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