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A Yellow Star of David Button
A Yellow Star of David Button, Which the Bulgarian Jews were Forced to Wear in 1941 with the Onset of the German Occupation Sonia Koperwaser was the oldest child born to Aaron and Simcha in 1930. Her younger sister Milka was born a year later. The family lived in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1941, a curfew was imposed on the Jews, permitting them to leave their homes for only two hours each day. In addition, every Jew was ordered to sew a yellow star button on his/her lapel. Yellow stars were... Continue reading
From Democracy to Deportation: The Jews of France from the Revolution to the Holocaust
In 1791, after the French Revolution, Jews in France were emancipated and granted full citizenship. This was the first time in history, that Jews had been given such equality. Even after the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s, French Jewry remained convinced that their place as equals in society would ultimately keep them safe from antisemitism that existed in other European countries. Unfortunately, this was not the case.As is pointed out later in this article, the motto of “liberty,... Continue reading
Jews in Albania
“Where Religious Prejudice and Hate Did Not Exist” Herman Bernstein, the United States Ambassador to Albania, in 1934The situation for Jews in Albania during the Holocaust is unique. Almost all Albanian Jews during the Second World War were saved from Hitler’s “Final Solution.” This is remarkable, and a circumstance that cannot be found in any other occupied country in Europe. How did this happen? Why was Albania good to its Jews? Continue reading
Jews of Ioannina – A Teacher’s Guide
The following set of slides (as a PDF) is based on photographs and quotations from Artemis Miron about her family and her childhood in Ioannina, Greece. They are tools that can be used in the classroom for an introduction to the Jewish community of Ioannina and then to tell the story of their destruction in the Holocaust. Along with the interview with Artemis, including an interactive photograph of the family wedding in Ioannina (replicated on this page), an educator has many resources at... Continue reading
Reel Witnesses: A New Type of Holocaust Testimony
This article highlights four films that have been made by Yad Vashem and Hebrew University that take a survivor back to his/her hometown and hear his/her story on location. It is part of a project that deals with what to do when we can no longer listen to survivor testimony first-hand. Continue reading
The Family Unit During the Holocaust
Introduction Discussing the subject of the family unit during the Holocaust raises many issues of devastation as well as strength. Professor Dalia Ofer shares many insights about this in an article published in Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. She explains that the Holocaust devastated families and Jewish life in general. Nevertheless, there was also considerable strength in family ties. Evidence reveals that some fragments of families remained intact, in ghettos, and in... Continue reading
"What Came Before" - Teaching About Jewish Life Before the Holocaust
Introduction The thriving life of European Jewry prior to World War II cannot be overlooked when embarking on a Holocaust curriculum. This article presents several aspects of Prewar Jewish Life in Europe, central to Holocaust education. While the rich tapestry of Jewish culture goes far beyond the scope of this article, specific elements of Jewish culture, present at the beginning of the twentieth century, are worth studying and teaching in order to contextualize the Holocaust. While the... Continue reading
Re-Examining the Tipping Point
Introduction This article, written on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom, gives a brief historical account of this watershed event and discusses methods for classroom discussion on the subject. In an effort to assist teachers in engaging their students in the subject of the Holocaust in general, and the Kristallnacht pogrom in particular, this article provides varied sources and ideas meant to help students gain a deeper understanding of the event. Additionally,... Continue reading
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Interview with Professor Dori Laub, Expert on Interviews and Survivor Testimony
Professor Dori Laub was born in Czernowitz, Romania in 1937. With his parents, he was deported to Transnistria in 1942. His father disappeared during a German raid prior to liberation by the Soviets and he and his mother were reunited with his grandparents who had survived in Czernowitz. He immigrated to Israel in 1950 where he attended medical school. Today he is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University and a psychoanalyst in private practice. In 1979 he co-founded the... Continue reading
Interview with Dukie Gelber, Survivor from Holland
Please introduce yourself and give us a brief overview of your life. My name you know is Dukie Gelber. I’m from Holland originally. I’m nearly 77 and I have been under German occupation for five years. In 1940 they invaded Holland and I’ve been 2 years in German concentration camps. About half a year in Westerbork which was the main transition camp concentration camp in Holland, [from] which about 109,000 Dutch Jews went to the east. Somewhere around 5,000 came back after the war. And I... Continue reading
What Papa Told Me - Felice Cohen
What Papa Told MeFelice CohenDividends Press, 2010110 pages This is the Holocaust testimony of Murray Schwartzbaum, from Szczekociny, Poland, as told to his granddaughter, Felice Cohen. While many such stories are told in the first-person with the help of a family member, Cohen also includes pieces of her conversation with her grandfather, opening the dialogue with the third-generation, a topic not always incorporated into Holocaust testimonies. This touching and heart wrenching story begins... Continue reading
The Boys: Triumph Over Adversity - Martin Gilbert
The Boys: Triumph Over Adversity Martin GilbertWeidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001511 pages Martin Gilbert craftily tells the story of 732 survivors, who called themselves 'The Boys,' though the group included about 80 girls. While this book recounts the devastation and disintegration of the lives of these 732 young Jews, most of whom were around 9 or 10 years old when the war broke out, it also generates feelings of hope, of triumph over adversity, as included in the title. It was difficult for... Continue reading
Smuggled in Potato Sacks - Solomon Abramovich and Yakov Zilberg (Eds.)
Smuggled in Potato SacksEdited by Solomon Abramovich and Yakov ZilbergVallentine Mitchell, 2011416 pages Smuggled in Potato Sacks is a collection of stories compiled by Holocaust survivors Ariela Abramovich Sef and Ilana Kamber-Ash, both born in the Kovno Ghetto and hidden during the Holocaust. Inspired to preserve their own stories as well as those of other children who had been rescued, they collected as many testimonies as they could find, and in the end, put together this book with... Continue reading
Refugees and Rescue: The Diaries and Papers of James G. Mcdonald, 1935-1945
Refugees and Rescue: The Diaries and Papers of James G. Mcdonald, 1935-1945Edited by Richard Breitman, Barbara Mcdonald Stewart, and Severin HochbergIndiana University Press, 2009376 pages Continuing where the prequel ends, this book is the second published in a 3-volume set in cooperation with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Refugees and Rescue presents a compilation of the personal papers of James Grover McDonald, as well as pieces from his diaries, beginning the year of his... Continue reading
The Hidden Girl: A True Story of the Holocaust - Lola Rein Kaufman with Lois Metzger
The Hidden Girl: A True Story of the HolocaustBy Lola Rein Kaufman with Lois MetzgerTroll Associates, 199997 pages This short testimony is fitting for middle school students who have studied the Holocaust and are prepared to confront a difficult story written for their age level. The teacher should eliminate sections that she/he feels might be too detailed or violent for his/her students. Lola Rein was a young child when war broke out in her small town of Czortkow, Poland. She recalls the... Continue reading
The Girl in the Green Sweater: A Life in Holocaust’s Shadow - Krystyna Chiger
The Girl in the Green Sweater: A Life in Holocaust’s ShadowBy Krystyna Chiger with Daniel PaisnerSt. Martin’s Press, 2008272 pages In this book, Krystyna Chiger recounts the story of her survival as a child as her family went from their beautiful wealthy home to the Lvov Ghetto and then into the sewers to live out the final fourteen months of the Holocaust. Krystyna was nearly 4 years old when Germany and Russia divided Poland down the middle in 1939. Living under Communist rule was not... Continue reading
Gertruda’s Oath: A Child, A Promise, and a Heroic Escape During World War II - Ram Oren
Gertruda’s Oath: A Child, A Promise, and a Heroic Escape During World War IIRam OrenTranslation by Barbara HarshavDoubleday, 2009308 pages In this work of nonfiction written in the style of a novel, Ram Oren weaves together two different stories of the Holocaust, and intertwines them brilliantly, leaving the reader pondering situations that he may have considered previously. Karl Rink, a German, marries Mira, a Jew. When Karl joins the SS he is happy to be earning an income and reassures his... Continue reading
I Choose Life: Two Linked Stories of Holocaust Survival and Rebirth - Jerry Jennings, Sol and Goldie Finkelstein
I Choose Life: Two Linked Stories of Holocaust Survival and RebirthJerry L. Jennings, Sol and Goldie FinkelsteinXlibris, 2009139 pages This well-written book tells the stories of Sol Finkelstein and Goldie Cukier Finkelstein, two Holocaust survivors who met after the war and married. Their son Joseph Finkelstein made it a point to record his parent’s Holocaust stories so that they would not be forgotten, and this book is a testament to them and the legacy they created. Told in the first... Continue reading
Advocate for the Doomed: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1932-1935
Advocate for the Doomed: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1932-1935Edited by Richard Breitman, Barbara Mcdonald Stewart, and Severin HochbergIndiana University Press, 2007838 pages In the first published work on James Grover McDonald, this book is the first of a 3-volume series that uses his diaries and papers to elucidate McDonald's illustrious career. First as the League of Nation's High Commissioner for German Refugees (Jewish and Other) and later as the United States' first... Continue reading