Teaching About the Holocaust

Last week, a choosy sixth grade girl came back for something to read.  Evelyn is not an especially strong reader, but she has been straining at the traces, dying to read upper school titles like Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why (a heartbreaking story of a teen suicide) or Lauren Myracle's ttfn (high school girls experiment with marijuana and get into sexually precarious situations).  We have worked all year to keep Evelyn in our elementary library: our school wants 6th graders to have a chance to be kids. Happily, we were able to divert her. She has devoured the Lauren Myracle titles for younger kids and enjoyed edgy mysteries and horror fiction by Willo Davis Roberts, Mary Downing Hahn, Bette Ben Wright and Neil Gaiman. I can see her becoming a much stronger reader because of the quantity of age-appropriate books she enjoys. I was ready with some new suggestions but she told me her father had said she had to read The Diary of Anne Frank.

Reluctantly, I retrieved it from the  junior high collection.  This is a book that is near the top of my list, What Not To Read (in elementary school), where I note that entire conferences are held on how to introduce young children to the concept of the Holocaust. The nature of evil gets to the heart of questions about what it is to be human. Children should build up to this devastating diary with any of the exquisite, sensitive novels or memoirs about the Holocaust that feature children who survive.  It's awfully hard for elementary-age children to invest deeply in, and identify with, a character who doesn't survive. (For eloquent and in-depth explorations of teaching the Holocaust, visit the website of the United States Holocaust Museum.)  

I asked Evelyn, "Have you read Number the Stars? Stones in Water? The Island on Bird Street? The Devil's Arithmetic?  Four Perfect Pebbles?"   No, she hadn't read any of them but those weren't titles her father told her to read. Evelyn took Anne Frank.  She returned it the next day, saying it was too hard.

Meanwhile, I offered Evelyn some picture books that would be a thoughtful path into the topic, stories in which individuals act selflessly and with integrity.  Here are some of my favorites:

Passage to Freedom by Ken Mochizuki, the true story of the Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who risked his job to sign thousands of visas to help Jews escape via Japan.



Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto by Susan Goldman Rubin, a biography of a determined Polish social worker who used ingenious measures to save the lives of four hundred children. 




The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Saved Jews During the Holocaust by Karen Gray Ruelle, in which the imam and other Muslims whisked Jews to the south of France and hid Jewish children among their own.  



The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark by Carmen Agra Deedy. Although a legend, this story of solidarity with Jewish Danes has one solid fact behind it: nobody turned their neighbors over to the Nazis in Denmark.

Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terezin by Susan Goldman Rubin, a biography of a renowned artist who chose to accompany children to a concentration camp and help them create art during their tragic time there. 




A Hero and the Holocaust: The Story of Janusz Korczak and His Children, by David Adler, a biography of the Jewish doctor, author and founder of orphanages who gave his life trying to protect his orphans. 




Unfortunately I couldn't get Evelyn to bite: she can't afford the loss of prestige to be seen with a picture book, least of all around her father. At least for now.  But another child comes to mind from many years past, an 11-year old who read everything our elementary library had, especially the picture books, on the subject.  One day she sighed and said, "I just love the Holocaust."  And it was my privilege to work with her too, gently helping her moderate her language while encouraging her to pursue her interest.  Right now she's about old enough to be a Ph.D. candidate in history.

Anybody have any favorite picture books on the Holocaust? Stories of helping children learn about the unfathomable? Please share by clicking the comment button below.