Teaching the Holocaust in the English Classroom Tim Holden once said, The Holocaust illustrates the consequences

of prejudice, racism and stereotyping on a society. It forces us to examine the responsibilities of citizenship and confront the powerful ramifications of indifference and inaction. Thus, I believe that teaching about the Holocaust in schools is very important. Our students must be taught about this horrific historical event, so they can learn about it, but also so they can learn from it. Its important for everyone to learn about genocide and trauma in historical aspects because we, as a society, must remember these events and the consequences of them. We must look at the Holocaust, and other events like it, holistically. In other words, we must study the memories and the accounts of those who survived, the history of what actually took place, and we must remember it ourselves. As students studying witness and trauma literature, its important for them to keep each of these aspects in mind, as they are all equally a part of this important historical event. Ideally, I would like to team teach a unit about the Holocaust with a history teacher. If this is not possible, I would at least include a historical lesson because the historical aspects are just as important as the memoirs, historical fiction, and poetry being read in class. I have written out a lesson plan that I would teach to eleventh or twelfth grade students about the Holocaust; this lesson plan assumes I am teaching this unit solo, without a history teacher. This lesson plan is also based on one-hour long class periods; the plan can then be adjusted as needed. Throughout this unit, I tried to include multiple aspects of Language Arts, such as discussions, reading and analyzing poetry, reading a book, and writing a research paper. Experiencing witness and trauma literature though a variety of sources like this is very important because it allows students to see that there are different ways the survivors are able to communicate their stories. By the end of this unit, my students should be able to understand what happened during the

Holocaust, various ways survivors have told their stories, as well as how this historical event still applies to us today.
Day One: I will start out the first day of this unit with a discussion of what they already know about the Holocaust, either from other classes, from relatives, or even from their own previous knowledge. Its important for me, as their teacher, to understand what they already know, and what I still have to teach them. After the discussion, I will explain the important aspects of the Holocaust; that is, who, what, where, when, why, and how? I will then talk about Anti-Semitism and Jewish symbols that they may not know about. After this 30-40 minute lesson, I will split them up into small groups (3-4 students per group) and have them talk about how the Holocaust is still relevant today. To help them with this, they will think about Tim Holdens quote: The Holocaust illustrates the consequences of prejudice, racism and stereotyping on a society. It forces us to examine the responsibilities of citizenship and confront the powerful ramifications of indifference and inaction. Each group will share at the end of class what they discussed. For homework, they will read Miklos Radnotis poem Picture Postcards for an activity tomorrow. Day Two: To refresh their memories from the day before, we will start the class off by having a short round-table discussion of the following questions: 1. Why is it important for us to remember this traumatic event? 2. Do you think we should continue teaching about the Holocaust in schools? Why or why not? The students will then work with their partner on a think-pair-share activity, looking at and thinking about the dedication and motto of Against Forgetting by Carolyn Forch. Dedication: For those who died and those who survived. Motto: In the dark times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing. About dark times Bertolt Brecht For the remainder of the class period (45 minutes or so), the students will be broken into five groups, and each group will receive a stanza of Miklos Radnotis poem Picture Postcards. In each group, the stanza will be read aloud, and then they will

answer the following questions and give a one-minute presentation about their stanza. 1. How does this stanza relate to the Holocaust? How does it fit in with the poem, as a whole? 2. What images are seen in the stanza? Why are they important? 3. Look at the dates and locations at the bottom of each stanza. What do they add to the poem? 4. As a group, draw an image of the stanza to share with the class. For homework, they will read Primo Levis Voices, Paul Celans A Leaf, treeless for Bertolt Brecht:, Tadeusz Borowskis Autobiography, and Dan Pagis Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway Car. They will then write a paragraph for each explaining how it relates to the Holocaust and the impact it had on them. Day Three: Right at the beginning of class, they will split into their same groups from Day Two. They will talk about the poems they read for homework and the paragraphs they wrote. While they are discussing each poem, they will have specific questions about each to think about: Voices: Think about the phrase those who can no longer speak. What does this phrase alone say about the survivors of the Holocaust? What about those who didnt survivewhat does it say about them? Do you think Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder have anything to do with it? Why? A Leaf, treeless for Bertolt Brecht: Even though this poem is short, what makes it work? Would you have written something similar or would you have expanded and included details? Autobiography: Think about the title. What does it tell you about the poem? Why is it titled this? Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway Car: Even though this poem is short, what makes it so powerful? Why do you think Pagis wrote it like this? Is it effective? What do you think about this poem? For homework, they will read Irena Klepfiszs poem Bashert and answer the questions below to hand in at the beginning of class. They will also write down at least two discussion questions for tomorrow.

1) Why does her story start with a poem? What effect does it have on it? 2) What effect does repeating Bashert have in the poem/story? 3) Think about the two partsdied, survived, what does this do for the poem? Day Four: To start off class, they will free-write about Bashert for 15 minutes. I will be collecting it to see what they wrote, but I wont be grading on what is written, just that they completed the task. This way, they have the freedom to write about whatever they want relating to this story/poem. We will then discuss the poem as a class; the students will lead the discussion with the questions they prepared for today. There will be no assigned homework.

I chose to teach these six poems for this unit on the Holocaust because I think each one shows a personal account, a different perspective of the Holocaust. For instance, Picture Postcards shows specific images of the Holocaustimages that only someone who experienced, someone who witnessed this horrific event could write about. Voices is another poem that shows the trauma of someone who experienced the Holocaust; it also shows the trauma that many survivors experiencedthe inability to speak of their experiences because they just couldnt find the words. A Leaf is another poem that shows how hard it is for the survivors to speak about their experiences and how rough the experience actually was for them. I chose Autobiography because I feel it shows one persons account of the Holocaust and how horrific it was. Written in Pencil is one of those poems that when I read it, I just stopped because it had such an impact on me. The way its incomplete just meant so much to me that I felt it was important to share this with my students. Finally, I chose Bashert for a couple reasons. The first is because it does have the two parts to it: These words are dedicated to those who died, and These words are dedicated to those who survived. In this case, I think its important that we acknowledge both the living and the dead because they are both equally

important in the story of the Holocaust; without one, we wouldnt have the other. Another reason that I chose this poem is because of the repetition of the word Bashert, which means inevitable or predestined. I thought this was an interesting way to think about the Holocaust, especially since a Jewish woman wrote this, indicating that she feels this happened for a reason.
Day Five: Today, we will start reading the Diary of Anne Frank, but first, I want to play a game with my students to see if they can figure out which countries Hitler took over. I think its important for them to realize that the Holocaust didnt take place only in Germany, but in many countries around Europe. To play this game, each student would receive a map of Europe with the countries shown on them, and then I will read off clues about the country, so they can determine if the country was directly conquered by Hitler or if it was an Ally to Germany, under Hitlers control. Once we have gone through all the countries, we will talk about Hitlers dictatorship and how it spread across Europe during World War II. We will then talk about how Anne Frank lived in the Netherlands, and there will be time to start reading in class. For homework, they will read the first 60 pages for homework, so we can start the discussion about the book tomorrow. Day Six: This day is solely a Diary of Anne Frank discussion. The students will lead the discussion based on questions they may have, things they thought about while reading, how it connects to the history of the Holocaust that we already learned about, as well as any connections to the poems they see. For homework, they will read the next 50 pages. Day Seven: At the start of this class, I will tell them about their research papers, and we will start working on them in class today. We will talk about the specifics of a research paper and then brainstorm possible ideas for their research paper. They have a lot of free reign on what they can write about; I just want them to include the answer to this question: Why is it important for us to remember genocidal events like the Holocaust? Use the poems we talked about in class or The Diary of Anne Frank as evidence to help support your ideas. They can use the rest of the class time to share their ideas with a partner, come up with a working thesis

statement, or even to continue reading. For homework, they will read the next 60 pages of Anne Frank. Day Eight: Today is another research paper workshop class. They will start drafting their papers today. We can work either in the computer lab or on laptops. They will finish the book for homework. I chose to have them read The Diary of Anne Frank because its a well-known book that every student should read before they graduate. Another reason I chose Anne Frank is because it is a novel written about this traumatic event, by someone who experienced it. By reading this novel, I want them to see that writing novels whether they are historical fiction, autobiographies, etcis one way that allowed those who experienced the Holocaust express what they went through. This is one witness and trauma novel about the Holocaust that portrays aspects that are different than poetry. I want my students to see and understand the differences between these two mediums and how each one helped these people understand what they were going through/went through. Day Nine: This is the final in-class workshop day for drafts. Today is a day for students to finish their drafts, conference with me about their drafts, as well as ask any questions they may have about their drafts. For homework, they will finish their drafts if they are not already completed for peer-conferences tomorrow. Day Ten: This day is set aside for peer-editing. They will have a checklist of items to look over for their partners paper, containing grammar, formatting, titles, citations, works cited page, etc. While each pair is peer-editing, I will go around the room and conference with each pair. For homework, they will write their final drafts.

I want them to write a research paper because it will give them the opportunity to think about and digest everything we have talked about during this unit on the Holocaust. It will give them a chance to include information about the history of the Holocaust, which is important for them to know, while also letting them analyze some of the different mediums we discussed in classpoetry, novels, etc. Writing this research paper will also give them time to think about

why its important for us, as a society, to remember the Holocaust, and why the Holocuast is so important, in general. Once again, I believe that teaching junior and senior level students about the Holocaust is a necessity. They need to learn not only about the facts but also about the stories that have passed down generation to generation through poems, novels, etc. Its also important for them to recognize that the Holocaust can teach us a lesson about humanityprejudices, racism, and stereotypes.