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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.
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.
