Our Study of Night by Elie Wiesel, Part 1 - Introduction

THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
THEN THEY CAME for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
THEN THEY CAME for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

- Martin Niemoeller, a Lutheran minister

Part 1 – The Role of Tenacity, Resiliency and Hope – Child Survivors and the Need to Be Heard

We will begin the unit with stories of the Children of the Holocaust. Most of the stories are those about children who survived the Holocaust. Some are stories about how children died. Each student will be given a story and a form to create short summaries, as well as their answers to the over-arching questions about their experiences.

We will begin with a discussion over the following points:

Pre- Reading:
1. What elements do children need to succeed (e.g., good home, loving parents, stable environment, praise to build self-esteem)?
2. What are some vital physical components and emotional components?
3. What might be the immediate consequences of depriving children of these elements?
4. What might some of the long-term consequences be?


Children of the Holocaust Activity:

Each person in the class has been given a story about a child who experienced the Holocaust. There is some duplication. You need to read the story you were given and then visit with other people in the class about the stories they have. You need to write a very brief summary for at least 5 survivors and 2 children who perished. The children are:
Ursula Adler
Anne Berkovitz
Harry Bibring
Helga Carden
Anna
Alex Groth
Hedy
Kayla
Alfred Ament
Augusta Feldhorn
Jacqueline Morgenstern
Bronislaw Honig
Eva and Abraham Beem
Carlos D’Angeli

We will then have the following discussion:
• Despite differences in age, what features did most of the children have in common?
• How did each child attempt to cope with his or her circumstances and the problems he or she faced?
• Does being hidden away from one's family make a difference in how each child coped?
• What do you think was crucial to the survival of each child?
• What similarities did you see between the stories of the children who did not survive?

The stories and an adapted form of the questions came from the following web sites:
http://www.adl.org/children_holocaust/teach_after6.asp
http://holocaust-children.tripod.com/

A Short Introduction to the novel, the author and his Nobel Peace Prize:
I will tell the students a bit about Elie Weisel and his experience, including the process of writing the novel. Then we will read his acceptance speech for his Nobel Peace Prize. It can be found at:
http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/nobelprizespeech.aspx

Then we discuss:
 Why did Mr. Weisel feel the need to tell his story?
 According to him, what does neutrality do?
 What does Mr.Weisel call us to do?
 What do you think is the main message of this speech?