Learning and Teaching about the Holocaust

During my last year of teaching in Israel, I prepared my own literature program about the Holocaust. Like other English teachers on staff, I was really insecure on how to approach teaching it and more particularly, I was afraid that it would reveal to me the true essence of being a Jew. I chose Elie Wiesel’s powerful gripping account of his experience living at the extermination camps in Buchenwald and Buna in Night. Not too long ago, this book made headlines with Ophra’s Book club. I highly recommend reading this book. I thought the book was age appropriate for my … Continue reading

A Holocaust Hero Passes Away

The other day, I was blogging about the movie The Pianist and how at the end, a Nazi officer actually helped Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman right before the war ends. There were many Holocaust heroes during that time – people who risked their own lives to save others. One of them, Irena Sendler, has just passed away recently at the age of 98. Irena was a Polish social worker during World War II. Irena began offering Jewish families food and shelter in 1939. Soon, her job as a social worker would allow her to help more Jews. Saying she was … Continue reading

Scary Places: RMS Queen Mary

While thinking about scary places, I remembered the RMS Queen Mary. When I think of the word “ocean liner,” usually something along the lines of the Love Boat comes to mind. But apparently, there are some disturbing happenings going on in the Queen Mary. The RMS Queen Mary sailed the North Atlantic for 31 years (1936 until 1967). Like the RMS Queen Elizabeth, her running mate, the Queen Mary helped transport troops during World War II. She was the third largest ocean liner in the world and at times, could carry as many as 16,000 men to war. In 1942, … Continue reading