centre for holocaust education · on 08 may 1945 nazi germany ... they invite friends from school,...

Centre forHolocaust Education

Women and the HolocaustPRE/POST-ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY

1

Narrative of Women & the Holocaust

▪ Using the given images, construct YOUR narrative of women in the Holocaust.

▪ Use ONLY 6 images.

▪ Create an appropriate TITLE.

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© LIFE

© Anne Frank Stichting

On Saturday September 2, 1944, after nearly four weeks in Westerbork transit camp, the Franks, the van Pels, and Fritz Pfeffer are among the 1019 names called for transport to the

east. Because of the approaching Allied forces this will be the second-to-last transport to ever leave Westerbork.

As the sign on the platform indicates (above), the occupants of the Secret Annex are being sent to Auschwitz.

3

The synagogue on the Gerard Noodtstraat defaced with anti-Semitic slogans. Amsterdam, Friday, 28 August 1941

© Joods Historisch Museum

4

© NIOD

This image is a close-up of a map (100 x 100 cm) made by Amsterdam public officials in on the instructions of their Nazi occupiers. Each dot represents ten Jewish inhabitants. Of the

140,000 Dutch Jews, about 80,000 lived in Amsterdam. Amsterdam, January 1941.

5

Jewish refugee girls from Germany, including Anne (left) and Margot Frank (2nd from right), have a tea party with their dolls at the home of Gabrielle Kahn.

Amsterdam, 1934.

© USHMM #63541

6

Anne’s 10th birthday with friends on Merweideplein. (Anne, 2nd from left, Sanne Ledermann, 3rd from left, Hanneli Goslar, 4th from left)

Amsterdam, 1939.

© Anne Frank Fonds, Bazel / Anne Frank Stichting, Amsterdam

7

Portrait of Anne Frank modeling a new coat.

Amsterdam, 1941.

© USHMM #55022

8

The first page of the famous diary, which Anne Frank receives for her thirteenth birthday.

Amsterdam, 12 June 1942.


9

Fence closing off Jewish neighborhood near

Nieuwmarkt.

Amsterdam, February 1941.

© Charles Breijer, Nederlands Fotomuseum

10

German Jews who fled from Nazi Germany are arrested after the invasion of the Netherlands. The original caption on this propaganda photograph read: “We finally got

them!”

The Netherlands, 1940.

© NIOD

11

Anne Frank writing at her desk in her room in the Merweideplein

apartment. Amsterdam, ca. 1940-1941.


12

Otto Frank posts a map on the wall of his bedroom in the Secret Annex. The map is of the Normandy area of France. The occupants of the Secret Annex track the progress of the Allied forces following the D-Day invasion of 06 June

1944.


13

Maria Austria © Maria Austria Instituut

The hiding place of the Frank family (and later, the van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer). It is the annex

behind Otto Frank’s offices at 263 Prinsengracht.

Amsterdam, Monday 06 July 1942.

14

Jewish friends meet for tea, including Otto and Edith Frank (center), and pose around a table in a private home shortly before many of them flee the country as refugees of the

Nazi regime. Mannheim, Germany, 1933.

© USHMM # 63542

15

Along with thousands of other Jews in Amsterdam, Margot Frank receives

a call-up notice like this one. The notice informs her that she has to go

to a labor camp in Germany. The document comes from the Central

Office of Jewish Emigration: an exact list of what they are allowed to bring

with them. It also indicates when they must depart.

Otto and Edith have no intention of allowing Margot to be sent to Nazi

Germany. The family goes into hiding.

Amsterdam, 05 July 1942.

© Anne Frank Stichting 16

Anne Frank sits in Mr. Van Gelder’s Montessori class. She is nine years old and it’s her third year in the school.

Amsterdam, 1938.

Mr. Van Gelder said after the war: ‘Anne Frank wasn’t a genius. She was sweet. I sometimes met her on the way to school in the morning. She sometimes told me stories that she had made up with her father. They were always funny stories. She spoke a lot about

her father, but not much about her mother or sister. I knew that she wanted to be a writer. Perhaps she would have become that…’


17

People in hiding listen to the BBC station Radio Oranje (Radio Orange) in Banstraat. Being in possession of a radio and listening to the radio station of the Dutch government-in-exile has

been forbidden since 1942. Occupants of the Secret Annex are no exception. On 28 March 1944 a special news report from Dutch Cabinet Minister Bolkestein announces that diaries and other documents will be gathered at the end of the war. These items will serve as a record of what happend to the

Dutch during WWII, and will be preserved for future generations. Anne intends to publish her diary after the war as a novel, and begins the editing process.

© USHMM / Hans Aussen

18

The eight occupants of the Secret Annex are taken by train from Amsterdam Central Station to the Westerbork Transit Camp. Because they did not report when ordered, the

occupants are assigned the punishment barracks where they have the dirty task of breaking up old batteries.

Hooghalen, Netherlands, 08 August 1944

© Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority

19

On 08 May 1945 Nazi Germany unconditionally and officially surrenders.

Survivors of the concentration camps begin to make their way home, if they can.

Otto Frank is liberated at Auschwitz-Birkenau on 27 January 1945. He is the

sole survivor of the Secret Annex.

Here Ernestine van Witsen-Weinberg returns to Amsterdam from Bergen-Belsen.

Amsterdam Central Station, 1945.

Emmy Andriesse © Joost Elffers

20

Anne with three friends. Beekbergen, Netherlands, summer 1941.


21

Margot (left) and Anne Frank vacation at the beach.

Zandvoort, Netherlands, August 1940.


22

After 25 months in hiding, the occupants of the Secret Annex are

betrayed, arrested, and interrogated at a German-run prison.

An anonymous caller notifies the Security Police that Jews are hiding at 263

Prinsengracht. Officer on duty, SS-Oberscharfuhrer Karl Silberbauer - with the help of Dutch policeman - arrests all eight

occupants and the two male helpers, Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman. All are

taken away in an enclosed truck.

Amsterdam, 04 August 1944

© NIOD

23

Jewish children and their parents await deportation to the Westerbork transit camp in the northeast corner of Holland.

Amsterdam, 25 or 26 May 1943.

© NIOD

24

© National Archives

Aerial photo of Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II) taken 13 September 1944. The occupants of the Secret Annex arrive in this camp in the middle of the night on 6

September 1944, after a 36-hour train journey. The men and the women are separated; all are selected for hard labor in the camp.

Oswieciem, Poland.

25

Otto Frank returns to Amsterdam on 03 June 1945. Along the way he learns of the death of Edith, but holds out hope that Anne and Margot have survived.

Otto registers with the Red Cross, but also posts an advertisement in the “Information Wanted” section of a newspaper, seeking information

regarding his daughters:"Margot Frank (19 yrs) and Anna Frank (16 yrs) in January on transp. from Bergen-Belsen. O.

Frank, Prinsengracht 263, tel.37059."

On 18 July 1945 he meets the Brilleslijper sisters who witnessed Anne and Margot’s deaths in Bergen-Belsen.

© Anne Frank Stichting26


After a few weeks in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Anne and Margot are selected for work at the labor and exchange camp Bergen-Belsen in Germany. Edith Frank is not selected and

remains in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Bergen-Belsen, Germany. October/November 1944. 27

The registration cards of Edith Frank, Margot Frank, and Anne Frank that indicate all three died while in concentration camps. Edith, as noted on the card, died 06 January 1945 in

Auschwitz of illness and exhaustion. Margot and Anne die within days of one another, both of typhus, in Bergen-Belsen. First

Margot, then Anne sometime in March or April 1945.


28


After the arrest of the Franks, van Pels, and Pfeffer, Miep Gies finds Anne’s diary left behind; she keeps the diary for when Anne returns. Upon learning of Anne’s death, Miep gives the

diary to Otto Frank who, after some time, consideration and help from article written in the Het Parool newspaper, has the diary published. The book, Het Achterhuis. Dagbrieven van 14 juni

1942 tot 1 augustus 1944 (The Secret Annex. Diary Letters from June 14, 1942 to August 1, 1944) is released 25 June 1947.

The diary had been translated into at least 67 languages, published in 70 countries, and more than 30 million copies have been sold.

29

© Beeldbank WO2 / NIOD

A blacked out street light by the IJ-veer (ferry across the River IJ). A regulation is passed stating that the blackout will be imposed throughout the whole country between dawn and

dusk. All street lights will be switched off and house windows must be blacked out to prevent allied pilots seeing any lights.

Amsterdam, 1940.

30

Anne Frank ice skating with friends in Vondelpark.

Amsterdam, 1941

By the winter of 1941-1942 Jews are no longer allowed to go the skating rink: a result of the anti-Jewish laws by the occupiers.


31

Frank family photo. A rare image of all four members of the family - Margot,

Otto, Anne, and Edith.Merweideplein, Amsterdam, May 1941

The Netherlands has been occupied by the Nazis for a year, and in that time,

life has become more and more difficult for Jews, and the Franks are no

exception. From October 1940 Jews are no longer allowed to own

businesses. Otto Frank manages to keep his companies out of the occupier’

s hands by transferring them to his non-Jewish employees. Pectacon

becomes Gies & Co. Behind the scenes Otto remains the boss.


32


Anti-Jewish decrees are increasing. The latest bans Jews from going the cinema, which Anne Frank loves. In response, she and her friend Jacqueline van Maarsden have a cinema at home. They invite friends from school, present them with “official”

tickets, and escort them to their seats.

Amsterdam, 1942.

33

34

263 Prinsengracht - the offices of Otto Frank’s business and the rear Secret Annex - becomes a museum.

Amsterdam, 03 May 1960

(It now consists of several buildings on the surrounding block, as seen in this current image.)


Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL, tel: +44(0)20 7612 6437 fax: +44(0)20 7612 6126 email: [email protected] web: www.ioe.ac.uk/holocaustThe IOE’s Centre for Holocaust Education is jointly funded by Pears Foundation and the Department for Education.

Women and the Holocaust

36

Women and the Holocaust Pre-Assessment BRIDGE ACTIVITY

www.ioe.ac.uk/holocaust 1

Key Question: What do students understand about the experiences of women in the Holocaust, based on their prior knowledge of Anne Frank?

Teaching Aims & Learning Objectives ▪ Determine students’ understandings, beliefs, and knowledge of women’s experiences in the

Holocaust.▪ Identify possibly misconceptions or misunderstandings of those experiences, and recognize

areas to address for clarification▪ Establish a “base-line” of knowledge and understanding, so growth can be ascertained at

the end of the scheme of work.


RationaleThe Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is very often the entry point for learning about the Holocaust for many students. Anne Frank’s diary is just one voice and one experience among millions, thus studying this particular writer/victim of Nazi persecution is an apt resource for entering into a larger and more complex study of the history and the impacts of that particular time on Jewish women. This particular lesson establishes a link, or a bridge, between the prior Holocaust lessons/knowledge directly related to Anne Frank and the experiences of Jewish women across Europe.

Key Information▪ This lesson is intended for 8th grade/Year 9 students and above. It is specifically designed

for use in an English classroom, but can easily be adapted for other content area, such as history, RE, etc.

▪ Timings are suggested on the basis of a one hour class session, and may need adapting accordingly.

▪ This lesson is intended to be used with a scheme of work that focuses on women in the Holocaust, and is supplemental to an exploration of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

▪ Students who have studied Anne Frank’s diary will apply background knowledge from that exploration here. Additionally, students may have knowledge from other subject areas or from personal experiences with this history.

▪ Material to support teacher knowledge is included at the end of these lesson plans.▪ Read and use the following lesson plans in conjunction with the notes on the related

PowerPoint. ▪ Teachers are encouraged to adapt the exercise according to their classroom needs. While

it is possible and even valuable to complete the exercise independently, teachers and students will derive the most benefit from working collaboratively. The process of selecting 6 photos can be as messy or organized as each group allows. It’s best to allow them to work with little intervention. SIX is the number of 8 1/2 x 11 sheets that will fit on flip-chart paper; there is nothing else significant about it. SIX also is a small enough number to ensure discussion and compromise as each group works toward consensus. The process of selecting and reaching consensus will encourage critical thinking about the meaning of the Holocaust and a lively discussion. Students will inevitably reveal their preconceptions, and you should acknowledge that no one approaches this subject as an empty vessel.

Materials Needed▪ Copies of images from accompanying PowerPoint for each working student/pair/group.▪ Large sheet of paper upon which to post selected images (i.e. sugar paper or chart

paper).


▪ Glue sticks or tape for attaching images to large paper.▪ Tape or blue-tack for hanging products up for display.▪ Markers

Lesson Plan


Introduction and Set-Up (10 minutes)Arrange the class so that students are working in cooperative groups of 2-4 students each, according to your preferences.* Give each group a set of the 24 working images, a piece of large paper, glue stick (or tape), and a marker. Explain to students that their goal for this lesson is to select exactly six images from their set of 24 that tells the story of women in the Holocaust. In this introduction point out that the “narrative” they are creating is based on their knowledge of Anne Frank and the other women in the Secret Annex. Encourage them to consider what happened to the Frank women and Auguste van Pels, and to use that information to create a story that represents - to their best of their knowledge - the experiences of all women during the Holocaust. *You may choose to have students work individually, but having students work together can generate some very interesting and revealing discussions and interpretations.

Work Session (25 minutes)Allow students time to examine, discuss and select the six images for display. Once students have reached consensus on the six images and the arrangement of those six, they need to glue or tape the images to the large chart/sugar paper. Each group should use the marker to annotate their narrative. This might mean simply assigning a title to their selection, or it could include brief explanations of each image. Have students hang their work in a designated area.

Reflection (10 minutes)When the group has finished, have students write a short reflection that considers any or all of the following questions:▪ Why did you select these six images to represent the story of women in the Holocaust?▪ What process did your group use to make these selections?▪ Were there compromises that had to be made? Did any interesting discussions arise as

part of the selection process?▪ Was there a particular image that was difficult to eliminate? ▪ Are there any questions about any of the images that you’d like to address?▪ Was there a particular image you wish had been represented in the selection, but wasn’t?

Alternately, teachers could have students answer these questions orally, as they present their narratives to the class.

Gallery Walk (10 minutes)To conclude this lesson, ask students to write about one key issue or theme that surprised them, either from the sorting activity, the prayer or the iWitness testimonies. Once again, use this opportunity to elaborate on the complexity and diversity of Jewish life for women and for all Jews. Teachers are encouraged to adapt the exercise according to their classroom needs. While it is possible and even valuable to complete the exercise independently, teachers and students will


derive the most benefit from working collaboratively. The process of selecting 6 photos can be as messy or organized as each group allows. It’s best to allow them to work with little intervention. SIX is the number of 8 1/2 x 11 sheets that will fit on flip-chart paper; there is nothing else significant about it. SIX also is a small enough number to ensure discussion and compromise as each group works toward consensus. The process of selecting and reaching consensus will encourage critical thinking about the meaning of the Holocaust and a lively discussion. Students will inevitably reveal their preconceptions, and you should acknowledge that no one approaches this subject as an empty vessel.

Engaging all learnersTeachers may want to organize the sorting activity in a variety of ways. Teachers might consider giving students one theme at a time, to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Extension work might include investigating one card further, or to add another country/region to the card sort.

Additional Information


Pedagogical guidanceThe sorting activity is a generalization to help students understand a lifestyle that may be very foreign to them as 21st century individuals, but it also assists in a greater comprehension of the Holocaust and its impact on women - what was lost, challenged and changed – when faced with separation, starvation, isolation, and annihilation. Additionally, teachers and students may recognize that testimony from survivors on iWitness does not perfectly match with descriptions in the sorting activity. When considering the millions of Jewish people affected by the Holocaust, it becomes clear that every voice is going to have a different and unique experience. The diversity and complexity of this history is essential as one examines the Holocaust.

English Curriculum FociAs this is designed to be an activity for an English classroom, one must consider the use of language – not just terminology – in the group discussions, the class discussions and the survivor testimony. According to the National Curriculum at Key Stage 3 students should be ▪ using Standard English confidently in discussion ▪ expressing their own ideas and keeping to the point▪ summarising and/or building on what has been said

Similarly, American students who follow the Common Core in 8th grade should be able to: ▪ engage collaboratively in discussions with diverse partners▪ build on others’ ideas, and express their own clearly▪ present claims coherently with relevant evidence


AcknowledgementsLesson plan and materials created by Meghan McNeeley, with cooperation from Kay Andrews© Meghan McNeeley, 2014, All Rights Reserved. Additional editing by Emma O’Brien and Andy PearceArtwork by Cheryl Lowe.

Bacon, Gershon. “The missing 52%: Research on Jewish women in interwar Poland and its implications for Holocaust studies.” In Women in the Holocaust, edited by Dalia Ofer and Lenore J. Weitzman, 55-67. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998. Freidenreich, Harriet Pass. Female, Jewish and Educated: The lives of central European university women. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2002. Goldberg-Mulkiewicz, Olga. “Dress.” YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. 09 August 2010, 13 December 2014 <http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Dress>.Hutton, Marcelline J. Russian and Western European Women, 1860-1939: Dreams, struggles and nightmares. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2001. Hyman, Paula E. “Gender and the Jewish family in Modern Europe.” In Women in the Holocaust, edited by Dalia Ofer and Lenore J. Weitzman, 25-38. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998. Hyman, Paula E. “Gender.” YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. 09 August 2010, 13 December 2014 <http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Gender>.Kaplan, Marion. “Keeping calm and weathering the storm: Jewish women’s responses to daily life in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939.” In Women in the Holocaust, edited by Dalia Ofer and Lenore J. Weitzman, 39-54. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998.


Centre for Holocaust Education, Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL Tel: +44(0)20 7612 6437 fax: +44(0)20 7612 6126 email: [email protected] web: www.ioe.ac.uk/holocaust The IOE’s Centre for Holocaust Education is jointly funded by Pears Foundation and the Department for Education.



Women and the Holocaust PRE-HOLOCAUST LIFE SORTING ACTIVITY

Sort the cards▪ Create a grid similar to one seen here.

▪ Sort by colour.

▪ Try to work out which best describes Jewish women in that region.

▪ Which themes/words need further investigation?

What can we infer from reading this prayer? Where might it be from? Who might recite it?

Private Jewish prayers from 1848, used until 20th century

From Hyman, Paula E. “Gender and the Jewish family in Modern Europe.” In Women in the Holocaust, edited by Dalia Ofer and Lenore J. Weitzman, 27. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998.

▪ For men:

▪ For women:

iWitness at the Shoah Foundation

▪ Create a “video” of what you perceive women were like in Europe before the Holocaust at http://iwitness.usd.edu.

▪ Use the characteristics you think are the most revealing for your version. Consider the categories & the regions from the sorting activity.

▪ Use the class code and clips selected for you - 93437a9be6.

http://iwitness.usd.edu/




Jewish Women in Europe

Women and the Holocaust PRE-HOLOCAUST LIFE SORTING ACTIVITY


Key Question: What was life like for Jewish women in pre-Holocaust Europe?

Teaching Aims & Learning Objectives ▪ Construct an understanding of Jewish women’s lives in pre-Holocaust Europe▪ Recognize the diversity in the lives of women from three distinct regions of Europe▪ Establish a foundation of knowledge of women’s PRE-HOLOCAUST lives for comparison

and understanding of their lives DURING THE HOLOCAUST


RationaleIn her book Double Jeopardy: Gender and the Holocaust, Judith Tydor Baumel, chair of Contemporary Jewry and professor of history at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, wrote that the study of Jewish women in the Holocaust is “an important addition to our understanding of a major world cataclysm.” By looking more closely at the lives of Jewish women prior to the Holocaust, one can better understand the impact of the Holocaust on the individual and on the entire Jewish population. In addition, research conducted by the Centre for Holocaust Education indicates that Jewish life before the Second World War is rarely taught in English secondary schools. Once one understands a Jewish woman’s life before the Holocaust, the experiences that Jewish women endured during the Holocaust take on greater significance and aid in greater comprehension of the suffering and the loss that affected the larger Jewish population of Europe. Furthermore, the perspective of this history shifts to the life of the individual, and away from the collective notion of victim.

Key Information▪ This lesson is intended for 8th grade/Year 9 students and above. It is specifically designed

for use in an English classroom, but can easily be adapted for other content area, such as history, RE, etc.

▪ Timings are suggested on the basis of a one hour class session, and may need adapting accordingly.

▪ This lesson may be used alone, but it is intended to be used with a scheme of work that focuses on women in the Holocaust, and is supplemental to an exploration of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

▪ Prior knowledge is not needed, though students who have studied Anne Frank’s diary will have some background knowledge that they may apply here. Additionally, students may have knowledge from other subject areas or from personal experiences with this history.

▪ You will need to use the accompanying PowerPoint, sorting cards, excerpt with prayers, access to the USC Shoah Foundation’s iWitness site (http://iwitness.usc.edu/), so students will need access to computers and the Internet.

▪ Material to support teacher knowledge is included at the end of these lesson plans.▪ Read and use the following lesson plans in conjunction with the notes on the related

PowerPoint.

Lesson Plan


http://iwitness.usc.edu/

Map and Sorting Activity (15 minutes)Briefly explain the lesson goals and point out the locations of the Netherlands (Western Europe), Germany (Central Europe) and Poland (Eastern Europe) on the PowerPoint slide. Distribut e envelopes with the sorting cards among groups of students no larger than 3 or 4. Students begin by setting up the outlining grid, then sorting cards into rows by color/theme to their respective columns/regions. Students discuss and decide which region each piece of information best fits under. Unfamiliar names, words, terminology can be written down on a list. The activity is not intended for all students to get 100% correct, but rather to stimulate discussion and debate, and to raise pertinent questions about the life of Jewish women in Europe before the Holocaust.

Feedback & Prayer (10 minutes)Once complete, and before answers are revealed, address any questions, concerns, debates that were raised during the activity. If need be, you might find these questions helpful in the discussion:▪ What does all this information tell us about Jewish women before the Holocaust?▪ What other information would they like to know?

Once the answers have been revealed from the PowerPoint, each group may take some time to share what challenges they had, or what they found interesting from the activity. Attention should be drawn to:▪ The very small percentage of Jews living in Germany and the very large percentage living

in Poland. ▪ The subtle differences between life in Central Europe (Germany) and Western Europe

(Netherlands).▪ Diverse experiences dependent on where they lived… Not a homogenous group.

To illuminate the complexities associated with gender roles, read the Jewish personal prayers for men and for women with the students. Students should consider the region this prayer originates from, explaining their reasoning using evidence from sorting activity. [The prayer was originally written by a FRENCH rabbi.] This activity and the complexity it reveals, is a lead or a bridge to the iWitness exercise.

iWitness at Shoah (25 minutes)(Teachers may want to create their own iWitness page and load it with their own clips from testimonies, or they may use the established class and clips.) Students need to register and logon to iWitness – this can be done ahead of time. Once on, he/she will register using the assigned keycode (on the PowerPoint, or one of your assigning).


From there, the students need to use the various clips to create a narrative of what they think life was like for Jewish women before the Holocaust. For the sake of time, teachers may assign students specific themes (education, mothers, etc.) and/or specific countries for students to explore.

Plenary (10 minutes)To conclude this lesson, ask students to write about one key issue or theme that surprised them, either from the sorting activity, the prayer or the iWitness testimonies. Once again, use this opportunity to elaborate on the complexity and diversity of Jewish life for women and for all Jews.

Engaging all learnersTeachers may want to organize the sorting activity in a variety of ways. Teachers might consider giving students one theme at a time, to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Extension work might include investigating one card further, or to add another country/region to the card sort.

Additional Information


Pedagogical guidanceThe sorting activity is a generalization to help students understand a lifestyle that may be very foreign to them as 21st century individuals, but it also assists in a greater comprehension of the Holocaust and its impact on women - what was lost, challenged and changed – when faced with separation, starvation, isolation, and annihilation. Additionally, teachers and students may recognize that testimony from survivors on iWitness does not perfectly match with descriptions in the sorting activity. When considering the millions of Jewish people affected by the Holocaust, it becomes clear that every voice is going to have a different and unique experience. The diversity and complexity of this history is essential as one examines the Holocaust.

English Curriculum FociAs this is designed to be an activity for an English classroom, one must consider the use of language – not just terminology – in the group discussions, the class discussions and the survivor testimony. According to the National Curriculum at Key Stage 3 students should be ▪ using Standard English confidently in discussion ▪ expressing their own ideas and keeping to the point▪ summarising and/or building on what has been said

Similarly, American students who follow the Common Core in 8th grade should be able to: ▪ engage collaboratively in discussions with diverse partners▪ build on others’ ideas, and express their own clearly▪ present claims coherently with relevant evidence


AcknowledgementsLesson plan and materials created by Meghan McNeeley, with cooperation from Kay Andrews© Meghan McNeeley, 2014, All Rights Reserved. Additional editing by Emma O’Brien and Andy PearceArtwork by Cheryl Lowe.

Bacon, Gershon. “The missing 52%: Research on Jewish women in interwar Poland and its implications for Holocaust studies.” In Women in the Holocaust, edited by Dalia Ofer and Lenore J. Weitzman, 55-67. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998. Freidenreich, Harriet Pass. Female, Jewish and Educated: The lives of central European university women. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2002. Goldberg-Mulkiewicz, Olga. “Dress.” YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. 09 August 2010, 13 December 2014 <http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Dress>.Hutton, Marcelline J. Russian and Western European Women, 1860-1939: Dreams, struggles and nightmares. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2001. Hyman, Paula E. “Gender and the Jewish family in Modern Europe.” In Women in the Holocaust, edited by Dalia Ofer and Lenore J. Weitzman, 25-38. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998. Hyman, Paula E. “Gender.” YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. 09 August 2010, 13 December 2014 <http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Gender>.Kaplan, Marion. “Keeping calm and weathering the storm: Jewish women’s responses to daily life in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939.” In Women in the Holocaust, edited by Dalia Ofer and Lenore J. Weitzman, 39-54. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998.


Centre for Holocaust Education, Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL Tel: +44(0)20 7612 6437 fax: +44(0)20 7612 6126 email: [email protected] web: www.ioe.ac.uk/holocaust The IOE’s Centre for Holocaust Education is jointly funded by Pears Foundation and the Department for Education.



Women & the HolocaustCASE STUDIES

Teachers’ notes

Preparation:

▪ Print on A4 paper and laminate.

▪ The “Women and the Holocaust” activity uses testimonies, artifacts, images, etc. from MOST of the women represented on the cards in this document. These are meant to allow students to “get-to-know” the women.

▪ Please refer to the accompanying lesson plan and pedagogical guidance.

Edith Holländer Frank▪ Edith was the youngest of four children in a religious

and financially successful Jewish family. Though not Orthodox, the family kept a kosher kitchen and regularly attended services. She went to high school at the Victoria School, a Protestant girls’ high school, and was described as “a shy girl,...[with] many friends. She played tennis and paid a lot of attention to fashionable clothing.” After completing exams in 1916, Edith helped in her father’s office.

16 January 1900 (Aachen, Germany) – 06 January 1945 (Auschwitz, Poland)

▪ Nothing else is known of Edith until 1925 when she marries Otto Heinrich Frank in an elaborate wedding. Soon after, Margot Betti is born (1926) and then Annelies Marie (1929). Edith is a wife, mother and homemaker for the family, and takes care of her own mother until her death in Amsterdam in 1942.

“Edith always stood by you, through thick and think, and she was a devoted

mother and best friend for the children.” Alice Stern Frank, Edith’s mother-in-law, 1945

All photos © Anne Frank Stichting

▪ She is remembered for often entertaining a houseful of guests on Saturday afternoons with homemade pastries and biscuits.

Margot Betti Frank▪ Margot is Otto and Edith Frank’s first child. Even

from her earliest years in Germany, Margot is described as a “sweet and easy-going girl.” She is academically gifted, though modest about her skills. She’s always willing to help, whether’s it’s Edith with the housework, or girlfriends with homework. She often goes to synagogue (a liberal one) with her mother.

16 January 1926 (Frankfurth Am Maim, Germany) – March 1945 (Bergen-Belsen, Germany)

▪ In her teenage years Margot Frank dresses well, even wearing fashionable glasses, and she is very athletic. Margot swims, skates, playes tennis and participates on a rowing team with her classmates.

“Many happy returns to you on your birthday, if it even counts as a birthday... Lots of hugs and kisses to Leni, Erich, and Bernd. Especially lots of birthday

kisses from Your Margot”Birthday note to “Granny,” Alice Frank, 1938


▪ In 1941 Jews are banned from sports entirely, so when Margot and her rowing teammates, the “Dames 4,” find that she cannot participate, the whole group refuses to participate in future competitions.

Anneliese Marie Frank▪ Anne is the second child to Otto and Edith Frank.

From a very early age, Anne is recognized as a bubbly and curious baby, though she is not exactly healthy. She’s physically weak and often sick. As she gets older, her joints remain too flexible, allowing them to easily pop out of joint – a trick she enjoys sharing with classmates later!

12 June 1929 (Frankfurth Am Maim, Germany) – March 1945 (Bergen-Belsen, Germany)

▪ Anne is a good student, though not as academically gifted as her older sister, Margot. She prefers the more social aspects of the schoolyard, and spends a great deal of time with her girlfriends. She adores movie stars, art, history, the young royals, and ice skating, and has become quite adept at mimicing almost anything. Quite the “social butterfly,” according to family friend, Miep Gies.

“Anne Frank wasn’t a genius. I knew that she wanted to be a writer.”

Anne’s teacher at the Montessori school in Amsterdam, Mr. Van Gelder, 1938.


▪ Just before turning 12 Anne begins to express an interest in boys. Miep again says,” Her talk was now spiced with chatter about particular young people fromthe opposite sex.”

Auguste Röttgen Van Pels

▪ Very little is known about Auguste van Pels’s early life. She was born in Buen and had 5 sisters. Her education and other aspects of her upbringing are unknown, until she marries Hermann Van Pels in 1925. In 1926 she gives birth to Peter, and has been described as a “good housewife.” She charmingly calls her husband “Putti,” but they are known to argue loudly and fiercely.

29 September 1900 (Buer, Germany) – April1945 (Germany or Czechoslovakia)

▪ Auguste, called Gusti, is a talker, and will go on and on at length. She loves a good laugh, and can be quite a flirt. Auguste is quite a fashionable, “elegant and coquettish lady who is conscious of her appearance and fond of pretty clothes.”

“Even so, you could call her the instigator. Stirring up trouble, now

that’s what [Mrs van Pels] calls fun! Stirring up trouble between Mrs Frank

and Anne.” From The Diary of a Young Girl, 09 August 1943


Esther Hillesum

▪ Etty Hillesum was the only daughter (she had two brothers) of a very well-respected teacher from Hilversum. Her family was Jewish, but very assimilated and not very religious. She got through school with less-than-stellar grades, and continued into university.

15 January 1914 (Middelburg, Netherlands) – 30 November 1943 (Auschwitz, Poland)

▪ During her university years, Etty was socially and politically aware, but wasn’t particluarly known to be political. She received a master’s in Dutch Law, but her passion seemed to be Russian language and literature. She studied and tutored Russian for several years.

“I have an irrepressible objective curiosity, a passionate interest in everything that touches

this world and its people and my own motives.”From An Interrupted Life: The Diaries and Letters of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943

All photos © Etty Hillesum Research Centre

▪ Etty recorded her life in Amsterdam in a series of diaries. In them, she explored her faith, her deep love affair with German-Jewish therapis, Julius Speir, as well as philosophy, current events, and self-identity.

Hannah Elizabeth Goslar Pic

▪ Hanneli Goslar was the oldest of two girls born to the deputy minister for domestic affairs in Germany. They left Germany after 1933, when her father could no longer serve in the German government, and moved to Amsterdam.

12 November 1928 (Berlin, Germany)

▪ In Amsterdam, the Goslars and the Franks became very close friends, and Anne and Hanneli became the best of friends.

“Anne was a very spicy little girl…. My mother would describe Anne — she would say, ‘G-d knows

everything, but Anne knows everything better.’"From an interview with Hannah Goslar Pic, 1999.

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▪ Hanneli remembers clearly the day she started kindergarten at the Montessori school in Amsterdam. She didn’t know anyone and was quite scared, until she saw the little girl she had just met the day before in the grocery, Anne Frank. “Anne turned around and ran into my arms and I ran into herrs, and from then on we were friends,” recalls Hanneli.

Leny Boeken-Velleman

▪ Leny Boeker grew up in an assimilated Jewish family with one brother. Her father had a factory that made rainwear, and her mother had a cigar shop in the coastal town of Zandvoort. Leny considered herself a spoiled child who was able to spend her time Zandvoort in the summers with her parents, and the winters in Amsterdam with her grandparents.

1922 (Netherlands) – 2012 (Netherlands)

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Jannie Brandes-Brilleslijper

▪ Jannie Brilleslijper was born in a Dutch Jewish family, the middle of three children. Janny’s parents had a grocery store near where they lived in the Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam. Though the family lived in the Jewish Quarter, they weren’t particularly religious.

24 August 1916 (Amsterdam, Netherlands) – 15 August 2003 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

▪ Jannie attended the best schools that her parents could get her into, but she remembers being confronted with classmates who thought they were better than her because their father’s were lawyers or doctors, whereas hers were shopkeepers.

▪ In 1939, at the age of 23, Janny married Bob Brandes and they had two children.

Susanne Ledermann

▪ Sanne Ledermann was born in Germany, the younger of two girls. Her father was a lawyer and a musician, and her mother was a pianist. The family enjoyed life in Berlin, Sanne especially like the Berlin Zoo, but like many German Jews, the Ledermann’s chose to emigrate following the Nazis ascension to power.

07 October 1928 (Berlin, Germany) – 19 November 1943 (Auschwitz, Poland)

▪ As German Jewish refugees, the Ledermanns became friends with other Jewish refugees, including the Frank family. Sanne also attended the Montessori school in Amsterdam where she became best friends with Anne Frank and Hanneli Goslar. Along with a few other friends, the girls formed a little ping-pong club called “Little Dipper Minus Two.”


Edith Stein ▪ Edith Stein was the youngest child of 11 born

into an observant Jewish family. She was born on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Hebrew calendar. She was considered a very gifted child who blossomed under her mother’s encouragement to think critically. Though Judaism was a strong part of her upbringing, by the time Edith was 13 she was an atheist.

12 October 1891 (Breslau, Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire) – 09 August 1942 (Auschwitz, Poland)

▪ Edith’s father died while she was young, but her mother continued to encourage her children’s education, thus Edith went to university, eventually receiving a PhD.

▪ While studying Edith was profoundly inspired by the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, a Catholic saint. She was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church in 1922, and later became a nun.

All photos © KPH-ES

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross▪ St.Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was a Roman

Catholic nun and a very well educated woman. She studied philosophy under the respected professor and philosopher Edmund Husserl, and she taught for many years in a high school in Germany.

12 October 1891 (Breslau, Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire) – 09 August 1942 (Auschwitz, Poland)

▪ In 1933, after the rise of Hitler and the Nazis, Teresa leaves Germany. She settles in a Carmelite monastery in Echt, Netherlands.

▪ In 1998, Pope John Paul II declares that Sister Teresa died a Catholic martyr: murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau with 300 other Jewish-born Catholics because Dutch churches had protested against the Nazi regime. The Vatican declared that Sister Teresa died for her beliefs and for her love of Christ. © Vatican website

Margot Fink

▪ Margot Fink was a Jewish girl born into a German family with four children. In 1938 (possibly due to the Kristallnacht pogrom in November of that year), Margot and her younger brother Max were sent to live with uncles in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

1925 (Cologne, Germany)

▪ Margot’s sister was sent to England on the Kindertransport, whereas her older brother was able to receive a “certificate” and emigrate to Palestine.

▪ After the Nazis occupied the Netherlands and anti-Jewish policies were implemented, Margot, Max and other relatives went into hiding in the homes of their uncles in Amsterdam. © Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes'

Remembrance Authority

Barbara Ledermann

▪ Barbara Ledermann the older of two daughters to Jewish parents. Her father was a successful lawyer. Following the Nazis rise to power in 1933, the Ledermanns opted to leave Germany for the Netherlands, where Barbara's mother had relatives.

04 September 1925 (Berlin, Germany)

▪ Life in Amsterdam was pleasant for the Ledermanns, though they no longer lived in a large residence or had servants. The Ledermanns found a circle of other German Jewish refugees to socialize with, including the Frank family.

© Anne Frank House

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▪ Barbara enjoyed school, quickly becoming fluent in Dutch, and greatly enjoyed the more relaxed atmosphere of Amsterdam.

Gerda Nothmann-Luner▪ Gerda was born to Max and Adele

Nothmann. Max Nothmann earned the Iron Cross from the German army for fighting in WWI, and became an attorney. Adele Nothmann stayed home with their two young daughters, Gerda and Vera.

1937 (Berlin, Germany)

© Anne Frank House

Bottom photos © M. Luner

▪ Despite the increased antisemitism throughout Germany, and even after Kristallnacht, the Nothmanns were still living in Germany in 1939. Fearing the worst, and wanted to protect their daughters, Max and Adele sent Vera and Gerda away in June 1939 to Holland.

▪ In Tilburg, Holland, Gerda and Vera are taken in as foster children by the Deen family. The girls become close to their foster family, and Gerda enjoys time in her school.

© M. Hager

Bloeme Evers-Emden

▪ Bloeme Evers-Emden (born Bloeme Emden) is the eldest daughter of Emanuel Emden and Rosa Emden-DeVries. Her father, a socialist, worked as a diamond cutter. Her younger sister, Via Roosje was born in 1932.

26 July 1926 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

All photos © USHMM

Yehudit Aufrichtig

▪ Yehudit was born in Hungary, but moved to Amsterdam in 1938 to be a nanny to a Jewish family. She was studying to be a beautician when the Nazis invaded Holland in 1940.

1914 (Hungary) – 15 August 2003 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

▪ While practicing to be a beautician, Yehudit met the wife of the Hungarian ambassador to the Netherlands, who arranged for Yehudit to have a passport that wouldn’t identify her as a Jew.

▪ Yehudit became a member of the resistance, distributing forged ration cards and food to Jewish families in hiding.


Catharina Frank

▪ Catharina was born into an affluent family in the textile business. She worked as a nurse for the Jewish hospital, and in 1941 she married Jacques Frank.

1917 (Rotterdam, Netherlands) – 2003

▪ Catharina and Jacques tried to hide from deportation, but were discovered and sent to Westerbork. It was there that Catharina gave birth to their son, Clarence.

▪ Catharina had studied dance as a teenage, so while at Westerbork she joined the camp’s entertainment team.

© Yad Vashem The

Holocaust Martyrs' and

Heroes' Remembrance Authority


Case Studies: Women & the Holocaust

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The Diary of Anne Frank, a stage adaptation of the diary is written by

Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. It premieres on Broadway

in 1955.

It wins many awards including the Tony for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Albert Hackett

and Frances Goodrich.

In 1959, the stage play became a feature film. The Diary of Anne

Frank won three Academy Awards in 1960, including Best Supporting

Actress.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Award

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Award_for_Best_Play

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize_for_Drama

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Award



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Awards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Supporting_Actress



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centre for holocaust education · on 08 may 1945 nazi germany ... they invite friends from school,...

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