From: Monica R. Edinger <edinger>
Date: Tue, 06 Apr 1999 05:21:39 +0000

horning at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu writes:

I would hope this extremely raw book not be a child's introduction to the Holocaust. There is a rich literature on the Holocaust for children and I wouldn't expect many adults to start children with this particular title. And are that many children going to just pick this book up to read without some background on the topic?

While reading Lobel's book I did wonder what age child would be able to read it. I suppose it would depend on the maturity of the child and, again, her/his background knowledge. When I was a child in the sixties there didn't seem to be much material for children on this topic other than Anne Frank. However, now there is a lot, much of it for very young children. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that. I teach fourth grade and I would not be likely to recommend this book to a fourth grader,
 even a strong reader.

On the issue of Lobel's "anti-Jewish" stance. I guess I understand it because I am the child of assimilated German Jews. While my mother's family got out pretty much intact, many on my father's side were very patriotic, didn't leave and eventually were deported, killed or killed themselves. My father came to the US as a child with his mother; his father chose to stay and wait things out. He was deported in the spring of 42 to Ibica, Poland which is the last we know of him. I am haunted by the idea of my father corresponding with his father until suddenly nothing. I've spent a fair amount of time recently looking into my family history, visiting relatives in Germany (yes, some chose to return after the war), concentration camps, etc. I am leaning toward writing about it one day and whatever I write will be as "politically incorrect" as Lobel's memoir.
 

I grew up in Midwestern communities that were 99% Christian with parents who told me they were atheists when I asked about religion. They didn't deny their ethnic background, but denied the religious aspect in which they didn't believe. I have always found it difficult to reconcile my ethnic and religious heritage. I resent being told that I must believe in a religion because of my ethnic background, because of my Holocaust heritage. In fourth grade I wanted to go to Sunday school because all my friends did. My parents found some graduate students who offered classes for Jewish children as there were no synagogues around. When we moved to a community with a synagogue my father took us once for a holiday to see what it was like, but that was it. Similarly, we once had a Seder, but the adults only did it so my sister and I could see what it was like. No doubt this will horrify those of you who practice religion, but this is MY story and I'm a bit tired of having to always defend it. I didn't make my parents into atheists - the Holocaust did. Lobel may have had a different take on her religion if the war hadn't happened. No doubt my parents, who were raised as Jews, may have as well.

So, I greatly appreciated No Pretty Pictures because for once I was reading a Holocaust story that came closer to my family's story. We are so concerned with multiple voices about other historical topics - why not multiple voices about the Holocaust? My father, a specialist in Germany, often reminds me that the Final Solution was not a monolithic event. Each community did things differently. Deportations, killings, the implementation of the Nuremburg Laws, none of this happened in one way. Similarly, there was not one sort of Jew killed. These were individuals all and I hope that Lobel's story is given to children (at the appropriate age) to help them understand that the Holocaust was not just one story of six million killed, but six million stories.

Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York edinger at dalton.org
Received on Tue 06 Apr 1999 12:21:39 AM CDT