Blog for Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust by Allan Zullo and Mara Bovsun, Scholastic Press, 2004.
Marilyn, I have not read your earlier blog yet, I want to get my thoughts down first, and then I will take a look at what you have said.
I found this collection of biographical stories to be extremely sad and yet uplifting. They are simply told, with sensitivity and yet not sugar coated. I was reminded of the curriculum for 10th grade, when students read Night by Elli Weiss. I think this would be a perfect lead in for that memoir, especially for reluctant readers that may not have a strong background of the Holocaust.
I thought it effective that the girl in the opening story and the man in the closing story met at the end of the war and were later married. I liked the follow up information of what happened to the children in later life. I think this would be of interest to students, and it also helped to reinforce the main point of these stories: surviving against impossible circumstances. I felt that they picked specific stories for the time period and the country as well as the situations these children found themselves in. I was moved to tears many times because they were characterized as such innocent victims that did not just dodge one or two scary times, but time upon time upon time, and the evil that was leveled against them, while so well documented, seemed all the more horrific because they were so young.
Now from the stand point of our textbook, biographies should be authentic, show the blemishes as well as the strong points, be engaging and not let personal objectives get in the way. I would have to say that the only weakness was that these stories, based on the subject matter, did not look at the "blemishes", but in all other aspects, it should be considered a quality biography, or collection of biographies. As far as the blemishes, that was the only thing I kept wondering: the stories seemed to brush over so many questions: how did some get special recognition while others were just shot. It seems incomprehensible to me that one child out of hundreds of thousands of people coming into a slave-labor camp, would be recognized and singled out... I had some doubt that the sotry was somehow manuvered to fit what the authors wanted to show. But for the average young reader, I don't think this would even enter their minds.
Okay, now I'll read your blog and see what you said.
Liz
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Now to comment on your initial reaction for Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust,
ReplyDeleteI agree that their straightforward descriptions of the living conditions they had to endure is one of the strengths of the collection. The hiding places in the death camp, the attic where a son tried to help hide his family, the agony of the boy who, after trying to save another, finds that he has lost the bread that would have kept him going, all these things help to make the stories unforgettable.
I would say that, so far this has been one book that I could see as important to add to my class library. I would not teach this, but I think it could be used to understand theme, to look at the difference between a memoir and a biography, and for students who are interested in learning more about this time period, but who might not have the reading skills to handle a more difficult text, like Night.
Blog for, Survivor: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust, By Allan Zullo and Mara Bovsun
ReplyDeleteScholastic, 2004
All of the stories in this biography were heart-wrenching and captivating. After reading Dear Miss Breed and feeling like I had read a history book about the Japanese Americans in WWII, I felt that Survivor was more effective in eliciting my compassion for the horrible crimes perpetrated on families, in this case the Jewish families in Europe. Reading the stories of these children, in their own words, made me feel as if I were there living each story myself.
Chapter 2 of our text, What is a good book?, discusses that the style and language and setting of a book is one of the elements that represents the quality of a good book. Zullo and Buvsun do an excellent job in writing about the real life horror stories of children like Luncia Gamzer, who had to live in hiding with the Szczygiel family in order to escape being rounded up with all of the other childrenin her village. But worse, having to be hidden by Mrs. Szczygiel from the rest of the family in a small trunk within the Szczygiel apartment because the rest of the family feared Luncia would be discovered by their daughters Nazi sympathizing boyfriends.
The language and setting in the stories allowed me to create a picture, almost like a movie, in my mind. I was able to see families, like the Engelbergs, gather up whatever belongings they had and leave their warm home only to live day by day evading the Nazi soldiers and hiding in haystacks, in the countryside, for warm and safety. Then hiding out, in a Christian childhood friend's, crawl space for almost 2 years not being able to leave, move, or talk for fear of being discovered. Living 15 people in a cramped space feeling the bitter cold of winter huddling close for warmth and the extreme heat of the summer and trying to get any small breeze from the outside to cool off.
I was able to feel the fear, desparation, guilt, and sadness in George and Ursula Levy's story. The heartache of having to leave their mother and not knowing if she was alive or dead when they stopped receiving postcards. The fear Ursula felt when she had to sit on Officer Etlinger's lap after she had witnessed they way he beat the other prisoners in the camp. The guilt George felt after he said that he and Ursula no longer needed help from their guardian Florence, fearing that if he said yes he and Ursula would face the same fate as Florence. Finally, the sadness of finding out that their mother was alive all of those years and died only a couple of weeks before the prisoners had been liberated.
I was truly engaged in all of their stories and think that students would be as well. This is another book that as a History teacher, would be valuable to have. It offers students in inside view of how children their ages fought through the cruelties of the concentration camps and starvation in order to survive at all costs.
November 1, 2009 10:18 AM
Liz, like you I felt my eyes tear often when reading this book maybe because the storie were about children. I kept placing my family in there situation and wondering what I would do if I had to choose between sending my children away for their own safety or keeping them with me and living day to day hiding, waiting to get caught.
ReplyDeleteI also think that this is a good book for struggling and reluctant readers. The language is easy to understand and being told from a child's point of view I think is engaging. A student can relate, if not to the situation, but to the emotions that these children felt throughout their ordeal. Connecting the first and last stories I felt was very effective. It seemed to bring the collection through a cycle then to some closure. It was somehow comforting to know that these two people found each other and lived a happy life together. Reading about what happened to these people after the Holocaust was something I too enjoyed. Many times you are left with the question What ever happened to them? But this collection answered the question before it was asked.