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All but My Life TABLE OF CONTENTS HOLOCAUST STUDIES UNIT Eleventh Grade English Curriculum - All But My Life GOAL: The overall goal of this unit is to sensitize students to the plight of the ordinary person facing the atrocities of the Holocaust. TEXTBOOK CONNECTIONS: Prentice Hall Literature, The American Experience, Unit 6, pp.1162-1174, From Hiroshima, John Hersey and Losses, Randall Jarell (Poem) The selections in this section all present implied themes of World War II and the innocent loss of life associated with war. The poem, Losses, recounts the tragedy of the soldiers lost in battle. In All But My Life, Holocaust Survivor, Gerda Weissmann Klein recounts her three-year experience as a slave laborer for the Nazis and her liberation by American soldiers in May of 1945 (just three months before Hiroshima). She later went on to marry her American liberator. As you read these three selections (excerpt, poem, and novel), discuss the tragedies of war through the experience of a civilian, soldier, and Survivor. LANGUAGE ARTS BENCHMARK: LA.A. 1.4.1. The student selects and uses pre-reading strategies that are appropriate to the text, such as discussion, making predictions, brainstorming, generating questions, and previewing to anticipate content, purpose, and organization of a reading selection. CHARACTER EDUCATION CORRELATION: PILLARS: Responsibility, Fairness, Citizenship, and Respect ESOL STRATEGIES: Read Alouds, Modeling, Visuals, Realia, Alternative Assessment, Prior Knowledge ELEVENTH GRADE ENGLISH CURRICULUM – All But My Life TABLE OF CONTENTS HOLOCAUST UNIT ELEVENTH GRADE ENGLISH CURRICULUM – All But My Life Novel: All But My Life Activity One KWL and Introduction of All But My Life v-viii . 3 Activity Two All But My Life – Discuss pages 11-32 . 7 Activity Three All But My Life – Discuss pages 33-64, Quiz 1 . 10 Activity Four All But My Life – Discuss pages 65-92 . 18 Activity Five All But My Life – Discuss pages 95-123, Quiz 2. 23 Activity Six All But My Life – Discuss pages 124-153 . 30 Activity Seven All But My Life – Discuss pages 154-184, Magic Square . 32 Activity Eight All But My Life – Discuss pages 185-210 . 35 Activity Nine All But My Life – Discuss pages 213-240 . 36 Activity Ten All But My Life – Discuss Conclusion, Final Test and Essays . 38 Activity Eleven Video: Compare and Contrast . 46 To borrow class sets of books, videos, posters, or to schedule a Survivor to speak to your school, please contact the Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education at (561)-297-2929 or e-mail at [email protected] Department of Multicultural Education, 2004 The School District of Palm Beach County, Florida Holocaust Studies Curriculum 2 All Rights Reserved ELEVENTH GRADE ENGLISH CURRICULUM – All But My Life ACTIVITY ONE Objectives • To appreciate the changes brought to normal life in Poland with the Nazi invasion. Materials • Klein, G. All But My Life. New York. Hill and Wang. 1995. Homework • Read All But My Life pages 11-32, Part I, Chapters 2-5. Activities 1. Introductory discussion: • What are your future career expectations? Most will reply college, post high school training, jobs, marriage, and families. • Imagine what it might be like for you to do this without a family, original home base, or friends to fall back on due to circumstances over which you have no control. Such is the case for the protagonist in the book they are about to read. 2. Use the KWL sheet (page 5) to elicit responses to what students already know about the Holocaust and what they may still be interested in learning. 3. Read the opening paragraph (page 1) from the novel aloud. • What is the meaning of the metaphor of the watch? Time, the present as Jews in Poland know it, has come to a standstill. • Tell about a time in your lives when time has seemed to stand still. Maybe a tragic moment – adults have used this expression relating to the deaths of Presidents Kennedy and Roosevelt or about the explosion of the Challenger. We tend to think of events that shake us to our very being; such is the Holocaust. • What are other words you have heard to describe the Holocaust? They may have heard genocide, or Shoah, in Hebrew, the word “Shoah” means catastrophe of cosmic proportion. Department of Multicultural Education, 2004 The School District of Palm Beach County, Florida Holocaust Studies Curriculum 3 All Rights Reserved ELEVENTH GRADE ENGLISH CURRICULUM – All But My Life 4. Complete the first chapter reading it out loud. • How does Gerda begin the novel? In the past, or future? Gerda looks back and notes that her life, after the invasion, becomes one with which she has no familiarity; it seems almost dreamlike, a nightmare, and for which she had no preparation. • What is your impression of Gerda’s hometown? Charming, pretty, old world, quaint, cosmopolitan. This town is different from the impression many people have of pre-war Poland. It is not a shtetl, a rural village inhabited by Orthodox Jews; but instead it is a modern community close to the borders of Czechoslovakia and Germany. • Gerda’s family seems to be much more cognizant of the impending Nazi peril. How do we know this? Her uncle has obtained visas for them to emigrate to Turkey; however, because of her father’s mild heart attack, her mother decides that they must remain in Poland. • The theme of the watch reoccurs with the arrival of Nazi soldiers. What is their reception, and how does this affect Gerda? They are greeted as liberators by the Weissmann’s Polish neighbors and given liquor and flowers. Gerda is shocked by what she considers betrayal by people she has known all her life. • Gerda says that on the first day of the war she realizes that, “We were outsiders, strangers in our own home, at the mercy of those who until then had been our friends.” What does she mean by, “own home”? Poland. Although Jews had lived in Poland for 600 years, they are seen as outsiders. They have not attained equality socially or legally, and the distinction always is made between being a Jew or a Pole. To the Poles there is no such thing as a Polish Jew; Poles are Polish and Catholic and Jews are alien. Even though Jews serve in the Polish army and in government, most Poles do not view Jews as Poles. • What is the impact of the first day of German occupation on Jewish lives? Some Jewish men are arrested, others are taken from the street and placed inside a synagogue, which is set afire. England and France declare war on Germany. • Does it seem strange that the neighbors display a Nazi flag? Some Poles indicate they are German supporters; some to insure their safety; Jews do it so their homes don’t attract Nazi attention. Department of Multicultural Education, 2004 The School District of Palm Beach County, Florida Holocaust Studies Curriculum 4 All Rights Reserved ELEVENTH GRADE ENGLISH CURRICULUM – All But My Life K W L What We Know What We Want to Learn What We Learned Department of Multicultural Education, 2004 The School District of Palm Beach County, Florida Holocaust Studies Curriculum 5 All Rights Reserved ELEVENTH GRADE ENGLISH CURRICULUM – All But My Life Printed with permission of MAPS101.com Department of Multicultural Education, 2004 The School District of Palm Beach County, Florida Holocaust Studies Curriculum 6 All Rights Reserved ELEVENTH GRADE ENGLISH CURRICULUM – All But My Life ACTIVITY TWO Objective • To understand the impact of German rule on Jewish life. Materials • Klein, G. All But My Life. New York. Hill and Wang. 1995. • Handout: “Figurative Language Worksheet” • Video: The Twisted Cross and/or Our Century Homework • Read All But My Life pages 33-64, Part I, Chapters 6-8. Activities 1. The teacher should consider showing an excerpt from a video such as: The Twisted Cross, Our Century or another study of the impact of the Nazi onslaught to help students to understand the historical context in which Gerda’s story takes place. Additionally, the video that accompanies the novel, All But My Life, One Survivor Remembers, can be shown in chronological segments or at the end of the unit. Let students decide if they would like to watch each segment after they read the novel, or see the video in its entirety at the end of the unit. All videos are available for loan through the Holocaust Outreach Center at FAU (561) 297-2929. 2. Discuss pages 11-32, chapters 2-5. • What surprised you about the immediate impact of the German take over? Jews who had fled and returned to their homes find that their possessions and homes have been confiscated by the Germans, or their Polish neighbors, or their former employees. Valuable Jewish businesses have been appropriated including the fabrics produced in Bielitz, a textile center. Jews are required to turn over their valuables. Jewish men fearing arrest or worse no longer make themselves visible. • Why are radios among items which must be handed in? The Germans want to keep Jews in the dark as to what is happening. Since they control the news, they are able to keep Jews off base, which helps to create an atmosphere of confusion that plays into their hands. • How do the Germans enlist Jewish labor in carrying out their war aims? Men 16-50 Department of Multicultural Education, 2004 The School District of Palm Beach County, Florida Holocaust Studies Curriculum 7 All Rights Reserved ELEVENTH GRADE ENGLISH CURRICULUM – All But My Life are required to register, and young men are conscripted into labor battalions. How does the family react when Arthur, Gerda’s 19-year-old brother prepares to leave when conscripted? Gerda remembers this as the first time she has ever seen her father cry.
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