Ecphrastic Poetry

Hopefully you can read them... here are few of the greatest examples.

Serving with Heart... and Pampers

Well, here's part of what our 871 diapers looked like. I want to reiterate that I am very proud of your commitment to this service drive. I did not offer extra credit and I did not emphasize the donut breakfast. I truly believe that you gave because that's just who you are... you are people who give. It's the same attribute that led to you taking this class. You are people who care about your society and your community and your family. I'm proud of you.

Camp Resources

Below are some links to further information about camps. I am also including some of the best comments from our class station activity on this.

Yad Vashem has put up the coolest interactive map of the six extermination centers and concentration camps. You can click on any location and read all about that particular place.
Map
Grant- I didn't know that Mussolini had a concentration camp, much less fifteen!
Justin- I didn't realize that either. It's interesting how almost all were foreign-born Jews and not Italians.

This link will take you to the paintings of a Jewish artist, Felix Nussbaum. Each painting has an explanation.
Artwork
Grant- It's easy to forget that the refugees endured a horrible experience in the Holocaust as well as the victims. Their pain was psychological.

The USHMM site contains all sorts of information about the camps. This link will take you to a description of the six killing centers and some very powerful oral histories, including photographs.
USHMM
Ashlee- It is unbelievable how organized things were. They spent so much time with the little details. The gas chambers took a lot of time to build.
Madison- It's shocking to think of all this happening. The attention to detail, the fact that they made fellow Jews clean up the bodies, the roll camp, the camps, the gassing... It leaves me speechless. It's hard to believe that soldiers supported this. Where is the line that defines just doing your job and having a heart?
Kelsey- All of these men have shaved heads. I can't even imagine that much hair in one place. What does 30,000 heads of hair look like?
Olivia- These pictures really illustrate how they stripped the Jews of EVERYTHING. Like Madison said, the children one is absolutely heartbreaking, but the one that got me the most is probably the one with the women. Shaving a woman's hair is somewhat like taking her dignity.
Walker- Another thing that is ironic is that they were making the guns that could possible be the death of them. However, this awful work could also save them if they were capable of doing it.
Sierra- It's crazy because of the time it took to build the camps. They took so much time building these for people who will end up dead and then they would have no use.
Walker- So many men arrested during Kristallnacht, can you imagine the feeling of your country turning on you?

Dachau was the first concentration camp to be established. This is aerial footage of Dachau taken by liberators.
Dachau

The USHMM also has links to oral histories from people about the concentration camps.
Concentration camps
Becca- The first thing Greenberg said was "We really expected to die." She talks about people writing on the walls "tell others to remember us." This whole testimony was heart-breaking!
Sarah- The amount of people killed in those death camps was startling. To know that 875,000 Jews were killed by 150 people is upsetting.
Kylee- The picture of the Hungarian children walking to a gas chamber is so sad. It is impossible for me to understand how they felt at that time.
Agustina- I think it is incredible the way she describes the odor that burning human flesh would produce. It doesn't get any more real. To imagine that-- it's crazy.
Sierra- The description of burning flesh sounds unimaginably horrid. I wonder if the Nazis ever truly got used to it or if it haunted them.
Kelsey- If I think of the most I've ever suffered, it doesn't compare to this suffering. If I recall screams that I've heard, the anguish doesn't come close to what must have been in these. How could this happen to human beings?
Grant- Beyond the obvious horror of the pain, death by burning seems to strip even another piece of dignity from someone. Witches are burned, heretics are burned. Children are not. I think something to take from that is that (and it sounds obvious, but...) responsible institutions don't execute people through torture. The witches and heretics burnt in the past were killed for no reason and obviously the children deserved none of it.
Abigel- I can't imagine being so close to someone who was alive among all of the dead ones and not being able to help them. I would rather be one of the dead instead of the person moving them. I would not want to live through something like that. Absolutely terrifying.

This is a very informative link to the "Auschwitz Alphabet". Lots of really valid information.
Auschwitz Alphabet
Olivia- The ordnungsdienst reminds me a lot of the Judenrate. It seems so cruel. It kind of amazed me that they lost the necessity of being clean. I can't imagine not wanting to be clean. It makes me cringe to think of how helpless they must have felt being clothed in nothing, but their misery.
Walker- The Nazis absolutely humiliated them. They not only stripped them of their clothes, but also of their dignity. It is crazy to think that this woman made a makeshift belt and she was the happiest woman there.

One especially tragic story comes out of Terezín. The Opera of Children Going to the Gas, Brundibar, the Organ Grinder, was performed for camp inmates. Seizing an opportunity for a massive propaganda campaign, the Germans also had the Opera moved to a nearby theater and performed for the International Red Cross. The Red Cross workers were impressed, and shortly thereafter the camp commander ordered the entire cast and crew to the gas chambers.
(fcit.edu)
NPR presentation
Victoria- This is so powerful. Especially in how it was used during WWII. I'm also glad the producers decided to bring it back into modern times. It stands for something beautiful regardless of the time period it's being performed in.
Melissa- I agree with Victoria, that it is extremely powerful. I also feel that the "remake" of it being performed  in a fantastical sense amplifies the Holocaust in a way. That this simple plotline of innocence conquers evil and oppression could be accurately portrayed by children and that the audience would be seeing this as a last performance gives it an underlying fantastical meaning. The final element that stood out to me was the end. The open-ended lines "I will not go far, for I am Brundibar" then the victory song ensued. I find it immensely powerful and awe-filled that the opera ended in such a way that though it concluded there was still the lurking Brundibar and the line "I will not go far" and then it was stated that it did not truly end. I find it haunting.

Other comments about other documents:
Sarah- I thought Alice Lok's experience with the gas chambers was chilling. You rarely ever hear stories of someone actually having been in a gas chamber with the gas going and living to tell the tale.
Melissa- I didn't even need to read the passage to know how it would impact me. All I saw was the quote from Michael Vagel and it encompasses the feelings these people had to conceal for the sake of their lives. They were never able to grieve for lost ones or simply take a moment to think of what they must endure on a day to day basis. The work was insufferable and the living conditions rotten. With these conditions physically, mentally, emotionally draining and "Being run over by the heaviest wheels to ingrain it into your mind", the Final Solution because truly "Final" and everyone became indispensable.
Kelsey- These children had to do so many things that are unnatural for children to do: wait in long lines for hours, stand still in one place, eat horrible food. Everything was backwards.
Eva- It says you can find death everywhere it catches up to you.
Olivia- This book kind of breaks my heart every time I look through it. Children are SO full of innocence and positivity. They recognize their hardships, but never cease to look forward. I envy children.
Holly-Children noticed the small details. And those were the details that impacted them the most.
Sierra- It's sad these kids were robbed of their childhood. Yet, it seems they were the only ones who did not lose hope.
Olivia- I really enjoyed reading that (story of resistance). It amazes me that the people knew so well what was going to happen and knew how to get out. I really love the way Michael risked his own safety to grant his cousin's safety.
Holly- I really enjoyed reading this because it gave me hope to see someone sticking out for someone else. In most cases, it seemed everyone had to focus on themselves, but the fact that they stuck together and Michael saved him was heartwarming.
Kelsey- In "Be Seeing You", death seems like a pleasant inside joke that only they know. There is tension as if death is longed for, but they won't admit it.
Dan- "Be Seeing You" is just heartbreaking. They know someone will die. They all basically are saying their "silent goodbyes". It seems like they've lost faith in their God. Death would be terrifying without the belief in a God.
Sierra- When I read this, I automatically think of the Jewish religion. I remember talking about how they treated each dead body like it was their own mother and father and they would mourn for and pray over them. Then I wonder how they felt about all the dead bodies that surrounded them.
Kelsey- How can you have so many dead and dying that you don't have a place for them all? What kind of world do you have to be in for it to be better to spare a child the pain of living?

Week of October 23

Another FOUR DAY WEEK!!! I have put two new blog posts under this one... one about the priest I mentioned the other day and another about daily life in Auschwitz. I am looking forward to this week because it will contain LOTS of discussion. :)

Tuesday, 10/23
Turn in timelines if you haven't already
Camps Echoes and Reflections lesson

Wednesday, 10/24
1/2 period- Honors people lead in Metamorphosis activity
Camps lesson

Thursday, 10/25
Maus I and II Seminar
Be prepared for both books on this date

Friday, 10/26
Round Table Discussion over "Sarah's Key", lessons since 10/8, Remembrance Activity
Time to complete timeline

Yosef Neuhaus: Arrival and Daily Life in Auschwitz-Birkenau

Father Patrick DesBois

I read a while back about a French priest who has taken on the mission of discovering every mass grave of Jews in the Ukraine. It is a pretty interesting story and the link to the NY TImes article is below. I am also linking a podcast (below that) from the USHMM about it.

NY Times article


Podcast


If you read the article or listen to the podcast, I would love to hear your thoughts on it. These would have been the victims of the mobile killing squads we talked about today.

What is the importance of knowing where someone is buried, of having an actual grave to visit? Why do people return to the scene of accidents and deaths? Why are these things so important to us as humans?

Week of October 15

Well hello there, FOUR DAY WEEK! :) I sincerely hope the timeline project is something you are interested in because I just think it is one of the coolest projects I have done in a while. We have a little bit of a breather a couple of days this week when I give you all some in-class time to read Maus II and All But My Life to prep for the seminars in a week or so. We also will get to the camps in depth this week. In fact, Monday's lesson is very emotionally draining-- the information, that is.

Monday, 10/15
Maus II/ABML Reading DayEcphrastic poetry due

Tuesday, 10/16
T-4 Euthanasia program and Mobile Killing Squads
Wednesday, 10/17
Maus II/ABML Reading Day
Time to work with group on timeline
Thursday, 10/18
Camps Echoes and Reflections

Poetry Inspired by the Polish Boy with his Arms Up Photograph

Here are a few of my favorites from this activity:

To the Little Boy
by Oleg
Child, your courage and heroic deed gave me a sense of hope
Your face shines like the sun in its full glory.
The evil men, they stand apart and oppress the helpless,
    forgetting that death reigns over their souls and they rejoice and laugh as though they have control of the innocent.
We are a nation of people who have lived through oppression over the ages of great and mighty civilization.
Little boy, do not fret, for it is you who lives and the cowards who die.

To the Little Girl: "See the Light"
by Sarah
Dear child, do not be afraid
The bloodied hands may grasp and claw at you
But do not let them destroy your heart

Dear child, do not be afraid
For a light so pure and true
Rains down upon you with each step you take

Dear child, do not be afraid
For innocent blood seeps from your scars
Not point, nor tar

Dear child, do not be afraid
Though you feel alone
You will always have the light to guide you

Dear child, do not be afraid
For your heart can still sing, still beat
You are not a broken bird yet

Dear child, do not be afraid
After the terror is over, after you've taken your last breath
You will see the light.

Finally you will see the light.

Just Another Day
by Holly
Another day of sweat
sliding down my skin
palms caked with mud or ash
(I can't tell the difference anymore)
stomach gnawing at my mind

There is yelling and gunshots
(my midnight lullabies)
and a boy with a pale face
battered bloody knees
rattling bones
that can be heard a mile away

My head is turned in his direction
and fear speaks for me
as my hands stiffen in the air

Today is only another day
of false hopes buried beneath us
of innocent children frozen in fear
of the flash of a life take before me
And I can do
nothing
but watch.

Poem
by Savannah
I would like to say something
to you, Nazi soldier
How could you do this?
Pointing that gun
at an innocent child
a frightened old man
a lonely woman
How could you do this?
are you doing this by force
or do you enjoy seeing the fear on the faces
of the innocent child
the frightened old man
and the lonely woman
How could you do this?
Can you sleep at night
Knowing of what you've done
Supporting persecution
of people who you claim to be subhuman
How can you let this happen
You're disgusting.

Only a Child
by Dan
Why would you take any more?
The hunger took his father
and the sorrow took his mother
Left him in my arms for me to carry
It's not that he's a burden,
no. I have food to share.
Why would you take any more?

he's only a child
he's only a child
why would you take his only possession?
he's only a child
he hasn't grown
he's too young to understand.

Maybe it's best you take him
anywhere is better than here.

To the Nazi Soldier
by Kylee
Do you see the little boy?
with his arms raised,
small and scared.
Do you see his mother?
Helpless, bitter, and fearful.
Do you remember being a little boy?
What made you into this?
Why? Why would you become a murderer?
The cause of a little boy's fear.
The reason a mother feels helpless.
If only that little boy had a gun.
Would you then feel scared and helpless?

Heartless Man
by Madison
To the heartless so called "man.
How could you stand there and feel no shame
Your face shows no emotion or signs of remorse
You are clearly the "man" to blame.

To the heartless so called "man"
You stand there with steady hands
And pride-filled eyes
You are clearly the "man" to blame.

To the heartless so called "man"
I hope you remember that sorrow-filled day
Haunts you and is there to stay
You are clearly the "man" to blame.

To the Little Jewish Boy
by Olivia
Little Jewish boy, stand strong.
You are courageous.
You are brave.
You are admirable.
Do not fear the Nazi soldier with his gun held high.
He is a coward.
Do not listen to the horror in the voices around you.
They don't realize.
They don't realize that when the bullets pierce your skin
                                    when they slam into your heart
                                                                     your brain
                                                                     your lungs
You will have done what they all have longed to do.
You will have escaped.
You will be gone forever from the place of blackness
                                                 the place of hunger
                                                 the place of screams.
You will enter a field with flowers.
                        your bedroom with your teddy bear
                        a fluffy cloud above the world.
Your own personal heaven.
Little Jewish boy, stand strong.
Where you're going is better than where you stand now.

It was There
by Sierra
It was there.
There I stood motionless and small.
There I stood staring into the eyes of death.
Was I afraid? Yes I must say that I
knew that I would stand there only
temporarily. Never will I have to stand
there again staring at the face of death.
It was there.
There I waited for courage to arrive.
There I looked into deep dark eyes.
There I surrendered but my heart did not.
There I was gazing into the eyes of hate.
It was there.
There I asked the question why do they hate me?
There I thought it will all be over soon.
And it was there where my final thoughts and breath were.
There in the ghetto in the spot where the trigger was pulled.
It was there.

From the Little Boy
by Melissa
I Raise my hands
In celebration of a new wonder in my life
I Raise my hands
to beckon my father to hoist me into his arms and hold me tight.
I Raise my hands
to reach, to stretch as closely as possible
to something just out of my fingertips
Happiness
Safety
Compassion
Hope
Yet I do not
I do not have the choice
I Raise my hands high
because I am told to
because my back is threatened by my death
So I Raise my hands,
higher than ever before.
Because that is my only option.

The Little Boy
by Grant
My sides exposed,
my knees naked.
The Polish morning tightens my fingers,
Heat from my underarms
Steals the lost warmth through the hole in my shoe.

The gun steams, released the soul it
just tore from the earth

I cannot be scared
my mother was strong.

I want to end this,
to kill them all,
then we would be free.

But my rock is a billion miles away, in my pocket,
and he will shoot me
before I can reach it.

The Dark-Haired Woman
by Kelsey
You could have been my child,
yes, you surely could have,
I knew your mother,
but I don't know her now.
I don't know you,
I was glad you weren't my child,
I wanted to protect my daughter,
and you were there,
Shielding her,
I was glad,
I hate myself,
I hate myself for being glad,
you could have been my child.

The Little Boy
by Justin
I stand with hands up,
hat on, wearing my Star of David.
What have I done?
Why am I here?
Have I done something wrong?
I stand with hands up,
hat on, wearing my Star of David.
People watching.
Guns pointing.
No one does anything.
What have I done?
Why are guns pointing at me?
Why won't anyone do anything?
I stand with hands up,
hat on, wearing my Star of David.
Waiting.
Just waiting for something to happen.
Waiting for help.
What have I done?
Why will no one help?
Why will no one help?
I stand with hands up,
hat on, wearing my Star of David.
In need of help.
In need of the help that no one will give.
What have I done?
Why does everyone hate me?
How hard is it to help?
I stand with hands up,
hat on, wearing my Star of David.
I
Need
Help.
We all
Need
Help.
The help that no one will give.

Today's Skype Discussion

As I mentioned this morning, this is the sort of thing I just LOVE. Any opportunity I can take to bring someone in (either in person or via technology-- albeit it jerky technology) to further your educational opportunity, I want to do so.  I would love if a few of you would email a thank you letter to me that I can forward on to Dr. Robertson. It was kind of her to take time out of her (early) morning to chat with us. Now that you have had some time to reflect, what sorts of thoughts or comments do you have on what you heard today?

Links for Monday Night's assignment

Tonight, do some extra research about ghettos. We are doing a skype chat tomorrow with Madison’s family member, Dr. Teddy Robertson, a history professor for the University of Michigan-Flint, who specializes in Holocaust study. Check out the link below, then click on “ghettos” on the left, which will take you to the specific video clips.

Video clips

In addition, you can go on the USHMM website’s encyclopedia and read the entry on ghettos, as well as the YadVashem’s site (search under ghettos).

It is very important to me that you are on your best behavior tomorrow, and by “best behavior”, I mean as interactive as she wants you to be. There are no dumb questions. This is your chance to talk to someone who has studied (and traveled) far more extensively than I have on this subject (as I must divide my time between ALL aspects of English and literature) AND someone who is a history professor, so she can fill in all the gaps on the historical side. USE THE OPPORTUNITY!

BOOK THIEF!!!

Below are photos of the book covers that we repurposed as well as the quote assignment... This group did a phenomenal job with this assignment and I am THRILLED with the results...

A Class of Workers and Scholars...

Here are a couple of pictures of the hard work and great learning that has been taking place... Our Kristallnacht jigsaw and what was no doubt the most phenomenal presentation I have seen in twelve years of teaching. Grant and Justin explained the series of elections in Germany in the late 20's and early 30's in a way that made what is normally very abstract, VERY understandable. Last is our display of propaganda that students created, illustrating the ease with which a person can pull a quote, a picture, and other elements and create a graphic display that makes whatever statement the person wishes to make.

Homecoming Week Festivities

These are a few weeks late, but here is the Holocaust Lit class participating in our Homecoming week fun...

Fascinating Article

This is an incredibly interesting read about resistance... we will get to the topic in depth later, but Grant sent me this and I wanted to get it out to you all while it was fresh on my mind. It is pretty long, but totally worthwhile.
The Man Who Volunteered for Auschwitz

Week of October 8

When we started this semester, I wasn't totally sure what this class would be like. I remember thinking at first that you guys were going to be great in discussion, then going through a period where few people talked and getting very discouraged. However, I am going to say, you guys are awesome. There are some of you who have participated since day one and I absolutely see that and appreciate it SO much. What has brought me great joy recently has been those of you who had not previous had much to say who are now really beginning to participate in discussion and it's so incredibly because your comments are SO insightful and right on target! Those Book Thief quote projects and covers were absolutely among the best I have EVER gotten. I love that you are getting into the spirit of this class, even though I know being fully vested means that some days (like Thursday), you are going through the rest of your day in a fog of despair. I felt that way too on Thursday. This week is sure to be interesting, with one day that will be a first for any takers of Holocaust Lit (and me!) with our Skype discussion.

Monday, 10.8
Explain ecphrastic assignment
Petr Ginz Keynote
Evaluation over this unit
VISUAL RESPONSE TO QUOTE DUE
SALVAGED PAGES DUE

Tuesday, 10.9
Skype discussion over ghettos

Wednesday, 10.10
Wannsee Conference

Thursday, 10.11
Deportations

Friday, 10.12
T4 Euthnasia Program
Mobile Killing Squads

Response to a Quote

I read a book called Reading Lolita in Tehran. Some of you in AP will have an opportunity to read it as well. It is a very interesting book that is a memoir about a teacher in Iran who gathered seven of her students in her home for a book club group to study forbidden Western classics. It is fascinating. However, I can't help but notice a few similarities between the situation in the book (limited freedoms imposed by the government) and situations in Nazi Germany in the late 1930's. There is one passage in particular that I would like to see if you have a comment on. The passage is copied below, with credit to the author, Azar Nafisi:

"I had asked my students if they remember the dance scene in Invitation to a Beheading: the jailor invites Cincinnatus to a dance. They begin a waltz and move out into the hall. In a corner they run into a guard: 'They described a circle near him and glided back into the cell, and now Cincinnatus regretted that the swoon's friendly embrace had been so brief.' This movement in circles is the main movement of the novel. As long as he accept the sham world the jailers impose upon him, Cincinnatus will remain their prisoner and will move within the circles of their creation. The worst crime committed by totalitarian mindsets is that they force their citizens, including their victims, to become complicit in their crimes. Dancing with your jailor, participating in your own execution, that is an act of utmost brutality. My students witnessed it in show trials in television and enacted it every time they went out into the streets dressed as they were told to dress. They had not become part of the crowd who watched the executions, but they did not have the power to protest them, either.
The only way to leave the circle, to stop dancing with the jailor, is to find a way to preserve one's individuality, that unique quality which evades description but differentiates one human being from the other. That is why, in their world, rituals-- empty rituals-- become so central. There was not much difference between our jailers and Cincinnatus's executioners. They invaded all private spaces and tried to shape ever gesture, to force us to become one of them, and in that itself was another form of execution."

It is long, I know, and detailed. But really read it and think about it deeply. It has a lot to say.

Torah Scroll from Bergen-Belsen

I also learned a further Holocaust connection to another item that Ilan Ramon took with him on that fateful shuttle mission. You can read the story of a Torah scroll and comment on this story.

Petr Ginz and Ilan Ramon

“Moon Landscape” connects the dream of one Jewish boy who is a symbol of the talent lost in the Holocaust, to the journey of one Jewish astronaut, who is a symbol of our revival. (Quote from Jewish education website)

We will talk a little in class about Petr and Ilan Ramon (the first Israeli astronaut who was killed in the Columbia space shuttle accident). I have been so moved by different stories I have discovered about their connection. Below are a few quotes and the picture. Please feel free to comment on this topic.

"Being the first Israeli astronaut -- I feel I am representing all Jews and all Israelis," Ramon said. Referring to his mother and grandmother, who both survived imprisonment in Auschwitz, he added, "I'm the son of a Holocaust survivor -- I carry on the suffering of the Holocaust generation, and I'm kind of proof that despite all the horror they went through, we're going forward."




"Speaking to the New York-based American Society for Yad Vashem from the Houston, Texas Space Centre where he was in training, Ilan Ramon said, "I feel that my journey fulfills the dream of Petr Ginz 58 years on. A dream that is ultimate proof of the greatness of the soul of a boy imprisoned within the ghetto walls, the walls of which could not conquer his spirit. Ginz's drawings, stored at Yad Vashem, are a testimony to the triumph of the spirit."

I wanted to commemorate the spirit of both these great souls, Ilan and Petr, by repainting young Petr's landscape in such a way as to show both of them, side by side, looking on the Earth from the vantage point of the dream they shared...as I like to think they now are. You can see the results of my efforts below.

The next time you look at the stars, think of them. They died so that one day, our children may turn to look at the distant Earth and see the pain and strife of this life in it's proper perspective. "
Barry Munden, Feb.1, 2003