Studying the Holocaust Through Primary Sources

Why did we choose the theme, “Studying the Holocaust through Primary Sources?”

Documents – diaries, letters, drawings, and memoirs – created by those who participated in or witnessed the events of the past tell us something that even the best-written article or book cannot convey. The use of primary sources exposes students to important historical concepts. Students become aware that all written history reflects an author’s interpretation of past events, and consequently, they learn to recognize a document’s subjective nature. It is through primary sources that the students directly touch the lives of people in the past (National Archives and Records Administration).

“Primary sources help students to develop knowledge, skills, and analytical abilities. By dealing directly with primary sources, students engage in asking questions, thinking critically, making intelligent inferences, and developing reasoned explanations and interpretations of events and issues in the past and present” (Library of Congress).

Primary sources expose students to multiple perspectives on any given issue or event. Interpretations of the past are continuously debated among historians, policy makers, politicians, and ordinary citizens. By working with primary sources, students learn to think critically about what they are reading and to become involved in these debates about history.

Contents of Trunk - Annotated Bibliography

The trunk is set up to accomodate both reading groups and individual reading. 10 copies of each All But My Life, Dry Tears, and Night are included in the trunk.  5 copies of Survival in Auschwitz are included for advanced readers.

(#) indicates the quantity of that item/title in the trunk.

BOOKS (qty)

1900 – 2000: A Genocidal Century. Dr. William Shulman. NY: Queensborough Community College. (1)
A concise booklet summarizing: the Armenian Genocide, the Ukrainian Genocide, the Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, the Bosnian Genocide, and the Rwandan Genocide. Also outlines the eight stages of Genocide. (Nonfiction)

Alicia: My Story. Alicia Appleman-Jurman. New York: Bantam Books, 1988. (1)
The autobiography of Alicia who at age 13 escapes her capturers, encounters other refugees and occasionally finds safe-harbor. Alicia rescued other Jews, led them to safety and lent them her courage and hope. This is a tale not only of survival but of active resistance to oppression. (Nonfiction)

All But My Life. Gerda Weissmann-Klein. New York: Hill and Wang, 1957. (10)
A classic of Holocaust literature, this is the story of a young woman’s three years as a slave laborer of the Nazis and a three month forced winter march from Germany to Czechoslovakia that ends in a miraculous liberation. The ultimate lesson in humanity, hope and friendship. (Nonfiction)

Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany. Hans J. Massaquoi. NY: Perennial/Harper Collins, 1999. (1)
The son of a prominent African and a German nurse, Hans remained behind with his mother when Hitler came to power, due to concerns about his fragile health, after his father returned to Liberia. Like other German boys, Hans swiftly fell under the Fuhrer’s spell. He was crushed to learn that, as a black child, he was ineligible for the Hitler youth.  (Nonfiction)

Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood. Nechama Tec. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982. (10)
A young Jewish girl is passed from one Christian family to another in wartime Poland. She must learn to “pass” as a Christian herself. (Nonfiction)

From the Ashes of Sobibor: A Story of Survival. Thomas Toivi Blatt. Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1997. (1)
This book is a glimpse of Jewish life through the eyes of a twelve year old boy. The events of his separation from his family, six months in the Sobibor death camp, taking part in a successful uprising and finally the five years eluding Nazis and anti-Semitic nationalists. Mr. Blatt now lives in Issaquah, WA. (Nonfiction, Local Author)

*I’m No Hero: Journeys of a Holocaust Survivor. Henry Friedman. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999. (Excerpt in Trunk)
Nazi Germany occupied Henry Friedman’s hometown of Brody, Poland in 1941. Henry was 13 years old. In order to avoid being forced to move into the ghetto, Henry, his younger brother, mother, and their female teacher hid in a barn owned by the Symchucks, a Christian family. The space in which they hid was about the size of a queen sized bed. For 18 months the Symchucks hid the Friedmans until finally, in March 1944 the Russians liberated the area. 15,000 Jews lived in Brody before the war. Fewer than 100 survived. (Nonfiction, Local Author)

Images from the Holocaust: A Literature Anthology. Eds. Jean E. Brown, Elaine C. Stephens, and Janet E. Rubin. Illinois: National Textbook Company, 1997. (1)
Anthology of well-written and moving Holocaust experiences. Allows for discussion on various perspectives of the Holocaust. (Nonfiction)

Light from the Yellow Star: A Lesson of Love from the Holocaust. Robert O. Fisch. Minneapolis: Frederick Weisman Art Museum of the University of Minnesota, 1994. (1)
A brief memoir by the Holocaust survivor, Minnesota pediatrician, and visual artist, Robert Fisch. The art that accompanies the narrative is both challenging and inspiring. Praised by teachers looking for more innovative ways to bring the lessons of the Holocaust to their students. (Nonfiction, Art)

Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale. Art Spiegelman. New York: Pantheon Books, 1973. (2)

Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986. (2)
In comic strip format Spiegelman tells the story of a father who survived Nazi occupied Poland and his son who tries to come to terms with his family’s past. Moving back and forth from Poland to New York, a tale filled with escapes, confinement and betrayal. A novel, a documentary, a memoir and a comic book. (Nonfiction)

*Men with the Pink Triangle: The True Life and Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps. Heinz Heger. Trans. David Fernbach. New York: Alyson Books, 1994. (Excerpt in Trunk)
The true story of an Austrian man who, because of the persecution that continued when he first broke his silence in 1971, chose to remain anonymous. He related his experiences to the German writer Heinz Heger. (Nonfiction)

Night. Elie Wiesel. New York: Bantam Books, 1960. (10)
A novel which more closely resembles an autobiography, traces the life of the author at the age of 15 through his year spent in four concentration camps. A pious teenager racked with guilt at having survived while his family did not. (Nonfiction)

Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Batalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. Christopher Browning. New York: HarperPerennial, 1992. (1)
The original research in this book gives evidence that the Nazi draftees were average men, twisted by historical forces into inhuman shapes. Browning, a thorough historian, interviewed hundreds of killers, who could not explain how they sunk into savagery. (Nonfiction)

Other Victims: First-Person Stories of Non-Jews Persecuted by the Nazis. Ina R. Friedman. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990. (1)
Friedman has compiled first-person narratives of survival and heroism, each of which is set into historical context by a short preface. The stories show how the war machine singled out for persecution ethnic, racial, religious, and lifestyle groups such as Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), blacks, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others. (Nonfiction)

Resistance: During the Holocaust. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. USHMM. (1)
This booklet explores examples of armed and unarmed resistance by Jews and other Holocaust victims. (Nonfiction)

*Shared Sorrows: A Gypsy Family Remembers the Holocaust. Toby Sonneman. Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2002. (Excerpt in trunk.)
The daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Toby Sonneman traveled with an American Gypsy survivor to Munich where she stayed with an extended Gypsy family who survived the Holocaust. The author tells the story of the Gypsy family against the backdrop of a Jewish one, detailing and examining their shared sufferings under the Nazis. (Nonfiction, Local Author)

Sharing is Healing: A Holocaust Survivor’s Story. Noemi Ban. Bellingham: Holocaust Educational Publishers, 2003. (2)
Noemi Ban survived the Holocaust. She survived the ghetto, the cattle cars and Auschwitz. Many members of her family were killed in the camps. She suffered there. But Noemi did not write this book to teach you the facts of the Holocaust. It is her story of hope. Written with short sentences. “Noemi is an award-winning 6th grade teacher…Noemi wrote this book thinking of the many students that she has taught. (Non-fiction, Local Author)

The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness. Simon Wiesenthal. New York: Schocken Books, 1976. (2)
A two part book. The first is a fictional account of a Jew taken from a death camp to a makeshift hospital and the bedside of a Nazi soldier who is seeking absolution from the Jew. The second part is a symposium of responses to the moral issue that remains with us to this day. (Fiction and Nonfiction)

Survival in Auschwitz. Primo Levi. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. (5)
A true literary work of art, this book is enrichment for high level readers. Survival in Auschwitz is a mostly straightforward narrative, beginning with Primo Levi's deportation from Turin, Italy, to the concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland in 1943. Levi, then a 25-year-old chemist, spent 10 months in the camp.  (Nonfiction)

Victims of the Nazi Era 1933-1945. Set of 5 Booklets. USHMM.
A five pamphlet series with accompanying information. Pamphlets are: Jehovah’s Witnesses, handicapped, homosexuals, Polish, and Roma and Sinti (Gypsies). (Nonfiction)

Written in Memory: Portraits of the Holocaust. Jeffrey A. Wolin. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1997. The photographs in Written in Memory act as both art and a historical record. In these penetrating studies, the words of Holocaust survivors, like the numbers tattooed on forearms and the pain etched forever in the memory are imprinted directly on the images.

TEACHER RESOURCES

Activity/Guide Binder
A collection of resources, activities, lesson plans, and guides that correspond with the books, videos, and materials in the trunk.

Replicas of Documents. By William Phillips. NY: Jackdaw Publications, 1992.
(Selected documents are located in the blue curriculum binder.) Replicas of real documents and correspondence, including: Letter from Goering to Heydrich, July 1941; Reich Citizenship Law; Hitler Bans Reference to the “Jewish Question”; Zyklon B invoice and canister; Aerial photograph of Auschwitz-Birkenau; Newspaper coverage of the Holocaust.

The Routledge Atlas of the Holocaust. Martin Gilbert. Great Britain: J.M. Dent Ltd., 2002.
The 316 black and white maps depict “in chronological sequence, the destruction of each of the main Jewish communities of Europe as well as acts of revolt, avenues of escape and rescue and the fate of individuals.” A chilling portrait using maps instead of pictures.

Teaching About the Holocaust: A Resource Guide. USHMM. 2001.
A complete resource guide for educators who want to teach and learn about the Holocaust. Includes teaching guidelines, chronology, suggested resources, and glossary.

The World Must Know. Michael Berenbaum. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1993.
This book tells the history of the Holocaust using photos and documents obtained from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Voices and Views: A History of the Holocaust. Deborah Dwork, Ed. NY: Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, 2002.
A collection of powerful and valuable essays by notable scholars. Essay topics include antisemitism, Jewish life between the wars, the history of the concentration camps, Nazi policy against the Jews, refugee policy, gentile life under German occupation, rescue and resistance, and life after the Holocaust.

VIDEOS

America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference. 1994. 90 mins.
Paints a troubling picture of the United States during a period beset by anti-semitism and a government that, due to complex social and political factors, not only delayed action, but suppressed information and blocked efforts that could have resulted in the rescue of hundreds of thousands of people.

Courage to Care. 1986. 29 mins.
A documentary about non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews from Nazi persecution.

Escape From Sobibor. 1987. 120 mins.
Sobibor, a Nazi death camp in Poland, was the site of the largest prisoner escape of World War II. Based on years of research, this dramatization portrays the escape and the run through Polish forests to freedom.

Heil Hitler: Confessions of a Hitler Youth. 1992. 30 mins.
A true story based on the book by Alfons Heck, recalling how he became a high-ranking member of the Hitler Youth during World War II.

Never Again I Hope. 1993. 37 mins.
9 local (Washington) Holocaust survivors share their experiences.

One Survivor Remembers. 1995. 39 mins.
Gerda Weissman Klein eloquently describes her life before and during the Holocaust.

Survivors: Testimonies of the Holocaust. (CD-Rom and Booklet) 1998.
Videotaped testimonies that are linked to interactive maps, historical and geographical overviews, timelines, and a mini-encyclopedia of historical information.

POSTERS

Badges of Hate
Shows 19 identification badges imposed by Nazis and explains how the ID system worked.

Everyday Objects: Artifacts from Washington State Holocaust Survivors
A poster series of artifacts, documents and stories of Washington State Holocaust survivors and World War II liberators. Twelve 8 ½ x 11 posters. Discussion questions can be found in this notebook.

Holocaust Timeline
Horizontal panels set against a red background show seven photographs and describe 44 events from Hitler’s rise through VE Day.

Map of Europe: Main Camps and Killing Sites in the Nazi Era
Created by Yad Vashem.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Poster Set
Six 8 ½ x 11 posters: Danish fishing boat, badges used to identify those targeted by the Nazis, shoes of the victims, train car used for transport, and a milk can in which documents and diaries were hidden in the Warsaw Ghetto.