The Holocaust: Bearing Witness

Last updated about 1 year ago

6 questions

Note from the author:

Facing History and Ourselves: Examining Holocaust and Human Behavior

Historical Context and Background

Required

What does this poem mean to you? What questions does it raise for you?

Required

Sonia Weitz has been called “a survivor with a poet’s eye.” How can poetry deepen one’s study of the Holocaust? What can we learn from poetry that more traditional historical accounts might not capture?

Required

Re-read the poem and highlight the verbs Weitz uses. How do the verbs help to intensify her description of “the other world”?

Four Phases of the Holocaust
Planning and Propaganda: 1933–1939
Key events:
German Jews and other so-called inferior races and people are isolated from the rest of the population.
Germany rebuilds military in violation of Treaty of Versailles.
German government attacks properties and lives on Kristallnacht.
Nazi government prepares German public for war.
Expansion and Violence: September 1939–June 1941
Key events:
World War II begins with German invasion of Poland.
Nazi violence expands into Poland and across Europe.
Nazis establish ghettos and new concentration camps to imprison millions of Jews.
Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) murder millions of Jews and other targeted groups in mass shootings in eastern Europe.
Germany invades Soviet Union.
Dedication to Mass Killing: 1941–1944
Key events:
Decision is made by Hitler and his advisors to annihilate all of the Jews in Europe.
Six killing centers are established, where millions of Jews, Sinti and Roma, and other targeted groups are murdered in gas chambers. The most infamous killing center is Auschwitz.

Click here for a link to the video: Step By Step: Phases of the Holocaust

The Nazis in Vilna
In his testimony for USC Shoah Foundation, Holocaust survivor Jack Arnel describes what he saw as a 12-year-old when the Nazis occupied Vilna, Lithuania in 1941.

Click here for a link to the video: The Nazis In Vilna

Required

What about Jack Arnel’s testimony is most striking to you? What does it make you think about or feel?

Required

What is the value of hearing this kind of firsthand account? How does it change the way you understand the Holocaust?

Virtual Gallery Walk

Required

Graffiti Wall post

Write a response to the resources you encountered. You might add one or more of the notes you took during the virtual gallery walk to the graffiti board, or you might write a new thought, observation, or feeling you are experiencing after viewing the resources. (This is what you will write on the Graffiti Wall in class).