Sarah

Hi,

I'm in the Holocaust Education in the United States and Germany Group. Down below are some sites that I'm looking at for my project. In our group we are looking at the theoretical approach to teahing the Holocaust, as well as the application of teaching it in real curriculums, and also different new methods used for teaching the Holocaust. We will also focus on how it has changed over time and look at education in the middle school/ high school levels.

 

Project Page

Holocaust Education in the United States and Germany

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Teaching about the Holocaust includes a section of "Guidelines for Teaching about the Holocaust.

www.holocaust-trc.org/uhmmmguides.htm 

Holocaust Video Game?

www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/10/technology/10nintendo.php

Article about Think.MTV.com Holocaust Commercials directed at teens

www.huffingtonpost.com/derek-beres/mtv-recreates-the-holocau_b_94725.html

 

 

Journal

March 10, 2008

 

     Right now I am in front of the Reichstag. I don't think I've seen such a huge building before. It's kind of embarrassing to be at Germany's parliment right now, just because I have never actually been to the United States' capital and people around me seem to be comparing the two. I don't know if the buildings in Washington D.C. have this affect but I feel pretty small standing on it's steps. The Reichstag is definitely instilling a feeling of stength and power. It is also full of a feeling of a long and great history with it's carvings along the top as well as the fact that this is one of the few older buildings I have seen here in Berlin. The top of the Reichstag and inside completely contrasts with the outside of the building with its modern architecture style. Although it seems pretty bizarre for me at first, the more I think about it the more blending of styles seems appropriate for the capital building. It is blending the old history with new, remembering but at the same time looking toward a new future. I think it's great that they are allowing visitors onto the roof and walk around the cone of democracy as I want to call it. I don't know exactly what I was expecting to see in a German government building, but I was suprised at the extent to which they were self concious about their past. So much so that it affects even the styles of their buildings which are all made with lots of windows to give a sense of transparency into the government.

 

     Before we went to the Reichstag we also stopped to see an old WWII memorial created by the Soviet Union. Even if I had not  noticed the Russian writing right away I would immediately been able to tell that this was a Soviet monument. The grand pillars and the huge stern-looking soldier are easily recognized as Stalinist. It is pretty amazing to think that such a monument is still around in Berlin. Its presence makes such a statement with the scary looking Russian soldier towering over you.  He seems to be looking down almost pointing at you saying, "I am the conqueror and I am watching you." This is a type of monument that I have never thought of while living in America. A monument celebrating an outside nation's control over you. Not only is this monument a reminder of that fact, but the Germans have to pay for it's upkeep still.

 

         While in Unter den Linden we stop and look at the Neue Wache Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Tyranny. The title pretty much sums up what to expect from the monument. That it is a monument acknowleging that something bad happened and that there is a need for atoning/commemorating that loss, but is not yet ready to confront the full extent of which the Holocaust was part of the tyranny. Even though it doesn't specifically mention the loss of Jewish life, it is a beautifully mournful space with a mother is crying in a dark quiet room with the only light coming from a small hole in the ceiling. One of the most interesting things I found about this monument was the many transformations that it went through, reflecting Germany's coming to terms with the Holocaust as part of their history. According to the information given at the monument: it was first built in 1816-1818 on behalf of the Prussian king, in 1931 the Prussian Government turned it into a WWI memorial, then in 1960 the GDR made it a memorial to the victims of fasicm and militarism, and finally in 1969 they added dirt from a concentration camp.

 

     Lastly we went to the Jewish Museum. I am not sure how I feel about this museum. I know it is very important that this museum located in Berlin make a strong point of remembering the Holocaust, but I feel that Jewish death in the musuem overshadowed Jewish life. In order to get to the exhibits one has to travel through the basement which is dedicated to the Holocaust, and there is nothing wrong with this but for the fact that this is the mindframe that you have already been given before you even look at the contributions of Jews and learn about Jewish life. I found that compared to the exhibit on the Holocaust, the part on Jewish life in the museum was cramped and underwhelming. In fact I kept looking for the old museum thinking that there was more to the museum, only to find that the old museum functioned as a lobby and giftshop.

 

March 11, 2008

Berlin Memorial to the Murderd Jews of Europe

 

     I have mixed feelings about this memorial. I feel bad that I found my mind wandering at different points during the walk through this abstract memorial, instead of focusing on the loss of Jewish life in Germany. The top part of this memorial is so abstract and left to interpretation compared to the Jewish Museum which really made sure to spell out everything for you. What I did feel, and I'm not sure if this is waht the architect had in mind, was a sensation of floating around in the open sea. At first the pillars are thigh high and then you slowly wade in. This sensation is heightened by the fact that the pillars vary in size and the ground rolls; it is like being in waves. Slowly, very gradually, you find that you are in over your head and it is dark all around you. The pillars now tower over you and as you look up at the sky it seems as if it is from the bottom of the sea. I'm not saying that I could ever identify with what the victims of the Holocaust had gone through, but the further I got into the space, the more it made me think.

          

     It was also intersting to note the different reactions to the memorial by the other visitors. There were alot of people that seemed introspective, but there were also those that were not. I remember hearing a girl saying, "this has got to be the ugliest memorial I've seen." It seemed she was focusing on the ascetics of the monument and not on its meanings or what she felt. There was also  group of businessmen that cut across on their way to get lunch. The weirdest for me was the group of tourist students who where playing tag in the memoreial and running around laughing. This is why I was glad for the museum underground. I found this museum to be really well done. It had all the elements that I would think to put in a Holocaust museum: a timeline giving a historic overview of what happened and demonstrating the snowballing tragic progression of events that made sure to report how great the loss was, personal narratives, letters sent from the ghettos and the camps, and personal looks at different families of all differnt backgrounds and from different places. What realy struck me the most was the room that had the projections of the letters from the camps on the ground. I think that of the personal accounts of the Holocaust that I have read, most if not all, are from survivors. To read the letters that were full of such hopelessness, and for me to know that they most likely had died and been right in their feeling of hoplessness, was hard to take. This part of the monument was a place of mourning and rememberance, and had a personal touch about it that I felt that the abstract monument on top was missing.

 

March 12, 2008

Grunewald Train Station Memorial

 

     I found this memorial pretty interesting, in that it didn't seem so removed from daily life. All of the other memorials might have been in the center of the city, but for me they seemed to make themselves very distinct from the buildings around them (excluding the steet signs memorial). This memorial was kind of removed, but at the same time it seemed the most normal? or everyday? I don't know how to explain it but it seemed the least conscious of its own existence as a memorial, like you could just stumble upoin it. It really did look like another track and the only think that set it apart was at the entrance up to the track there was a small sign, which in itself wasn't very distinctive. I liked that aspect becaue you dont have to get into a certain mind frame before even stepping foot on the memorial. The stumbling upon aspect was in the same way interesting to me because Germans at the time of the Holocaust could have stumbled upon the deportations going on here. It was a functioning tract that was in view from houses. I really liked how preserved and understated it was because it shows how some aspects of the Holocaust, no matter how horrible and hard it is to believe, really did happen in the middle of everyday life. Looking at some of the other memorials they seem so out of reality, or the everydady, that they make it hard to believe that everyday life was continuing on while the Holocaust was happening.

 

March 13, 2008

Halberstadt

 

The first thing I thought of upon entering the village of Halberstadt was pretty embarrassing, all I could think of driving up to the tiny old town was how cute it was and how much it reminded me of the town in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" was set (I realize now editing this entry that it was set in France not Germany). However cute I found the town, I remembered the purpose for our visit here and realized that beneath this town's cute exterior there was a darker past and that it was also touched by the darkness that was the Holocaust. Walking around the town and hearing its history really shows that the Jewish community was established there for hundreds of years, but I guess that was true for most of Germany, only the evidence of Jewish existance has long been destroyed. The fact that this museum/monument is in a small town allows it to have interesting developements that the bigger cities' monuments cannot do. One thing is that it tells the history of the Holocaust in the context of the town and is able to track its many small changes before, during, and after. This also allows for stories like that of the housekeeper that kept the synagogue form being burned down, or the contributions that Bernard Laymond had done for the Jewish community, to be passed down. All of these small details give the museum here a personal feel. The size of the village also allows for the museum to track the fate of its Jewish members fate and allows the present community to experience the loss the Holocaust gave on a local level, like the naming of the school after a Jewish child. It's really amazing the initiative of the German's to remember and come to terms with their past. That so many small towns have their own forms of memorialization to the Holocaust. It also makes me a little ashamed that this progress cannont be seen in many places in Amereica that have been sites of violence against Native Amerians or slaves.

 

     This was my first kosher meal and I was a little nervous. It seems weird to think, especially considering I go to Vassar with a high Jewish population, that I don't know what is included in a kosher meal or what it means for food to be kosher. I've said that I've never had matzo ball soup here and have recieved some surprised looks. It  was so delicious and by far the best meal in Berlin so far. Latter I'm told that it wasn't a completely kosher meal and that the family that had cooked it was Russian. I was wondering that during the meal because alot ot the food reminded me of the food at the Russian Christmas party in Chicago Hall that I had gone to not so long ago. It just serves to remind me of how many Jewish people were in Europe and in how many differnt places they had lived.

March 14, 2008

Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp

 

  I have never been to a concentration camp before and I was a little unsure of what to expect. I guess I was expecting to feel a deep emotional connection with the place. I didn't feel disappointed when this didn't happen because I was not really sure if I really wanted to feel anything akin to that experience. I also did not want to feel identification with the victims there because it would feel somehow cheap or a sham; because I knew I would never be able to wrap my head around what they went through. Just standing in the cold weather and rain without my umbrella had me miserable. I do not think I would be able to fully comprehend what it would be like to be there in only a old camp uniform and not be able to look forward to when I could net get out of the elements. For me I found that it was the stories that the guide told that really affected me, and not the remains of some broken down concentration camp. Although I would not really want to see a concentration camp in pristine condition either. I think that the physical presence is still important in Holocaust memorials because it shows some physical proof that can give legitimacy to the stories and show that the Holocaust really happened and happened here. I think this approach might work better for some people but for me the stories of the women and especially of the babies got to me, so much so that I can't really allow myself to dwell on it now and it seems somewhat surreal. This is probably because in my mind the teratment of women and children hold some sacred place, it's a little hard to explain.

 

     Anouther thing that I found particularly interesting was that the first exhibition the new administration has been focusing on was the women guards. This was another example in Germany of trying to confront the past, but this time through examining the perpetrators. I can see how this approach might be controversial, but I think that it might be interesting, like the guide said, for not just the Germans, but for everyone to ask the question while viewing the exhibit, "How would I feel if this was my grandmother?" The responses might be complex and hopefully stimulation. I remember when in the fifth grade my American History grades started slipping because when we learned about the trail of tears and the plight of the Native American's I thought this was not the work of my family. We were part of Mexico and had Indian backgroud ourselves. Although I know it now, I was unable to grasp the complexity in dealing with national guilt and the history of this tragedy. I had completely shut myself off from dealing with it and the lessons that I could have learned at the time. That is why I think it was a great idea for everyone to ask themselves the question posed by the guide when looking at the female guard exhibit.