Today’s blog post comes from Dr. Robert Scott Kellner, who speaks so eloquently that I will not modify his words. This is a good companion to a unit on the Holocaust:

Two weeks ago, a young lady in Holon, Israel, with the nickname of “Ilanushkah,” created a YouTube video about my German grandfather, Friedrich Kellner, who was a justice inspector during the time of the Third Reich. As a Social Democrat, Friedrich Kellner campaigned against the Nazis in the 1920’s and 30’s. During the war, he kept a diary to record Nazi crimes. His diary will be on exhibit at the Dwight Eisenhower Presidential Library in May. In November, a Canadian documentary about the diary, “My Opposition - the Diaries of Friedrich Kellner,” will be shown at the United Nations to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

The Israeli girl did a wonderful job creating the video, and it is getting a lot of praise, yet it is also attracting some neo-Nazi types and Holocaust deniers. YouTube has deleted some of the vile posts. I am hoping that you, and perhaps some of your friends, would take a few minutes to view the video. The increased number of views will help to keep the hostile views in perspective, to dilute the percentage of such views. At present, about 1,800 people have looked at the video — which is a rather modest number. This is the link to the Kellner diary video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kJLE9zvo44

At the YouTube site, you will find links to Wikipedia articles about Friedrich Kellner. A very dramatic story about my courageous grandfather is online at Jewish World Review, which has reprinted an article that appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0507/holo_diary.php3

Thank you,

Dr. Robert Scott Kellner
College Station, Texas

On June 12, 1942, Otto Frank gave his daughter Annelies Marie a birthday gift, a red and white autograph book she had admired in a shop window. She used it to write the most famous diary of the 20th century, published as Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl.

Anne chronicled life under Nazi persecution. Like all Jews, she endured restrictions on shopping, education, and transportation; an 8:00 PM curfew; and the wearing of a yellow star on her clothing.

Less than a month after her birthday, the Franks went into hiding in Amsterdam, in unused rooms now called the “Secret Annex.” Six Christian friends kept the secret, risking their own lives as they supplied the family with food and other necessities. During the two years they were in hiding, another Jewish family and a family friend joined them.

Anne’s diary records her growth as a writer and as a young woman. She didn’t get along with her mother. She developed an affection for Peter van Pels, whose family was hiding with them. She wanted to be a good writer. In all these traits she was an ordinary girl growing up under extraordinary circumstances.

In August 1944 German security police stormed into the Secret Annex. Everyone in hiding was arrested and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. Anne and her sister Margot were later sent to Bergen-Belsen, where both of them died of disease. Anne was 15.

Miep Gies, one of the six who had supported the family, saved Anne’s diary and returned it to Otto after the war. He edited out some sections, and it was published in 1947. A final, complete edition was published in 1986.

In a passage detailing the Nazi restrictions, Anne wrote, “Life went on, in spite of it all.” Her family and her community were determined not to let the Nazis win. Military action eventually stopped the Holocaust, and the words of this young writer survive as a lesson against anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice. Regardless of our differences, we are all ordinary people dealing with the circumstances of our time.

If she were alive today, Anne Frank would be 78.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out–
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out–
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out–
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me–
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

–Martin Niemöller

April 16 is Holocaust Remembrance Day. What can we do to honor the lives of those who died at the hands of the Nazis?

Elie Wiesel, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, wrote Night, Dawn, and Day (originally entitled The Accident), fictionalized accounts of his experiences surviving imprisonment at Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps during World War II. Night has entered the canon of literature taught in American schools, as has Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl.

Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston records the experiences of another ethnic group mistreated during World War II — Japanese Americans. While their experiences were not as severe as those of Jews, Gypsies, and the disabled under Hitler, the fact remains that they were mistreated because of their ethnic background. Discrimination can exist anywhere and at any time, as we see in news from eastern Europe and Darfur.

Many teachers will work with these themes today, possibly interviewing survivors from their community.

Because discrimination can begin subtly, we might also consider teaching about the power of language today.

Hate speech doesn’t need to be as blatant as recent celebrity examples. It can be as simple an insult among friends: “That’s so gay!” or “What a retard!” Our students don’t think about the power of their words, and they need to. They need to reconsider some of the jokes they tell. They need to know how to watch for bias online and in the media.

Call it rhetorical analysis; call it remembering the Holocaust; call it simple courtesy. Talking about discrimination and teaching students to watch their language can also be a way to honor Holocaust victims.