Unit 1: Human Rights
Chapter 1: The Holocaust
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Educator ToolsAsk yourself:
This chapter examines the Holocaust through a survivor’s story retold by a close relative. The horror of this historical crime is revealed as we encounter the events in the life of Evie Abeles. This is followed by a timeline of the events leading up to the Holocaust, and a summary of the Jewish population in the countries involved in the Holocaust. Max Eisen – Holocaust survivorThis really happened!The Story of Evie Abelesby Joan O’Callaghan The china cabinet in my dining room houses a collection of delicate little dishes. Made of porcelain and hand-painted with colorful scenes reminiscent of fairy tales and the innocence of childhood, they are intended to be used by little girls hosting tea parties for dolls and for friends. The dishes come from Bohemia, where they were made, probably in the 1920s or 1930s. A photograph of the owner of the dishes sits nearby. It is an old photograph, taken in 1939. She is a pretty little girl, twelve years of age. Her hair, the color and texture of corn silk, is pulled back from her forehead, and cut evenly below the ears. She is squinting a little into the sun. But there is something unusual about the photograph, a note which jars the senses. It is the dress she is wearing. An ordinary dress in every respect—except for the large Star of David stitched on the front. Her name was Evie and she was Jewish. In the Czechoslovakia of 1939, there was no place for little girls with corn silk hair and hand-painted dolls’ dishes, if they happened to be Jewish. Evie is dead. Branded by the insignia on her little dress, she was rounded up, along with her parents, and taken to Auschwitz, where she died. Evie was my first cousin, but I never knew her. She died before I was born. I don’t know exactly when she died, or how. But I do know where she died. And why. Rumors of Nazi war criminals and collaborators hiding out in Canada and living the good life here have abounded for years. Finally now the Canadian government has decided to move on some of these people and has stripped them of their Canadian citizenship. They will be shipped back to their countries of origin to confront their own pasts. Old sick men. Outraged family and neighbors. Leave them in peace. “What does it matter what happened seventy years ago?” is the indignant question posed by letters to the editor in newspapers across the country. “He’s not going anywhere,” Helmut Oberlander’s lawyer, Eric Hafemann huffed to the media. There is a certain irony and double standard to these protests. Here in Toronto, citizens are reeling after two weeks of violence. Torontonians were shocked by the cold-blooded murder of 15-year-old Jordan Manners in the hallway of C. W. Jeffreys High School and are calling for better security and other measures in our schools to prevent a repeat of this tragedy. When they turned on the news at night they saw footage of the trial of Daniel Sylvester, convicted of murdering his neighbour Alicia Ross because she called him a loser. Young people, both of them, Alicia Ross and Jordan Manners, with dreams and aspirations for a life they would never live. Tragedies that outrage any human being with a sense of decency. The citizens of Toronto are right to take the Manners shooting and Sylvester trial to heart and to insist that justice be vigorously pursued. But trials and convictions will not bring back Jordan or Alicia, so vengeance can hardly be a factor in bringing their killers to trial. Then why bother? Should we bother pursuing the murderer of Jordan Manners, and at the same time continue to cast a blind eye on those same old sick men, who for seventy years have succeeded in concealing their pasts and living the good life that Canada has to offer? The answer must be a resounding “yes”. We have an obligation to pursue the sick old men with the same vigor that we pursue the murderers of Jordan Manners and Alicia Ross. Not because bringing them to justice will miraculously restore Evie and the other six million victims to life; or even from a sense of carefully nurtured vengeance. Not at all. We do this in the name of the kind of society that we as Canadians are trying to create, for ourselves, and more importantly, for our children. Canadians want a society that is safe, decent, and just. But for whom? For some people and not for others? Is our society to be a twist on Orwell’s Animal Farm, where some are held accountable but not others? Is it right and proper to bring Daniel Sylvester to trial, but not to deport Nazi war criminals whose records bespeak deception and complicity in those heinous events? Is it right and proper to bring a suspect to trial for crimes committed three years ago, but if a suspect has succeeded in eluding justice for seventy years, should he be rewarded by being left in peace? Is a murder committed in Toronto more of a murder than a murder committed in a hell called Auschwitz many thousands of miles away? Is it acceptable to sit in the House of Commons and pass laws for the good government of this country, but apply them to some people and not others? In other words, is justice some sort of a sliding scale or is it a constant? Our complacency; our distaste for making a fuss; our lace-curtain gentility and well-bred antisemitism are now being brought home to us in more ways than one. The proliferation of racist incidents and the glorification of violence have forced schools to move these issues to the top of their agendas. This is a sad comment on our society. If racial tolerance and appropriate behaviors were taught in the home, it would not be necessary to address them in schools. But children learn from the example set by their parents. Right wing groups, white supremacists, and Holocaust deniers have read the Canadian psyche very well. That is why they are flourishing here. They know full well that there is a significant number of Canadians who do not want these issues examined, because it might mean revelations that are unpleasant for themselves, their friends and families. And this poses a significant danger to us all. And that is why we must pursue these sick old men. We need to wipe the slate clean for our children. We need to set an example for them. How hypocritical to teach tolerance in schools, but to turn around and let the sick old men off the hook, for no other reason than that they have succeeded in deceiving their neighbors for seventy glorious years!! We need to show our youth by our own actions that murder is not a sliding scale, that a truly just society continues to pursue and expose those who have blood on their hands, however well-hidden, regardless of where those crimes took place, and when. There are no rewards for deception or for longevity. I have no pity for the sick old men. These same old men were once young men, strong, cruel, and unprincipled. They took advantage of their youth and strength to victimize the weak ones among them, the minorities, those who didn’t “belong.” They have lived long, full lives, here in Canada. But the piper must now be paid, and the past has to be confronted. Had Evie lived, she would be in her seventies. Perhaps she would even now be watching her own grandchildren staging tea parties with the little hand-painted dishes. But Evie lies somewhere in Poland, in an unmarked grave with thousands of others like her. Her little dishes and a faded photograph are her only legacy. ACTION 1DoWhen a child’s life is cut short
DiscussProsecution of Nazi war criminals
DoCan we create a just and moral society?
History of the Holocaust – Timeline
ACTION 2DoLiving Graph templateLook at the events of each year in the timeline. Place a dot on the above graph to represent the level of intolerance displayed. Link the dots to form a line graph. ACTION 3DoLiving Graph in your perspectiveFor each year displayed in the timeline, look at an event from around the world related to the theme of intolerance. Construct a living graph to compare levels of intolerance towards minority groups (Aboriginals, Blacks, Jews, etc.,) to the levels displayed towards Jews in Germany during the Nazi period. Can the rest of the world be proud or ashamed of this record during this period? ACTION 4DiscussThinking consequencesThe timeline above concludes with the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Was this creation a direct result of the Holocaust or were there other reasons as well? ACTION 5ThinkThinking in time and placeThis is a list of the countries where Jews were living and therefore targeted during the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942. The conference was for the organization and implementation of the “Final Solution”. This document is taken from the book Nazism, edited by Noakes and Pridham. The book indicates that this list was included in the official minutes of the meeting, page 537. Also look at: www.aish.com JEWISH PEOPLE
ACTION 6DoSimon Wiesenthal, Nazi HunterRead about Simon Wiesenthal. ACTION 7DoMarch of the Livinghttps://motl.org 12 Goals of the March of the Living
Copyright March of the Living Canada 2011-2012 DoA New Generation of WitnessesFew Holocaust Survivors are still living and soon there will be none left to give first-hand accounts. What can you do to preserve their memories? Read the book “Witness – Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations.” Witness – Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New GenerationsCompiled by Eli Rubenstein Recommended readingArato, Rona The Last Train, 2013 Bennett, Cherie and Jeff Gottesfield Anne Frank and Me, 2002 Birnie, Lisa In Mania’s Memory, 2012 Boyne, John The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, 2006 Corell, Dana Fitzwater.My Mother’s Ring: A Holocaust historical novel, 2013 de Rosnay, Tatiana Sarah’s Key, 2008 Feldman, Ellen The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank: a novel, 2006 Gallaz, Christophe; Illus. Robert Innocenti. Rose Blanche, 1985 Hart-Green, Sharon Come Back for Me: A Novel, 2017 Spinelli, Jerry Milkweed, 2003 Voorhoeve, Anne. C. My Family for the War, 2012 Watts, Irene N. Touched by Fire, 2013 Zusak, Markus The Book Thief, 2006 Every effort has been made to gain permission from copyright holders to reproduce borrowed material. The publishers apologize for any errors and will be pleased to rectify them in subsequent reprints and website programming Educator ToolsOther chapters on Human Rights: |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||