Holocaust Education Companion Guide
Poem: “You Onlookers” by Nelly Sachs
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER ZEKELMAN FAMILY CAMPUS Holocaust Education Companion Guide
You Onlookers
Whose eyes watched the killing. Unter deren blicken getötet wurde. As one feels a stare at one’s back Wie man auch einen Blick im Rücken fühlt, You feel on your bodies So fühlt ihr an euerm Leibe The glances of the dead. Die Blick der Toten.
How many dying eyes will look at you Wieviel brechende Augen werden euch ansehn When you pluck a violet from its hiding place? Wenn ihr aus den Verstecken ein veilchen pflückt? How many hands be raised in supplication Wieviel flehend erhobene Hände In the twisted martyr-like branches In dem märtyrerhaft geschlungenen Gezweige Of old Oaks? Der Alten Eichen? How much memory grows in the blood Wieviel Erinnerung wäschst im Blute Of the evening sun? Der Abendsonne?
O the unsung cradlesongs O die ungesungenen Wiegenlieder In the night cry of the turtledove–– In der Turteltaube Nachtruf –– Many a one might have plucked stars from the sky, Manch einer hätte Sterne herunterholen können, Now the old well must do it for them! Nun muß es der alte Brunnen für ihn tun!
You onlookers, Ihr Zuschauenden, You who raised no hand in murder, Die ihr keine Möderhand erhobt, But who did not shake the dust Aber die ihr den Staub nicht von eurer Sehnsucht From your longing, Schütteltet, You who halted there, where dust is changed Die ihr stehenbleibt, dort wo er zu Licht To light. Verwandelt wird.
– Nelly Sachs
Click on the icon to listen to the poem in German. If your PDF reader is unable to play the audio, use the link on page 3.
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Primary Source Information
Title of the Source “You Onlookers”
Date 1967 (English Translation)
Creator (author, photographer, artist, etc.) Nelly Sachs
Nelly Leonie Sachs was born in Berlin, Germany on December 10, 1891. She was a well-established writer in Germany before Adolf Hitler came to power. After Background information having learned that she was to be sent to a concen- on the creator tration camp, she and her mother escaped to Sweden with the aid of Swedish novelist, Selma Lagerlöf. In 1966, Nelly Sachs won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The Yiddish Book Center’s Great Jewish Books Teacher Source Resources. “Poem, “You Onlookers” by Nelly Sachs, with Audio Recording.” http://teachgreatjewishbooks. org/5-poem-you-onlookers-nelly-sachs-audio- recording
The poem expresses the feelings of a Jewish refugee toward bystanders or “onlookers,” who neither Source Description collaborated with the Nazis nor aided those who were being persecuted and killed. The English translation of the poem is presented alongside the original German text and an audio recording, also in German.
Nelly Sachs. Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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Lesson Planning Information
Recommended Grade Levels • 9-12
Holocaust Topics • Rescuers • Perpetrators, Collaborators and Bystanders
Themes • Choice and Responsibility • Resilience and Resistance
Connections to Standards • MI WHG 7.2.6 - Case Studies in Genocide and the C3 • MI WHG CG4 - Causes of and Responses to Social Studies Framework Ethnic Cleansing/Genocide • MI USHG 7.2.4 - Responses to Genocide • C3 Framework Dimension 1: Developing Questions & Planning Inquiries • C3 Framework Dimension 3: Evaluating Sources & Using Evidence • Common Core State Standards - Reading • Common Core State Standards - Reading in History / Social Studies
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Contextualizing the Primary Source
“Rescue of Jews by non-Jews was the exception rather than the rule during the Holocaust. Most people never considered helping Jews. The brutal repression of those who helped and fear of such repression, the culture of conformity, the prevailing atmosphere of antisemitism, and in many times and places, the profound suffering engendered by the war, all contributed to an attitude of caring only for ‘me and mine’ and the general abandonment of the Jews to their Information/knowledge fate. Nevertheless, it is estimated that out of needed for students nine million Jews under Nazi domination, to understand this tens of thousands were rescued during the primary source (Context) Holocaust by non- Jewish people.... To date, over 26,000 non-Jews have been recognized by Yad Vashem as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’—people who chose to rescue Jews with great risk to themselves.”
Echoes and Reflections. “Those Who Dared to Rescue.” http://echoesandreflections. org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ EchoesAndReflections_Lesson_Seven_ InformationalText-ThoseWhoDaredToRescue. pdf.
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Recommended Contextualizing Resources
Echoes and Reflections • Primary Source Readings: https://echoesandreflections.org/wp-content/ themes/twentysixteenechoes/fileview. php?source=1&file_nm=2017/07/09-03-12_ StudentHandout_PrimarySourceReadings.pdf
• Testimony Video Guide: https://echoesandreflections.org/wp-content/ themes/twentysixteenechoes/fileview. php?source=1&file_nm=2020/03/NEW-2020- Testimony-Video-Guide-w-Links-1.pdf
• Rescuers and Non-Jewish Resistance: https://echoesandreflections.org/unit-7/
• Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Bystanders: https://echoesandreflections.org/unit-9/
Yad Vashem • Righteous Among the Nations: Featured Stories: https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories. html
United States Holocaust • Bystanders: Memorial Museum (USHMM) https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/ article/bystanders
Facing History and Ourselves • Who Is an Upstander?: https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/ video/who-upstander
Other • Encyclopedia Britannica – Nelly Sachs: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nelly- Sachs.
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Additional Lesson Plan Information
Recommended Length 1 day (2 days with an optional extension)
Questions to provide Pre-Reading: more context • What fears did people have about stepping in to help? • Why do you think some people helped, regardless of the consequences they faced?
While reading: • How does the poem make you feel as a reader? • What emotions does the writer express? • Which lines or stanzas are the most powerful to you?
Post-Reading: After discussing the questions above… • Have you read or studied anyone who actively participated in aiding Jews during the Holocaust? • How is their story similar and different?
Optional Extension In pairs or small groups, students select and share a Righteous Among the Nations “featured story” from Yad Vashem.
Post-presentation: Make connections between the Holocaust and current ethnicities, religions, races, and other categorized groups of people, who face persecution around the world. • How are these contemporary groups being aided? • Who is stepping forward?
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This guide is a joint product of the Social Studies Teacher Advisory Group and the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus.
2019-2020 Social Studies Teacher Advisory Group
Angela Chea – Dexter Community Schools (Washtenaw) Anthony Conte – Frontier International Academy (Wayne) Michelle Cureton – Lake Orion Community Schools (Oakland) Tim Gore – Detroit Public Schools Community District (Wayne) Dan St. Laurent – Lake Shore Public Schools (Macomb) Brandi Platte – Plymouth Canton Community Schools (Wayne) Megan Wilson – Garden City Public Schools (Wayne)
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER ZEKELMAN FAMILY CAMPUS
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