Ana Acosta

December 1, 2009

English 112B

Holocaust Literature/Literature from World War II

Take a moment to think back to a time when you felt cornered, a time when you thought you were vulnerable and attacked. A time when everyone was out to get you. You may think that time is now, last week, a few years ago. It may not have happened yet. But your feelings of vulnerability probably don�t compare to the feelings of the Jews in concentration camps during World War II and people who lived during this time period, which lie at the center of this study. Night by Elie Wiesel is his account of his time in Auschwitz, the concentration camp in Poland. Through the resources, we will explore the feelings, emotions, and lives of those who lived through this time or who write about it. This study is primarily intended for high school students. Because it�s a difficult topic, it may be an intense task to go through this topic, but its historical value deems it acceptable to learn and read about what really happened. 

I decided to do my Unit of Study on this topic because of its deep historical value. Even though it happened many years ago and students are only able to learn about it through studying and interviews, I think it is important to know what happened when one person held too much power and how blindly people followed his lead. In addition, my grandparents were born and lived in Germany during World War II and have clear memories of what happened when they were there. I remember reading the book Night that I chose for my centerpiece in high school. I remember vividly how disturbing it was to read about such negative treatment and by reading the atrocities, it was easier to commit myself to never letting something like that happen again. The story, though in the recent past, was a powerful and inspirational story that whetted my interest of the Holocaust. Finally, after graduating from middle school, our class went on a trip to the east coast, and we went to Washington, D.C. On the trip, we saw many historical sights and learned much about our country�s past. But the most gut-wrenching, powerful place we went was the Holocaust Museum. I still remember the room of shoes in there, where shoes of those who died in the Holocaust are piled high. The image of those shoes being tossed into a pile, being the only remains of the people to document, and the large number of shoes made this particular room so powerful. Thus, because of my family history and the emotional attachment I have made with such literature and Holocaust studies, I chose to do my unit of study on Holocaust literature and World War II experience. 

Launching the Unit:

For a history class, I interviewed my grandmother Marianne Bahlke about her life and what it was like to live through World War II. Here is a portion of what she shared with me: 

Marianne: We moved to the city. And we lived in, when we lived where I was born, it was kind of, you could just walk in kind of, it was first floor or something. This one was two stories up the apartment. So, I have some good memories there actually even though my dad was gone already. Okay, so we moved there. Then we were evacuated because they wanted the children and the mothers out of the big cities. They were bombing the heck out of it. They were really bombing the city. I remember what we would do. WE would have a suitcase next to our bed. Now this is going to be long.

Ana: Okay.

M: Do you want that? 

A: Yeah.

M: Because it will teach you, actually, because I don�t think you knew all of this stuff. We would have suitcases next to our beds so when the alarm would go off we would all go down into a basement or into a big bunker that was kind of round and had a cone top on it so that when to bomb would drop it would reflect it, deflect it I guess. And then, so I remember that. I remember coming home, coming out, the alarm would go off again and we would get out of the bunker and people were all over. And places were burning, apartments were burning, houses would just be burning, rubble everywhere. And the bunker, by the way, wasn�t very far from us. And we would come around the corner and our place was still standing. I remember the place across the street, apartment building across the street burning, burning. Because they would throw bombs that they were called, I don�t know what they called them here, but they called them burning bombs, �brun bomben� in German. And they would actually have all the stuff in them so when they would explode, it would just burn. Some wouldn�t do it, but some did. I remember this particular house just burning. And I remember seeing that. And I was pretty little then, probably maybe 4 or 5. As a matter of fact, I thought I saw a person in there. But I probably didn�t. You know, walking or something. It couldn�t have been, but it seemed like there was some figure, maybe it was, I don�t know, burning.

This interview transcription shares the life of my grandmother and her experiences in  moving from place to place and having to go down into a bunker to escape the war that was waging right around her and her family. Her father died in the first air raid, she says, because he was too stubborn to go into the bunker with everyone else. This story of loss is not the only one; many people lost loved ones during World War II, and people continue to lose those they love today. 

Assignment: Write about an incredible sense of loss that you�ve felt sometime in your life. It doesn�t have to be a person; it could be your favorite CD or toy or something that meant a lot to you as a child. Try to capture images and emotions like Marianne did in the interview. Don�t be afraid to explore those things that you don�t talk or write about often; many times it�s those things that make good writing. 

�Such Innocent Words� 

Yala Korwin

Train   camp   shower

Gas   furnace   smoke

Bent and transfigured

Shoes   hair   soap

Mattress   lampshade

Twisted   defiled forever

Common words

Transmuted

Horror   loss

This poet lived and experienced the Holocaust in Germany. There, she lived in a concentration camp, then was eventually freed. The poem is simply a list of images that she saw in the camp, things that she saw every day. Its simplicity allows the images themselves to be more influential. The poem moves from simple images that are seen to more powerful and concentrated images, �Bent and transfigured,� �Twisted defiled forever.� They explain her feelings and her thoughts in few words. 

Questions/Responses: 

What do you think of this poem? What emotions does it convey? How does it make you feel? 

This poet wrote other poems; this one is the shortest. Seeing this poem, do you think you could write a poem? If so, what would you write your poem about? 

Ask yourself what image/word/line grabs your attention the most. You may share the image/word/line with the class if you so choose. After, write a paragraph or two explaining why that captured you and what it means to you as an individual. 

Night by Elie Wiesel

In this book, Wiesel talks about his life in the concentration camp called Auschwitz in Poland. He documents the movement from his home to the camp and being separated from his family when he needs them the most. It�s a canonical work, one that�s taught in high school, and one that has a huge emotional impact on many students (and it�s short enough for students to actually read without being too hesitant).  

Assignment: Write a short story while reading/after reading the book inspired by the story. It should meet the following criteria: 

Center around something that actually happened to you (or a loved one). 

Include some of the writing techniques that are found in the book. 

Be open-ended, meaning it�s an evolving story, since life evolves as well. 

Young Adult Literature Selections

The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender

�After Mama is taken away by the Nazis, Riva and her younger brothers cling to their mother�s brave words to help them endure life in the Lodz ghetto. Then the family is rounded up, deported to Auschwitz, and separated. Now Riva is alone. At Auschwitz, and later in the work camps at Mittelsteine and Grafenort, Riva vows to love, and to hope-for Mama, for her brothers, for the millions of other victims of the nightmare of the Holocaust. And through determination and courage, and unexpected small acts of kindness, she does live-to write the unforgettable memoir that is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.� -Simon & Schuster

Witness by Joshua M. Greene and Shiva Kumar

This book stemmed from the videotaping at Yale University of first-hand accounts of the Holocaust. Some of those very interviews were deposited into this book; twenty-seven personal accounts fill the pages, some from camp survivors, other from American military personnel, and still others from resistance fighters. This book truly captures the many different angles that can be taken of the Holocaust. 

Activity: Write a story about something that happened to you; it must be a true story. It should include at least two other people. After you write the story, write another of the same situation, but from the perspective of the other people in the story. Repeat the process until all of the perspectives have been explored, then read it to explore and better appreciate others� feelings.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly by Hana Volavkova

Children�s poetry and drawings keep the Holocaust alive through the pages of this book. Even though it�s a rather low reading level and the language is very simplistic, this would be a good choice because the images and the accounts are no less gruesome or difficult to hear. 

Activity: Choose your favorite poem and write a poem inspired by the one you chose. The poem must be about the Holocaust and must be written from the perspective of a child or young adult. Then, everyone will share what they�ve written, as long as they feel comfortable doing so. 

Maus I: A Survivor�s Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman

This is a graphic novel in which Spiegelman does a wonderful job of staying true to facts. Through interviews with his father, he gains enough knowledge to be able to tell the story in a marriage of art and text that tempts the reader to side with the Jews, represented by mice, over the Nazis, represented by cats. It�s creative, yet powerful, and playful, yet serious. 

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom and John & Elizabeth Sherrill

One Dutch watchmaker made a huge difference. In this memoir, two sisters are sent to a concentration camp for helping Jews escape. Most notable is the faith and the perseverance required to overcome such treatment. After the experience, Corrie Ten Boom became an evangelist and shared about how good triumphs over evil. 

Activity: Think of a time when you were overcome by someone else�s evil. Capture your emotions and write them as a story. Then, whether or not �good� actually triumphed, write an ending in which good triumphs over evil. 

Other activity: What drives you, motivates you, pushes you forward day by day? It can be a mentor, a friend, a sibling, God. Share aloud the person(s) that give you motivation. 

I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton Jackson

This book follows 13-year-old Livia in her experience of the Holocaust in Hungary. She, like Elie Wiesel, ends up in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. Her documentation of the camp is extremely personal; she mentions the yellow star that she and other Jews were forced to wear, which made her feel �marked and humiliated.� 

Other Projects to Extend the Unit: 

The Interview

Interview someone who lived through something traumatic (this is open-ended and can mean anything from war, 9/11, or death, anything). Record the interview and transcribe it later. Then, write an essay on what you learned and how that changes your perspective on the event, or if it does. 

Trauma and Coping

Life can offer some pretty difficult circumstances. Granted, they may not be as difficult as the ones faced by Elie Wiesel and other Holocaust survivors (or those who died), but they�re physically and emotionally taxing nonetheless. In a well-developed essay, write about how to cope and even grow from difficult life experiences, keeping in mind the experiences we�ve read. If it would help, assume the character of one of the people we read. Imagine how they would react and cope.

Works Cited

Bahlke, Marianne. Personal interview. 15 Mar. 2009. 

Bitton-Jackson, Livia. I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust. New

York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.

Green, Joshua M. and Shiva Kumar. Witness: Voices from the Holocaust. New York:

Touchstone, 2000. 

Korwin, Yala. �Such Innocent Words.� To Tell the Story - Poems of the Holocaust. New York: Holocaust Library Publications, 1987.

Sender, Ruth Minsky. The Cage. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1986.

Spiegelman, Art. Maus I: A Survivor�s Tale: My Father Bleeds History. New York: Random House, Inc., 1986.

Ten Boom, Corrie and John & Elizabeth Sherrill. The Hiding Place. Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 2006.

Volavkova, Hana. I Never Saw Another Butterfly. New York: Schocken Books, Inc., 1993.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam, 1960.