SOURCE: Danks, Carol. “Using the Literature of Elie Wiesel and Selected Poetry to Teach the Holocaust in the Secondary School History Classroom.” Social Studies 87, no. 3 (May-June 1996): 101-05.

“Our entry into the world of the Holocaust thus depends on who tells the tale—and how,” says Lawrence Langer in his Versions of Survival (Langer 1982, 5). Although Langer is specifically referring to survivor accounts and the relationship between events and memory, his statement also relates to teaching about the Holocaust. How we as teachers help students deal with the world of the Holocaust depends, in part, on our decisions about who “tells the tale” and how.

Secondary history textbooks have a reputation among many students for being dry statements of facts, held together with string rather than the sinew of living human beings. These same textbooks generally devote very little space to the events of the Holocaust. This absence creates a challenge for teachers who want to help students begin to grasp the important events and reactions to this dark period of human history. One of the most effective ways to teach the history of the Holocaust is through its literature.

Because “who tells the tale—and how” is of vital importance in approaching these events, we need guidelines to help us select and use the literature we will teach. The literature needs to be accurate in both historical facts and perspective, authentic in the voices it portrays, approachable in form for students, and practical in length for the time constraints of the classroom. As we use this literature with students, less is more. Have students read one autobiography or poem, and give them time to think and write what they have learned and how they reacted to the new knowledge. Focus on literature in which the author presents his or her experiences as a young person; students can relate more easily to these accounts. Emphasize nonfiction. Although fictional accounts that accurately portray these events and the characters' reactions to them do exist, the events of the Holocaust are so unbelievable that there is the chance that fictional accounts will be seen by students as “not true.” A teacher's focus on nonfiction may help students grasp more clearly the reality and enormity of the Holocaust.

WIESEL'S NIGHT

One literary work that presents accurate historical information, has an authentic narrative voice, seems approachable to students, and can be taught in limited classroom time is Elie Wiesel's Night. This autobiographical account presents Wiesel's personal journey into the night of the Holocaust when he was between twelve and sixteen years of age. According to Langer, “Wiesel transforms history into legend by imposing words on the silence” (Langer 1982, 151).

When we teachers bring literary works into the history classroom, do we present the historical facts and then read the literature or vice versa? Certainly, students must be made aware of the historical context from which literature springs, but with Night, a positive learning experience can be created if students read the book before discussing the historical facts. Students' questions, as they read the account, can lend direction to the discussions. By experiencing these events through the literature, students can process the facts as they are held together by the sinews and lifeblood of real human beings and place them in a meaningful context for learning.

Night presents at least four journeys: a geographical one, a historical one, Wiesel's relationship with his father, and Wiesel's own journey with his personal faith. Ultimately, this is a story of survival, but survival in a world filled with what Langer calls “choiceless choice[s], where crucial decisions did not reflect options between life and death but between one form of abnormal response and another, both imposed by a situation that was in no way of the victim's own choosing” (Langer 1982, 72). Literature can create the personal reality of these situations and decisions and draw students into that world.

For Wiesel and his readers, the geographical journey begins in 1941 in the Transylvanian village of Sighet where he and his family lived peacefully with other Hasidic Jews. Then, in 1944, came the ghettoization of the Jews in Sighet, followed by their deportation in cattle cars to Birkenau. The next stops on this forced journey were three weeks in Auschwitz and then a four-hour march to Buna, a work camp where Wiesel spent the most time. As the Russians approached, he had to march in the snow to the Gleiwitz camp, where they stayed for three days before being taken in cattle cars to Buchenwald. Fifteen year-old Wiesel was liberated on April 11, 1945.

The historical journey moves chronologically from the vibrant, meaningful Jewish life before the war, to the strangulation of the ghettos and camps, and ultimately the arrival of liberation. Because students encounter the historical facts through the impact of these events on real humans, the facts gain life, meaning, and connection, rather than remaining on the pages of a history book. Wiesel's account relays the emotional and intellectual disbelief of the victims who, in writer Charlotte Delbo's words, “expect the worst—they do not expect the unthinkable” (Delbo 1993, 60). Night raises issues of resistance and flight and shows some of the intergenerational conflict over questions of how to behave. It creates a human connection to events, personalizes the impersonal historical data, creates a sense of response from the reader, and reduces the students' tendencies to dismiss information and events as generally meaningless because they have no significant context in which to place—and process—the data.

Wiesel's relationship with his father provides a painful look into human responses in times of great stress. Even though the Jewish community in Sighet held Wiesel's father in highest esteem, “there was never any display of emotion, even at home” (Wiesel 1988, 14). The young boy first saw his father weep as the family was forced into the little ghetto. Upon entering Birkenau, Wiesel lost his mother and sister and had only “one thought—not to lose him [his father]. Not to be left alone” (39). Then, as the older man suffered from starvation and overwork and illness, Wiesel became immune to acting in his father's defense. Feeling anger toward the guard, Wiesel watched his father being beaten but said nothing. The psychological and emotional tolls of his experiences caused Wiesel later not only to watch his father being beaten but also to feel anger “not against the Kapo, but against my father. I was angry with him, for not knowing how to avoid Idek's [the Kapo] outbreak” (62).

Nonetheless, the bond between father and son held tight. On the march to Gliewitz, it was Wiesel's concern for his father that kept him going, but it was his father who shook him to rouse him from the torpor of fatigue and hunger. Finally, in Buchenwald, Wiesel faced the shameful fact of nearly abandoning his father—“this dead weight” (Wiesel 1988, 111)—who prevented Wiesel from focusing all his strength on his own survival. In his father's last hours, an officer delivered a violent blow to his head, and again, Wiesel “did not move. I was afraid. My body was afraid of also receiving a blow” (116). At his father's death, not only were there no prayers or candles, but there were no tears. Parent-child relationships are an important part of young people's lives, and Wiesel's chronicle provides a glimpse into relationships stretched to their utmost because of factors completely outside the individual's control.

Wiesel's personal spiritual journey also exemplifies the enormous stresses the Holocaust placed on individuals. Early in his life, long before he was considered mature enough, this very religious young boy wanted to study the mystical books. His belief in God and God's justice was unwavering. However, as he watched life become filled with pain, atrocities, and death, his faith began to waver, and he doubted “His absolute justice” (Wiesel 1988, 53). When he witnessed the hanging of a small child, Wiesel seemed to doubt God's existence, yet he continued to address—and even rail against—God. Strong feelings continued within Wiesel as he felt “terribly alone” (75) and failed to understand what he perceived as God's silence in the face of the assaults on his life. The extraordinary circumstances of Wiesel's ghetto and camp experiences took him on a journey that profoundly shook, but did not destroy, his faith. Regardless of our students' personal faith, or lack of it. Wiesel's experiences graphically show the powerful impact of the Holocaust on one person's beliefs.

My students' responses indicate the power of using Night in the classroom. For Emily, one of my English students, reading Night was an effective way to learn about history. She said, “Other than knowing that Jews were tortured in Nazi death camps in Germany in the 1940s, I knew very little about the Holocaust. And this is like a whole new part of history that I am learning about, and I am excited to learn more and discuss why some of these things happened.” For Dan, another student, Night was a most effective means of learning about the Holocaust. He wrote, “If we must read about this devastating period, then the piece Night is the most suitable. It bares the horrors of humanity's most pitiful moments, an honest telling of an unmentionable tale.”

SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING NIGHT

Before teachers assign the reading of Night to their students, I would suggest that the students respond to the following questions:

What is important to you as a young person?

What kinds of things do you do as a teenager?

What dangers do you face as a teenager?

Having thought about their own lives, students are ready to read about Wiesel's experiences and put them into perspective.

Students who write their personal responses to the material they are reading must think about what they have read, mull over any questions they may have about the material, and connect personally with the story. Teacher-directed questions, such as the following, will elicit responses from the students:

What questions were raised for you, as you read this book?

What historical events are referred to?

What changes did you observe in the Jews as they lived through these events?

What did you learn about Wiesel and his father?

What changes did you find in Wiesel's attitude and relationship toward his God?

What personal reactions do you have to what you have learned?

Provide class time for students to write their responses and to share them with their classmates. After sharing their ideas, the students might comment in writing on each other's papers. This helps to promote focused conversation among the students and often provides direction for class discussion.

For other class activities after the reading of Night, the students might undertake some of the following:

• Create a time line on which they chart significant historical events in Wiesel's experiences. This activity can help students recognize the steady tightening of the Nazi noose and bring major historical events into focus.

• Produce a map that charts Wiesel's movement from Sighet, his Transylvanian boyhood village, through the various camps and finally to Buchenwald. Students would work with geographical information and also gain some concept of the distances that Wiesel was forced to travel in boxcars and on foot.

• List the psychological, emotional, and physical means used by the Nazis to control the Jews. This information can help students understand the issues of power and powerlessness that were pervasive and so important during the Holocaust. How did this imbalance of power force the Jews into having to make “choiceless choices”? What impact might this imbalance of power have on the outlooks and actions of both the powerful and the powerless?

• Cite both the physical and spiritual resistance employed by the Jews. It is important that students understand that in a world in which the Nazis' major goal was for all Jews to die, simply to remain alive was an act of resistance. Juliek's playing the violin when it was forbidden created a means of spiritual resistance both for the musician and those who listened.

• Find examples of ways that the Nazis used language to control others. Words and phrases such as “selection,” “deportation,” and “final solution” take on very different meanings within the context of the Holocaust. Language is a powerful tool, and, unfortunately, the Nazis knew how to use it very effectively.

Through mini-research projects, students can explore the concepts, events, places, and individuals they encounter in their reading. Students could present their research orally to the class, along with a poster illustrating their findings.

By reading and responding to Night, students will have the opportunity to confront questions that are paramount in history classes, questions not only about what happened and why but also about whether or not the events are likely to be repeated. Another of my students, Joanie, pondered these questions while she was reading Night: “I can see why many people don't believe the Holocaust ever happened. Who would want to believe that human beings could do such inhumane deeds? What drove Hitler to lead this massacre? Will it happen again or can we as humans learn from our mistakes? Or will it ever happen to me?” Her questions convey a sense of personal connection to these historical events and provided a very effective vehicle for class discussion.

OTHER WORKS BY WIESEL

Teachers who use Night in their classrooms must be alert to the importance of not leaving their students with Wiesel's vision of himself at the end of Night, a vision in which he sees himself as a corpse. Wiesel wrote Night between 1955 and 1960 and followed that with two short novels, using a first-person narrator. The endings of Dawn and The Accident are significant because they show the narrator's movement from a corpse-like figure to one at least of living form. In Dawn, the narrator sees a “tattered fragment of darkness, hanging in midair, [on] the other side of the window.” He realizes that the fragment has a face and “looking at it, I understood the reason for my fear. The face was my own” (Wiesel 1988, 204). At the end of The Accident, as the narrator looks at a portrait of himself, he says: “I was there, facing me. … My eyes were a beating red, like Soutine's. They belonged to a man who had seen God commit the most unforgivable crime: to kill without a reason” (314). Students need to be aware that Elie Wiesel, having endured the horrors of the Holocaust, is using words as his weapon against all of its inhumanities, that he is a productive citizen who stands as a witness to the ultimate failure of the Final Solution, and that the world recognized his contributions to peace by conferring upon him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He has moved through death and come to a recognition of himself as one who must face those unforgivable crimes.

A follow-up literary work that completes Wiesel's historical journey, “Return to the Town beyond the Wall,” relates his experiences upon returning to Sighet in Transylvania more than twenty years after being forced to leave (Wiesel 1968, 210-17). Intending to spend a week, he discovered after only twenty-four hours that the place was unbearable. Written ten years after Night, this short piece lets students hear Wiesel's voice as an older adult who has no answers and no boyhood town, but does have a tangible, meaningful connection to his early, life through a literal and figurative Bar Mitzvah watch.

Students could easily read this piece during a class session or as homework. After reading about Wiesel's return, the class might generate a discussion on topics such as the following:

• What happened to Jewish goods and property after the ghettoizations and deportations?

• Why did no Jews return to live in Sighet (and numerous other cities and towns)?

• How do survivors cope with the memories of the dislocating, brutalizing, and dehumanizing events that occurred during the Holocaust?

This short autobiographical work forces the reader to confront these and other important historical questions.

SELECTED POETRY ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST

Poetry filters human experience, making the particular both specific and inclusive. Poetry that comes from Holocaust experiences can provide another way of incorporating literature into the history classroom. From a very practical standpoint, poetry is easy to include in tight time frames. It can be read as homework or read together in class; in any event, the poetry should be read aloud so students can hear the voice of the poet. In addition, historical underpinnings are given flesh and become human. To incorporate these data into our students' lives, we must find the means to give them relevance and personal connection.

The poetry and drawings of the children who were in the ghetto and the camp at Terezin in Czechoslovakia vividly recreate the experiences of those young people. The poems in I Never Saw Another Butterfly can be read aloud together in class and provide a catalyst for discussion about the historical town of Terezin and the model ghetto and camp established there by the Nazis. The images of trains rolling over foreheads, of butterflies no longer existing in the camp, and of young voices crying out for humane treatment and life create personal connections between students and those authors. The poems can also be used to impress upon students that the tentacles of the Final Solution reached out to entrap all Jews, including young children. The poems will raise questions about the Nazis' intentions and purposes.

The poetry of survivor Dan Pagis is quite approachable for young people. He often refers more obliquely than directly to Holocaust experiences, but the power of his work is undeniable. “Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car” (Pagis 1995, 588) is a very short, almost cryptic, poem that draws on the story of Cain murdering his brother Abel and stops in mid-thought. The title immediately forces readers to connect this ancient act of fratricide with the Holocaust. The poem also presents an opportunity for discussion of the railway system and its efficient use to transport both human and non-human cargo in the implementation of the Final Solution.

Another of Pagis's poems entitled “Europe, Late” (Pagis 1995, 587) creates a beautiful picture of life in mid-1939, a life filled with violins, parties, and dancing. The narrator in this short poem assures the woman he is addressing that “everything will be all right. … No, it could never happen here.” Yet, here also, the final thought is cut off as the narrator says “you'll see—it could”. The narrator's assurance now seems uncertain to the reader, who is not privy to the remainder of the narrator's words. Wiesel himself did not believe that such things could happen, even when faced with the first-hand account of Moche the Beadle. This all-too-common response finds eloquent voice in Pagis's poem and could prompt students to discuss why people were so reluctant to believe even the horrible accounts of eyewitnesses.

The poetry of survivor and Nobel Laureate Nelly Sachs also can be used effectively in the high school classroom. “O the Night of the Weeping Children!” (Sachs 1995, 638), raises the issue of children being taken away, being “branded for death!” The safety of mothers has been replaced by “[t]errible nursemaids” whose presence creates panic. In addition to connecting directly with readers who are still somewhat sheltered by mothers or fathers, this poem raises issues about why the Nazis felt threatened by children, why they targeted them for death almost from the moment they arrived in the camps.

Sachs's poem “You Onlookers” (Sachs 1995, 641) directly addresses the issue of bystanders, those who saw but did nothing to try to stop the murderous events. A series of questions to those “[w]hose eyes watched the killing” moves the poem forward. Students need to understand that the events of the Holocaust occurred not just because of what certain people did but also because of what most people did not do; that being aware of evil and doing nothing is, in effect, choosing to perpetuate that evil. The issue of the bystander is a complicated one with no easy responses. Non-Jews often were severely punished for helping Jews, and the risks were great, but students need to grapple with the issue of following orders under any circumstances. On the other hand, many people sympathized with the Nazi actions against the Jews; students need to think about why that was the case.

LITERATURE AS AN AVENUE FOR UNDERSTANDING

A person's learning about and experiencing historical events through the voices of people who were there, the transformation of those events through the emotional and intellectual revisioning of them by the individual, and the reader's vicarious joining in the experiences through the personal connections established with the narrator become possible through literature. Literature can provide an avenue for understanding the historical concepts and events of any time period but especially those of the Holocaust.

Works Cited

Delbo, C. 1993. Arrivals, Departures. In Different Voices: Women and the Holocaust, edited by C. Rittner and J. K. Roth. New York: Paragon House.

Langer, L. 1982. Versions of Survival: The Holocaust and the Human Spirit. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Pagis, D. 1995. Europe, Late. In Art from the Ashes A Holocaust Anthology, edited by L. Langer. New York: Oxford University Press.

———. 1995. Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car. In Art from the Ashes: A Holocaust Anthology, edited by L. Langer. New York: Oxford University Press.

Sachs, N. 1995. O The Night of the Weeping Children. In Art from the Ashes: A Holocaust Anthology, edited by L. Langer. (638) New York: Oxford University Press.

———. 1995. You Onlookers. In Art from the Ashes: A Holocaust Anthology, edited by L. Langer. (641) New York: Oxford University Press.

Volavkova, H. (Ed.). 1993. I Never Saw Another Butterfly, Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944. New York: Schocken Books.

Wiesel, E. 1988. The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, The Accident. New York: Noonday Press.

———. 1968. “Return to the Town beyond the Wall.” In Across Time and Space, edited by M. Marenof. Detroit: Dot Publications.