Reztyleen Dori

May 17, 2011

English 112B

Experiences of Intolerance and Hate

Holocaust Perspectives:

An Annotated Bibliography

Literature holds a special power to frame perceptions of history, providing insight into what it was like in a time different then our own. This is why it is vital that English teachers cease opportunities to expose students to historical literature written in and about the past. The Holocaust, although a sensitive subject wrought with difficult and trying issues, is an important time in world history that should be explored, especially by high school students who are already contemplating moral issues. The Holocaust generated, and continues to generate, a substantial amount of literature that captures the experiences of people who were affected by and witnessed the destruction and tragedy that occurred during this difficult time in world history. Educators can use this literature to help students get a sense of what people went through.

Holocaust literature has tremendous potential to reach students, who tend to already be sensitive to issues of intolerance and hate. Presenting Holocaust literature can expose adolescents to different voices of the past, challenging them to think critically about how and why these injustices happened, and how we can prevent it from happening again. In her poem entitled, �The Rock Cries Out to Us Today,� Maya Angelou reminds us of a very important message about exploring the past, �history, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again� (�The Rock Cries Out�). The themes that are present in Holocaust literature are difficult and sometimes even grotesque, but there are many different styles of writing and presentations within this body of literature that, if taught and utilized effectively, will provide enough insight accessible to a diverse group of readers.

I have compiled a selection of literature that will offer adolescents with different perspectives of the Holocaust, to give them a sense of its immensity, how many lives it affected and its effects. I began with the canonical, The Diary of a Girl: Anne Frank, which is beautiful non-fiction account of Anne Frank�s time in hiding during the Nazi occupation. From there, my aim was to include a mixture of fiction and non-fiction accounts, as well as multimedia works that capture events of the Holocaust from different perspectives in accessible and effective ways for young adult readers to be able to respond and engage with.

Works Cited

�The Rock Cries Out to Us Today.� American Poems. Gunnar Bengtsson, n.d. Web 10

May 2011

Annotated Bibliography

Barlow Girl. �I Believe in Love.� How Can We Be Silent. Fervent Records/ Word, 2007. CD.

This Christian rock group sings a song about upholding faith in God and love during difficult times. The chorus is taken from what is believed to be wall inscriptions carved by a Holocaust victim who was in hiding. This uplifting song speaks to the power of faith as a tool for survival. Lines from the chorus are included below.

I believe in the sun even when it's not shining
I believe in love even when I don't feel it
And I believe in God even when He is silent
And I, I believe (from www. Barlowgirl.com)

This song would be a great source to launch a Holocaust perspective unit with. It could

be used to introduce the fact that this period in time not only exemplifies death

and destruction of humanity, but also shows the strength and resiliency of the human

spirit.

Boas, Jacob. We Are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Teenagers Who Died in the Holocaust.

New York: Henry Holt, 1995. Print.

Boas, a Holocaust survivor, guides a journey through accounts written by five Jewish teenagers during the Holocaust. The entries reflect the thoughts, fears, and hopes, of teenagers living in different parts of Europe during the Hitler regime.

This book has potential to be a powerful teaching tool in that it is told by teenagers. This text would work well as an introduction to the canonical, The Diary of A Girl: Anne Frank, as it includes excerpts from her diary as well. Paired together, students would get Holocaust perspectives written by both male and female teens whose experiences are distinctly unique from each other as they are told from different parts of the continent.

Frank, Anne. The Diary of A Girl: Anne Frank (The Definitive Edition). Eds. Miriam Pressler,

Otto Frank, Susan Massotty. New York: Bantam, 1997. Print.

This timeless classic provides personal accounts of a young girl�s Holocaust experience. Anne Frank gives detailed descriptions of what her life was like living in hiding for over two years with her family in a secret annex. This particular edition includes a forward that explains how and why Anne�s diary came into publication, something that might further spark students� interests before delving into the book.

This source highlights Anne Frank as, first and foremost, a teenager dealing with normal teenage issues. This is a crucial aspect of Jewish representation in Holocaust literature that is important to incorporate in lessons for young adults, as it moves beyond defining Jewish heritage solely on the terms of the Holocaust, and gives Jews a distinct cultural voice.

Harris, Julie, narr. Diary of Anne Frank. By Anne Frank. Audio Partners Publishing, 1992.

Audio.

I include this audio recording of Ann Frank�s accounts as a supplemental source to use while reading The Diary of A Girl: Anne Frank. Hearing excerpts read aloud would be an effective way to heighten students� senses of reality and possibly help them to engage and connect on a more intimate level to Ann Frank�s story.

Heil Hitler! Confessions of a Hitler Youth. Dir. Arthur Holch. Zenger Video, 1991. VHS.

This short 30-minute documentary involves an in-depth interview with Alfons Heck, a high-ranking member of the Hitler Youth during Hitler�s regime. This video documents Heck�s personal experiences amidst a backdrop of pictures and footage depicting Germany during WWII.

This is a valuable resource for exposing young adults to different perspectives as Heck touches upon things that youth often encounter and can relate to, such as vulnerability and fear, and shows how Hitler used those things against young people just like them. In this film, �he talks about the importance of peer pressure and propaganda to Hitler's ability to recruit eight million German children to participate in the "war effort," some as young as twelve participating in murder�(quote taken from FacingHistory.org).

Hillman, Laura. I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree: A Memoir of a Schindler�s List Survivor. New

York: Athenium, 2005. Print.

Hillman�s memoir encompasses the powerful themes of courage and hope during a time of tragedy and despair. She tells of her experiences in WWII Germany as a young girl, the injustices that she witnessed as well as the injustices that she personally dealt with. Hillman recalls such hardships as being separated from her family, losing her father, petitioning to have her and her family be put on Schindler�s list, and reuniting with her family only to be separated from them indefinitely.

Even though the story is told in retrospect, Hillman�s voice is strong, and her vivid descriptions and honest tone give the audience a sense of intimacy and connection to the author. This memoir offers yet another Holocaust perspective, but what is unique to this piece is that it incorporates creative prose as opposed to diary-like reporting styles. This is a good source to pair with a lesson about Schindler�s List, or a unit on those who helped Jews survive the Holocaust.

Stotsky, Sandra. �Academic and Pedagogical Issues in Teaching the Holocaust.� Teaching for

a Tolerant World. Eds. Carol Danks, Leatrice Rabinsky. Illinois: NCTE, 1999. 194-217. Print.

Sandra Stotsky addresses the challenges in teaching Holocaust literature, especially focusing on the portrayal of the Jewish culture and people. In this essay, she urges educators to be careful to incorporate accounts of the life of Jews, rather than just their deaths, to represent more accurately their heritage.

This essay is successful at highlighting the issue of representation and perspective in regards to teaching the Holocaust to adolescents. Stotsky�s highly insightful piece is framed by questions that are extremely relevant in the subject of why, how, and what to teach in a Holocaust unit.

Volavkov�, Hana, ed. I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children�s Drawings and Poems from

Terez�n Concentration Camp. New York: Schocken Books, 1993. Print.

This is a collection of 60 drawings and poetry pieces made by children younger than 15 years old, who passed through the Terezin Concentration Camp during the Holocaust. Along with the illustrations, Volavkov� provides a chronology of the camp, and various bits of background information that will help adolescents contextualize the artwork with the historical events.

Although this book does not necessarily fall under the Young Adult Literature genre, it is a great supplemental visual resource that provides authentic portrayals of life in a concentration camp through young minds. The drawings are authentic and �uncut,� sure to give adolescents a sense of how real this period in time was.

Yolen, Jane. Briar Rose. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1992. Print.

Rebecca Berlin embarks on a journey through her grandmother�s past in hopes to fulfill a promise she makes to her grandmother to find the prince in the Briar Rose story that she would tell Rebecca and her two sisters. Rebecca�s quest leads her to Poland, where her grandmother had experienced the Holocaust. It is there that she begins to understand that her grandmother�s story of Briar Rose was actually a fairytale spin on her grandmother�s experience in a Jewish concentration camp.

Jane Yolen effectively blends fairytale elements with the haunting and real aspects of the Holocaust. The strength of this novel lays in its accessibility. Yolen does a fantastic job at offering a sense of comfort with the familiar �Sleeping Beauty,� which is juxtaposed with the more difficult topic of the Holocaust.

Yolen, Jane. The Devil�s Arithmetic. New York: Puffin, 2006. Print.

Hannah Stern, a young Jewish girl living in the present day, is bored and annoyed by her family�s insistence on honoring the past and preserving their Holocaust survival stories. She is resistant until she is transported back to Poland during the time of the World War, where she gets a first-hand account of the horrifying things that some of her family members had to endure.

This novel portrays the value of preserving and honoring the past. It is a great resource for young adults who are stuck in the present, unable to think beyond their own experiences, and who question the importance of the past.

Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. New York: Knopf, 2005. Print.

Death narrates the story of Leizel Meminger, a young girl living in WWII Germany. Death watches as Leizel finds the strength she needs to survive, and to make sense of her place in the war through family, a Jewish refugee hiding in her basement, and most importantly, through the power of words.

This beautifully written and thought provoking book offers the often-dismissed perspective of sympathetic Germans who risked their own lives to try to help Jewish people being persecuted. Zusak offers a glimpse into WWII Germany with beautiful metaphors and imagery that make this difficult subject palatable for young readers.