DAY ONE
Day one of the program involved lectures about the
importance of history to Judaic practice, and about the educational philosophy
of the International School for Holocaust Studies which I’m attending here at
Yad Vashem. The day was completed with a tour of Jerusalem with views towards
the city from different directions. The weather was hazy meaning that it wasn’t
terribly easy to orient yourself unless you knew where you were.
It was so exciting to drive in to the Yad Vashem complex and
to know I will be visiting here so frequently over the next three weeks. The
International School for Holocaust Studies is situated to the side and our
classroom has majestic views of the valleys and mountains around us.
The first session was a reminder that I don’t really know
that much about Judaism, and that most of what I know is gleaned from its
differences from Christianity. Some things were simple reminders, such as the
fact that chapter and verse separation of the Bible is a Christian construct,
or that Jewish memory is long, having been preserved and studied from thousands
of years.
The Rabbi who spoke to the group discussed the qualities of
a transcendent Creator whose progression in creation is deliberate, directed and purposeful.
A distinct difference from Christianity is evident through incorporeality
(never taking form) and in the placement/function of Shabbat – a recognition of
God’s place in the scheme of things. Jews see this as connected with the six
days of creation (no division between Gen 1 and Gen 2).
We were reminded that humanity (Not yet Israelites or Jews,
but humanity) is created in the image of God ‘Tselem Elokim’ and that the essential quality of the human being is
to shape moral will/choice. Thus the Rabbi declared the Jewish question
throughout history – can/how can we make the best moral choice, especially
recognising that God makes many commands which guide effective moral choices.
He said that in a nutshell – developing the moral will depends on a willingness
to exercise self-control.
Of course we could not fail to cover the Jewish connection
to this land, the consciousness of which is established through the command to
journey of Abram & Sarai to Canaan. This provided some sense of mission
which would require devotion and a sacrifice and a sense of being ‘chosen’
without being superior. We then spent time discovering the historical
connections to many of the Jewish commemorative festivals.
The second session showed us how to navigate the Yad Vashem
website and where to find a variety of educational resources such as
testimonials.
The final session of the day was presented by the
pedagogical director, Shulamit. She had such charisma.
Defining principles in holocaust education would be that it
needs to be age appropriate and needs to avoid the shock treatment/trauma which
might have been the approach of earlier generations. Instead, we aim to teach
not an a historical chronicle but as human narrative. An objective is to
acknowledge the Shoah produced a loss of culture and in communicating to others
you give a face and identity to those who were lost. Also, it was important to
ensure that you are helping the students understand the difference between
history and memory. Knowing the facts is not the same as experiencing the
impact.
Top tips:
Step 1: To
know what was lost, you must know what existed beforehand.
·
Who were the Jews/other victims? (Don’t just
know them as victims).
·
Create a connection to the human story – makes
the holocaust relevant. Diary entries of children etc.
Step 2.1:
How to teach the human story knowing that for many it ends in trauma?
·
Focus on the lives or on individual experiences
(eg a few or select ghettoes, not all).
·
Nazis didn’t only kill, they aimed to dehumanise
and to kill the spirit. How did people live in the shadow of dehumanisation?
Not how did they die – how did they live?
Step 2.2:
Teach showing the complexities (how did they live and survive?).
·
Can lead to the question – why didn’t the
victims do more to save themselves? Means that teaching Nazi ideology is
important.
·
Jews were not killed for what they did, but
because of what they were.
·
Discuss and provide examples of people who
struggled to find meaning in life.
Step 3:
·
How to return to life and continue to live.
·
Returning to find life changed and family gone.
·
Desires for revenge.
·
Desires for rebuilding. Families, schools,
culture.
DAY 2
The second day Ephraim, who is a director at the museum that
has been guiding us around the city and will guide through the museum on the
third day, gave a presentation on the population, culture and politics of
Poland. Looking specifically at the Polish data and watching part of a
documentary on Polish life before the wars introduced me to the Yiddish
language in a deeper way (which was furthered later with a lecture on Yiddish
literature) and was an interesting insight into the diversity of experiences many
lived. The remainder of the lecture became a somewhat confusing step into
political groups ranging from a variety of Zionist parties, Orthodox, socialist
and anti-religious Jewish groups.
Our second session was a sample use of visual and written
biographical sources about individual experiences in Poland between the wars.
We used these for comparative roleplays which were really interesting. It has
been stressed to us repeatedly that once you reach the timeframe of the Shoah
role play is not appropriate, but it can be used in the prelude.
Our lunch break (felafels!!) was longer so I had time to
walk around part of the site. I easily located the replica sculpture of the
Dachau camp and walked through more of the Righteous of the Nations trees.
Look familiar?
The last lecture of the day was about the foundations to
Holocaust Literature found in the storytelling, prayers and songs of Yiddish
(or to a lesser extent other fusion languages which Jews might have spoken).
What I found most interesting was that as with Christianity formerly having the
Vulgate translations of the Bible that were unreachable to the non-Latin
speaking populace of the Middle Ages, and Luther being determined to make it
accessible, in the C16 a similar process was enacted for Jews through Yiddish with
the Hasidic Revolution. Prayer and storytelling sought to reach the
disenfranchised. (Hebrew is the formalised form for prayer, but many were not
educated enough, so Israel Baal Shem Tov (1700-1760) used Yiddish for prayers).
Next successors of Baal Shem Tov were taught by leaders who spread around
Eastern Europe. With regards to the writings, many stories (like fairytales)
had metaphoric connections to Messianic desires.
Another revolution which formed and shaped Yiddish writing
was the Haskalah movement of the C17-18. Within this time, Jews could keep
their religion but still maintain own individuality and associate with those of
other faiths. This was a revolutionary invitation because usually Jews did not
welcomely associate with others and leave the ghetto. This allowed greater
exposure to Western canon, which was then adapted to Hebrew (too formal) then
to Yiddish (more flexibility of language).
We also spent a bit of time declaring some differences between History and Literature.
Differences between History and Literature
History attempts
to be dispassionate and objective.
Literature aims to be passionate and intensify emotion. Allows to
experience beyond one’s own
personal experience.
History can more
commonly relate to institutions or movements or larger concepts.
Literature, by contrast, can be about individuals, characters
etc.
Finally, we completed our day with a guided tour of some of
the external memorials at Yad Vashem and finished in the Valley of the
Communities, where we met our first Holocaust survivor, Hannah.
I was not quite prepared for how her story played out,
because at one moment I was listening to the historical account and at the next
moment she became a literary character come to life. It was clear she had
recounted this many times before because she was so polished, and it was quite
clear that much was left out. Indeed, her summation of liberation and her
journey to Israel were summarised in brief sentences and yet sounded like quite
a narrative within themselves. I found myself more interested in how, after
such a life experience, she could start afresh without parents, and make her
way to the newly-made State of Israel. Perhaps this was because her war-time
years were so intertwined with the life of Anne Frank that her own identity was
overshadowed. That being said, she spoke for an hour and every minute was
compelling.
Relevant information about Hannah and an interview which
incorporated details we heard can be found at the following websites:
- KS. (2015). "Hannah’s Best Friend: Memories of Anne Frank". German Israeli Youth Congress. http://youth-congress-2015.org/tag/hannah-pick-goslar/
- Wikipedia. (2015). Hanneli Goslar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanneli_Goslar
- Scholastic. (1999). Interview With Hanneli Pick-Goslar. http://teacher.scholastic.com/frank/tscripts/hanneli.htm
