MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

28
This research guide is based on a real-world inquiry into the fate of Dr. Mauritius Berner’s family and to identify his wife and children, by name. The educational program was developed for the MIMS-H 2 D project by the YIZKOR project and reflects the actual process used to investigate and clarify the Yad Vashem database record. The record was updated with the photo of the three Berner girls, honoring both their memory and that they lived. Information about the Berner family has been submitted to Yad Vashem, the online research exploration includes resources, images and weblinks, which allow students to explore the original records using actual pages from the Yad Vashem database in a garden-browsing environment. Teachers and students have an opportunity to earn a Holocaust History Detectives' award ribbon, recognizing their participation in the project. Participants can also earn a Meta+Thinker Badge and work additional primary source documents to help recover the identities of additional Holocaust victims. “Names and Memorials” Part I Names and Memorialsintroduces students to the concept and practice of mining biographical information from multimedia sources. Through this unit of inquiry, students will: Explore Holocaust memorialization as it relates to societal and cultural influences on the creation of memorials and vice a versa; Gain a deeper understanding of the sensitivities involved in recovering the names of Holocaust victims through Historical research about people, families and individuals; and, Learn how-to apply research strategies and thinking skills to recovering the names of Holocaust victims using multiple sources of witness testimony. The MIMS-H 2 D project includes embedded formative and summative assessments integrated with the development of memorialization projects about the victims and associated tributes to the survivors.

description

The "Mining Information from Multimedia Sources - Holocaust History Detectives" (MIMS-H2D) project applies a crowdsourcing strategy to engage students and adults in helping to recover the names of Holocaust victims. The project utilizes a variety of primary sources of witness testimony and databases to engage participants in contributing to the historical record and honoring the memory of those who were killed. This learning module is designed to engage students in understanding the processes and challenges associated with recovering the names of Holocaust victims. Registration is required for complete access to additional resource materials and to participate in the project. Visit www.theYIZKORproject.org/home.htm to register

Transcript of MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Page 1: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

This research guide is based on a real-world inquiry into the fate of Dr. Mauritius Berner’s family and to identify his wife and children, by name.

The educational program was developed for the MIMS-H2D project by the YIZKOR project and reflects the actual process used to investigate and clarify the Yad Vashem database record. The record was updated with the photo of the three Berner girls, honoring both their memory and that they lived.

Information about the Berner family has been submitted to Yad Vashem, the online research exploration includes resources, images and weblinks, which allow students to explore the original records using actual pages from the Yad Vashem database in a garden-browsing environment.

Teachers and students have an opportunity to earn a Holocaust History Detectives' award ribbon, recognizing their participation in

the project. Participants can also earn a Meta+Thinker Badge and work additional primary source documents to help recover the identities of additional Holocaust victims.

“Names and Memorials”

Part I “Names and Memorials” introduces students to the concept and practice of mining biographical information from multimedia sources. Through this unit of inquiry, students will:

• Explore Holocaust memorialization as it relates to societal and cultural influences on the creation of memorials and vice a versa;

• Gain a deeper understanding of the sensitivities involved in recovering the names of Holocaust victims through Historical research about people, families and individuals; and,

• Learn how-to apply research strategies and thinking skills to recovering the names of Holocaust victims using multiple sources of witness testimony.

The MIMS-H2D project includes embedded formative and summative assessments integrated with the development of memorialization projects about the victims and associated tributes to the survivors.

Page 2: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |2

Section 1 – Memorialization Projects

1. Write the word, memorialization on the board. Have students create a definition for the word.

2. Discuss the different approaches to memorialization and types of memorials which have been dedicated to individuals, victim communities-groups, and the Holocaust. Possible topics include:

Commemorations – individual, communal and societal

Preservation of death/concentration camps sites and off-site memorials Survivor oral/visual histories and interviews, and trial testimony

Historical research and documentation (Yizkor books)

Expressive/Creative Arts – books, art, theatre, music, poetry

3. Explain that memorials and memorialization projects take on many forms and serve many purposes. There are memorials to events and tragedies; and, memorials to communities, people, and individuals, which are created for and by communities, people and individuals.

§ In the “The Art of Memory” James E. Young writes, “…For the most part, artists transform remembrance into monuments and memorials using the materials and following the aesthetic judgments of their times. The intention may ultimately be for art to achieve a timeless status, but it is created within the context of a specific time and place that deeply influences that creation.” If monuments and memorials reflect their times, does the interpretation, meaning, or impact on viewers/audiences also change over time? If so, how?

§ Consider how memorials and monuments purposefully integrate color, size, shapes, materials, texture, sound and lighting in their design. What other elements are used to create or heighten the emotional experience and/or impact on visitors? (consider space, movement, digital technologies)

Can you relate?�

Use of Materials

In-classroom activities and discussions can be conducted in both large and small group settings.

Additional resource materials are available online, including digital images which can be accessed directly from the MIMS-H2D project mini-site.

Page 3: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

PAGE |3

MIMS-Holocaust History Detectives Research Guide: History Has A Name

© 2011 the YIZKOR project

4. Listed below are four different memorialization projects which focus on people in different ways. Compare and discuss the impact of each of the following, and how each represents victims to “humanize” the tragedy/event:

Plzeň stone garden (Czech Republic) Shoes on the Danube Promenade (Budapest, Hungary) Hall of Names, Pages of Testimony (Yad Vashem, Israel) Tower of Faces – Eisiskes (USHMM, Washington, D.C.)

§ Discuss the use of abstract versus representational concepts in the design of Holocaust memorials.

§ If the goal of a memorial is for the viewer to construct meaning for themselves, can there be “wrongly” constructed meanings or “incorrect” interpretations?

§ Paperclips and pennies have been used to represent people in trying to make large numbers relatable. Within the greater historical context of genocide throughout the 20th century, do the millions and hundreds of millions of victims become so un-relatable that people are desensitized to the scale of the Holocaust and other genocides?

§ The names of about 4 million Jewish men, women and children killed in the Holocaust are recorded in the Central Database at Yad Vashem. Discuss ways in which the inclusion of victims’ names in memorials can and are being used as both an abstraction and form of representation.

Section 2 – Content and Context: Shoes In this section, you will present students with three different images of shoes: an unknown child’s shoe recovered at Auschwitz (Imperial War Museum), Hinda Cohen’s baby shoe (Yad Vashem artifact), and the mounds of shoes recovered at Auschwitz (Auschwitz Memorial and Museum). The images should be presented sequentially and then juxtaposed. Images can be projected on a whiteboard or distributed as a handout)

Slideshow/Handout����

Use of Materials

In-classroom activities and discussions can be conducted in both large and small group settings.

Additional resource materials are available online, including digital images which can be accessed directly from the MIMS-H2D project mini-site.

Page 4: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |4

1. Introduce the anonymous child’s shoe (Imperial War Museum) and have students make observations about the shoe and the child to whom it may have belonged.

2. Follow Read aloud Hinda Cohen’s story.

3. Compare the physical appearance of the two individual children’s shoes.

4. Introduce the third image: mounds of shoes. Discuss which of the images students think best symbolizes the Holocaust as a whole or the 1.5 million children? Can any one of these images alone represent the Holocaust? How does knowing and not knowing the name of the child whose shoe it was affect them?

§ How can memorialization projects simultaneously represent the individual while not losing sight of the scope of the tragedy…of six million men, women and children?

Transition Exercise: Who Am I?

There are two approaches to conducting this exercise. Both culminate with the presentation of the photo of Dr. Mauritius Berner’s three daughters whose names are not provided, as was the case when the photo was “discovered” in the documentary “Verdict on Auschwitz.”

1. Present the class with the photo montage of the thirteen young people who were killed in the Holocaust. For these young people, there is also a short biography available but very little else is known about them.

2. Explain that for other Holocaust victims, young or old, there simply aren’t any photos, and for millions of other victims – men, women and children – their names are missing from official records and names’ repositories. While some names can still be recovered from other sources, others are already lost to Time i.e. unrecoverable.

Resources: Computer and Internet access

Handout����

Preparation

Separate the photos from the biographies on the handout and distribute these to students. (Alternatively, you can print out the biography portion and electronically distribute the photos of each child so that details in the photographs are not lost) Students can work in pairs if there aren’t enough photo/biography sets for the class

Handout�

Page 5: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

PAGE |5

MIMS-Holocaust History Detectives Research Guide: History Has A Name

© 2011 the YIZKOR project

§ Going “off the grid” nowadays is all but impossible as we leave digital footprints along the way. Draw the distinction between students’ contemporary frame of reference and to a time before computers, with hand-written records and limited exchange of information.

§ Ask students to consider how names might be unrecoverable (i.e., lost to Time). (Whole communities were wiped out; the few survivors from these places may never have known the information or were too young to remember; birth and marriage records were destroyed).

Who Am I? Presentation Option 1

1. Referring to the montage, explain the objective of this activity will be to present the photos with the biographies. Students will be given either the photo or the biography, and each paired match presented in class.

§ Note that the biographies provide only the barest of facts, and very little about the children’s lives before the war. Similarly, the companion photos are only a snapshot, but nonetheless provide a window into a different time, before the war, and a reminder that these young people once lived very normal lives. The photographs together with mini-biographies build out an all-too-short story, but a story nonetheless.

2. Divide the students into 2 groups. Distribute the name with the mini biographies to one group and the corresponding individual photos to the other group. (The photo portion includes the name of the young person so that students with photos will know the name as well).

3. Both groups will present the young person’s story.

§ Students with biographies should review the write-up. As many photos were taken when the children were younger, students should discern the age of the young person when they died. They should not read the biographies verbatim in their presentations.

Different information is known about each child.

Jean Lambert’s mini-biography contains additional information about his family, a brother and sister, and parents who were also killed.

Note: the families of many of the other children depicted in the montage were also killed, but so as not to overwhelm students this information has been left out, except for Jean Lambert’s family information.

Page 6: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |6

§ Students with photos should be able describe what’s happening in the photos, making reasonable deductions based on their observations (clothing, approximate age, activity, and even attitude/disposition at that moment).

4. Display the photo montage in the background and begin with any student with a biography, except for the one who has Jean Lambert’s bio (#13), who should go last.

§ Students should begin by introducing the child by name and then reviewing their biography notes.

§ Student with the corresponding photo will identify the young person in the montage, before continuing with their description of the photo and child.

Skip to Section 3 Wrap-Up

Who Am I? Presentation Option 2

1. Referring to the montage, explain the objective of this activity will be to explore the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names at Yad Vashem and the companion Pages of Testimony for each of these young people.

2. Divide students into working groups. Each group is given a young person’s name and one other piece of information to aid in their research.

3. Utilizing the Central Database at Yad Vashem, students will search for information about the young person with the information they have available. The information will be added sequentially to refine the search and pare down the number of results.

a. Click on the link on the Database Entry Portal page. This opens a dialog box for conducting a “Basic Search” option.

b. Input only the young person’s last name (surname) into the field labeled, “Family/Maiden Name”. Note the number of results and scan the names on the first page of results. (The number of potential matches can range between a few to well over a thousand).

Requires Internet access ����

Page 7: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

PAGE |7

MIMS-Holocaust History Detectives Research Guide: History Has A Name

© 2011 the YIZKOR project

c. Click on the “Advanced Search” form link. Students

can begin by inputting the young person’s last name into the field labeled: “Family Name.” Review the results. How have the names in the results changed?

d. Click the “Back” button and input each additional piece of information (highlighted in bold in the Teacher Resources section), i.e. Family Name + First Name; and, then Family Name + First Name + Year of Birth using the “Advanced Search” form. (Note students also know that the primary source for the information is a Page of Testimony, which will further help to identify the corresponding database record for each young person)

e. Have students locate and review the database record (short summary & full record details) and companion Page of Testimony which includes at least one photo.

f. Students should be able to summarize biographical information about each young person in their own words, and present their research to the class, identifying the child in the composite montage

g. Students should also be able to describe what’s happening in the photo, making reasonable deductions based on their observations (clothing, approximate age, activity, and even attitude/disposition at that moment).

Section 3 – Wrap-Up

1. Inform students that of the estimated 1.5 million Jewish children killed in the Holocaust, the names of approximately half of them are known. These are recorded in the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names at Yad Vashem (Israel), and subsets of names are recorded in other databases and memorialization projects.

2. Inform students that because information and records are distributed to many different resources and sources, the identities of millions of Holocaust victims, even those whose names we do know, may be forgotten over time.

Page 8: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |8

3. Explain there are numerous databases, names repositories and memorialization projects around the world, which have recorded the names and some biographical information about victims as well as the survivors.

4. Read the following statement: “There is no single list of victims and survivors of Holocaust-era persecution. Instead, researching family history around the Holocaust is a process of following trails and piecing together bits of information.” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)

5. Introduce the Mining Information from Multimedia Sources Holocaust History Detectives project as a crowdsourcing strategy which enlists the help of students and adults in recovering the names, identities and histories of Holocaust victims. How? By mining information about victims embedded in various sources of survivor testimony.

§ What kinds of primary sources are available? (Global as well as regional databases, document archives, oral and visual histories, websites, interviews and articles)

§ If information about a Holocaust victim is already found in a survivor’s testimony, isn’t that enough to memorialize the person or persons? Discuss, why or why not.

6. Present the class with a photo of Dr. Mauritius Berner’s three daughters, introducing them as such. Explain that the photo was recovered from a documentary entitled, “Verdict on Auschwitz.” Dr. Berner was one of 211 Auschwitz camp survivors who testified at the 1963-1965 Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial. While the photo was included in the documentary film, the names of the girls were not provided.

Continue the inquiry, reviewing other MIMS-H2D research primers or: Announce to the class that it will be their task to try to identify the girls by name and to perform additional tasks. This exercise will earn students a KAASE Meta+Thinker badge and also serves as a model for any future inquiries and research projects to recover Holocaust victims' names.

Page 9: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

PAGE |9

MIMS-Holocaust History Detectives Research Guide: History Has A Name

© 2011 the YIZKOR project

Part I - Section 1.4: Memorialization Projects Plzeň (Pilsen) stone garden (Czech Republic)

The industrial city of Pilsen is home to the second largest synagogue in Czechoslovakia. The ornate structure could seat nearly 3,000 people (800 women in the balcony section and 2,000 men on the main floor). Because of the adjoining structure, it was not destroyed by the Nazis but was instead used as a storehouse. Post-war, the building fell into disrepair, but was restored in 1998. It is currently a museum housing Jewish artifacts.

Could the restoration of the Great Synagogue be considered as a kind of memorialization project?

There is a small local Jewish community in Pilsen, consisting of approximately 100 people. The group uses a smaller synagogue, located a few blocks from the Great Synagogue. In the synagogue’s courtyard is a Holocaust memorial created by local schoolchildren, which contains stones marked with the names of each of Pilsen’s 2,300 Jews who were killed during the Holocaust.

Why do you think the Stone Garden was created in the courtyard of the smaller synagogue? Who was the memorial built for?

Context: USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia - Czechoslovakia

(http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005688)

Handouts & Resource Materials

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cam37/2264116103/in/set-72157603905805036

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cam37/2264115575/in/set-72157603905805036/

Page 10: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |10

Part I - Section 1.4: Memorialization Projects Shoes on the Danube Promenade (Budapest, Hungary)

The Shoes on the Danube Promenade memorial stands on the bank of Danube River in Budapest, Hungary (on what was formerly the Pest side before the country’s capital was united). Hungarian sculptor Gyula Pauer and his friend Can Togay introduced the idea to place the monument on the river’s banks. The 60 pairs of iron shoes commemorate the victims who were murdered by Arrow Cross between 1944 and 1945. Shoes were considered a valuable commodity and victims removed their shoes before being murdered.

The killings took place all along the river’s edge and saved the Arrow Cross the trouble of having to bury their victims who were thrown or fell into the river after being shot.

Holocaust Encyclopedia – Hungary After the German Occupation (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005458)

Page 11: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

PAGE |11

MIMS-Holocaust History Detectives Research Guide: History Has A Name

© 2011 the YIZKOR project

Part I - Section 1.4 Memorialization Projects Hall of Names (Yad Vashem, Israel)

The Hall of Names at Yad Vashem is the Jewish People’s memorial to each and every Jew who perished in the Holocaust – a place where they may be commemorated for generations to come. The main circular hall houses the extensive collection of “Pages of Testimony” – short biographies of each Holocaust victim. Over two million Pages are stored in the circular repository around the outer edge of the Hall, with room for six million in all.

The ceiling of the Hall is composed of a ten-meter high cone reaching skywards, displaying 600 photographs and fragments of Pages of Testimony. This exhibit represents a fraction of the murdered six million men, women and children from the diverse Jewish world destroyed by the Nazis and their accomplices. The victims’ portraits are reflected in water at the base of an opposing cone carved out of the mountain’s bedrock.

The Hall of Names was planned and designed by architect Moshe Safdie and designer Dorit Harel together with the Hall of Names’ staff.

About Yad Vashem Established in 1953, Yad Vashem is a world center for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust.

Reprinted with permission of Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority

(http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/remembrance/hall_of_names.asp)

Handouts & Resource Materials

Page 12: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |12

Part I - Section 1.4: Memorialization Projects The Tower of Faces (the Yaffa Eliach Shtetl Collection)

The “Tower of Faces” is a three-floor-high segment of the permanent exhibition at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum devoted to the Jewish community of the Lithuanian town of Eisiskes, whose inhabitants were massacred by units of the German Einsatzgruppe and their Lithuanian auxiliaries in two days of mass shootings on September 25 and 26, 1941.

The exhibit consists of approximately 1,000 reproductions of pre-War photographs of Jewish life in the town gathered from more than 100 families by Dr. Yaffa Eliach, who spent her early childhood in Eisiskes. Eliach is the granddaughter of Eisiskes photographer Yitzhak Uri Katz, who, together with his wife, Alte Katz, their assistant Ben-Zion Szrejder and Rephael Lejbowicz, took most of the photographs in the exhibit. Jews had lived in Eisiskes for almost 900 years; in 1939, the 3,000-3,500 members of the Jewish community constituted a majority of the town’s population. The photographs in this exhibit document the rich religious, cultural, economic and familial life of the Jewish community that existed prior to the occupation of Eisiskes by the German Army in the last week of June 1941.

Shortly after German troops entered the town, a Jewish council was formed, and men were conscripted for forced labor. On the eve of the Jewish New Year in September 1941, the community was ordered to surrender all its valuables. The following morning all Jews were ordered to assemble in the main synagogue and its two houses of study. Another 1,000 Jews from the neighboring towns of Valkininkas and Salcininkai were brought to Eisikes and crowded into the three buildings. For the next two days the 4,000-4,500 Jews were held without food or water. On the third day the killing action began with the mass shooting of all the men at the old Jewish cemetery. The next day the women and children were taken out and shot near the Christian cemetery. Only 29 Jews escaped the slaughter.

Reprinted with permission of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Permanent Exhibition at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum [Photograph #N03043]

Page 13: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

PAGE |13

MIMS-Holocaust History Detectives Research Guide: History Has A Name

© 2011 the YIZKOR project

Part 1 - Section 2.1: Content and Context Shoes - Follow the guide on the following pages in discussing and comparing the different shoe images.

The name of the owner of the shoe is unknown. The shoe is part of the “Ordinary Things” activity and lesson developed by Paul Salmons, University of London’s Holocaust Education Development Programme (Imperial War Museum)

Hinda Cohen’s shoes, with the year (and date) of her deportation 3/27/1944, etched in the bottom. Artifact Collection, Yad Vashem. Donated by Dov amd Tzipporah Cohen, z’l, through Pnina Eliyahi, Givat Shmuel, Israel

The Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial and Museum has in its artifact collection 80,000 shoes.

Handouts & Resource Materials

Page 14: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |14

Part I - Section 2.1 Content and Context Unknown Child’s Shoe

Imperial War Museum, University of London’s Holocaust Education Development Programme “Ordinary Things” activity and lesson developed by Paul Salmons. The name of the owner of the shoe is unknown.

Have students make observations about the shoe, deducing from their observations what they can say about the young child and his/her shoe.

Observations Is the shoe new or old? (confirm that it is old) Probably belongs to child about 4 or 5 years old. It could be a boy or a girl’s shoe. The shoe is not new; the stitching on the seam has been through many repairs. Who do you think repaired the shoe?

How was the shoe made? What is it made from, the material?

The shoe was probably a hand-me-down, maybe from an older brother or sister. The heel and sole also needed repair.

While the identity of the young child to whom the shoe belonged is not known, in all likelihood it belonged to a Jewish child. Over 90% of the 1 million people killed in Auschwitz were Jewish.

Page 15: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

PAGE |15

MIMS-Holocaust History Detectives Research Guide: History Has A Name

© 2011 the YIZKOR project

Part I - Section 2.1 Content and Context Unknown Child’s Shoe The shoe was recovered at Auschwitz-Birkenau (Imperial War Museum)

Handouts & Resource Materials

Page 16: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |16

Part I - Section 2.1 Content and Context Hinda Cohen 1942 - 1944 | Children in the Holocaust Tzipporah and Dov Cohen were married in 1938 had already experienced the loss of one child during childbirth. With the German invasion of Lithuania, they unsuccessfully tried to flee to the Soviet Union. They were forced to return to their home in Kovno (Kaunas) and were later interned in the Kovno Ghetto.

Approximately half a year later, on January 18, 1942, Tzipporah gave birth to a daughter who she named Hinda after her mother. At the end of November 1943, the couple was transferred to the Aleksotas Work Camp, whose inmates worked in the airport. They lived under very difficult conditions, performing backbreaking forced labor.

During the day the men and women would go to work and only the children would remain in the camp with a small group of adults and the elderly. On March 27, 1944 the adults were taken out a different gate than the usual one, so that they would not see the trucks which had arrived and attempt to disrupt the deportation.

When the adults returned at the end of the day they discovered the extent of the tragedy: no children remained in the camp. Dov and Tzipporah rushed to their daughter’s bed, where they found one of her shoes and the gloves Tzipporah had sewn for her. Dov etched the date upon his daughter’s shoe and swore to save the shoe forever.

Dov and Tzipporah later returned to the Kovno Ghetto from where they fled to the forest and were eventually liberated by the Russian Army. In 1947 Tzipporah gave birth to another daughter and in 1960 they immigrated to Israel. Dov and Tzipporah requested that their family give the objects from their daughter Hinda to Yad Vashem, and with their passing their granddaughter donated the objects belonging to Hinda Cohen who was murdered at Auschwitz.

Source: Bearing Witness: Stories Behind the Artifacts in the Museum’s Collection (www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/bearing_witness/children_holocaust_cohen.asp)

Reprinted with permission by Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority

Hinda Cohen’s shoes, with the year (and date) of her deportation 3/27/1944, etched in the bottom. Artifact Collection, Yad Vashem. Donated by Dov and Tzipporah Cohen, z’l, through Pnina Eliyahi, Givat Shmuel, Israel

Page 17: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

PAGE |17

MIMS-Holocaust History Detectives Research Guide: History Has A Name

© 2011 the YIZKOR project

Part I - Section 2.1 Content and Context Hinda Cohen 1942 - 1944 | Children in the Holocaust

Hinda Cohen’s shoes, with the year (and date) of her deportation 3/27/1944, etched in the bottom. Artifact Collection, Yad Vashem. Donated by Dov and Tzipporah Cohen, z’l, through their granddaughter Pnina Eliyahi, Givat Shmuel, Israel

The notation z’l is a Hebrew phrase, “Zichron Livracha” which means “be remembered for a blessing” and is placed after the deceased name(s) to show respect.

Handouts & Resource Materials

Page 18: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |18

Part I - Section 2.1 Content and Context Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial and Museum Shoes

The Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial and Museum has in its artifact collection 80,000 shoes, along with approximately 3,800 suitcases (2,100 of which bear the names of their owners); over 12,000 kitchen utensils (forks, spoons and knives); 470 prostheses and orthoses; 40 kilograms of eyeglasses, 350 striped prisoner uniforms; 250 tallisim (prayer shawls); and, over 6,000 works of art (including about 2,000 which were made by prisoners).

Photo credit: Paweł Sawicki

Page 19: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

PAGE |19

MIMS-Holocaust History Detectives Research Guide: History Has A Name

© 2011 the YIZKOR project

Part I - Section 2: Transition Exercise Option #1 - Who Am I? Print/copy the “Who Am I?” exercise on pages 20-26.

• Cut the page along the dotted line, separating the names from photos

• Keep the master list of names and fates of each child to yourself

• Display the photo montage on a whiteboard or screen during the exercise

• For those students who have been given the photos, have them fold back the page (along the dotted line) to keep the name hidden.

• Follow the instructions described on page 4-5.

Option #2 - Who Am I? This approach ideally requires an Internet connection. However, teachers can conduct the research on their own and the download Pages of Testimony for each child from the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names at Yad Vashem.

Either option concludes with the presentation of the photograph of Dr. Mauritus Berner’s three daughters whose names are not associated with the photo (see p.28).

Extension Activities

Students can:

§ Explore the database further searching for additional family connections to the young person they have researched.

§ Generate a list of names for memorial programs, using specific input parameters such as: Age, Country of Origin, and Place of Death.

§ Conduct family-based genealogical research using information sourced from parents and grandparents

Handouts & Resource Materials

Page 20: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |20

Part I - Section 2: Transition Exercise - Who Am I? (1) Hana Borensztejn was born in Warszawa in 1923 to Moshe and Lea. She was a pupil and single. Prior to WWII she lived in Warszawa, Poland. During the war she was in Warszawa, Ghetto. Hana was murdered in 1942 in Treblinka, Poland at the age of 19. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her sister Sima Grinberg

(2) Haia Faer was born in Beltz in October 1935 to Haim and Ruhlea. Prior to WWII she lived in Falesti, Romania. During the war she was in Litvinov (Kolkhoz), Russia (USSR). Haia was murdered in November 1943 in the Shoah. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her aunt Sura Faer Goldenberg

(3) Nathan Lustman was born in Lodz in 1934 to Simha and Hana. Prior to WWII he lived in Lodz, Poland. During the war he was in Lodz, Poland. Nathan was murdered in 1944 in Auschwitz, Camp. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his uncle Simcha Pszenica

(4) Eva Weksberg was born in Moravska Ostrava in 1934 to Bubi and Iuli. Prior to WWII she lived in Moravska Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. During the war she was in Moravska Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. Eva was murdered in the Shoah. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her uncle Moshe Trost

(5) Frania (Felicie) Rajter was born in Villerupt on December 31, 1931 to Majlech (Simon) and Mania. Prior to WWII she lived in Villerupt, France. During the war she was in Drancy, Camp. Frania was murdered on September 16, 1942 in Germany. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her cousin Jacques Tolub

(6) Touwia Polinowski was born in Paris in 1928 to Soil and Vera (Perele nee Nudel). Prior to WWII he lived in Livry Gargan, France. During the war he was in Livry Gargan, France. Touwia was murdered 11/11/1942 in Auschwitz, Poland. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his brother Mendel Polinowski. Another Page of Testimony was submitted for Tuvia Polinovski by Shaul (Soil) his father.

(7) Severin Regenweter was born in Lodz on January 16, 1934 to Heniek and Zelda. He was a child. Prior to WWII he lived in Lodz, Poland. During the war he was in Lodz, Poland. Severin was murdered in the Shoah. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his uncle J. Davis

(8) Moshe Drajer was born in Warsaw in January 1926 to Avraham and Pesa. Prior to WWII he lived in Warsaw, Poland. During the war he was in Warsaw, Ghetto. Moshe was murdered in 1943 in Warsaw, Ghetto. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his cousin Morris Wyszogrod.

(9) Josef Weissler was born in Nikolai in 1937 to Alfred and Alice. Prior to WWII he lived in Nikolai, Poland. During the war he was in Auschwitz, Camp. Josef was murdered in the Shoah. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his aunt Thea Weissler

(10) Fruma Katz was born to Barukh Khana in 1935 in Kazan Tatarskaya Assr, Russia. During the war she was in Telenesti, Romania. The Page of Testimony was submitted by her uncle, Shabbtai Finkelman.

(11) Antoinette Denneboom was born in Harbrinkhoek on January 10, 1937 to Elie and Frederika. Prior to WWII she lived in Harbrinkhoek, Netherlands. During the war she was in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Antoinette was murdered in Auschwitz, Poland. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her sister Rivka Zonenfeld

(12) Irma Grin was born in Poland in 1936 to Hersh and Sara. Prior to WWII she lived in Sosnowic, Poland. During the war she was in Sosnowic, Poland. Irma was murdered in Sosnowic, Poland. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her uncle, a Shoah survivor Yosef Manela

(13) Jean Pierre Lambert was born in Paris on December 19, 1935 to Joseph (Claude) and Marianne. Prior to WWII he lived in Paris, France. During the war he was in Paris, France. Jean was deported on November 20, 1943 and murdered on 25/11/1943 in Auschwitz, Camp. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his cousin Eric Maus, and another Page of Testimony submitted by a cousin Serge Maus. Jean had a brother named Gerard and a sister Francine who were also killed. Their parents Claude and Marianne were also killed.

3

1 2 4

13 5

6 7

8

9

10 11

12

Page 21: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

PAGE |21

MIMS-Holocaust History Detectives Research Guide: History Has A Name

© 2011 the YIZKOR project

Part I - Section 2: Transition Exercise - Who Am I? (page 1 of 8)

Hana Borensztejn was born in Warszawa (Warsaw) in 1923 to Moshe and Lea. She was a pupil and single. Prior to WWII she lived in Warszawa, Poland. During the war she was in Warszawa, Ghetto. Hana was murdered in 1942 in Treblinka, Poland at the age of 19. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her sister Sima Grinberg

Haia Faer was born in Beltz in October 1935 to Haim and Ruhlea. Prior to WWII she lived in Falesti, Romania. During the war she was in Litvinov (Kolkhoz), Russia (USSR). Haia was murdered in November 1943 in the Shoah. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her aunt Sura Faer Goldenberg

Page 22: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |22

Part I - Section 2: Transition Exercise - Who Am I? (page 2 of 8)

Nathan Lustman was born in Lodz in 1934 to Simha and Hana. Prior to WWII he lived in Lodz, Poland. During the war he was in Lodz, Poland. Nathan was murdered in 1944 in Auschwitz, Camp. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his uncle Simcha Pszenica

Eva Weksberg was born in Moravska Ostrava in 1934 to Bubi and Iuli. Prior to WWII she lived in Moravska Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. During the war she was in Moravska Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. Eva was murdered in the Shoah. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her uncle Moshe Trost

Page 23: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

PAGE |23

MIMS-Holocaust History Detectives Research Guide: History Has A Name

© 2011 the YIZKOR project

Part I - Section 2: Transition Exercise - Who Am I? (page 3 of 8)

Frania (Felicie) Rajter was born in Villerupt on December 31, 1931 to Majlech (Simon) and Mania. Prior to WWII she lived in Villerupt, France. During the war she was in the Drancy Internment Camp. Frania was murdered on September 16, 1942 in Germany. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her cousin Jacques Tolub

Touwia Polinowski was born in Paris in 1928 to Soil and Vera (Perele nee Nudel). Prior to WWII he lived in Livry Gargan, France. During the war he was in Livry Gargan, France. Touwia was murdered 11/11/1942 in Auschwitz, Poland. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his brother Mendel Polinowski. Another Page of Testimony was submitted for Tuvia Polinovski by Shaul (Soil) his father.

Page 24: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |24

Part I - Section 2: Transition Exercise - Who Am I? (page 4 of 8)

Severin Regenweter was born in Lodz on January 16, 1934 to Heniek and Zelda. He was a child. Prior to WWII he lived in Lodz, Poland. During the war he was in Lodz, Poland. Severin was murdered in the Shoah. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his uncle J. Davis

Moshe Drajer was born in Warsaw in January 1926 to Avraham and Pesa. Prior to WWII he lived in Warsaw, Poland. During the war he was in Warsaw, Ghetto. Moshe was murdered in 1943 in Warsaw, Ghetto. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his cousin Morris Wyszogrod.

Page 25: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

PAGE |25

MIMS-Holocaust History Detectives Research Guide: History Has A Name

© 2011 the YIZKOR project

Part I - Section 2: Transition Exercise - Who Am I? (page 5 of 8)

Josef Weissler was born in Nikolai in 1937 to Alfred and Alice. Prior to WWII he lived in Nikolai, Poland. During the war he was in Auschwitz, Camp. Josef was murdered in the Shoah. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his aunt Thea Weissler

Fruma Katz was born to Barukh Khana in 1935 in Kazan Tatarskaya Assr, Russia. During the war she was in Telenesti, Romania. The Page of Testimony was submitted by her uncle, Shabbtai Finkelman.

Page 26: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |26

Part I - Section 2: Transition Exercise - Who Am I? (page 6 of 8)

Antoinette Denneboom was born in Harbrinkhoek on January 10, 1937 to Elie and Frederika. Prior to WWII she lived in Harbrinkhoek, Netherlands. During the war she was in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Antoinette was murdered in Auschwitz, Poland. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her sister Rivka Zonenfeld

Irma Grin was born in Poland in 1936 to Hersh and Sara. Prior to WWII she lived in Sosnowic, Poland. During the war she was in Sosnowic, Poland. Irma was murdered in Sosnowic, Poland. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her uncle, a Shoah survivor Yosef Manela

Page 27: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

PAGE |27

MIMS-Holocaust History Detectives Research Guide: History Has A Name

© 2011 the YIZKOR project

Part I - Section 2: Transition Exercise - Who Am I? (page 7 of 8)

Jean Pierre Lambert was born in Paris on December 19, 1935 to Joseph (Claude) and Marianne. Prior to WWII he lived in Paris, France. During the war he was in Paris, France. Jean was deported on November 20, 1943 and murdered on 25/11/1943 in Auschwitz, Camp. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his cousin Eric Maus, and another Page of Testimony submitted by a cousin Serge Maus.

Jean had a brother named Gerard and a sister Francine who were also killed. Their parents Claude and Marianne were also killed.

Page 28: MIMS-H2D Names and Memorials

Part I Names & Memorials PAGE |28

Part I - Section 2: Transition Exercise - Who Am I? (page 8 of 8)

Dr. Mauritius Berner had three daughters…