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[CCBC-Net] Holocaust
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From: Julie Corsaro <juliecorsaro2>
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 12:28:33 -0400
I was a fellow at the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany in the spring of 1990 (right after the Berlin Wall had come down). Gentlehands had recently been published there and was quite controversial, with the discussion spreading well beyond the library and publishing worlds into the general population with newspaper and media coverage. The controversy was over the characterization of the cultured, sophisticated and understanding grandfather who -- as it turned out -- was a notorious Nazi war criminal. My understanding was that many German individuals objected to this nuanced portrayal of the grandfather because they were more comfortable thinking of Nazi perpetrators as monsters who were different from them. After I returned home, I presented this information to middle grade students when I discussed the book with them. I found Hazel Rochman's book Against Borders very helpful in thinking about the issues raised by this controversy. In her guide to "promoting a multicultural world," she discusses racial oppression,
"heroes and monsters" (including the monsters that reside in all of us) and
"saints, models, and stereotypes."
Julie Corsaro
>From: "Dean Schneider" <schneiderd at ensworth.com>
>To: <ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu>
>Subject: [CCBC-Net] Holocaust
>Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 08:57:40 -0500
>
>I've been doing a Holocaust unit in my English classes for years, using
>fiction, nonfiction, picture books, and videos. Since our 8th grade takes a
>trip to Washington, they include the Holocaust Museum on their itinerary
>and are well prepared (at least as well as one can be) for their experience
>there. Traditionally, we read M.E. Kerr's Gentlehands and Elie Wiesel's
>Night and Susan Bachrach's Tell Them We Remember, and several students
>always want to read more, so I bring in other books from my collection.
>Now, with Susan Campbell Bartoletti's Hitler Youth out, I'm changing things
>around. We're going to read that as our first book; it's nonfiction writing
>at its best and a great focus on the youth of Germany, a connection
>students will appreciate. The author will then visit my classes to talk
>with my students. Then we'll read Night, and students will choose one more
>book from a selection of some of the really good Holocaust books: Jerry
>Spinelli's Milkweed, Uri Orlev's Run, Boy, Run, Kerr's Gentlehands, Anne
>Frank, Jennifer Armstrong and Irene Gut Opdyke's In My Hands, Daniel Half
>Human, MAUS, and others.
>
>
>
>Even though there are enough great books to do a much longer unit, I keep
>it at one quarter of the school year, and the other quarters we read other
>books, some of which tie in to themes raised by a Holocaust study - the mob
>scene in To Kill A Mockingbird, a Vermont town standing up to the Klan in
>Karen Hesse's Witness, and various ways various characters learn to stand
>up for themselves and others in so many good novels. Even Nancy Farmer's
>The House of the Scorpion, which we're currently reading, has a clear
>Holocaust parallel, when El Patron, the drug lord of his kingdom of Opium,
>is described as a f?hrer, relying on slave labor to amass his fortune and
>maintain his power. It's important to make connections beyond the
>Holocaust, to demonstrate to students that the hatred and cruelty of the
>Nazis was not an isolated example.
>
>
>
>Dean Schneider
>
>Ensworth School
>
>Nashville, Tennessee 37205
>
>schneiderd at ensworth.com
>
>_______________________________________________
>CCBC-Net mailing list
>CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
>Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
>http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
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Received on Wed 19 Apr 2006 11:28:33 AM CDT
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 12:28:33 -0400
I was a fellow at the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany in the spring of 1990 (right after the Berlin Wall had come down). Gentlehands had recently been published there and was quite controversial, with the discussion spreading well beyond the library and publishing worlds into the general population with newspaper and media coverage. The controversy was over the characterization of the cultured, sophisticated and understanding grandfather who -- as it turned out -- was a notorious Nazi war criminal. My understanding was that many German individuals objected to this nuanced portrayal of the grandfather because they were more comfortable thinking of Nazi perpetrators as monsters who were different from them. After I returned home, I presented this information to middle grade students when I discussed the book with them. I found Hazel Rochman's book Against Borders very helpful in thinking about the issues raised by this controversy. In her guide to "promoting a multicultural world," she discusses racial oppression,
"heroes and monsters" (including the monsters that reside in all of us) and
"saints, models, and stereotypes."
Julie Corsaro
>From: "Dean Schneider" <schneiderd at ensworth.com>
>To: <ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu>
>Subject: [CCBC-Net] Holocaust
>Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 08:57:40 -0500
>
>I've been doing a Holocaust unit in my English classes for years, using
>fiction, nonfiction, picture books, and videos. Since our 8th grade takes a
>trip to Washington, they include the Holocaust Museum on their itinerary
>and are well prepared (at least as well as one can be) for their experience
>there. Traditionally, we read M.E. Kerr's Gentlehands and Elie Wiesel's
>Night and Susan Bachrach's Tell Them We Remember, and several students
>always want to read more, so I bring in other books from my collection.
>Now, with Susan Campbell Bartoletti's Hitler Youth out, I'm changing things
>around. We're going to read that as our first book; it's nonfiction writing
>at its best and a great focus on the youth of Germany, a connection
>students will appreciate. The author will then visit my classes to talk
>with my students. Then we'll read Night, and students will choose one more
>book from a selection of some of the really good Holocaust books: Jerry
>Spinelli's Milkweed, Uri Orlev's Run, Boy, Run, Kerr's Gentlehands, Anne
>Frank, Jennifer Armstrong and Irene Gut Opdyke's In My Hands, Daniel Half
>Human, MAUS, and others.
>
>
>
>Even though there are enough great books to do a much longer unit, I keep
>it at one quarter of the school year, and the other quarters we read other
>books, some of which tie in to themes raised by a Holocaust study - the mob
>scene in To Kill A Mockingbird, a Vermont town standing up to the Klan in
>Karen Hesse's Witness, and various ways various characters learn to stand
>up for themselves and others in so many good novels. Even Nancy Farmer's
>The House of the Scorpion, which we're currently reading, has a clear
>Holocaust parallel, when El Patron, the drug lord of his kingdom of Opium,
>is described as a f?hrer, relying on slave labor to amass his fortune and
>maintain his power. It's important to make connections beyond the
>Holocaust, to demonstrate to students that the hatred and cruelty of the
>Nazis was not an isolated example.
>
>
>
>Dean Schneider
>
>Ensworth School
>
>Nashville, Tennessee 37205
>
>schneiderd at ensworth.com
>
>_______________________________________________
>CCBC-Net mailing list
>CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
>Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
>http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
_________________________________________________________________ Don?t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/
Received on Wed 19 Apr 2006 11:28:33 AM CDT
