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The Teacher's Guide THE TEACHER ’S GUIDE FOR Using Diaries as Primary Sources III Study of the Holocaust in the Netherlands III Etty: A Conversation Credits This Teacher’s Guide was created by Jane R. Denny, Director of Education at the Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education at Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, New Jersey. We are very grateful and deeply indebted to Dr. Deborah Dwork and Alexandra Zapruder for their professional guidance and their generosity in allowing us to use their scholarly research in this Teacher’s Guide. Excerpts from Dwork’s Children With A Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe and Zapruder’s Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust appear in the Guide. The Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education at Brookdale Community College gratefully acknowledges the B’nai Sholom/Beth El Foundation of Congregation Torat El, Oakhurst, New Jersey for funding for this Teacher’s Guide. This Teacher’s Guide has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. This Guide is made possible in part by the Monmouth County Arts Council through funding from the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the County Historical Commission and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment of the Arts. This Teacher’s Guide has been supported by a grant from Target. Copyright © 2011 by the Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education at Brookdale Community College All rights reserved. Table of Contents III This comprehensive guide can be used as an independent learning resource, as well as a companion piece providing historical context to the dramatic production of Etty: A Conversation . Several of the Suggested Approaches contain references to Etty ; use them as deemed appropriate. This Teacher’s Guide includes a variety of primary source materials: testimonies, diaries and statistical studies. Section 1: Etty: A Conversation 1-2 I Introduction I Performance Questions Section 2: History of the Holocaust 3-13 I History of the Jews in the Netherlands I Timeline I Suggested Approaches Section 3: Children with a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe 14-18 I Introduction I Children’s Testimonies Section 4: Document-Based Questions — The Jewish Council 19-21 Section 5: Diaries as Primary Sources 22-34 I Introduction to the Diary Study I Pedagogical Overview I Document-Based Questions I Letter to Teachers from A. Zapruder I Resources from A. Zapruder Section 6: Suggested Resources for Further Study 35 |NOTES | |NOTES | Section 1 What is E tty: A Conversation III Introduction Etty: A Conversation , is a portrayal of one woman’s struggle to sustain humanity in the face of the Nazis’ unspeakable brutality. Susan Stein created the play, using the words taken from the diaries and letters of Etty Hillesum, a young Jewish Dutch woman living under the German occupation of the Netherlands. Esther (Etty) Hillesum was a 27 year-old student living in Amsterdam. After earning her law degree, she began studying Russian at the university until Jews were no longer allowed to take classes. At the suggestion of her therapist Julius Spier (referred to as S. in her writings), Etty began to keep a diary. In July 1942, Etty became an employee of the Jewish Council in Amsterdam. The Germans required the Jews to establish these administrative agencies to serve as the liaison between the German authority and the Jewish Community. The Council’s responsibilities included the operation of Jewish hospitals, soup kitchens and other facilities, but later they were forced to assist in the deportations to concentration camps. Etty initially worked with the Jewish Council in Amsterdam, but within two weeks requested assignment to Westerbork Transit Camp. As a worker of the Jewish Council, Etty had a special travel-visa, which made it possible for her to travel back and forth between Amsterdam and Westerbork. While her Gentile friends offered to help her go into hiding, Etty elected to return to Westerbork, where as she explained, she wanted to undergo the fate of her fellow human beings. On September 7, 1943, Etty, her parents and brother Mischa were deported to Poland. On November 30, 1943, Etty Hillesum was murdered in Auschwitz. 1 Etty: A Conversation |NOTES | III Pre-performance Questions for Consideration The following quotes by Etty Hillesum will give students an introduction as to what they will experience at a performance of Etty: A Conversation . Quotes: A. “And I shall wield this slender fountain pen as if it were a hammer, and my words will be so many hammer strokes with which to beat out the story of our fate and a piece of history as it is and never was before...still, a few people must survive if only to be chroniclers of this age. I would very much like to become of their number.” (diary, 10 July 1942) B. “One discovers that basic materials of life are the same everywhere, and that one can live one’s life with meaning — or else can die — on any spot on this earth.” (diary, 10 July 1942) C. “After this war, two torrents will be unleashed on the world: a torrent of loving-kindness and a torrent of hatred. I’m in training to take the field against hatred.” (letter, July 1943) Once you have read the quotes with the students, please have them consider the following questions: 1. From her words, how would you describe Etty? 2. Why do you think we are studying her life as the focus of a broader study of the Holocaust, contemporary genocide and human rights abuses? 3. What more would you like to know about Etty Hillesum? History Preparation Understanding the historical context of Etty’s experience will enhance the students’ appreciation of her story and its significance. Attached is the link to four maps on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website, which identify the key locations in Etty’s story. Answering the following questions will also help to prepare the students for the performance. 1. Why did so many German Jews flee to the Netherlands after Hitler came to power? 2. How did life change for the Jews in the Netherlands after the Nazi invasion on May 10, 1940? Etty was an employee of the Jewish Council in Amsterdam. Jewish Councils (or Judenrat ) were established by order of the German authorities. 1. Why did the Germans order the establishment of these councils? 2. What were the responsibilities of the Jewish Councils? 3. Why are some of the decisions faced by the leaders of the Jewish Councils referred to as “choiceless choices”? 2 |NOTES | Section 2 History of Jews in the Netherlands III Pre-20th Century History The history of the Jews in the Netherlands is both long and distinguished. Little is known of the small communities of Jews who lived in the Low Countries for many centuries since the Roman era, but their experiences from 1100 CE are chronicled in more reliable documentary evidence. They were subjected to chronic violence and persecution until their expulsion from the region in 1349 and 1350 for their alleged role in the horrors of the Black Death. They returned again after they were expelled from Spain in 1492, at which time they became a vital part of the Dutch nation, where they enjoyed the advantages of both tolerance and security. The first Jews to return to Holland were Portuguese and Spanish Marranos (Jews forced to convert to Christianity but who secretly remained Jews). This Sephardic community flourished and became active in business and education, while taking an active role in civic life and the affairs of the republic. They were a visible, prosperous and accepted minority. The second group of Jewish émigrés arrived from Germany, and later Eastern Europe, to create the Ashkenazi community. This group was much larger and poorer than their Sephardic counterparts. When antisemitism emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was directed at the Ashkenazi Jews, although it was a more moderated and less aggressive form than was expressed elsewhere in Europe. All Dutch Jews were granted full citizenship in 1796, as a consequence of the French Revolution, and were the beneficiaries of the golden age of Dutch society. Economic and social problems worsened in the 19th century that further separated the two Jewish communities. 1900-1940 Dutch Jews were largely found living in urban centers; 75,000 of the 140,000 who were registered as Jews in 1930 lived in Amsterdam. Most Jews felt they were well- integrated into Dutch society. Even with limited access to certain professions and the presence of mild antisemitism, they believed that advancement was possible. The diverse nature of all Dutch society saw the Jews as one group among many in the Netherlands. The Jews shared a national-historical consciousness with all the Dutch citizens, not as a minority apart from the national identity, but as a part of a national whole. This made it difficult for the Dutch to see them as a scapegoat for the economic crisis that affected Europe in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. The Dutch Fascist Party, the National Socialist Movement or NSB, became more vocal in concert with the growth of power of the Nazi Party or NSDAP in Germany. They blamed the Jews for the divisions within Dutch society and their role in the decline of Dutch cultural and commercial preeminence in Europe. They felt that a “Jewish Problem” existed and a solution was needed. Despite the more aggressive 3 strain of antisemitism in the Netherlands in the mid to late 1930’s, most Dutch were |NOTES | indifferent, if not opposed to this propaganda at this point.
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