Jennifer Brown
Dr. Warner
11 May 2011
English 112B
Unit of
Study: Night and Holocaust Literature
"We are all different; because of that, each of
us has something different and special to offer and each and every one of us
can make a difference by not being indifferent."
- Henry Friedman, Chairman of the Holocaust Education
Centre, Washington.
Centerpiece
Work: Night by Elie Wiesel
Why Historical Literature?
History
can be one of the more difficult subjects for students to grasp, particularly
as studying history becomes a chore of mesmerizing dates and names, without
ever really getting a chance to contextualize the events. Historical fiction is
important because it allows students the opportunity to read stories that
feature the events they are learning about in their history classes, but from a
different perspective. YA historical fiction especially can be helpful because
students will be more able to relate to the events that are depicted if they are told by someone around their age.
Why Night and Holocaust
Literature?
The
Holocaust is a difficult topic for many people to come to terms with—not
just students—and I feel that any information about this time in history
is helpful for understanding exactly what happened. Novels like Night by Elie Wiesel give a human voice
to the inhuman actions of the Holocaust and help to ensure that the Holocaust
is never looked upon lightly. By reading someone�s firsthand account of the
horrible events that took place, readers are able to empathize with the author
and with the victims. Genocide is still occurring today and yet not much is
done to stop it; while places like Darfur have received more press over the
past few years due to what has been occurring, the war still rages on. I
believe that students should read a novel like Night not just because it is canonical, but because of the
important message that it carries. The Holocaust was one of the most
devastatingly destructive periods in history, and it is crucial that we all do
our part to ensure that these events are never repeated.
Overall Approach:
The
Holocaust can be very difficult to understand, because it is so heavy and
dense. However, I think before one can understand the Holocaust, one should
understand what led up to it. I feel that this starts with simple
discrimination, of any kind. That is why I have chosen to begin my unit with
two poems from famous African-American poets; although they are writing about
their own race�s struggles with Civil Rights, the idea of discrimination is
ever-present, and something they have in common. African-American struggles
with slavery and Civil Rights are taught much more often than the Holocaust, so
I feel that high school students would be comfortable with this topic and it
would be a way to ease them into a more difficult
subject.
Launching the Unit
1.) I would begin
with the poem �My People� by Langston Hughes:
The night is
beautiful,
So the faces of my people.
The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.
Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.
Although Langston
Hughes is black, not Jewish, I think that there are definite parallels between
the discrimination both minorities faced and even in some way continue to face.
Further, this poem represents pride in one�s background, which must never be
forgotten, particularly in the face of hardship.
2.) I would then share the poem
�Still I Rise� by Maya Angelou:
You may write me down
in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
This
poem discusses being proud of one�s background and a refusal to be pushed down
by whatever negativity haunts one�s past. Although it is, again, about being African-American,
the themes are similar and the discrimination is similar. I think students
would be able to relate to this poem as with the first one, as it would be more
familiar than the Holocaust.
3.) One of the most famous Holocaust poems, �First
They Came For The Jews� by Martin Niem�ller�:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Although
Martin Niemoller is not Jewish, he was born in Germany and initially supported
Hitler before opposing him. I would ask students what they think of this poem,
in terms of standing up for themselves and for others, and we would have a
discussion about all of the poems so far.
4.) I
would show two clips from the film American
History X, which deals with neo-Nazi �skinheads� in today�s society.
The
first clip, which can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-x4uBHvwGg&feature=related (5:00-6:35) features a rant by the grief-stricken
Derek after his father is killed by a black man. This is the event that begins
his neo-Nazi affiliation, and the rant that he gives to a newscaster is filled
with racial slurs and general comments degrading all other races. This clip is
important because it shows how the kind of thinking Nazis had, and the kind of
thinking that still goes on, even in today�s society.
-Questions
for students to think about:
1.
What do you think of when you hear the racial slurs?
2.
Do you believe that this type of thinking continues today?
3.
Have you ever used a racial slur against another person/group?
4.
Why do you think there is such strong racial tension? Can you ever see a reason
for it? Why/why not?
The
second clip, which can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAbSI4Ec1vw&feature=related, shows Derek and his younger brother, Danny, taking
down their Nazi memorabilia and posters from their shared room at the end of
the movie.
-Questions
for students to think about:
1.
What kinds of images do you see?
2.
Why do you think they are removing these posters?
3.
Do any words/images stand out to you?
The Centerpiece Work
I
would have students read through Night as
homework, but we would discuss the chapters read in class the following day. I
would prepare questions for each chapter, such as:
-Does
Wiesel believe in God? Does the narrator, Eliezer? What role does faith play in
Night?
-What
quotes stood out to you? Why?
-What
is the significance of the title, Night?
What are the literal and symbolic meanings of �night� throughout the novel?
After
finishing the book, students would have the option of writing an essay/book
report (choosing from this book among a few others we�d read) or of
comparing/contrasting Night to any of
the Young Adult Literature books featured below in the section �Extending the
Unit.�
Extending the Unit:
Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne
Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is among the most enduring documents
of the twentieth century. Since its publication in 1947, it has been read by
tens of millions of people all over the world. It remains a beloved and deeply
admired testament to the indestructible nature of the human spirit. Restored in
this Definitive Edition are diary entries that were omitted from the original
edition. These passages, which constitute 30 percent more material, reinforce
the fact that Anne was first and foremost a teenage girl, not a remote and
flawless symbol. She fretted about and tried to cope with her own sexuality.
Like many young girls, she often found herself in disagreements with her
mother. And like any teenager, she veered between the carefree nature of a
child and the full-fledged sorrow of an adult. Anne emerges more human, more
vulnerable and more vital than ever. Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the
horrors of Nazi occupation, hid in the back of an Amsterdam warehouse for two
years. She was thirteen when she went into the Secret Annex with her family. [www.barnesandnoble.com]
Nolan,
Han. If I Should Die Before I Wake. Sixteen-year-old Hilary Burke hates Jews. As part of
a neo-Nazi gang in her town, she�s finally found a sense of belonging. But then
she is critically injured during a motorcycle accident with her boyfriend,
Brad, and nothing will ever be the same. Lying near death in a Jewish hospital,
Hilary finds herself bombarded by memories of a life in Poland—she
becomes Chana, a girl whose family is forced from their home by the Nazis and
marched to the Lodz ghetto, where starvation drives people to desperate acts
and the streets are smeared with filth. Those who are strong enough to survive
are shipped to the mass slaughterhouse at Auschwitz. How can Chana endure such
a life? And how can Hilary? –Harcourt
Brace & Company
Roy, Jennifer.
Yellow
Star. Middle schoolers will appreciate the detailed observations in
tt1is moving retelling of the experiences of Jennifer Roy's Aunt Syvia in the
Lodz Ghetto during the Nazi occupation of Poland. – Literature for Today�s Young Adults
Wolf,
Joan M. Someone Named Eve. Wolf tells a fictionalized story of a young Jewish girl
from the Czechoslovakian village of Lidice who was one of the ten children
chosen from the doomed village to be taken to a Lebensborn center for
"Germanization." –Literature
for Today�s Young Adults