Entry Denied, Dignity Restored-The Story of the St. Louis | A Holocaust Timeline Activity for Grade 6

Teacher's Guide

Rationale 

Telling Stories, Reconstructing History 

The teaching unit, Entry Denied, Dignity Restored: Stories from the Voyage of the St. Louis, is designed for students in grades six and up in all types of schools. The educational material includes cards with excerpts from memoirs, photos, and documents. In This educational resource, three main themes are presented: the biography of Ana Maria Gordon, the ship and its captain, Gustav Schröder, and the recognition of Schröder as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem after the war.

We assert that today's generation of students will be able to connect empathically to life stories that took place over 80 years ago, in an “Old" Europe, if these stories have at least some of the following characteristics: 

1. The protagonists have complex personalities (i.e., they have several layers of identity). 
2. The protagonists' biographies exhibit transnational movements (excluding those exclusively forced into displacement by persecutors). 
3. The surviving protagonist is a child at the time of the events. 
4. The surviving protagonist remains perceptible as a distinct personality in his or her post-war life. 

The materials in this unit do not convey the biographies and stories in their retrospective coherence and closure. The selected biography is presented through fragmented memories, documents, and photographs. It is the students’ task to assemble these historical components. This type of self-directed historical inquiry encourages pupils to explore the past on their own. Lifetime memories are part of a larger story, with references, implications, and situations that students can investigate independently and bring into relation. Arranging biographical fragments within their historical context takes on a central role in the methodology of this unit. The students’ narrative competence is strengthened by retelling a part of the story. At the same time, this method also draws attention to the way history is constructed, creates awareness of processes of meaning-making, and helps students to understand the nature of oral history: Ana Maria Gordon notes repeatedly that gaps in her memory don’t allow her to reconstruct the story of her own life as a continuous storyline. She was interviewed by Yad Vashem in Israel on February 2, 2020:

Ana Maria Gordon:

- The truth is, I don't remember a lot about the voyage on the St. Louis. I know I had a great time on the boat, but I don't remember more.

Yad Vashem:
- Do you know how long the journey took? What happened when the St. Louis arrived in Cuba? 

Ana Maria Gordon:
- I don't know, I think the whole trip lasted more than 3 weeks. No, I'm not sure.

This material is based on a number of pedagogical guidelines that inform the work of the International Institute for Holocaust Education at Yad Vashem. The biographies are not limited to the period between 1933 and 1945, those years of Nazi terror first in Germany, then in almost all of Europe and in North Africa. They also include Jewish life before World War II and the continued lives of the victims after surviving, after experiencing flight, humiliation, and violence. In this way, the manifold connections of the life stories to their respective environments become visible, developments are revealed, as well as ruptures and interrupted life paths. Those who were persecuted become recognizable as independent people, who were not born as victims but made so by others, and who, apart from their struggle for survival, are characterized by their own, very personal views on life. Of particular pedagogical importance are moments of decisions and dilemmas, those moments in a person's life that - intentionally or unintentionally - form a decisive turning point. When examining decisions that people made during the war, students should consider the many different factors that influence the decision-making process, such as personality, access to information, previous life experiences, and the extent to which one has, or has not, the power to act. Additionally, the effects of dilemmas and decision-making situations on the personality of the protagonists are of particular interest. 

The teaching unit, Entry Denied, Dignity Restored: Stories from the Voyage of the St. Louis, depicts a variety of central events from the time of the Holocaust and World War II. It also bundles a multitude of different perspectives: In addition to the Jewish protagonists, there is a non-Jewish captain who is confronted with almost irresolvable dilemmas and situations.

The Educational Material

Built upon the foundation of collaborative learning, this unit incorporates group work, peer learning and class discussion. Through various classroom activities, students discover and reconstruct the personal story of a Holocaust survivor, Ana Maria Gordon. During their work with primary sources (testimonies, documents, photos), students are assuming the role of historians. This will encourage intellectual curiosity and the development of critical thinking skills, and lead eventually to a deeper understanding of historical events. 

Furthermore, students are introduced to the complexity of the Holocaust by studying a variety of historical aspects and perspectives. By working with a survivor story, students will focus first and foremost on the Jewish victim's wartime experience. But they learn also about other, non-Jewish protagonists who, through the way they acted, influenced how events unfolded.  Ana Maria Gordon's individual biography mirrors different phases and aspects of the Holocaust. The timeline has the function of providing the historical context in which individual stories occur. Another important element of the survivor story is the transnational space in which it occurred. The following countries play a part in Ana Maria Gordon’s story: Czechoslovakia, Germany, Cuba, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Mexico, USA, and Canada. 

Student Materials: 
•    79 Resource Cards including 7 maps of Europe and 7 instruction cards for each group 
•    Timeline 
 
Teacher Material:
•    Online Interactive Map that includes additional historical and biographical information.

Lesson Plan

Required Preparations:

1. Download, print and affix the timeline to the wall, leaving enough space between the cards. (Students will be asked to add their resource cards to the timeline and create their own exhibition.)
2. Print the resource and instruction cards. Each group receives one instruction card and a map.
3. The interactive map should be prepared in advance for use on the board. 

Method Description 

The learning process unfolds in three stages:

1. Introduction
2. Group work and presentations
3. Closing activity

1.    Introduction

To begin the unit, the teacher should show the students a photograph of the St. Louis. Without providing any background information, the teacher invites students to ask questions about the photograph and/or engages them in a word association activity. This is meant to generate a discussion about travel in the context of today's student's reality (travel as leisure activity, travel by different means of transportation, travel for different reasons, voluntary travel versus forced relocation, etc.). This discussion will then be revisited at the end of the lesson. 

2.    Group work and presentations

The class should be divided into seven working groups. Each group receives their set of resources, and one of the instruction cards. From now on, the members of each group are considered as an expert group for its respective section: 

Group 1: Ana Maria Gordon: Pre-war Jewish Life
Group 2: Ana Maria Gordon: Fleeing
Group 3: Ana Maria Gordon: Persecution Under Nazi Rule
Group 4: Ana Maria Gordon: Liberation and Return to Life
Group 5: Ana Maria Gordon: From Europe to Canada
Group 6: Gustav Schröder: The St. Louis 
Group 7: Gustav Schröder: Recognition and Memory 

2.1 Working groups

Each group works with the resource cards, trying to put them in a chronological or otherwise logical order and relate them to each other. In doing so, the students should be guided by the following tasks:

•    Identify the people and what we learn about them.
•    Describe the actions and decisions of the people.
•    Describe the historical events and how they influence their lives.

As they investigate, each group begins to assemble the materials they are working through into a wall exhibit that is affixed to the main timeline posted on the wall. As necessary, the timeline and materials can be supplemented with additional information (of verified authenticity) that the students have researched themselves.

Alternatively, the teacher can invite each group to produce a poster using the timeline, cards from the set, or any additional notes, drawings or reflections they may have regarding their part of the story. Upon completion of this process, the posters will be displayed and presented chronologically. 

The map, as well as additional sources of information (internet) should be constantly available as tools of information. 
This part of the process is based on the benefits of social-emotional learning. Students will experience that they have to negotiate their own, personal understanding of the story with their peers, and finally arrive at a common conclusion.

The teacher's role during the group work consists mainly in supporting the students throughout the learning process and correcting possible misunderstandings. 

2.2    Presentation

After reviewing all of their resources, each group is asked to put their exhibit into a final version and present it to the class in a short-guided tour. The exhibit itself serves as a memory aid and a common thread for the storytellers to freely tell the protagonist's story. 

As you listen to the students recount the story of Anna Maria Gordon and Gustav Schröder, be sure to cover and explain the following points:

After the students' presentation, the teacher should make sure that the students are able to follow the line of the presentation, sum up important aspects, and visualize the story with the help of the interactive map.

3.    Closing activity
For the closing of the lesson, the teacher should again present the photograph of the St. Louis that was used during the introduction. Now, this photograph should encourage a concluding discussion about fleeing, as opposed to travel. The teacher will emphasize the differences between the first associations of the students and the deeper insights into the nature of flight (escape) and persecution they have gained during the lesson. Also, this discussion is an opportunity to highlight the different types and conditions of migration (fleeing a threatening environment, seeking a new beginning, financial opportunity, etc.).

Historical Background

The St. Louis1 was a ship on which more than 900 Jews attempted to emigrate from Nazi Germany to Cuba in May 1939. Although the passengers were equipped with valid immigration papers to Cuba, which most of the emigrants considered a temporary stop on their way to the U.S., a surprising twist in their fate occurred during the crossing. Because of internal political tensions between different Cuban authorities, the Cuban government declared the Jewish refugees' immigration papers invalid and refused to let them disembark. The U.S., which became involved in the negotiations that were now underway, also declared itself unwilling to grant asylum to the refugees. A group of prominent Canadians, led by historian and professor George Wrong, telegraphed a petition to the Canadian Prime Minister, William Lyon MacKenzie King, but the Canadian government chose not to admit the passengers2. The Canadian government’s exclusion of the passengers of St. Louis was rationalized based on sharp immigration restrictions during the Great Depression, but was rooted in the persistent climate of antisemitic exclusion. The St. Louis had to turn away from the American coast and head back to Germany. Through the persistent efforts of the captain, Gustav Schröder, who was later recognized by Yad Vashem as a "Righteous Among the Nations," a last-minute solution was finally negotiated that granted the refugees admission into four countries: England, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. 
Ana Maria Gordon3 (née Anne Marie Karman) grew up in Košice, Czechoslovakia, as the only child of Richard and Sidoni Karman. The Karman family was among the passengers of the St. Louis and disembarked in the Netherlands. They were first sent to the refugee camp of Westerbork, and later moved in with family members who were living in Amsterdam. After the German invasion of the Netherlands, they were again deported to Westerbork, which had by then become a transit camp supervised by the German Nazis for Jews slated to be deported to concentration and extermination camps. There, Ana Maria and her mother had to separate from the father, who was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp. A short time later, Ana Maria and her mother were deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp4. Shortly before the end of the war, Ana Maria and her mother were released by the Danish and Swedish Red Cross. They were sent to Denmark and later on to Sweden where they started their physical and spiritual rehabilitation. There they also reunited with Ana Maria's father who also had survived. Ana Maria and her parents eventually left Europe in 1946 and sailed to Mexico to start a new life. In 1983, Ana Maria met her second husband who was living in Los Angeles, United States. He was a Holocaust survivor who was also born in Czechoslovakia. Ana Maria lived in the U.S until 2009. After the passing of her mother, she moved to Toronto in order to be close to her son. After four years, she received Canadian citizenship.
In the aftermath of the devastation in Europe, awareness of the plight of refugees and efforts to meet the need of asylum seekers became an honorable civic cause. With time, these actively supportive voices permeated society and eventually impacted policy. Canada is one example of this significant impact. In the late 1970s, "Operation Lifeline" began in one man's living room. By the end of the first month, 66 chapters existed around the country to privately sponsor Indo-Chinese refugees. The efforts and momentum of "Operation Lifeline" influenced religious groups, social entities and ultimately politicians.
We invite the teacher to explore, for their specific country, influences and impacts that brought about positive change in local, national and international polices regarding refugees and asylum seekers.

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