Holocaust | BlogWalker

April 25, 2020
by blogwalker
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Redefining Resilience

Resilience: an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change. Merriam Webster 2020

Although I like the conciseness of Merriam Webster’s definition of resilience, I believe resilience often includes the ability to recover from more than misfortune. In the case of genocide, for instance, resilience requires the ability to recover from not only bad luck and an unhappy situation, but also the unthinkable, the unspeakable.

Two stories that meet my evolving definition of resilience stem from two separate events: the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide (which happened just 26 years ago, with nearly 1,000,000 people murdered over the course of 100 days).

The stories of Irving Roth and Carl Wilkens go beyond dealing with misfortune and adjusting easily.

The Holocaust

I first met Irving Roth in 2008, when I traveled to New York City to participate in the TOLI (The Olga Lengyel Institute of Holocaust Studies and Human Rights) Summer Institute. Over the course of two weeks, we (25 teachers) joined Holocaust survivors and scholars to think creatively and collaboratively about how to teach the Holocaust, genocide, and social justice issues.

Irving joined us at Olga’s table on Day 2 of the Institute. As he shared memories from his childhood, his experiences in Auschwitz, a “death march,” and his last days in Buchenwald, I wondered how did he do it? How did he survive unthinkable, unspeakable events and still find the strength, will, and even humor to move on and build a new life in America? Each time I listen to his interview, I stand in awe of Irving’s unwavering resilience. (Click on the image below to access Irving’s interview.)

Last week, I connected again with Irving, this time via a Zoom call, three days after his 90th birthday. Yes, he continues to redefine resilience, ending the session with a call to action. #NeverForget #NeverAgain.

Rwanda

The summer of 2016, I joined humanitarian Carl Wilkens on a life-changing trip to Rwanda. Carl was the only American to remain in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. As we traveled across the country, visiting key sites and memorials and meeting with genocide survivors, we marveled at Rwandans’ ability to forgive and to rebuild their neighborhoods, communities, and country. We saw resilience redefined and at the forefront of everyday actions as such as village members coming together on a Saturday morning to work on a community project (gacaca) or the Rwandan men’s cycling team in training for upcoming competitions:

Thanks to Zoom, I’m able to reconnect with Carl and our fellow travelers for a weekly call. We are currently watching Ghosts of Rwanda as part of a collaborative discussion.

The film provides a timeline and a window into the genocide – including the role Carl played, remaining behind to help in any way he could, while the rest of the world turned a blind eye.

During our trip, we had the good fortune to have Johnson with us. Each day Johnson helped us step back in time to 1994, when as a 9-year old, he witnessed what no child should: the brutal murder of his mother and baby sister, slain by soldiers bearing machetes, as Johnson hid behind nearby bushes.

Thanks to the Gisimba Orphanage and a courageous act by Carl, Johnson survived the genocide, went on to complete his secondary schooling, as well as college, with a year spent at Texas Christian University. He now works for the Rwandan government, has married, and recently became a father.

Resilience

Like Irving Roth, Johnson and Carl do not define their lives based on the past (the unthinkable, the unspeakable), but rather on their ability to look to the future and to look for the good – and create it.

Drawing from their stories, I define resilience as: an ability to recover, over time, from misfortune, including the unthinkable/the unspeakable, by remembering and learning from the past while looking to and working towards the future.

#NeverAgain #NeverForget #Look4theGood #resilience

“Moving on is to forget; moving forward is to learn from.” Pastor Seraya, Rwanda 2016

June 4, 2011
by blogwalker
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Two Multimedia Literature Guides – Coming Soon!

My feet have still not quite hit the ground since my Pilgrimage to Manzanar trip and my bike ‘n barge trip across Holland with Hannie Voyles. But already I know that two of my summer projects will be to create multimedia teacher guides for two books I know middle – high school language arts/English/history teachers will want to add to their teaching toolkits:

Kiyo's Story

Kiyo’s Story – One of my favorite take-aways from the Manzanar trip was an autographed copy of Kiyo Sato’s memoir of growing up in California – before, during, and after WWII.

“It is a magnificent memoir, fully worthy of being compared to Farewell to Manzanar. I cannot praise its pointillist realism, its Zen-like austerity, highly enough. Exquisite.”—Kevin Starr, author of California: A History

I have to take issue with Kevin Starr’s review. Kiyo’s Story provides something missing from Farewell to Manzanar: a window into the Issei (first generation of Japanese immigrants) experience in California and also makes visible the power of one’s culture to help overcome extreme challenges and attacks on human dignity. Kiyo also includes samples of upstanders (people who choose to take positive action in the face of injustice in society or in situations where individuals need assistance), such as Edward Kelly Elementary School teacher Miss Cox.

I had the good fortune to interview Kiyo five years ago as part of my Time of Remembrance Oral Histories Project. Kiyo’s interview will make a wonderful accompanying piece to her book – and upcoming multimedia teachers guide. Since the release of Kiyo’s Story, there are also a number of online inteviews with her, such as the 2009 radio interview with KQED’s Dave Iverson and News & Review piece by Becky Grunewald, that I will be weaving into the multimedia teachers guide.

Storming the Tulips

Storming the Tulips – I first met Hannie two years ago, when my friend Pam Bodnar, a middle school counselor in Chico, shared with me a remarkable presentation Hannie did with Pam’s 8th grade students on how she survived the Nazi occupation of Holland. Hannie was a schoolmate of Anne Frank’s, a few years younger than Anne but also a student for a while at the same Montessori School. Whereas Anne’s story is one of hiding in the Annex, Hannie’s is from a street view. Hannie and her sister were the eyes and ears for their Jewish mother, who, like Anne, had to remain hidden in their apartment, which was opposite Nazi headquarters.

Hannie’s compelling story is one of 20 first-hand accounts of survival and resilience included in Storming the Tulips:

Storming the Tulips is an intimate encounter with history, as told by twenty former students of the 1st Montessori School in Amsterdam. They were children-contemporaries of Anne Frank -and this book is a companion to The Diary of Anne Frank. While Anne’s story describes her sequestered life in the Annex, Storming the Tulips reveals what children on the outside endured-in the streets, in hiding, and in the concentration camps. Their friends disappeared. Their parents sent them away. They were herded on trains and sent to death camps. They joined the Nazi youth. They hid Jews. They lost their families. They picked the pockets of the dead. They escaped. They dodged bullets. They lived in terror. They starved. They froze. They ate tulip bulbs. They witnessed a massacre. They collected shrapnel. And finally, they welcomed the Liberation. Some lost their families, most lost their homes, but they all lost their innocence as they fought to survive in a world gone mad-the only world that they knew.”

Last month I traveled to Chico, along with Doug Niva, the very talented videographer who has played such a key role in the Time of Remembrance project, to do an interview with Hannie. We will soon have clips from the interview online, both as stand-alone questions in 11th grade US History teacher Erin Goldman’s Beyond Anne Frank lesson, and as part of the soon-to-be-developed multimedia literature guide for Storming the Tulips.

So it may be a while yet before my feet finally touch the ground.

May 2, 2011
by blogwalker
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Remembering Anne Frank: An Update

As we approach the 2011 Holocaust Days of Remembrance (May 1-8), I have a few more resources to add to last year’s Remembering Anne Frank post:

Anne Frank the Writer: An Unfinished Story – From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the resources include a beautifully done tour of Anne Frank’s diary through images and audio clips.
Beyond Anne Frank.pdf – Created by Jennifer Norton, Regional Education Corps Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, to complement reading of The Diary of Anne Frank.
The Danish Solution – From Snag Learning, this documentary film is a tribute to the “upstanders” of Denmark. It details how the Danish were able to save many of Denmark’s Jewish population when the Nazi’s Final Solution was implemented. There are even discussion questions on the page, but thanks to Holocaust Educators Network (HEN) educator Diane Williams, here are two more thought-provoking, guiding questions:
- What inspires us to act? or Why act? (I think this is a question that gets to the root of what my students have grappled with over the years when studying the Holocaust – why did some act and some did not?) This also allows them to look at fear as a motivator, principles, religious beliefs, humanitarian reasons.
- What forms of resistance are the most effective? When and Why?
An Interview with Hannie Voyles – Coming soon!! Last month I traveled with videographer Doug Niva to Chico, California, to interview Hannie Voyles, a Holocaust survivor and former schoolmate of Anne Frank. Hannie is also the translator and contributing author of the newly released Storming the Tulips, ““A tightly-knit connection and complement to Anne Frank’s story.” I hope to have video clips online by next month.

May 23, 2010
by blogwalker
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Remembering Anne Frank

Image from http://annefrankbiography.com/

I was introduced to the Holocaust in 7th grade. Like many middle school students, I was given a window into the horrors of the Nazi “round ups” through reading the Diary of Anne Frank.

My long-time interest in Anne’s story was rekindled last weekend when I had the honor of meeting with Hannie Voyles, a schoolmate of Anne Frank’s. Hannie’s story of survival under five years of Nazi occupation of the Netherlands is every bit as compelling as Anne’s story. It is my hope that Hannie will soon share her story beyond her community (Chico, California). I just finished watching footage from a recent interview she did with a group of 8th grader peer mediators from Chico’s Marsh Jr. High. While Anne Frank was hidden away, Hannie and her sister were out on the streets everyday in the eye of the storm.*

Teaching the Holocaust requires having age-appropriate resources. I was initially taken aback when I discovered that the Open Court Reading Program includes a piece about Anne Frank in the 4th grade anthology. However, in working with several 4th grade classes (in my role as coordinator of my district’s EETT grant), I have come to see that elementary students are quite capable of delving into complex social issues that span communities and generations. If the materials and the manner in which the topic is introduced are age-appropriate, 4th graders are ready for and capable of joining in meaningful shared conversations on tough topics.

Through my participation in the National Writing Project’s Holocaust Educator’s Network, I’ve accumulated a variety of resources for teaching about genocide in general and the Holocaust in particular. After meeting with Hannie Voyles, I am now seeking resources that best tell the impact of Nazi occupation on school-age children and their families and that provide insights into the topic of resiliency of the human spirit. Anne Frank’s story will be my starting point.

Here’s what I have so far:

Film footage of Anne Frank – Filmed in celebration of a neighbor’s wedding in July of 1941, shortly before the Frank family went into hiding, this is the only footage of Anne Frank.
We Remember Anne Frank – Scholastic’s unit includes interviews with Miep Gies, the loyal employee of the Frank family. Lessons are arranged by grade level, starting with grade 3.
Anne Frank, Writer – From EDSITEment (National Endowment for the Humanities), this site scaffolds their lessons and provides resources for connecting Anne’s story to other examples of racism and exclusion.
Anne Frank – Lessons in Humanity and Dignity – Provides activities for school and home.
Anne Frank Received Her Famous Diary in 1942 – From ReadWriteThink!, the unit introduces students to the importance of first-hand accounts in understanding historical events.
Diary of Anne Frank, the movie – PBS provides a Teacher’s Guide to accompany the DVD (which you can order from the site). The site also includes the Take Action page, a listing of projects and activities for empowering students to make a difference. In the current test-driven climate, all too often the reading of powerful stories ends with the “what,” and students are not moving on to explore the next two components, so essential to meaningful learning: “so what” and “now what.”
Anne Frank Timeline – Part of the Secret Annex Online site, the timeline provides background and compelling images from Anne’s story, starting in 1914.

* May 2011 Update:

Anne Frank the Writer: An Unfinished Story – From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the resources include a beautifully done tour of Anne Frank’s diary through images and audio clips.
Beyond Anne Frank.pdf – Created by Jennifer Norton, Regional Education Corps Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, to complement reading of The Diary of Anne Frank.
The Danish Solution – From Snag Learning, this documentary film is a tribute to the “upstanders” of Denmark. It details how the Danish were able to save many of Denmark’s Jewish population when the Nazi’s Final Solution was implemented. There are even discussion questions on the page, but thanks to Holocaust Educators Network (HEN) educator Diane Williams, here are two more thought-provoking, guiding questions:
- What inspires us to act? or Why act? (I think this is a question that gets to the root of what my students have grappled with over the years when studying the Holocaust – why did some act and some did not?) This also allows them to look at fear as a motivator, principles, religious beliefs, humanitarian reasons.
- What forms of resistance are the most effective? When and Why?
An Interview with Hannie Voyles – Coming soon!! A year after first meeting Hannie, I traveled with videographer Doug Niva to Chico, California, to record an interview with Hannie. We hope to have video clips from the interview online within the next few weeks. The interview will be a wonderful resource to accompany her newly released Storming the Tulips, “A tightly-knit connection and complement to Anne Frank’s story.“

If you have Anne Frank resources to add to the list, I hope you will post a comment. My goal is, over the summer, to develop a unit on name calling that could be used across grade levels and would help students make connections and comparisons between what was “then and there” (the Holocaust) to what is “here and now.”

February 17, 2008
by blogwalker
4 Comments

At What Age Do We Introduce Students to “Genocide”?

I’m still reflecting on yesterday’s article in the Sac Bee about French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s controversial mandate that all 5th graders “adopt the memory of one of the 11,000 Jewish children in France killed in the Holocaust, learning about the selected child’s background and fate.” And following that article, today’s article on UC Davis students attending a conference to learn what they can do to stop the genocide in Darfur. These two projects involve students from ages 10 through adult. Is there a minimum age level for teaching about genocide?

The above articles are coming on the heels of a recent Teachers Teaching Teachers Skypecast during which someone in the chat room (Mr. Mayo?) introduced the Many Voices of Darfur blogging and wiki project, an invitation for students to make their voices heard to a worldwide audience.

Apparently, students as young as 3rd grade will be participating in this project and posting to the blog for 48 hours on March 4.

In my school district, I think many 5th grade teachers introduce the word “genocide” as they delve into the unit on Columbus’s arrival to the “New World,” but without the availability of primary source documents such as those that tell of the last hours of individual Jewish children removed from Paris to extermination camps.

Last week I visited an elementary school library that happened to have on display 4th graders’ California Mission projects, including models (parent-done, I’m pretty sure) and some tri-fold displays (which also looked parent done). Kind of took me back to my 4th grade days. However, I’m still thinking about the tri-fold, I believe on Mission San Juan Capistrano, that included the statement “the local Indians were friendly and happy to work.” Maybe 4th graders are too young to learn about the government sanctioned genocide of California Indians, but I suspect that 4th graders at this school will end their year without a clue that “missionization” was NOT mutually beneficial.

But again I ask, at what age do we introduce students to “genocide”?

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