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Teaching children Hebrew in the DP camp at Gauting, Germany
Yad Vashem,1486/308
“We happened upon the school during recess. There was a pleasant bustle of children, and the merriment of schoolchildren fills the air. We are reminded of our childhood years, when we studied math and would make jokes at the teachers’ expense… Since then we’ve endured suffering and wandering, great losses and tragedies. The children of [Bergen] Belsen seem more serious to me than the schoolchildren of my youth. The hardships they’ve endured left a stamp on these children that’s usually reserved to the experiences of adults. This explains a comment made by the gymnasium headmistress, Prof. Helena Wroval, who said that the children are more interested in literature, history, physics and chemistry than in table tennis, even though they have a special hall for various games and listening to radio.”
(A. Witmann, “Undzer Schtime – The First Periodical of the Surviving Remnant”, in Gesher 4 [Hebrew], 1987.)
Notice the photograph of a lesson in a classroom. On the board, we can see sentences various sentences in Hebrew. In the photograph of the Yavneh school, the sign reads – “see you soon in the holy land!” According to the testimony, why do you think children were more interested in “serious” classes than in games and sports?