The Girl in the Green Sweater

The Girl in the Green Sweater by Krystyna Chiger and Daniel Paisner is the true story of a girl and her family who lived for 14 months hiding from the Nazis in an underground sewer in Lvov, Ukraine.  She tells of the techniques she used to hide herself and her brother when Nazis stormed through their house, how her father taught her how to read and write in the sewers, and how Leopold Socha, a Polish Catholic, brought them the necessities.  I thought it was interesting that the actual sweater is an exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.  

Anne Frank

How can you ignore the story of Anne Frank? 

My family has always gone to a lot of plays; I remember being in late elementary school or early middle school and going to the play, "Anne Frank."  I asked my mom on our way there what the play would be about.  She gave me a quick synopsis of the story, which is where my fascination for the Holocaust began. 

After seeing the show, I kept thinking, "That could have been me!"  I put myself in Anne's situation.  What would it be like to give up all my friends, not go to school, eat the same things all the time, stay perfectly quiet all day everyday?  And after all that, still to have your family taken from you?  As an adolescent, I couldn't possible fathom what she went through.  But as a young girl, I felt so much sorrow for her.

While these kids won't endure what Anne Frank did, I think it is a mind opening novel.  It gives children an opportunity to put themselves in that situation and really think about what that would be like.

Favorite Childhood Folktale

When asked my favorite childhood folktale, my immediate thought was "Tikki Tikki Tembo" written by Arlene Mosel.  I think the reason it sticks out in my mind is because as a child I thought the boy's name "Tikki Tikki Tembo-no Sa Rembo-chari Bari Ruchi-pip Peri Pembo" was very catchy.  I remember the whole class reciting it along with our teacher each time it's said in the story.  I also remember feeling sorry for the brother; why should he have been treated any differently than the oldest?  As the youngest in my own family, I then felt triumph for the little brother at the end when it worked out well to have the shorter name.

This book's illustrations stood out to me as a child as well.  It was such a change from the pictures in most of the books that we read.  Rather than splashes of many colors like we're so used to, Blair Lent uses mostly blues, greens, and yellows.  The pictures looked much more old fashioned to me as a child, making this book different from so many others.

Holocaust Folktale

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy

This fairytale was written as the story of Hansel and Gretel but tells the story of two siblings who escape from the Nazis during the Holocaust in Poland.  It is the story of how the two children are forced to leave their father and stepmother and survive on their own in the forest while there is horror going on around them. 

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

This book is a rendition of "Sleeping Beauty."  A grandmother, who tells her three granddaughters the same bedtime story every night, had lived in Germany during the Holocaust.  She, along with many others, were taken in a truck and "gassed."  Everyone died but her.  When Josef, also a target of the Holocaust, came across the pile of dead bodies, he noticed that she was still breathing.  He gave her "the kiss of life" allowing her to get married, have kids, and live a somewhat normal life.

Mara's Stories: Glimmers in the Darkness by Gary Schmidt

What is one to do to pass the time in a concentration camp?  A young girl named Mara tells stories to the women and children.  The stories are folktales she tells are about the gathering of the Jews, the camps, and the gas chambers.  She also tells of Jewish traditions, from legends of magic and swindler’s tales to prayers.

Thematic Topic

After looking through the options of topics a few peaked my interest.  My strongest reaction was in favor of studying the Holocaust.  Although I feel that sometimes this may be overdone, it is something I've always been interested in.  I've already read so many sad but wonderful books on the topic and I look forward to finding more.

I will target this unit for children in grades 6-8 although I think the topic of the Holocaust could go all the way through high school.  It's such a huge topic that I would love to spend a semester or even a year on it.  The Holocaust is about discrimination, segregation, bullying (an understatement to say the least), etc.  The Jews could be related to any other group of people; African Americans, Women, Homosexuals, any non-Christian religion, and the list goes on and on.  This topic is about Genocide and the awful things that happened to the Jews so many years ago; but it's also about what still happens to anyone who is a little bit different today and everyday.

From this unit, I want children to take away the main events of the Holocaust; who was involved, why it happened, what the people went through, etc.  But I also want them to understand that the reason these people were tortured was because they were different; not because they did anything wrong.  I want them to realize that, while it's not always to the same degree, people are hurt everyday just because they are different.  Hopefully they will leave with an understanding of the damage that can be done by "bullying" someone because they are different.