The Holocaust YA media with a focus on Jews during WWII Grades 9-12

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry Summary: WWII and the Danish Resistance is seen through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen of Copenhagen. Annemarie’s older sister Lise had died before the book, reportedly because of an “accident”. As the Nazis begin to round up all of Denmark’s Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie’s best Jewish friend Ellen Rosen, and pass her off as Annemarie’s sister. They take her to Uncle Henrik, a member of the Resistance, and reunite her with her family. This involves Annemarie in the Resistance also as she unknowingly helps Henrik smuggle the Rosens and other Jews to Sweden on his fishing boat. The Resistance is ultimately successful, smuggling almost 7,000 Jews from Denmark by the end of the war. Number the Stars is an inspiring story of one girl’s struggle to understand the world around her and find the courage within herself.

The Diary of Anne Frank Summary: Anne Frank is a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl living in Holland. In her diary she records what at first seems like the normal life of an adolescent girl. She writes about school, boys, her feelings, etc. Then Jews begin to be persecuted by the Germans, and the Frank family goes into hiding in what they called the “Secret Annex”– a small room hidden behind a bookcase in her father’s office. She spends two years with her family in the Annex until her writing cuts off. We know that the Annex was raided two days later, and the family sent to a concentration camp. Only her father survived.

Captain America and Bucky Summary: Bucky and Toro infiltrate what they believe to be a POW camp to rescue a US spy. As they arrive, Bucky comments, “It’s snowing? It’s not even that cold.” Toro replies, “It’s not snow. I think it’s actually ash…weird.” During the rescue, Bucky and the spy become surrounded by the prisoners (most of whom are wearing stars), and Bucky says, “What is this place?” They escape successfully, but Bucky doesn’t want to leave the prisoners. Later with Captain America, Bucky can’t stop thinking about the prisoners. He has a nightmare in which the all attack him. This story is a turning point for Bucky’s character, showing him an uglier side of the war which previously he hadn’t taken very seriously.

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom Summary: Corrie Ten Boom, a single woman in Holland, sees the worsening mistreatment of the Jews by the Nazis. When the Nazis begin to “relocate” Jews, Corrie, along with her father and sister Betsy, builds a fake wall in their house in which to hide Jews. When it is discovered, Corrie and her sister are sent to a concentration camp. Corrie writes about their ordeals in the prison camp, her relationships with fellow prisoners, and her faith which gave her strength amid the Nazi cruelty. Betsie dies, but Corrie survives, years later extending forgiveness to a former Nazi who had been her guard. glog-by-meleath/g-6ll279n5fhn4uujvqu2m9a0

Movie: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Plot: The son of a Nazi forms a friendship with a Jewish boy across opposite sides of a concentration camp fence.

Poetry HOLOCAUST by Barbara Sonek We played, we laughed, we were loved. We were ripped from the arms of our parents and thrown into the fire. We were nothing more than children. We had a future. We were going to be lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers. We had dreams, then we had no hope. We were taken away in the dead of night like cattle in cars, no air to breathe smothering, crying, starving, dying. Separated from the world to be no more. From the ashes, hear our plea. This atrocity to mankind can not happen again. Remember us, for we were the children whose dreams and lives were stolen away.

Poetry I CRY FOR THEM by Aldo Kraas During the holocaust, So many Jews Lost their lives. And I cry for them Still today.

Poetry AFTERMATH by Evelyn Roman, a Holocaust survivor Fifty years after the fact Painful memories intact Nightmares recurring, Nazis appearing. Must survivors remain At their altar of pain Forever enduring Unspeakable haunting? And will it subside On life's other side Or go on persisting Into the realm of night?

Activities Ask the students to pretend they are living during WWII, and have a Jewish neighbor they want to help. Have them develop a plan, considering the resources they would need and the difficulties they might face. Include the Holocaust in a literary unit on persecuted people groups. Read sections from each of the books as an example. Use Captain America to draw in guys/reluctant readers. Draw connections between what happened to the Jews and what happened in similar situations, such as the Rwanda Genocide. Use passages from the texts to contrast what WWII was like in different European countries, in particular Holland, Denmark and Germany. Divide students into groups, each representing a different European country. Have them make a visual with information about their country during WWII, including information provided by the books.

Book Citations Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Bantam, Print. Lowry, Lois. Number the Stars. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Print. Ten, Boom Corrie., John L. Sherrill, and Elizabeth Sherrill. The Hiding Place. Washington Depot, CT: Chosen, Print. Captain America and Bucky #623. Marvel Studios.