Incorporating Literature into the Study of the

Holocaust

Hastings College

September 2008The soul of man is a candle.

Proverbs 20:27

The “Whys”

“Our first task is comprehension, understanding what at first seems incomprehensible.”

Berenbaum, The World Must Know, p. 220.

Literature is a vehicle that can take us to that understanding.

The Incomprehensible

2 out of 3 European Jews murdered 9 out of 10 in murdered

PolandLithuaniaLatviaCzechoslovakia

How to we comprehend that each number is a person without listening to their stories?

Considerations When Choosing Literature

• Goal or objective of lesson

• Age appropriate

• Readability

• Timing in the unit

• Choice of genre and form

– Fiction vs. nonfiction selections

Example: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Evaluate for…

• Accuracy

• Authority– Events true to

location and time

• Not romanticized• Error of Omission

– Simplistic writing perpetuates misconceptions

Questions to ask

• What gives you the “best bang for your buck”?

• Will the piece of writing encourage and lead students to examine their lives and world to see how the theme connects to themselves personally?

Literature in Social Studies• Framework

– Introductory course– Time Constraints– Transmit information about broad periods of

history

• Literature – Gives a face for the numbers/facts– Allows students to construct meaning of an event

Good Literature for Middle School Readers

• Surviving Hitler• Anne Frank

Remembered

• Children in the Holocaust and World War II: Their Secret Diaries

More Titles

• Until We Meet Again: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Holocaust

• Island on Bird Street

• Milkweed

• Picture Books

In Addition…• Feature the Jewish experience, its diversity

and the specifics ordinary life

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter

Good books

• Brings students from the Holocaust era into the reassuring present, giving hope to the readers.– Gerda Weissmann Klein - All but My Life

• Challenges us to examine our lives–Elie Wiesel - Night

• Spoke to fight apathy and indifference

Beware! Not All Resources are Created Equal

USHMM: Annotated Bibliography Videography

USHMM: Teacher’s link

http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/

Yad Vashem

http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/bibliography/home_bibliography.html

•Bibliography

•Online sales

New Title:

Rutka’s Notebook: January April 1943

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Holocaust Teacher Resource Center

http://www.holocaust-trc.org

Additional Book Lists Listed at Pam Gannon’s website

• What to Read and When to Read it: Part 1 and Part 2 (Dimensions: A Journal of Holocaust Studies by Karen Shawn)

An ADL publication, but not on their website

• Using Literature to Teach the Holocaust by Carol Danks, Regional Ed Corps

• Sydney Taylor Book Awards atAssociation of Jewish Libraries

Lincoln High Media Center http://media.lps.org/lhs

Caution!• Book Reviews, ex. Booklist

• Lists off websites -- libraries, educational resource pages

• Always apply what you know about teaching the Holocaust to your choices of materials. Your students depend on YOU.

Remember the Starfish

Become a reader and share your “finds” with other Holocaust Education Teachers.

Remember WHY we teach about the Holocaust…and the parable of the starfish.