Tess "To Forget the Holocaust is to kill twice"

Quote from Elie Wiesel

In 2005 I was privileged to be selected as "Holocaust Teacher of the Year." As such, I was awarded a trip to DC to spend a week with survivors. I spent time with and had dinners with the likes of Elie Wiesel, Vivian Spitz (court stenographer at the Nuremburg Trials), Leo Bretholz (Holocaust survivor--leapt from train on its way to Auschwitz), and Semyon Rosenfeld (Sobibor survivor), just to name a few. There were 12 teachers selected to participate. One evening, the Holocaust Museum closed to the public and each one of us was escorted by a survivor through the museum. On that evening my escort was Leo Bretholz. Many times, during the talks, lunches and dinners, and various trips, I was in tears. This event impacted my life. I went back to college to get my Master's and PhD in Modern History, with an emphasis on WWII, specifically the Holocaust. I also wrote a course for university students, which I teach, simply, "The Holocaust." The class is based on the question, "When does a bystander become a perpetrator?"

I have read hundreds of books, some good, and some not so good. I look forward to finding some titles in this group that I have not yet read. To the best of my ability, I will try to list the ones that I have read and that are memorable. I do not read fiction about the Holocaust. That being said, there is some value to the fiction, if the book is based on a true incident or episode. The problem being, that by the time these stories were told and retold, it was impossible to verify sources enough for it to be classified as non-fiction.

I am apologizing in advance. Some of these books may be YA books, as I taught students ages 16-19. Also, many of the books I have read were pre-2011, when I started using LT. Prior to that time, I did not log or keep records of what I read.

I'm sure dozens will pop into my mind in the next few days.

Movies:
Wallenberg: A Hero's Story (Richard Chamberlain)
The Courageous Heart of Irene Sendler
Varian Fry: The Artist's Schindler
The Pianist
Kindertransport: Into the Arms of Strangers
1978 TV Miniseries "The Holocaust" starring James Woods and Meryl Streep.

Related:
Movie-Bonhoffer: Agent of Grace
Movie-The Apt Pupil--this isn't a true story, it's a study of how Nazism was used as a vehicle for evil...still very chilling. (Written by Stephen King) King did publish this as a novella, but at the time, I was unable to find it.

Did you know....that IBM aided and abetted the Nazis in their administration of the camps? They did so unwittingly (?), by producing computer punch cards for the Germans. IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation by Edwin Black

>2 Tess_W: That sounds like an amazing experience. I've read about a similar program here in New Zealand.
'Since 2013 (and in conjunction with Yad Vashem), the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand has sent between 25-30 New Zealand educators every two years to attend an intensive 3-week study seminar at the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.'
I read quite a lot of children's fiction and nonfiction about the Holocaust and Jewish experience beyond that, just to know how it is portrayed to children and teenagers.
>4 Tess_W: I have The Choice and The Sunflower Forest on my e-shelves. I need to read both these.

>2 Tess_W: That's incredible, Tess. Thank you for sharing your experience and your book lists. Some I've read, some are on my shelves, and some are new to me. I like seeing the covers: I'm a fairly visual person, and I instantly recognize the covers, whereas the titles can blur. I'm glad you started a thread, I am going to learn a lot.

>10 avatiakh: They have a similar program in the US.
>11 labfs39: I'm with you about the visual covers!

Modern controversy:

Maus by Art Spiegelman Have read both books. At the time I read them (1990's?) I was not impressed. I had read better books. The controversy: swear words--yes, there are many; so are there in Night. I would say that highschoolers should be able to handle these words. As always, though, I believe the final say belongs to the parents. Nudity? A naked mouse? I just believe this controversy is over-blown. There are much better books about the Holocaust than this one. I believe in picking battles selectively, and this is not one worth the effort, IMHO.

Whoopi Goldberg: Can't abide this woman! Will not watch anything with her in it! However, from what I've read, I'm not sure that she's all wrong. My take is she said that the Holocaust wasn't a racial issue, but a people (humanity) issue. She's not all wrong! Jews are not a "race." However, before anybody goes ballistic, Hitler DID think the Jews were a race, so therefore, in his mind, and the mind of his supporters, it was a racial issue. As I was taught, the Jews are an ethnic and a religious group. There are three races (as of 1990's): Asian(Mongoloid), White (Caucasian), and African (Negroid). Ethnographers also do not know what to do with Indigenous Americans. As one can conclude, Jews are Caucasian; so, Whoopi wasn't all wrong--if I understand the issue correctly. I hope that I have not offended anybody. The terms I used were apropos in 2005 at the university level.

This is a 6-book set aimed at the very young YA crowd (ages 8-16?). This is fiction, but there is a lot of truth and principles contained within. I had these on my teacher's bookshelf at school and they were always checked out by students ages 12-18. I have only read 4/6. After the first 4 they don't have much to do with the Holocaust, but prejudice in general.

Local Holocaust survivor, Alfred Tibor. I had this man come to my class twice to speak to students. He was interesting, but not to the students. He was difficult to understand and he talked more about art than the holocaust and that is not what the students wanted to hear. There is controversy about Tibor as many say he was a fraud, but I'm not a believer in that theory.

You can see his story here and also view some of his sculptures: https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/holocaust-survivor-and-columbus-sculptor...

>14 Tess_W: Although I like the Maus books more than you, and they made a huge impression on me when I first read them 30 years ago, I agree with you that I think there are better books for teaching kids about the Holocaust. I have no problem with the content of the books, but at heart, it is about a middle-aged man's relationship with his father and his struggles as the child of survivors. I think teachers often default to Maus because it is a graphic book, and in their minds graphic means kids. I think there are so many other books that would meet the average teen where they are.

>14 Tess_W: I was mistaken, there is a nude woman (not a mouse) and it shows her gruesome death. That does not change my opinion, though!

>19 Tess_W: Art Spiegelman made a remark in his Zoom conversation with people in Tennessee that really struck me. He said that it is not a depiction of a nude woman but a naked corpse. I hadn't thought about how the words we use to discuss that image make such a difference in whether it is a sexual image or not. And I agree with you.

The Dutch tram system that ferried Anne Frank to Hitler's death camps:

https://www.jpost.com/j-spot/article-791024