A Literary Introduction to the Holocaust Why we should never forget . . .

A short story Take out a sheet of paper and title it “This Way to the Gas.” Next, you will see sentences that begin this reading. For each slide, choose a word or a phrase that you feel is important. Write the word or phrase down and explain why you feel it is important. Be prepared to share your ideas with your classmates. Each person will need to share once to receive credit.

‘The transport is coming,’ somebody says. We spring to our feet, all eyes turn in one direction.

Around the bend, one after another, the cattle cars come rolling in. The train backs into the station, a conductor leans out, waves his hand, blows a whistle. The locomotive whistles back with a shrieking noise, puffs, and rolls slowly alongside the ramp.

They gaze at the station in silence. In the tiny barred windows appear pale, wilted, exhausted human faces, terror-stricken women with tangled hair, unshaven men. They gaze at the station in silence.

‘Water! Air!’ – weary, desperate cries. And then, suddenly, there is a stir inside the cars and a pounding against the wooden boards. ‘Water! Air!’ – weary, desperate cries.

Draw a line underneath your ideas. Answer the following: 1. What is the dominant feeling created here? 2. What are the most important images? 3. Make a prediction: What are these people likely to experience next?

TADEUSZ BOROWSKI’S “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen” Borowski’s story tells the story of a company of Jews from France, who are charged with unloading Jews from trains, separating them from their belongings, and ushering some of them to almost instantaneous death. Take note: these are Jewish prisoners whose work forces them to act in inhumane ways towards their own Jewish “brothers and sisters.” What effect do you imagine this might have on these men?

FOCUS: During Reading Your job is to annotate at least three times per column (so 18 times total). Pay attention to . . . -- Events -- Character actions, statements, decisions, reactions -- Description of setting -- Symbolism -- Word choice -- Imagery -- Figurative Language -- Tone / Mood -- THEME

During Reading Activities Read the first three columns of the story (to the line on page 2). Be sure you are annotating three times per column. THEN on your paper in complete sentences . . . Address how these three columns 4. further develop the feeling you identified on your paper 5. contribute important images to the scene 6. either fit or did not fit your prediction

Activities Continued Finish reading page 2. You should be four columns into the story. You should also have twelve annotations so far. 7. Review the first two pages. Locate three similes or metaphors, write them down, identity what two items are being compared, AND explain how these similes or metaphors, in general, contribute to the feeling you have identified at the top of the page.

Activities Continued Read the final page, page three. You should have eighteen annotations when you finish this document. As you read page three, annotate three striking images. Then on the top of that page, write down the general feeling that the these three images create in the reader (the mood). 8. On your paper, explain in a response of at least three sentences how these images, in general, contribute to the feeling you have identified at the top of the page. 9. As you read page three, write down three lists that are used and explain how these lists, in general, contribute to the feeling you have identified at the top of the page.

Concluding Activities 10. Review the story and write down three specific mentionings of the setting – especially the sky or the temperature and explain how these mentionings, in general, contribute to the feeling you have identified at the top of the page. NOTE: Don’t just simply tell me that these similes, images, lists, or mentionings help to show or create the feeling. Instead, explain HOW they help to create this feeling in the story. 11. Write down, in one sentence, Borowski’s theme or central message. 12. Write a SPES paragraph in which you state Borowski’s theme and provide proof and explanation to support that statement.

“First They Came for the Jews” by Pastor Niemoller First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

The Marginalized . . . Are groups of people that are singled out, isolated, abused, punished, even assaulted because they are somehow different, somehow strange, somehow not like “the rest of us.” Create a short, four segment “poem” like Niemoller’s that addresses three marginalized groups from our time. Follow Niemoller’s example.