The Yad Vashem Diaries Part I

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