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Lesson Plan
Teaching the Holocaust through Literature
Ages:
Students in Grades 9-12
Introduction
The challenge of Holocaust
education is apparent in both formal and informal educational
frameworks. Holocaust literature, a genre which developed
immediately after the war’s end, though also including diaries kept
during the war, remains one of the most powerful pedagogical
resources. Holocaust literature includes fiction, drama, poetry and
personal diaries. Many writers chose to construct their works as
historical fictions, closely adhering to the historical facts of the
Holocaust, adding imaginary dialogue to enhance the storyline. Other
writers and poets chose to use allegories, metaphors, and other
literary devices in order to depict the horrors of the Holocaust.
Literature remains one of the most
influential genres in Holocaust education because of its widespread
appeal to the public. Younger audiences can benefit from stories
written by young people and adult readers can reflect upon stories
and analyze their content within a historical context and a
psychological framework. Literature, in particular Holocaust
literature, often makes a lasting impression on its readers due to
the vivid imagery and the intimacy of the characters and events.
Thus, literature often has the ability to evoke feelings and
emotions, in contrast to a standard history text-book.
In an effort to promote Holocaust education with an interdisciplinary
approach, the International School for Holocaust Studies has
designed this lesson plan focusing on teaching the Holocaust through
literature. The lesson and activities highlight a short story
entitled The Tenth Man, written by Holocaust survivor Ida
Fink. The story was first published in Polish in 1983.
Biography of Ida Fink
Ida Fink was born in Zbarazh, Poland in 1921.
She studied music in Lvov but was forced to put an end to her
studies in 1941, upon the outbreak of the war between Nazi Germany
and the Soviet Union. During the war she was in the Zbarazh Ghetto,
but then fled and lived under false papers on the “Aryan side”. In
1957, she immigrated to Israel. Her short stories, written in
Polish, discuss the terrible choices, or lack thereof, that Jews
faced during the Nazi period as well as the hardships that survivors
faced following the war. Her short story, The Tenth Man,
explores the reactions, suffering, and trauma of Holocaust survivors
returning to their hometown following the liberation of Nazi
concentration camps and extermination camps. It was translated into
English and published by Northwestern University Press, 1995, in a
collection of her stories under the name A Scrap of Time.
Classroom
Activity
Part 1
Note to the Teacher
- We recommend that each pupil deal with all the questions to be
followed by a class discussion. Some teachers might prefer small
groups of pupils to facilitate the learning process.
Read Ida Fink’s
The Tenth Man and use the following questions in order to
facilitate class discussion.
The Tenth Man
The first to come back was Chaim the carpenter. He turned up one
evening from the direction of the river and the woods; no one knew
where he had been or with whom. Those who saw him walking along the
riverbank didn’t recognize him at first. How could they? He used to
be tall and broad-shouldered; now he was shrunken and withered, his
clothes were ragged, and, most important, he had no face. It was
completely overgrown with a matted black thicket of hair. It is
hard to say how they recognized him. They watched him from above,
from the cliff above the river, watched him plod along until,
nearing the first houses of the lower town, he stopped and began to
sing. First they thought he had gone mad, but then one of the
smarter ones guessed that it was not a song, but a Jewish prayer with
a
plaintive melody, like the songs that could be heard on Friday
evenings in the old days, coming from the hundred-year-old
synagogue, which the Germans had burn down. The Synagogue was in the
lower town; the whole lower town had always been Jewish – before the
Germans came and during the occupation – and no one knew what it
would be like, now that the Jews were gone. Chaim the carpenter was the
first to come back.
A dark cloud
from the burnt-out fire still lingered over the town, the stench
still hung in the air, and gray clouds floated over the marketplace
the Germans had burned.
In the
evening, when the news had spread, a crowd gathered in front of
Chaim’s house. Some came to welcome him, others to watch, still
others to see if it was true that someone had survived. The carpenter
was sitting on the front steps in front of his house; the door of
the house was nailed shut. He didn’t respond to questions or
greetings. Later, people said that his eyes had glittered emptily in
the forest of his face, as if he were blind. He sat and stared
straight ahead. A woman placed a bowl of potatoes in front of him,
and in the morning she took it away untouched.
Four days
later the next one came back. He was a tenant on a neighboring farm
and had survived in the forest with the help of the farm manager. The
manager brought the tenant back by wagon, in broad daylight. The old
man was propped up, half reclining, on bundles of straw. His face,
unlike the carpenter’s, was as white as a communion wafer, which
struck everyone as strange for a man who had lived so long in the open.
When the
tenant got down from the wagon he swayed and fell face down on the
ground, which people ascribed more to emotion than to weakness. In
fact, it was possible to think he was kissing the threshold of his
house, thanking God for saving him. The manager helped him up, and
supporting him on his arm, led him into the entrance hall.
A week passed
and no more came back. The town waited anxiously; people came up
with all sorts of conjectures and calculations. The stench of burnt
objects faded into the wind and the days became clear. Spring blossomed
suddenly as befitted the first spring of freedom. The trees put
forth buds. The storks returned.
Ten days later
three more men came back; a dry goods merchant and two grain
dealers. The arrival of the merchant upset the conjectures and
calculations, since everyone knew that he had been taken away to the
place from which there was no return. He looked just as he had
before the war; he might even have put on some weight. When
questioned, he smiled and explained patiently that he had jumped out
of a transport to Belzec and hidden in a village. Who had hidden
him, and in what village, he didn’t want to say. He had the same
smile on his face that he used to have before the war when he stood
behind his counter and sold cretonnes and percales. That smile never
left his face, and it astonished everyone, because no one from this
man's family had survived.
For three days
the grain dealers slept like logs. They lay on the floor near their
door, which was left slightly ajar, as if sleep had felled them the
moment they walked in. Their high-topped boots were caked with dried
mud, their faces were swollen. The neighbors heard them screaming in
their sleep at night.
The grain
dealers were still asleep when the first woman returned. No one
recognized her. Only when she reached the teacher’s house and burst
out sobbing did they understand that she was his wife. Even then,
they didn’t recognize her, so convincing was her beggar woman’s
disguise. She had begged in front of Catholic and Orthodox churches,
had wandered from church fair to church fair and market to market,
reading people’s palms. Those were her hiding places. From beneath
her plaid kerchief peered the drawn face of a peasant woman.
They asked in
amazement: “Is it you?”
"It's me," she answered in her low voice. Only
her voice was unchanged.
So there were
six of them. The days passed, the gardens grew thick and green.
They’re being careful, people said, they’re waiting for the front to
move – it had been still for so long that an offensive seemed
likely. But even when the offensive began and the front made a
sudden jump to the west, only a few more came back.
A wagon
brought the doctor back. He had lain for nine months in a hole
underneath the cowshed of one of his patients, a peasant woman. He
was still unable to walk. The accountant and his son and the barber
and his wife returned from a bunker in the forest. The barber, who
had once been known for his mane of red hair, was bald as a bowling
ball.
Every day at
dusk, the dry goods merchant left his house and walked towards the
railway station. When asked where he was going, he explained, “My
wife is coming back today.” The trains were still not running.
The farmer, a
pious man, spent more and more time by his window; he would stand
there for hours on end. He was looking for a tenth man, so that the
prayers for the murdered might be said as soon as possible in the
ruins of the synagogue.
The days kept
passing, fragrant and bright. The trains began to run. The people in
the town no longer conjectured and calculated. The farmer‘s face,
white as a communion wafer, shone less often in his window.
Only the dry
goods merchant – he never stopped haunting the railway station. He
would stand there patiently, smiling. After a while, no one noticed
him anymore.
Questions
and Discussion
The Victims:
Fink describes a number of survivors in her
story. How would you characterize these survivors? What impression
do they impart on the reader?
How does Fink describe the physical state of
the survivors? What is the significance of the physical changes of
the characters over the course of the war? Choose two or three
examples from the story to illustrate your answer.
The Bystanders:
How would you describe the attitude of the
townsfolk to the returning survivors? Choose two or three examples
from the story to illustrate your answer.
The Passage of Time:
The passage of time can be measured in several
contexts within the story. Show how the author describes the
movements of the seasons, the frequency of the trains, and the
“activity” of the survivors to create a contrasting tension between
them.
The Communities in the Town:
Both synagogues and churches are mentioned in
the story. What respective roles do these houses of prayer play
here?
Why don’t most of the characters enter their
homes but instead remain at the threshold?
Does Fink believe that the survivors, as
individuals and as a community, can return to lead normal lives in
this town?
Speech and Reported Speech:
The townsfolk talk among themselves, question,
and greet some of the survivors who, except for two, are silent
figures in the story. Consider this communication and lack of
communication in the two groups and what effect is created with this
device.
General Color and Specific Characterization:
Describe the general tone of the story
following liberation. Which character most impresses you? Explain
your choice.
The Title of the Story:
The Tenth Man refers to a central feature in
Jewish traditional life, the minyan, or quorum of ten men
necessary for public prayer. Fink’s portrayal of this element is
tragic. Explain this statement, considering that the root meaning of
the Hebrew word minyan is to count. How does this elusive
minyan in the story contribute to Fink’s portrayal of the Jewish
community’s future?
Part 2
Liberation Testimonies Activity and Discussion Questions:
Read the following testimonies of Holocaust
survivors, Yehoshua Büchler and Shmuel Krakowski, detailing their
experience and trauma after liberation.
Testimony of
Yehoshua Büchler
Born Czechoslovakia, 1930. Survived Auschwitz
and Buchenwald. Escaped from a Death March. Liberated from the city
of Eizenberg, Germany. Immigrated to Israel 1948. Joined a Kibbutz
in the North.
“Dr. Winter tried to persuade me to go with
the rest of the children to a convalescent home in Sweden. But I
wanted only to return home, I was positive that someone in my family
had survived, that my father was alive, because he was a strong man.
When I arrived in my town, I met a few relatives and there was great
excitement. I asked, 'Where is father?' I was certain he was at
home. 'We do not know where your father is.' 'What, isn't father at
home?' Then I learned that no one had come back, that I was alone,
that alone I had returned.”
Source: Kleiman Yehudit and Springer-Aharoni
Nina, The Anguish of
Liberation, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 1995, p. 38.
Testimony of Shmuel Krakowski
Born Poland, 1926. Lived in the Lodz Ghetto.
Deported to Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Liberated from Therezienstadt.
Immigrated to Israel in 1968.
”Although we had seen a lot and experienced
the worst, we still had hoped, still had dreamed. All those days we
had struggled to survive, hour after hour, day after day, there had
been no time to grasp the enormity of our tragedy. Now everything
became clear. No longer were our families waiting for us; no homes
to go back to.”
Source: Kleiman Yehudit and Springer-Aharoni Nina,
The Anguish of Liberation,
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 1995, p. 16.
Discussion Questions on the two Testimonies and The Tenth Man
Survivors of war not only suffer from trauma
due to the events of the war but also as a result of the events
following the war. What problems did survivors face following
liberation and how are these problems manifested in Ida Fink’s story
The Tenth Man and in these above testimonies? How are these
testimonies similar to one another and how do they differ?
Conclusion: Holocaust and Literature
What are the merits of teaching the Holocaust
through literature? What impressions and feelings can be gained from
literature, which cannot necessarily be gained from other genres?
Your answers can be based on your own reactions to the story and
testimonies you have just read and to help you evaluate the merits
of literature in general, you can consider other modes like films
you have seen, interviews you have heard or plays you have seen on
the stage.
Note to the Teacher
We hope that this lesson plan has been of
value to you. You are invited to share any thoughts or ideas
stemming from this lesson plan with us and with others who use Yad
Vashem’s Forum for Holocaust Educators.
To access the Forum,
click here.
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