Yellow Triangle – Christy Moore – Notes
Activity types: Discussion, Internet search, reading texts, listening for specific words, gap fill, watching films
Level: Intermediate
Language: Talking about the Holocaust, expressing opinions
Grammar: Past simple and Past participle
• Notes: The 27 th January is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This song by the Irish folk singer Christy Moore was released on his 1996 album Graffiti Tongue and is based on First They Came, a famous statement, or poem, by Pastor Martin Niemöller. ______
1. Write the word HOLOCAUST on the board and ask students to think of words or phrases referring to it. Write their answers on the board as a spidergram. Possible answers: World War II – Hitler – Nazism – Jews – concentration camps – genocide – gas chambers – final solution
2. Ask students to comment and discuss their previous answers, reporting what they already know about the Holocaust. They can refer to other school subjects (such as History), personal readings or films. You or students can also download further information from several websites, including Wikipedia.
3. Tell students about Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), a German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor. Although he initially supported Hitler, he opposed the nazification of German Protestant churches. After being imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945, he became an ardent pacifist, anti-war activist and campaigner for nuclear disarmament. You can find his biography on Wikipedia.
4. Give each student a folded copy of the worksheet and let them read Niemöller’s statement (or poem) First They Came . This deals with indifference towards the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets (communists, trade unionists, Jews). For more detailed information search for First They Came on Wikipedia… Let students express their opinions about it.
5. Explain they are going to listen to a song based on Pastor Niemöller’s statement. Students listen to the first part of the song (chorus) and circle the colours they hear.
KEY: black - pink - green - red - blue - lilac - yellow
6. Focus on Nazi concentration camp badges. Explain in the Nazi camps, the prisoners were obliged to wear fabric triangles on their uniforms, painted in different colours according to the category they belonged to in order to be immediately identified. Jews wore a yellow triangle overlapped by a David star. Political prisoners (communists and trade-unionists) wore a red triangle, homosexuals a pink triangle and Jehovah's Witnesses a purple triangle. Green triangles belonged to the "common criminals", black triangles to the so-called "asocials", brown triangles to Gypsies, white triangles to work strikers and, finally, blue triangles to war prisoners from occupied countries.
7. Students do activity 2 and write the past simple and the past participle of the verbs. Feedback.
8. Play the song. Ask students to fill in the gaps with the missing words, based on their answers to the previous activities and context. Verbs can be in any form or tense.
KEY: See complete version of the song
9. Play the song again. Students check their answers in pairs or in groups, then correct in open class and sing together!
FOLLOW-UP. You can show students a film in English about this topic (such as Schindler’s List ). Roberto Begnini’s La Vita E’ Bella also deals with this topic.
This worksheet is to be used for educational purposes only Activity © Tune into English 2011 – www.tuneintoenglish.com Worksheet written by Prof. Mena Bianco, Naples Yellow Triangle – Christy Moore
They came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.
- Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)
ACTIVITY 1. Circle the colours you hear:
BLACK - BLUE – BROWN – GREEN – GREY – LILAC – ORANGE – PINK – PURPLE – RED – WHITE - YELLOW
ACTIVITY 2. Write the past simple and the past participle of the following verbs:
BE ______LEAVE ______BEGIN ______ROUND ______COME ______SPEAK ______FETCH ______TAKE ______GATHER ______WEAR ______
______FOLD______ACTIVITY 3. Complete the lyrics with the colours and verbs (in any form) from the previous activities:
______triangle, ______triangle ______triangle, ______triangle ______triangle, ______triangle And they ______the ______triangle
When first they ______for the criminals I did not ______Then they ______to ______the Jews When they ______the people who ______members of trade unions I did not ______They ______away the Bible students, ______up the homosexuals Then they ______up the immigrants and the gypsies I did not ______, I did not ______Eventually they ______for me But there ______no one ______to ______
______triangle, ______triangle ______triangle, ______triangle ______triangle, ______triangle And they ______the ______triangle (repeat 3 times) I did not ______This worksheet is to be used for educational purposes only Activity © Tune into English 2011 – www.tuneintoenglish.com Worksheet written by Prof. Mena Bianco, Naples
Yellow Triangle – Christy Moore - Complete
Black triangle, pink triangle Green triangle, red triangle Blue triangle, lilac triangle And they wore the yellow triangle
When first they came for the criminals I did not speak Then they began to take the Jews When they fetched the people who were members of trade unions I did not speak They took away the Bible students, rounded up the homosexuals Then they gathered up the immigrants and the gypsies I did not speak , I did not speak Eventually they came for me but there was no one left to speak
Black triangle, pink triangle Green triangle, red triangle Blue triangle, lilac triangle And they wore the yellow triangle (repeat 3 times) I did not speak
This worksheet is to be used for educational purposes only Activity © Tune into English 2011 – www.tuneintoenglish.com Worksheet written by Prof. Mena Bianco, Naples