"Confronting the Ovens": Commemorating the Holocaust through Children's Eyes

 

 

Although I am retired, my children are grown, and I have no grandchildren, I still commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day “through children’s eyes.”

Several years ago I completed a teacher training course at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in preparation for a program I was leading as a public youth services librarian. Through Children’s Eyes was a program commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day with a parent & child discussion of a book written about the Holocaust from a child's point of view. It was an introduction to prejudice and discrimination -- as experienced by children – and provided a foundation for later study of the Holocaust.

How can our children learn about one of the worst events in history? The Holocaust is difficult to discuss, especially with children. Sharing stories, particularly stories of children, enables us to envision what it was like to live in the past and explore how children may have felt. Sharing stories with our children is one of the best hopes for instilling values of tolerance, acceptance, and empathy -- reducing the possibility of future "worst events." 

 

In February, 1977, The Horn Book, a magazine devoted to literature for children, published an article by Eric A. Kimmel, with the title “Confronting the Ovens.” Kimmel laid out a taxonomy for children’s literature about the Holocaust, a genre that was then in its infancy. 

 

If the Holocaust could be pictured as a descending order of circles with the concentration camps at the very center, we should start with books dealing with the themes in the outer circles and move inwards.

 

EXAMPLES:

 

If you are going to read a Holocaust book with a child, here are a few things to keep in mind: 

• Remember that it is not necessary for children to know the whole story all at once. They will learn the whole story eventually. 
• Start with stories of rescuers or survivors with intact, loving families. Formal study of the victims will come later in Middle and High School. 
• Do not ask “How do you think you would feel?” Trying to make children put themselves emotionally in the place of the victims is unnecessary and traumatic. It is better to try to get children to empathize with the victims. Instead ask, “How do you think they felt?”

So why do I continue to read “through children’s eyes”? Because reading these books remind me:

• That personal risk may be necessary in order to stand up and do what is right. 
• That one person can make a difference. 
• That history repeats when people don't learn and understand the past! 

To commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day this year, I read, and I encourage you to read:

The Brave Princess and Me by Kathy Kacer, illustrated by Juliana Kolesova. (Fiction, Picture book, Ages 7-10)

In 1943, the German army occupied Greece. In spite of great risk,  Princess Alice offered shelter in her home to Greek Jewish refugees. One day Tilde Cohen and her mother, Rachel, arrive unannounced on Princess Alice's doorstep, begging her to shelter them, and the princess's kindness is put to the test. The afterword has photos of the real Princess Alice with her great-grandson Prince William visiting Yad Vashem, and makes clear what parts of the story are fact and what’s fiction. 

Masters of Silence by Kathy Kacer (Fiction, Chapter book, Ages 8-12)

A page-turner about Helen and Henry, two German Jewish siblings. Their mother hides them with sympathetic nuns in a French orphanage. Traumatized, Henry withdraws and refuses to speak, perking up only when a local mime visits. When someone informs the Nazis about the hidden children, the mime—who turns out to be Marcel Marceau—ushers the children to freedom through the woods, over the Jura Mountains and into Switzerland. An afterword explains that the real Marcel Marceau worked with the French Resistance and led Jews with false papers to the Swiss border.

My Survival: A Girl on Schindler’s List by Rena Findler, with Joshua M. Greene, (Non-fiction, Chapter book, Ages 10-13).

This is a straightforward memoir by a woman who, with her mother, worked as a preteen and teenager for Oskar Schindler’s munitions and kitchenware factory. Rena and her mom are deported to Auschwitz, but Schindler saved them, along with his other Jewish workers. Rena’s voice is direct and candid. Her memoir is a gripping story of survival, perseverance, tragedy, and hope.

White Bird by R.J. Palacio, (Fiction, Graphic Novel, Ages 12-16).

**Movie version, starring Helen Mirren, to be released September, 2022.**

A boy, Julian, has to write a report for school about his family. The story begins with Julian speaking to his beloved Grandmère over FaceTime. He asks her to share her experiences of growing up in France during World War II. His Jewish grandmother, Sara Blum, relates how she was hidden by a family in a Nazi-occupied French village. She tells how the boy she and her classmates once shunned because he was crippled by Polio, became her savior and best friend. Sara's harrowing experience demonstrates the power of kindness to change hearts, build bridges and even save lives.

While not graphically illustrated, people are murdered. Also, some adult readers objected to a panel that included an illustration of protests against the Trump administration family separation policy. It is not a comparison to the Holocaust, but a reminder for us to look at the family separation policy (and others) through children’s eyes and to use our First Amendment rights to speak out against inhumane government policies. 

The book also includes an author’s note, glossary, suggested reading list, list of organizations and resources, bibliography, and photographs.

We may never grasp the true horror experienced by Holocaust victims and survivors. But at least we’ve learned how to listen to their stories and, perhaps, view their experience through children’s eyes.

To Learn More:

Holocaust Survivor Testimonies

How Much Should We Tell the Children?

Representations of the Holocaust in Children’s Literature