Butterflies and Boots: What Do Children Understand of the Holocaust?
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Transcript of Butterflies and Boots: What Do Children Understand of the Holocaust?
Of Butterflies and Boots: What
Do Children Understand of the
Holocaust?Daniel Feldman
English
• When can we reasonably expect children to
confront the horrors of the Holocaust?
• What do we expect children to understand of
atrocity?
Question(s)
1. Children’s Literature about the Holocaust
2. Holocaust Education
3. Memoirs of Holocaust Child Survivors
Sources
Yolen, Devil’s Arithmetic
Lowry, Number the Stars
• He said that there were too many
references in the book to the
shiny boots. And I listened. I
listened with respect. But I looked
at the photographs again, and I
tried to place myself within the
visual awareness of a child.
Sometimes we forget that their
vantage point is lower than ours.
They don't look into adult faces.
Certainly a frightened child would
not look into the faces of enemy
soldiers. The child would see —
and notice, more than an adult —
those terrifying boots.
Polacco, The Butterfly
• The tall boots would march by
her front gate, reminding her
how hopeless it seemed.
• Their heels clicked like
gunshots along the
cobblestone path.
• They watched the Nazis kick
him hard in the ribs with those
tall black boots.
כמטוניםמגפים ,פגיסהמסדר ,פגיס עדות ,פגיס
–Aharon Appelfeld
“What does a child of eight and a half
remember?”
Hanus Hochenburg, "Terezin"
I was once a little child
Three years ago.
That child who longed for
other worlds.
But now I am a child no more
For I have learned to hate.
I am a grown-up now,
I have known fear.
Orlev, The
Sandgame
Korczak, When I am Little Again
To the adult reader:
You say: Dealings with children are tiresome.
You’re right.
You say: Because we have to lower ourselves to their intellect. Lower,
stoop, bend, crouch down.
You are mistaken.
It isn’t that which is so tiring. But because we have to reach up to their
feelings. Reach up, stretch, stand on our tip-toes.