Kristallnacht Commemoration

November 9, 2010
7:30 p.m.

Lewis and Shirley White Theatre
Jewish Community Campus
5801 West 115th Street
Overland Park, Kansas

The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, in partnership with the University of Missouri-Kansas City conservatory of Music presents Different Trains, a multi-media concert to commemorate the 72nd anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Different Trains is a Grammy award winning musical composition created by noted minimalist composer Steve Reich and performed by an ensemble from the conservatory. It is a deeply personal work, evoking the contrast between the trains of the composer’s childhood in 1940s America and the very “different trains” that carried European Jews to the death camps during the same period.

A "conductor's talk" about the genesis and creation of the musical piece as well as readings from first-person accounts focusing on the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in Germany (1933-1939) will precede the performance.

The event is free and open to the public.Contact Fran Sternberg at 913-327-8194 or program@mchekc.org for your complimentary tickets.

The White Rose and introducing the contest

Several years ago, when I first presented the White Rose Student Essay Contest to my 8^th grade language arts class, the students began their research with different motivations. Some began earnestly devoted to the topic, while others focused on the competition aspect or grade. The next year, I decided to change my approach. I offered the White Rose Essay Contest as an option for a research project, as opposed to a requirement. This way, I hoped that the students choosing to work on the project did so because they were interested in the topic. Honestly, I was still not satisfied with this approach.

Suddenly, I decided that perhaps students needed to understand more about the people this contest commemorates. The next year, I presented students with the following quote, "An end in terror is preferable to terror without end." – Sophie Scholl.

We discussed the quote and I took the time introducing information about The White Rose, who they were and what they represented, as well as their fate. Obviously, the students were shocked by the extreme response to freedom of speech. Many of the students expressed a more genuine interest in the purpose of this essay contest.

I no longer teach language arts, however, at one time I had thought about having a parent-student evening. I considered showing the movie, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. (It is important to note that this is not a documentary, but rather a haunting dramatization of the final six days of Scholl’s life, from arrest to trial and sentence. This video is available from the MCHE Resource Center.) I felt this might be a good opportunity for students to have dialogue with their parents, as well as recruit parent support for their project.

Overall, I think the White Rose Essay contest provides a wonderful opportunity for students and I feel it gives them the opportunity to reflect on their own responsibilities as young people.

Resources:
http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/faq/languages/en/04/02/verdict.php
http://www.sophieschollmovie.com/

Join MCHE at Teacher Appreciation Day

The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education is pleased to take part in the first annual Museum Educators Roundtable Teacher Appreciation Day.

Sunday, August 8, 2010
12:00-4:00 p.m.


National World War I Museum
100 W. 26th Street  Kansas City, Missouri

• Pick up information about the 2010-2011 White Rose Student Essay Contest
• Learn about the Witnesses to the Holocaust Archive featuring local survivor testimonies
• Learn about 10 Misconceptions about the Holocaust
• Learn about MCHE's free lending library
• Meet representatives from other area educational centers and museums
• FREE WWI museum admission for teachers with ID!

The Myth of Never Again

The following is an editorial written by former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski in response to Kofi Annan's concern about the focus of Holocaust education:
_________________________________________________________________________________
In an article on June 18, Kofi Annan, the former secretary general of the United Nations, wrote that the teaching of the Holocaust should focus more on preventing ethnic conflict and genocide. 
 
Before questioning the value of Holocaust education,one should first address its goals:

What, exactly, are we trying to achieve in teaching about the Holocaust? Is it realistic to expect that the study of the Holocaust will diminish human rights abuses and racism, and instead nurture democracy and tolerance? Will mixing the narrative of the Holocaust with other types of atrocities really encourage better human behavior?

Accumulated experience from the field has proven that there are no short cuts. A trip to Auschwitz does not suddenly turn visitors into noble humanitarians. An hour’s lesson on the Holocaust will certainly not prevent the next Rwanda or Darfur.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE

CLICK HERE TO READ KOFI ANNAN'S ARTICLE

What to cover? A case for studying the Einsatzgruppen

When teaching about the Holocaust most teachers face the difficult task of deciding what topics to cover. Whether students have any previous knowledge adds to the difficulty of deciding. Also whether the topic and materials are age appropriate must be considered. If the students have no background or very little then you probably will focus on giving a broader overview of the Holocaust. But if the students have enough of the basic information then the focus can shift to more specific topics. All of this must be considered within the time available to teach the Holocaust. For most of us that can be measured in days not weeks.

I am lucky to teach seniors in International Baccalaureate History. This means they come into the class with some previous knowledge and they are academically motivated students. It also means age appropriateness of topics and materials is not a limitation. The topics covered, within the 8 days I make available to teach the Holocaust, can vary from year to year based on resources available and personal/student interests. This year I added a new topic, the Einsatzgruppen.

The Einsatzgruppen were mobile killing squads who followed the German army into the Soviet Union during the Nazi invasion in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa). Their purpose was to murder anyone behind the German lines who was considered racially impure (primarily Jews but also Roma) and politically threatening (Soviet officials). The Einsatzgruppen often used willing collaborators from among the local civilian population to aid in their task. Jews were identified and then ordered to assemble in an area before being transported or marched to an execution site. At these sites people of all ages and gender were shot so as to fall into a prepared trench and then buried. Between 1-1.5 million Jews were murdered by the Einsatzgruppen.

So why teach about the Einsatzgruppen? The fact that over one million Jews died as the result of being shot locally not shipped to some distant camp is probably something few students know. The image in most people’s minds when thinking about the systematic murder of Jews during the Holocaust is the death camps. In studying the Einsatzgruppen students can learn that there were other ways the Nazis murdered Jews in large numbers even before the death camps. The issue of collaboration can be brought in as the murders were done locally and in some cases with the assistance of the local population. The question of resistance can be discussed. Why didn’t the Jews fight back? The story of survival can be explored as some victims managed to escape death. The reality is the details may not be suitable for younger students but even if its not possible to spend a day or two on the topic the Einsatzgruppen should be mentioned to make students aware.

If you’re looking for information on the Einsatzgruppen there are a couple of excellent videos available, an A&E documentary entitled Nazi Secret Killing Squads (1999 and available in the MCHE Resource Center) and a National Geographic Channel documentary entitled Hitler’s Hidden Holocaust (2009). In addition the book Masters of Death (2002) by Richard Rhodes gives a good overview of the people who carried out these murders and how they were committed. Finally the book Holocaust by Bullets (2009) by Father Patrick Desbois discusses his attempt to identify and examine all the execution sites in the Ukraine.

Recommended Resources:

The Einsatzgruppen: Mobile Killing Units
Liepaja - The Holocaust
Testimony by Rivka Yosselevska
Testimonies from Babi Yar
Einsatzgruppen
One Day in Jozefow - From Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men

Creating a movie clip DVD

The problem all teachers face is finding time to get the information to our students. The resources are out there, and sometimes can be overwhelming. The number of documentaries, movies, and presentations available on DVD and on the internet allow teachers a wide variety of resources. While teaching an abbreviated lesson on the Holocaust, in an already constrained schedule, it will behoove teachers to preselect portions of media sources. Knowing the time for a segment to begin on DVD will help a teacher forward to the important part, but will still cost time as discs are traded in and out of the player, and the obligatory warnings play out. Wouldn’t it be nice to have all of the clips from each DVD in a central location, ready to just hit play? Wouldn’t be nice to move straight from “Schindler’s List” to “Escape from Sobibor”? Or how about contrasting the depictions of Hotel Milles Collins in “Hotel Rwanda” to those in “Sometimes in April”? To switch DVDs, teachers will lose time and students attention. So, how do we solve this problem?

Here is one solution: Cut the segments you want from DVD, and put them together on a separate data DVD, or play them from your computer in a media player. It is not as difficult as it may initially sound, nor as expensive. This is one solution to the problem, and it works if you have the time. The programs are designed as format converters, and enable ripping DVDs from a DVD drive to your hard drive.

Needed:
1. You will need to download Magic Ripper. I use Magic Ripper on a regular basis. The cost is $35 for the program, and really comes in handy. This is a download from the site, and you will receive the registration code when you pay. Load it up, and you are ready to go.

2. Windows Movie Maker, which is a program available as a free download (if it isn’t already in your program list under the Start Menu).

3. A DVD drive. The drive must be able to read/play DVDs (can you watch movies on your computer? It should say DVD on the face of the drive, also). It is even better if you have a DVD burner, but is not required.

Ok. Now you are ready to begin:

a. Pop a DVD in the drive. Usually, Windows asks you what you want to do with this disc. Either choose to open Magic Ripper. If it doesn’t open automatically, start the program from the Start Menu, and it will read whatever disc is in the drive. From here, my expertise is in Magic Ripper, so let me drop a few hints: Make sure to save it somewhere you can find it (c:desktop, etc.), choose if you want subtitles on or not, and be sure to get the main set of chapters. If you have a disc with two to three segments (PBS mini- series will load several on one disc), be sure to choose the proper option. Look closely at this, as the extras will be offered up, also. Magic Ripper will tell you how many chapters are included, and that may be your only indication. Choose your output format (WMV, Ipod, AppleTV, AVI). WMV is Windows Media Video, and plays very well with Movie Maker. Click start. It will take between two and ten hours to convert.

b. Now that the movie is transferred over to the new format, open up Windows Movie Maker. Import the video into Movie Maker. Once it is imported, drag the file down to the bottom panel, and you can move to the section you want.

c. Find the exact point that you want to start with, and you can trim everything before that segment. Repeat by finding the end of the clip, and you can trim the extra.

d. Go to the File menu, and choose to “Publish Movie”. It is recommended that you publish the movie as a “DV-AVI”. From here, the media can be played back on the computer, burned to a DVD, or saved to a jump drive.

Windows offers software to burn the program onto a DVD if you have a burner and the time. This can be a time consuming process, but in the end, it can be worthwhile in that you build a collection of videos in a central location, ready to use, rather than searching, swapping, and losing the class.

List of movie clips recommended by MCHE:

· The Eternal Jew (9:00-22:01) to illustrate the Nazi racial attitude toward Jews

· Lodz Ghetto (6:40-12:03 and 23:30-28:23) to illustrate deteriorating conditions in the ghetto

· Shoah (Disc 1 1:54:56-2:09:44) to illustrate the killing method and the continual adjustments made by the Nazis

· Partisans of Vilna (20:40-36:17) to illustrate the decision making process for Jews thinking about armed resistance

· Shoah (Disc 1 44:17-1:03:10) to illustrate the attitudes of bystanders and collaborators

· Escape from Sobibor (First 18 minutes through the selection on the ramp) to illustrate the process

· Escape from Sobibor (46:44-54:05) to illustrate concept of collective responsibility

· The Last Days (21:07-43:50) to illustrate arrival, processing and living at Birkenau - if you have time in the class do (13:08-17:09 and 21:07-43:50) to include deportation and ghettoization

Student tours of Deadly Medicine - a teacher's perspective

My colleague and I, took our students to the Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race exhibit. The field trip occurred prior to our coverage of World War II and the Holocaust so we included a pre-trip introduction to help our students glean as much as possible from our visit. We have been talking about the exhibit since we planned the trip in the fall so students were very aware of the upcoming experience. Since our students were well prepared, it was a worthwhile opportunity to help students further understand the complexities surrounding the Holocaust.

Pre-trip preparation:
We first talked with our students about prior knowledge of the Holocaust. Then, the term of eugenics was introduced. The provisions of the Treaty of Versailles were reviewed to set the political and economic stage of post WWI Europe.

As a class, we then watched the Curator’s overview from the USHMM website as well as read & discussed The Doctors Trial: The Medical Case of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings. This helped to introduce students to the concept that politicians and doctors played a critical role in the implementation of the Final Solution.

When my colleague and I attended the Educator preview of the Deadly Medicine exhibit, we created an exhibit assignment that anchored the students throughout the actual exhibit. Click here for the assignment and teacher guide - the assignment is the first link on this page. We provided the assignment ahead of time so students knew our expectations upon arrival.

Field trip:
NARA rotated us through various stations. When a group entered the Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race they began Side 1 of the assignment which asked them to jot down two details for major themes throughout the exhibit on a graphic organizer. Side 2 provided an opportunity for students to select an option (video segment, photograph or propaganda poster) to help further reflect on the trip as well as choose a quote they found most significant.

Post-trip processing:
The next day back in class to process the trip, the following quote was displayed to begin class discussion.

“The question is whether we will ever be able to learn from history.”
Dr. Alexander Mitscherlich, German physician who
Served as an official observer at the Nuremberg Doctors Trial (1946-47)

Students shared their selected quote and what option they expanded upon for reflection. We placed the exhibit in context to its overall importance to our upcoming study of the Holocaust.

Students did a thorough job given a limited time frame. I was thoroughly impressed with their interest during the tour of the exhibit, thoughtful questions for our docents and then the obvious insights gained as we processed the trip.