Hope & DespairYoung Writers Diaries of the Holocaust

Salvaged Pages

“These writings capture the experience of young people from the inside—not as the Nazis decreed it, not as observers witnessed it, not as historians made sense of it after events occurred.” (Zapruder)

• They wrote with:▫ no knowledge of the outcome

• They observed and recorded What they eat and how they dealt with hunger How they communicated. How they dealt with loss of home and family. How they continued to hope for a better future.

Fragments• Hope & Despair

▫ Anonymous Boy Lodz Ghetto June 11, 1944, p. 371 July 15, 1944, p. 383

• Compassion & Empathy Despair as Part of Suffering▫ Anonymous Girl

Lodz Ghetto March 5, 1942, p. 234

• Hope for Individual Survival Hope for the World ▫ Elsa Binder

Stanislawow, Poland January 30, 1942, p. 319Alexandra Zapruder

Voices on Antisemitism USHMM Podcast Series

KristallnachtNovember 9-10, 1938Klaus Langer•Diary begins in March 1937 after his bar mitzvah in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia•Member of the Zionist Group•Defining event of diary is Kristallnacht•Main theme is the issue of emigration, or what he called the maze.•Map of Kristallnacht

Events of KristallnachtNovember 11, 1938Salvaged Pages, pp. 19-21

November 28, 1938 (second entry)Salvage Pages, pp. 22-23

Synagogue in Gleiwitzbefore Kristallnacht

• Nations imposed elaborate and demanding application processes for entry visas, i.e. you have to have a visa to get a ticket, and a ticket to get a visa

• Required by the United States• Mistrust of foreigners, anti-Semitism,

and economic depression• Competition with thousands of equally

desperate people for limited places• Financial hardships• Evian Conference, July 6-15, 1938

Struggle with EmigrationDecember 14, 1938 – January 5, 1939Salvaged Pages, pp. 24-25

September 8, 1939Salvaged Pages, pp. 33

Obstacles to Immigration

Jews hoping to receive exit visas at a police station in Vienna.

/wEPDwU/wEWBwK

The following is a list of the documents required by the United States to obtain a visa. • Five copies of the visa application • Two copies of the applicant's birth certificate • Quota number (establishing the applicant's place on the waiting list) • Two sponsors:

▫ Close relatives of the prospective immigrant were preferred▫ The sponsors were required to be U.S. citizens or to have permanent resident

status, and they were required to have completed and notarized six copies of an Affidavit of Support and Sponsorsip

• Supporting documents:▫ Certified copy of most recent federal tax return▫ Affidavit from a bank regarding applicant's accounts▫ Affidavit from any other responsible person regarding other assets (affidavit from

sponsor's employer or statement of commercial rating) • Certificate of Good Conduct from German Police authorities, including two copies of

each: ▫ Police dossier▫ Prison record▫ Military record▫ Other government records about individual

• Affidavits of Good Conduct (after September 1940) from several responsible disinterested persons

• Physical examination at U.S. consulate • Proof of permission to leave Germany (imposed September 30, 1939) • Proof that prospective immigrant had booked passage to the Western hemisphere

(imposed September 1939)

Knowledge of Adolf Hitler & Mass Murder

`• Anoymous Boy Lodz Ghetto July 15, 1944, p. 383, July 21, 1944, pp. 386-387,

• Moshe Flinker December 14, 1942, p. 106January 26, 1943, p. 114On Mass MurderDecember 22, 1942, pp. 107-108

/wEPDwU/wEWBwL

Lodz GhettoHunger• Hunger

▫ Anonymous GirlLodz GhettoFebruary 24, 1942,

p. 231March 10, 1942, p.

236

/wEPDwU/wEWBwK

Lodz GhettoDeportation

• Deportation▫ Anonymous GirlLodz GhettoFebruary 28, 1942March 1, 1942

March 4, 1942March 5, 1942March 9, 1942, p. 235March 12, 1942, p. 239

• Give Me Your Children Mordechai RumkowskiSeptember 4, 1942

/wEPDwU/wEWBwK/wEPDwU/wEWBwL

"Friday, September 4, 1942:     The deportation of children and old people is a fact....There is

simply no word, no power, no art able to transmit the moods, the laments, and the turmoil prevailing in the ghetto since early this morning. To say that today the ghetto is swimming in tears would not be mere rhetoric. It would be simply a gross understatement, an inadequate utterance about the things you can see and hear in the ghetto of Litzmannstadt, no matter where you go or look or listen. There is no house, no home, no family which is not affected by this dreadful edict. One person has a child, another an old father, a third an old mother....All hearts are icy, all hands are wrung, all eyes filled with despair. All faces are twisted, all heads bowed to the ground, all blood weeps..."

   "Son of man, go out into the streets. Soak in the unconscious terror of the new-born babies about to be slaughtered. Be strong. Keep your heart from breaking so you'll be able to describe, carefully and clearly, what happened in the ghetto during the first days of September in the year one thousand, nine hundred forty-two."

-- from Days of Nightmare (monograph found after the war) Jozef Zelkowicz, 1897-1944

The Diary of Anne Frank

•Refer to handout with Anne Frank quotes▫Making room for one more▫Outside world▫Passage of time▫Rescuers and risk

•Parallel voices

Elsa Binder, Stanislawow, Poland

Her diary was found in a ditch on the way to the execution site for the Stanislawow Jews.

•Elsa Binder wrote about the:▫Impact of oppression an

suffering on her own life June 9, 1942, p. 327

▫Hope In spite of everything I still

believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death.

Anne Frank December 31, 1941, p. 312

▫Proximity of Death Monday, January 12, 1942, p. 314 March 18, 1942, p. 323 April 26, 1942, p. 325

Resources• Alexandra Zapruder Podcast on Antisemitism

http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/antisemitism/voices/transcript/?content=20080327

• Facing History Teaching Guide for Salvaged Pages http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/antisemitism/voices/transcript/?content=20080327

• Kristallnacht Map, USHMM http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005201

• I’m Still Here

http://www.amazon.com/Im-Still-Here-Elijah-Wood/dp/B0015XM2ZM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1276022602&sr=8-1

Jenny McConnell, Regional EducatorJenny.mcconnell@sths.org