TEACHING ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST THROUGH LITERATURE

". . . the need grows more urgent for teachers to achieve a balance between the history of the catastrophe and the various ways of representing the private ordeals of its victims. . . . No respectable course or unit on this topic can afford to ignore either [history or literature]."

(Lawrence Langer (1998) in "Opening Locked Doors" in Preempting the Holocaust. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 191.)

"Teaching and learning about the Holocaust is thus a double journey, a temporary excursion that concludes with the end of a class or a course, and a ceaseless encounter with evil that raises a multitude of unsettling questions about history and human conduct." (Langer, p. 196.)

“We do have an obligation: not only to remember the Holocaust, but also by now at our vantage point and moment in time, to situate it properly in historical perspective.”

(Ruth Franklin (2011) in A Thousand Darkness Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc., p. 233.)

by

Carol Danks

Museum Regional Educator

U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

(301) 622-0366

Holocaust Institute for Teacher Educators

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA

March 10, 2011

Suggested literature within chronology of the Holocaust

* a copy of the literature is included in this packet.

People's acquiescence and/or involvement in violence against "the other":

* "Hangman, " a poem by Maurice Ogden

Pre-war and early war Jewish life:

*"Refugee Blues," a poem by British poet W. H. Auden

* "Be Well, Papa," a memoir story by Ida Fink

* "The Key Game," a memoir story by Ida Fink

*Salvaged Pages, excerpts of diaries of 14 young people. Excerpt by Klaus Langer, pp. 26-27

All But My Life, a memoir by Gerda Weissmann Klein

Anton, the Dove Fancier, autobiographical short stories by survivor Bernard Gotfryd

Emil and Karl, novel about two boys, one Jewish and one not, in Vienna just before World War II

Friedrich , autobiographical novel by Hans Peter Richter (chronological movement from

pre-war through mid-war, i.e., 1925-1942)

Ghettos:

* "A Girl of Six from the Ghetto Begging in Smolna Street in 1942," a poem by Jerzy Ficowski

* "A Cartload of Shoes," a poem by Vilna Ghetto survivor Abraham Sutzkever

* Salvaged Pages, excerpts of diaries of 14 young people. Excerpt by Yitskhok Rudashevski, pp. 199-203

  • Salvaged Pages, excerpts of diaries of 14 young people. Excerpt by an anonymous boy, pp. 368-375

A Lucky Child A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy, a memoir by Thomas Buergenthal, focusing on life inKielce, Poland

Bread for the Departed, novel detailing Warsaw Ghetto experiences between 1940-42. Could use portions of it.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly, poems by children in the Terezin ghetto and camp

Milkweed, novel detailing Warsaw Ghetto experiences of young smugglers between 1939-42.

.Night, a memoir by survivor Elie Wiesel

The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak Five Notebooks from the Lodz Ghetto (June 1939-April 1943), first person accounts by Dawid when he was 14-18 years old

Throne of Straw, a play about the Lodz Ghetto

The Man From the Other Side, novel about a non-Jewish 14 year old boy smuggling into the Warsaw Ghetto

The Pianist The Extraordinary True Story of One Man’s Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945, a memoir by survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman

March/transport to camps:

* "Forced March," a poem by Miklos Radnoti, who died in a concentration camp

* “Shipment to Maidanek," a poem by Ephraim Fogel

* "Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway Car," a poem by survivor Dan Pagis

"The Shawl," a short story

Night, a memoir by survivor by Elie Wiesel

All But My Life, a memoir by survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein

Salvaged Pages, excerpts of diaries of 14 young people

Camps:

* "Passion of Ravensbruck," a poem by survivor Janos Pilinszky

* "The Roll Call," a poem by survivor Dan Pagis

* "Night over Birkenau," a poem by gentile survivor Tadeusz Borowski

* "Buna, " a poem by survivor Primo Levi

Fateless, a novel by survivor Imre Kertesz

Götz and Meyer, a novelwhich focuses on Belgrade and the camp at the Belgrade Fairgrounds Dec. 9, 1941-May 10, 1942.

A Lucky Child A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy,by survivor Thomas Buergenthal

Night, a memoir by survivor Elie Wiesel

Survival in Auschwitz, a memoir by survivor Primo Levi

All But My Life, a memoir by survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, any of the short stories in this collection by gentile survivor Tadeusz Borowski

Bystanders:

* "You Onlookers, " a poem by Nelly Sachs, who fled to Sweden in 1940

* "Campo dei Fiori, " a poem by member of Polish Underground Czeslaw Milosz

Rescue:

* "1980," a poem by Vilna ghetto survivor Abraham Sutzkever

* "Chorus of the Rescued, " a poem by Nelly Sachs, who fled to Sweden in 1940

Courage to Care, a collection of biographical sketches of Righteous Gentiles

Number the Stars, anovel about 10 year old girl sheltering Jewish friend in Denmark in 1943

Rescuers,a collection of biographical sketches of Righteous Gentiles

Liberation and aftermath:

  • “The Survivor,” a poem by survivor Primo Levi

A Lucky Child A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy, a memoir by survivor Thomas Buergenthal

All But My Life, a memoir by survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein

Fateless, a novel by survivor Imre Kertesz

Nightfather, a novel by Carl Friedman (Carolina Klop), gentile daughter of Sachsenhausen political prisoner

Maus I and Maus II, comic book format books based on personal experiences of Art Spiegelman, the son of a survivor