I am excited about moving forward with the Holocaust Unit this week. I hope you can really get a lot out of Night.
In your class, Sonja DuBois challenged you to pick one cause to devote their time, energy, and resources to. As you age, there will be lots of requests and demands of you for social causes and charities. One lesson of the Holocaust is that "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." (Edmund Burke) We are responsible, throughout our lives, as citizens of a democracy, of a society, for doing our best to correct injustices around us. Too often we do one of two things: we either ignore these problems or we try to give a little to everything to ease our guilty consciences. As Sonja so eloquently pointed out, imagine if each person chose ONE cause and devoted him or herself to it for life?
Obviously my passion is respect for your fellow man. I have devoted myself as an educator to a study of the Holocaust in the hope of educating those around me about making the world a safer place. I feel that every human being deserves respect. As far as my "cause", beyond being a Holocaust educator, I am committed to a ministry for abused and neglected children called Royal Family Ministries. My church does a camp every summer for nearly forty children in the foster care systems of Bradley, Hamilton, and McMinn counties. I have served as a counselor at that camp almost every year since its inception in 1999. This is our tenth year for Royal Family Kids Camp, and we have expanded that ministry to include a middle school retreat about five years ago. I serve on the Royal Family board at my church, Kraig and I are both counselors, and we have chosen to make this ministry the source of our financial support. You know that I try not to ask you to do anything I would not/am not doing, so I wanted to answer the question that follows before I asked you to.
My question to you is, what is your cause going to be? What are you passionate about? What do you see as something that merits your time, energy, and resources? Or are YOU going to stand by and do nothing?
Pictures to Come!
You all had an opportunity on Thursday to do something that very few people in your generation have gotten to do, and fewer and fewer people in the future will do. You (Holocaust Lit and English II) got to hear the story of Sonja DuBois, a survivor of the Holocaust. I really don't want to post a bunch of questions on here or put words in your mouths. I mainly want to hear your response to her story.
I will tell you that I was so interested in what she said about the moment that she decided to start sharing her story with others was when she saw the Bible study about Esther and realized that she, too, lived a double life. And just like Esther, there were lots of people involved in saving Sonja. I, as a parent, cannot imagine what her parents must have felt when they left her at the station, her mother who put the necklace around her neck, and then walked away. Even if I KNEW, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Emma and Kelsey would be safer left behind (and her parents didn't KNOW), I cannot fathom what it would feel like to put them in the arms of a stranger to them and walk away, not knowing what would become of them. The pain they must have suffered at that moment probably hurt so much more than the death they encountered later. I also was staggered by how much we take for granted with our own lives, in that we all have people who can tell our life stories, who we look like, act like, and so on. She has no one in her life who can do that for her.
I said I wasn't going to put words in your mouths and I guess I did. I could probably write forever about my response to her story and the feelings it stirred in me. She was so arresting, such a powerful speaker, yet so approachable. But now, the responsibility lies with you and me. We are among the few people who have heard first hand the story of a Holocaust survivor. What, now, will we do with it? Sonja's story lives on with us. Her parents live on in us, because we know the sacrifice they made so that she could live to tell. It is your duty, your obligation, to bear witness when the time comes that no one is alive to say, "I was there. It happened to my family. I saw the camps. I lived it." YOU will have to stand up and say, "I heard the story of a survivor. I saw the necklace her mother left her, saw the one surviving photograph of her parents." It did happen, and we have to make sure that the lessons learned are applied to our daily lives.
I guess that's my sermon for the day.
Sorry I am so late in posting this projects. There were so many great ones, but I only posted those that a picture would do justice for. I was so impressed with them! Please remember, you are not going to get credit for a comment on this post but you are more than welcome to comment anyway!
I know that some of you probably are not nuts about the new song I have put on here. However, I specifically selected that song for a reason. An excerpt from the lyrics to that song are posted below. We will be hearing this week from an eye witness to history. You will become an eye witness to an eye witness. Your children will never have this opportunity. These people, and their stories, are kept alive through you and I.
REMEMBER ME
(James Horner/Cynthia Weil)
(Performed by Josh Groban with Tanja Tzarovska)
Remember:
I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory
I'm with you whenever
You tell my story
For I am all I've done
I read this afternoon about a French priest who has taken on the mission of discovering every mass grave of Jews in the Ukraine. It is a pretty interesting story and the link to the NY TImes article is below. I am also linking a podcast (below that) from the USHMM about it.
NY Times article:
Podcast:
If you read the article or listen to the podcast, I would love to hear your thoughts on it. These would have been the victims of the mobile killing squads we talked about today.
What is the importance of knowing where someone is buried, of having an actual grave to visit? Why do people return to the scene of accidents and deaths? Why are these things so important to us as humans?
"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself."
~Joseph Campbell
Campbell has done a lot of research on heroes, legends, and quests, the stuff that the Arthurian Legends are made of. What reactions do you have to this quote?
As a side note, I chose the picture at the top because it is a photograph of the Holocaust survivor who spoke to us last semester at Vanderbilt. This photo was taken the day she left on a ship for the United States to her new adoptive family (her aunt and uncle). Her name is Frances Cutler, and her parents put her in an orphanage in Paris to save her. Her mother was murdered in Auschwitz and her father died as a French resistance fighter. I don't think I need to make the connection for you between this quote and this picture. I will say that, though Frances is certainly a hero for telling her story to student groups around the country, I cannot imagine being in a situation where the best scenario for my child to live is for me to have to give her up and leave her with strangers.
We are SO nearing the end!!! I am so excited about this unit! I can't wait for you all to hear Sonja on Tuesday. It is a real privilege to hear a Holocaust survivor and it is one that not many people in the future will get to do.
Monday, April 20
Nazi Germany notes
Final Solution notes
DUE: Photos
Tuesday, April 21
Special guest, Sonja DuBois
Wednesday, April 22
Children/Butterfly activity
Thursday, April 23
Responsibility Discussion
Rescue/Resistance/Liberation
Triangle
Friday, April 24
Night
DUE: Journals
I did not book the computer lab in enough time, so I need you all to do something for me between now and Monday, the 10th.
First of all, jot down three words that you relate to every day life. These words might be eating, sleeping, shopping, playing outside, playing sports, reading, school, etc.
Then, please go to the below website:
http://www.ushmm.org/research/collections/search/ph_catalog.php
At this site, you will find a place to enter a search term into the field and hit search. Enter one of the words you jotted down. It will pull up a list of photos with thumbnails. Scroll through the photos until you find one that really speaks to you. (Please don't just pick the first one you come to!) You might want to search each of your three words. Pick TWO photos that you really like. You need to pick photos that were taken PRIOR TO the camps and ghettos, of everyday Jewish life. (There are descriptions on most of the photos that will let you know that information.)
Once you have selected two that fit the above requirements, please copy and paste them onto a sheet of paper and print them out (they will be black and white). I typically have some questions for you to answer, but since you are doing this at home, we will skip that part.
Bring these printed photos with you on Friday. This is for a grade.
This week is more "little of this, little of that". However, I am SOOO excited to introduce you to the unit that I am most passionate about at the end of this week. We will begin the Holocaust unit.
This week is going to be pretty scattered, and I do apologize about that.
Monday, April 6
Animal Farm test, discussion
Watch "Camelot"
DUE: History of the English Language paper
Tuesday, April 7
Camelot notes
Codes
Reading for homework
Wednesday, April 8
Poetry terms
Read and analyze poetry
Thursday, April 9
Write poems
DUE: Journals
DUE: Essay packet
Then we are off for Friday and Monday!!! Don't you just love breaks?!?!?!
