2022, June 26). Having Anne Frank’s version of her diary could change how we see it.

The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/26-having-anne-franks-version-her-diary-could-change-how-we-see-it/

Deedy, C.A. (2000). The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark.

Peachtree Publishers.

Freedman, R. (2016). We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That

            Defied Adolf Hitler. Clarion Books.

Frank, A. (1967). Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Doubleday.

Friedman, C. (1991). Nightfather. Persea Books.

*Graphic Novel

Fukuda, A. (2021). This Light Between Us: A Novel of World War II. Tor Teen TR.

Greenfeld, H. (2001). After the Holocaust. Scholastic.

*Heuvel, E. (2007). The Search. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Holm, A.S. (2004). I Am David. Turtleback.

Hoose, P. (2015). The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Peterson and the Churchill Club.

            Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Innocenti, R. (1985). Rose Blanche. Creative Education, Inc.

Iturbe, A. (2012). The Librarian of Auschwitz: Based on the true story of Auschwitz prisoner

            Dita Kraus. Square Fish.

*Jacobson, S. and Colon, E. (2010). Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic

            Biography. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Lakin, P. (1994). Don’t Forget. HarperCollins.

Lowry, L. (1989). Number the Stars. Sandpiper.

Mayer, J. (2011). Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project. Long Trail Press.

Murphy, L. (2003). The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival. Penguin.

Museum of Tolerance. (n.d.) Media Literacy Teacher Guide. https://www.museumoftolerance.com/assets/documents/media-literacy-teacher-guide.pdf.

Nardo, D. (2013). Life in a Nazi Concentration Camp. ReferencePoint Press, Inc.

*Palacio, R.J. (2022). White Bird: A Wonder Story. Knopf Books.

Perl, L. & Lazan, M.B. (1996). Four Perfect Pebbles: A True Story of the Holocaust.  Greenwillow Books.

Oppenheim, S.L. (1992). The Lily Cupboard. A Charlotte Zolotow Book.

Ray, K. (1994). To Cross a Line. Orchard Books.

Richter, H.P. (1961). Friedrich. Puffin Books.

*Robbins, T. (2011). Lily Renee, Escape Artists: From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer. Graphic Universe.

Rogasky, B. (2002). Smoke and Ashes: The Story of the Holocaust.  Holiday House.

Rubin, S.G. (2005). The Flag With 56 Stars: A Gift From the Survivors of Mauthausen.

Holiday House.

Schloss, E. (2013). After Auschwitz: A story of heartbreak and survival by the stepsister of Anne Frank. Hodder and Stoughton. (Original work published 1988)

Schloss, E. (2019). Eva’s Story: A Holocaust Survivor’s Tale by the Stepsister of Anne Frank.

Eerdmans Books. (Original work published 1988)

Shoup, K. (2016). Nazi Propaganda: Jews in Hitler’s Germany. Cavandish Square.

Shulevitz, U. (2020). Chance: Escape from the Holocaust. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

*Spiegelman, A. (1991). Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale – My Father Bleeds History.

Pantheon Books. (Original work published 1986)

*Spiegelman, A. (1991). Maus II: A Survivor’s  Tale – And Here My Troubles Began.  Pantheon Books.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.) The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

https://www.ushmm.org .

Vaughan, M. (2015). Irena’s Jar of Secrets. Lee & Low Books. (Original work published 2011)

Warren, A. (2002). Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps. HarperCollins.

Wiesel, E. (1958). Night. Farrar, Straus, and Giraux.

Williams, L.E. (1996). Behind the Bedroom Wall. Milkweed.

Wilson, K. (2019). White Rose: Based on a True Story of Nazi Resistance. Verify.

Yolen, J. (1988). The Devil’s Arithmetic. Puffin.

Zullo, A. and Bovsun, M. (2016). Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust.

            Scholastic.

 

 

Acceptance of Self and Others/Tolerance Texts

Alber, D. (2017). I’m Not Just a Scribble. Diane Alber Art LLC.

Ali, A. (2020). Our Favorite Day of the Year. Simon & Schuster.

Applegate, K. (2012). The One and Only Ivan. HarperCollins.

Bealer, A. (1996). Only the Names Remain: The Cherokee and the Trail of Tears.  Little, Brown Books. (Original work published 1972)

Fox, M. (2006). Whoever You Are. Clarion Books.

Gansworth, E. (2015). If I Ever Get Out of Here. Scholastic.

Hesse, K. (2013). Witness. Scholastic.

Houston, J.W. (2017). (Reprint). Farewell to Manzanar. Clarion Books.

James, L. (2020). I Promise. HarperCollins.

Kostecki-Shaw, J.C. (2011). Same, Same But Different. Henry Holt and Co.

*Lewis, J. and Aydin, A. (2013). March (Three Book Series). Top Shelf Productions.

Mackesy, C. (2019). The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse. HarperCollins.

O’Dell, S. (2010). Sing Down the Moon. HMH Books. (Original work published 1970)

Palacio, R.J. (2012). Wonder. Alfred A. Knopf.

Paul, M. (2020). Speak Up. Clarion Books.

Penfold, A. (2018). All Are Welcome. Knopf Books.

*Satrapi, M. (2003). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. Pantheon.

*Takei, G. (2019). They Called Us Enemy. Top Shelf Productions.

*Tan, S. (2007). The Arrival. Arthur R. Levine Books.

Tunnell, M.O. and Chilcoat, G.W. (1996). The Children of Topaz: The Story of a Japanese-  American Internment Camp, Based on a Classroom Diary. Holiday House.

Uchida, Y. (1996). The Bracelet. Puffin Books.

Woodson, J. (2001). The Other Side. Nancy Paulsen Books.

 

Teaching Graphic Novels

McCloud, S. (1993). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Willow Morrow Paperbacks.

Miller, A. (January 11, 2012). Using Graphic Novels and Comics in the Classrooms. edutopia.

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/graphic-novels-comics-andrew-miller

Novak, R.J. (2013). Teaching Graphic Novels in the Classroom: Building Literacy and Comprehension. (Grades 7-12). Routledge.

Penguin. (2017). Getting to Know Graphic Novels. https://cdn2.penguin.com.au/content/resources/TR_OppositeLand.pdf

Scholastic. (2018). A Guide to Using Graphic Novels with Children and Teens.  https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/teachers/lesson-plans/18-19/Graphic-Novel-Discussion-Guide-2018.pdf

 

Professional Resources

Anti-Defamation League, USC Shoah Foundation, and Yad Vashem. (2014). Echoes and Reflections: Leaders in Holocaust Education, Teacher’s Resource Guide. ADL.         

United States Holocaust Museum. (2001). Teaching About the Holocaust: A Resource Book for Educators.  United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Berenbaum, M. (1993). The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Little, Brown and Company.

Gilbert, M. (2002). (3rdEdition) The Routledge Atlas of the Holocaust. Routledge.

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. (2019). How to Teach About the Holocaust In Schools. IHRA.
https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/educational-materials/how-teach-about-holocaust-schools

Mathis, M. (March 24, 2022). 17 Essential Lessons for Teaching the Holocaust. We Are Teachers.

https://www.weareteachers.com/teaching-the-holocaust

Scher, L. (1992). South Carolina Voices: Lessons From the Holocaust. The South Carolina Humanities Council.

Stevick, E.D. and Michaels, D.L. (Eds.) Holocaust Education: Promise, practice, power, and potential. Routledge.

 

Standards

 

NCTE/IRA Standards for the English Language Arts

#2        Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

#3        Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

#5        Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

#6        Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts.

#7        Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

#11      Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

#12      Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

 

 

 

 

National Standards in World History for Grades 5-12

World History Era 8

Standard 4 – The causes and global consequences of World War II

Standard 4A – The student understands the causes of World War II.

Standard 4B – The student understands the global scope, outcome, and human costs of the war.

** Many states are enacting Holocaust Standards – check with your state’s Department of Education to see if these exist.

 

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