The Holocaust

1. The Holocaust Presented by: Anne Incorporation

2. Facts about the Holocaust: • “Holocaust” originates from a Greek word meaning “sacrifice by fire.” • It was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime and it’s associates. • Occurrence: During World War II, from 1941 – 1945 (However, Jews had been persecuted in Germany since 1933.)

3. The Nazis, who came into power in Germany in 1933, believed that Germans were “racially superior” to the Jews. • These German tyrants killed many other social groups of people, such as gypsies and the disabled, but their main target was Jews. • The sole leader of the Nazi regime was a twisted, horrific, German man named Adolf Hitler.

4. There were many concentration camps, but some of the most well-known were Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buchenwald, and Gleiwitz. • To transport the Jewish captives, Nazis boarded them into cattle car trains. • Each car carried about 80-100 Jews at a time, which made them overcrowded. • All the victims lost all of their own personal belongings to the Germans.

5. NIGHT • Author: Elie Wiesel • Point of View: Elie speaks in the first person and always relates the autobiographical events from his perspective. • Setting: 1941-1945 during World War II. Eliezer begins the story in Sighet, Transylvania (during Wiesel’s childhood). The book then follows his journey through several concentration camps: Auschwitz, Birkenau, Gleiwitz, and Buchenwald. • Protagonist: Eliezer

6. Antagonist: The Nazis, Dr. Mengele (a cruel concentration camp doctor), and Franek (a foreman at a camp site) • Tone: intensely personal and intimate. It depicts the extraordinarily personal and painful experiences of a single victim, Wiesel. • Themes: Eliezer’s struggle to maintain faith in a benevolent God; silence; and inhumanity towards other humans

7. Plot: Elie Wiesel, a Jewish teenage boy, and his family are forced from their home by the Gestapo (a German secret police) and crammed into cattle cars with many other Jews, a nightmarish journey ensued. Once entering the concentration camp of Auschwitz, Eliezer and his father are separated from his mother and sisters, never to be seen again. Following this, he and the other Jews go through many tests and are then put to extreme work. Due to unbearable sights and difficult situations, Elie, along with the others, loses his faith both in God and the people around him. The Nazis then evacuate Auschwitz, on account of Russian troops entering the camp, and force all the prisoners to run to Gleiwitz, 50 miles away in excruciating weather. Yet, only 12 victims survive and make it to Buchenwald, where Eliezer’s father dies. Elie endures, an empty shell of a man, until April 11, 1945, the day that the American army liberated the camp.

9. The Boy In The Striped Pajamas • Author: John Boyne • Point of view: First person, A young boy named Bruno. • Setting: Berlin, Germany 1942 • Protagonists: Bruno, Shmel • Antagonists: Nazi soldiers

10. Tone: Intense, personal, deep, on edge. The book portrays the terrors and hardships people went through in the concentration camps. • Mood: Devastating, depressing. • Themes: That every human being is a person, no matter what race. People will go long lengths to save and stand with their friends.

11. Plot: The Boy In The Striped Pajamas is a novel that takes place in Berlin in 1942 during the time of the Holocaust.  It is about a young boy named Bruno who comes home one day to find that all his belongings have been packed. His father has recieved a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house way out in the country, with no one to play with and nothing to do.  The only thing he can see is a fence that completely surrounds his  house.  However, one day while Bruno is looking out of his window he notices a bunch of people all wearing the same striped pajamas. As a curious child, he asks his father who these people are, but gets an unusual answer. His father tells him that these people are not people at all, and tells Bruno he is not allowed to explore the house or its surroundings. Due to sheer curiosity and boredom, he is forced to explore. He spots a dot in the distance on the other side of the fence and as he gets closer, he sees it's a boy.  He learns that this boy's name is Shmel, and his life is very different from Bruno's and with this strong friendship comes some very devastating consequences. Bruno agrees one day to dress up in striped pajamas and crawl under the fence with Shmel to find Shmel’s father. When Bruno is ready to go home it starts raining, and some soldiers round up a bunch of people, including Bruno and Shmel. They put them in a gas chamber and both young boys are killed. Eventually Bruno’s family finds out about the death of their son. Devastated, his father does not want to continue his profession of being in the Nazi army.

13. After the War • Author: Carol Matas • Point of view: third person, a fifteen year old girl, Ruth Mendenburg • Setting: a small village in Poland • Protagonists: Ruth • Antagonists: Nazi soldiers • Theme: Be thankful for what you have, because you don’t know what you have until its gone.

14. Tone: The tone of this book is very depressing and is full of terror. It takes you on a journey of the Jews life in the concentration camps and their struggles to survive. • Mood: terror, depression, and horrific

15. Ruth Mendenberg has just been released from Buchenwald, one of Hitler’s concentration camps. World War II is over, but Ruth returns to her hometown in Poland to learn that both her home and her family are gone. She is fifteen, alone, and has nowhere to go. Worst of all, she lives with the guilt of having survived when no one else in her family has. • She meets a man named Saul from Eretz Israel, who encourages her to travel toward freedom in Palestine with him and other Jewish refugees. He takes her to a place where the other refugees are housed. Although Ruth believes there is no hope, she agrees to accompany the refugees on the journey. After all, she has nothing or no one else. When an angry mob attacks the house, killing many of the refugees inside, Ruth must once again hide to survive. After soldiers stop the mob, the survivors flee. Ruth is put in charge of twenty orphans. It is her job to lead them safely to Czechoslovakia, Austria, Italy, and then to Palestine. She hopes that this duty will help her forget everything that has happened. • The group survives both an ambush by Poland and Czech border guards and long train trips to cross the border into Austria. There, Ruth meets a sixteen year old boy named Zvi who tries to get her to open up so that she does not lose her heart to the Germans along with everything else they have taken from her. Ruth continues to feel numb. • When the group enters the French occupied zone of Austria, they are forced to fight their way through the guards. Ruth finally feels some emotion –anger—and takes part in the attack. Later, disguised as British soldiers, the group manages to pass by the Italian border guards. Once in Italy, they are taken to a children's camp run by a man named Mayer. Mayer puts all the older kids, including Ruth, in charge of teaching the younger ones, as well as learning their horrifying stories about the war. Ruth is reluctant to do this because it will dredge up her own memories. Slowly, however, their stories, and Zvi’s support, help her cope with her own sadness. On the ship to Italy, Ruth learns that her brother Simon and her Aunt Sophie have also survived the war. Her joy is short-lived because the ship is attacked by British warships and Saul is killed. Realizing that she has a lot to live for, Ruth helps fight off the British onslaught. The refugees manage to reach Eretz Israel, but are picked up by the British and sent to a camp in Cyprus. Simon, who managed to avoid the British, helps Ruth, Zvi, and Rivka escape. They return to Palestine, and Ruth opens up her heart to allow her true feelings for Zvi to surface.

17. Number the Stars • Plot: Number the Stars is told from the point of view of ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen. The story is set in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark in September 1943, the third year of the Nazi occupation of Denmark. Annemarie and her best friend Ellen, who is Jewish, are stopped by soldiers on their way home from school. The two girls, who go to the same school and live in the same building, are unsettled by their first direct encounter with the Germans. Mrs. Johansen and Mrs. Rosen are concerned and ask the girls to take a new route to school. The encounter makes Annemarie reflect on what her father has taught her about Denmark and also about her older sister Lise's death a few years before the start of the novel. Later in the fall, Annemarie and her younger sister Kirsti discover that Mrs. Hirsch's neighborhood shop has been closed. This event further alarms Mrs. Johansen, though Annemarie does not understand why.

18. full title ·  Number the Stars • author ·  Lois Lowry • type of work ·  Young adult novel • genre ·  Historical fiction; war novel; coming-of-age novel • narrator ·  Third person omniscient • point of view ·  The story is told from Annemarie Johansen's point of view

19. tone ·  Introspective; serious; matter-of-fact • tense ·  Immediate past tense • setting (time) ·  World War II, from September 1943 to May 1945 • setting (place) ·  Copenhagen, Denmark, and Gilleleje, Denmark • protagonist ·  Annemarie Johansen • climax ·  Ellen and the others escape as Annemarie races against time and bad odds to her uncle's boat to deliver the crucial important packet • falling action ·  Uncle Henrik delivers his passengers to Sweden safely; Mrs. Johansen and her daughters return home; the war ends; Annemarie anticipates Ellen's return • themes ·  The difficulty of growing up; voyage and transformation; fairy tales • motifs ·  Truth-seeking versus self protection; the deceit of appearances; acting in wartime • symbols ·  The seashell, the Star of David, the woods • foreshadowing ·  Often, whatever Annemarie hopes will not happen is what occurs. Little Red Riding-Hood foreshadows Annemarie's own trip through the forest