Re: Was WWII more than the Holocaust?
mary jo hangartner (mhangartner@TURKEY-V.K12.IA.US)
Sun, 26 Apr 1998 23:14:23 +0100
To Pat Senneville:
I am an 8th grade Language Arts teacher who teaches literature set during
the time of WWII, especially THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, as the play is in my
8th grade textbook. I, too, worry that I am focusing only on the
Holocaust, a subject which my students have already learned a good deal
about in elementary school. Over the years, I have chosen to focus on a
young person's view of the war, and have assigned my students a project in
which they must interview or read of a person who was young, 10-25, during
WWII. They must then come back to class and orally, before a video camera,
tell for the class that person's story. By sharing those stories, we get
into many aspects of the war in Europe and the Pacific as well as on the
homefront.
My own father served as a ball turret gunner on a B17 during 1943 and 1944.
He was stationed in England. He never talked about his war experiences
until the movie MEMPHIS BELLE (the Hollywood version) came out. In order
to model for my students what I want them to do, I retell his story and we
also watch the movie. The language is a little rough so I use the
edited-for-television version. Even though my dad's story is an exciting
one to tell (Although he does not especially enjoy talking about it, and
has refused to come to my classes to speak.), I point out to my students
that my mother's is just as helpful, as we learn what it was like on the
homefront when she was just 13 and 14 years old.
Another resource that I would like to recommend is the book BESSARABIAN
KNIGHT, written by Immanuel Weiss, a Rumanian immigrant who now lives in
our area, but who was forced as a young man to join Hitler's army when his
country was taken over. I have the book at home and I am at school right
now, so I can email you more specifics on the publisher if you would like.
One of my students interviewed him personally several years ago, and she
allowed me to listen to the tape recording which contained far more
information than her 8th grade classemates would have had the patience to
listen to.
Even this list-serv has been a tremendous resource for my students, as some
of them have chosen to correspond with subscribers and then retell his/her
stories to their classmates. Tom Holloway has been very helpful in
connecting us with subscribers who we want to talk to. We really have
gotten away, I feel, from the emphasis on the Holocaust, and more on how
everyone was effected. When I am lucky enough to get a Social Studies
teacher who wants to integrate units of study, we can figure out how all of
these stories fit into the time line of WWII.
We are working on this unit right now in my classes. I am excited to hear
what and who my students choose to tell us about this year.