South Carolina Voices: Lessons from the Holocaust

Teaching Lesson Eight

Materials: Handout 8A: Rescuers; Handout 8B: Leo Finds a Safe Haven; Handout 8C: Francine In Hiding

Key Terms: Righteous Among the Nations/Righteous Gentiles, underground, Gestapo

PROCEDURE

Motivate: Read Overview VI and summarize for students or have a student do it. Then tell the class that although many ignored the persecution of Jews and other minorities, a small number of brave men and women did not. These men and women, most of whom were Christians, have been given a special title and place of honor in Israel. In 1953, the Israeli Parliament passed a law giving the Holocaust Remembrance Authority the power to recognize and honor those who "risked their lives for the rescue of Jews." A commission headed by an Israeli Supreme Court Justice was set up to hear testimony concerning the heroic actions of each nominee. Since then, more than 2500 people have been officially honored. The country with the largest number honored is Poland. The country with the highest proportion per population is Holland.

A person accorded this honor is given a medal and a certificate of honor along with the right to plant a tree on the Avenue of the Righteous in Jerusalem. Each tree on this avenue bears a plaque which gives the name of the person honored and a brief description of his or her actions. Among the groups honored are the Danish underground and groups in Poland and Holland.

Develop: Handout 8A provides brief sketches of some of the people honored as Righteous among the Nations or Righteous Gentiles. Before distributing Handout 8A, emphasize the great risks those who helped the Jews were taking.

Quite often people caught aiding Jews were shot or hanged on the spot by the Germans. Other family members might be killed or severely punished as well. In many places the Gestapo offered a reward to anyone turning in Jews. A typical reward paid by the Gestapo to an informer was one quart of brandy, four pounds of sugar, a carton of cigarettes, and a small amount of money. A Dutch police investigation in 1948 indicated that an unnamed informant had been paid 7 1/2 gulden or about $1.40 per person for turning in Anne Frank and her family.

Even without a reward, a neighbor or relative might decide to inform on a family hiding fugitives to settle a grudge or quarrel. In addition to fearing the Germans, those who helped had to be careful of local anti-Semites. After the war ended, it was not unusual in some Eastern European countries for those who had helped to ask their Jewish friends not to tell anyone for fear of reprisals by their neighbors.

Even those willing to help had to have a place where fugitives could be hidden. An amazing variety of spaces served as hiding places, from attics, annexes, and cellars to stoves, garbage bins, and cemeteries. In rural areas, pigsties, barns, stables, and haystacks harbored those hunted by the Nazis.

Divide the class into groups. Give the members of all groups copies of Handout 8A . Tell the class that each of the people described in this handout has been awarded the title "Righteous Gentile." Have each group answer the questions at the bottom of the handout. Discuss student answers to the questions on the handout.

In answering question 3, students might point out that the Ukrainian farmer had known the man whose family he helped as a friend before the war began. This did not make the risks to him and his family any less great, but it may explain why he had no prejudices to overcome. Joop Westerweel, on the other hand, had shown evidence earlier in his life of being willing to take a stand against injustice while in the East Indies.

Students might also suggest that all of these people acted out of a conviction that Hitler's persecution of Jews and other minorities was wrong.

Tell the class that they will read more about the experiences of Leo and Francine, the two survivors whose luck and resourcefulness helped them while they were in hiding. Both accounts provide insights into the nature of prejudice. As students read Handouts 8B and 8C, have them examine these questions:

1. What did the people who helped Leo and Francine think about Jews before they met them? From where do you think the French farmer Hertaux's ideas about Jews came? (The people of the isolated Italian village had no preconceived notions of what Jews were like because they had never met any nor had they been exposed to any anti-Semitic propaganda. Hertaux had never met any Jews either, but he had a strong stereotype of what a Jew was like derived most likely from conversations with others who were equally ignorant and/or from anti-Semitic writings, books, or radio broadcasts.)

2. Why do you think Hertaux decided to help Francine and her family? Why do you think the people of the Italian village helped Leo and his brothers? (Through discussion, students should recognize that in both cases the rescuers got to know the people they aided first as individuals, before finding out and labeling them as "Jews." The friendship Hertaux had formed with Francine and her family enabled him to overcome his negative stereotype of Jews. Because Francine and her family did not fit this stereotype, he was able to set aside his bigotry to see them as people. He knew and liked them, so he saw them as people who were like him, not as outsiders. The Italian villagers had no prior prejudices to overcome, but willingly took on a risk as great as the French farmer had.)

Focus discussion on the question of what makes a person a hero. Today the term hero is used to describe a wide variety of people in public life from music, film, and sports personalities and Olympic gold medal winners to civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King. In what sense are the actions of the people students have read about in the handouts for this lesson heroic? What qualities or characteristics make the people in these stories heroes?

As a follow-up writing activity, have students debate whether Leo or Francine's rescuers should be honored as Righteous Gentiles. Those in the class who think one or both should be can write letters of nomination giving reasons for their opinions. Those who disagree can write letters giving reasons for their opposition.

Extend: Encourage students to share with the class or write about experiences which have made them question stereotypes or misconceptions that they have had about groups of people. If students claim they have no stereotypes or are reluctant initially to address ethnic or racial stereotypes, they might begin by looking at attitudes or stereotypes commonly held about the opposite sex, or about Northerners, or Southerners. For example, the belief that girls are poor drivers or all Northerners speak quickly may change after driving with or listening to people who don't fit these stereotypes. Students might think of how their attitudes have changed after meeting and getting to know people from other parts of the state or country, from a different neighborhood, people who dress very differently from the way they do or are from a social group within the school that is different than their own.

Students can compare and contrast the rescuers of slaves during the pre-Civil War period in American history, and the rescuers of Holocaust victims. What risks did those Southerners and Northerners take who provided way-stations on the Underground Railroad? How might they have been treated by their neighbors if discovered? What motivated participants in the Underground Railroad to help the slaves escape to freedom?

Students might also be assigned to report on other Holocaust rescuers. Among the best known is Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat who helped saved thousands of Hungarian Jews. His story is told in "With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest" by Per Anger. Students can also consult the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature for recent articles on Wallenberg. Rescue by Milton Meltzer gives the stories of many others who helped save Holocaust victims. Information on both books can be found in the bibliography.

Since 1901, the Swedish government has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to individuals and groups who have shown the courage to care about others, sometimes at great personal risk to themselves. Students might report to the class on the reasons why this prize was awarded to Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, or to such people as Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (Burma), and Andrei Sakharov of the former Soviet Union.

HANDOUT 8A: RESCUERS

Polish Foreman Wladislaw Misiuna

In the winter of 1944, many girls from the Lodz ghetto in Poland were sent to work on a rabbit farm. The workers used the rabbit skins to make coats, caps, and gloves for German troops on the Russian front. Although the work was not very hard, working conditions were very poor. Workers faced the constant threat of death from malnutrition or disease. Nineteen-year-old Wladislaw Misiuna was one of three Polish foremen on this farm. He allowed the girls to take vegetables from the rabbits' supply. When the girls told him his actions might mean a firing squad, he said, "You are hungry human beings and therefore must eat."

Almost worse than the starvation was the filth which bred highly contagious disease. One of the girls got a skin rash and was covered with sores. The foreman feared the Germans would kill her and any others who became infected, but he knew she could not go to the camp doctor. The foreman infected himself, went to the camp doctor and got the medicine to cure both himself and the girl.

One day, the foreman had the girls put all their clothing in a pot of boiling water to be washed. Just then, a group of SS officers came to inspect the farm. One of them asked what was in the pot. The foreman said it was food for the rabbits. But the officer was suspicious and uncovered the pot. When he saw the laundry, he became furious and ordered the SS men to shoot the girls and the foreman. The foreman reacted quickly and in doing so saved all their lives. "Don't you believe in cleanliness? Do you want us to fall ill with dreadful infections?," he said.

For a moment there was complete silence. Then the officer said, "Well, then, stay alive—you and these cursed girls!"

Dutch Teacher Joop Westerweel

Joop Westerweel was a teacher and the principal of a school in Lundsrecht, Holland. He was married and the father of four children. As a young man, Joop had lived in the Dutch East Indies where he spoke out against the way the Dutch treated their Indonesian subjects. When the Nazis occupied his country, Joop rented apartments in his own name and allowed Jewish families to live in them. Then he and his wife quit their jobs and joined a Jewish underground group pledged to the rescue of Dutch Jewish children. They were the only Christian members of this group. The group, led by a young teacher named Joachim Simon, smuggled Jewish children into Switzerland. From there, the children might be sent to safety in Palestine. The trail taken by the children and their guides cut through the Pyrenees Mountains from France to the Spanish border.

When Simon, the group's leader, was captured by the Nazis, Joop took over. He was then 40 years old. A year later, Joop's wife was arrested, tortured, and sent to a concentration camp. Despite this, Joop continued his work. He took groups of children across Holland and Belgium, through France and over the Pyrenees Mountains to Spain. For 20 months Joop recruited dozens of Dutch families to hide people or help them escape from Holland. In March 1944, he was captured while trying to smuggle two girls out of a concentration camp and into France. He was put in a concentration camp where he was tortured, but refused to give names of those who had worked with him. In August 1944, he was killed by the Nazis. After 15 months in a concentration camp, his wife was freed by the Red Cross.

Ukrainian Farmer Fiodor Kalenczuk

Four people from the Ukraine survived the war because of Fiodor Kalenczuk, a Ukrainian farmer. At peril to himself and his family, Kalenczuk hid these people on his farm for 17 months. The survivors were a grain merchant, his wife, his ten-year-old daughter, and the daughter's friend. In 1942, the Nazis marched across Poland and Russia. The grain merchant's family managed to escape from a ghetto to the Kalenczuk's farm. Kalenczuk and the grain merchant had known, respected, and liked each other for five years, never imagining the troubles that would bring them together.

The farmer first hid the fugitives in his own home. Then he found a safer hiding place for them in his stable, bringing them meals three times a day. The farmer himself had to struggle to support his wife and eight children. In 1943, he had to surrender part of his harvest to the Germans, yet he continued to feed the four who were hiding in his stable. His wife feared that the Jews were endangering their own lives. But he refused to turn them out. In January 1944, the Germans were driven out of the Ukraine and the refugees came out of their hiding place.

1. How did each person you have read about help save others?

2. What risks was each person taking in helping others?

3. Why do you think these people were willing to help others despite these risks?

4. For what reasons would you consider each of these people heroes?

HANDOUT 8B: LEO FINDS A SAFE HAVEN

(During the war, Leo's family spent many months in a large Italian prison, but in the winter of 1941, they were sent to a small town in northern Italy as part of a less strict form of imprisonment known as free internment. In this selection, Leo describes his experiences with some Italian villagers.)

We were let out of prison and sent to a small town called Arsiero (Are-See-Air-Row) where we were expected to report to the police. We had theoretically to report once a week to the head of the local police. We never did it, and he never asked us to. We found a small house at the foot of the Alps, and father started a quilt business. Whenever he made one, we exchanged it for food from the farmers around us.

One day in 1943 a train arrived with 200 Germans. This was very unexpected, especially because it was in the middle of the day. We didn't know what to do. Father told my brothers and me to go up into the mountains and hide. Someone had told us about a tiny village about five miles away on the side of a mountain called Sumano, so we started walking.

It was a steep climb up. At last we came to a level place on the mountain. There were six families living there, totally self sufficient. They had one cow. One fellow had a huge workshop. He made all their tools. They grew crops on the side of the mountain. We told these people what our predicament was, and they just couldn't understand it. They said "What do they have against you? What did you do to them?" We told we hadn't done anything. They said "Then why do they want to kill you?"

"Because we are Jews."

"What's that?" they said. We explained it to them, and they said, "But why would they want to kill you? It doesn't make sense."

I said, "I know it doesn't make sense, but that's the way it is."

They said, "Well, you can stay here."

"Before you let us stay here," I said, "you need to know that if they find us here, they will not only kill us; they will kill you. So please don't take us in unless you know what you are doing because you are endangering your lives."

For an hour they argued. At first we thought they were arguing because no one wanted us, and someone had to be forced to take us. But they were not. They all wanted us. They said, "Let them stay with us. No, let them stay with us." All of them wanted the honor. Finally we were hidden in a hayloft belonging to one of the villagers.

The next day we learned that the train of Germans had come to Arsiero by mistake. They were supposed to go to a place near Naples. The Italian railroad people knew that and they misled them. They just sent them to a dead end. Within another day they left again. So we went back home.

HANDOUT 8C: FRANCINE IN HIDING

(After a dangerous crossing into Free France in the fall of 1942, Francine was reunited with her mother and her sister. The three of them lived for about a year in a small town called Graulhet in Free France. Then in 1943, the Germans began deporting Jewish families from the town where Francine and her family were staying. With the help of a friend who supplied them with false identification papers, the family decided to return to Occupied France. Pretending to be non-Jews, they crossed the border and joined Francine's uncle in a small village in Occupied France. In this reading, Francine describes her experience with the man who rented them a room.)

My mother decided we would join my uncle in a little village called St. Frinbault. It only had 35 houses. My uncle pretended we were his cousins from Poland. He met us at the train station and took us to the house of a farmer named Mr. Hertaux (Her-Toe) where he was renting a room. Mr. Hertaux agreed to rent us a room as well. We told him we had just come from Paris. We said that our house had been bombed, and we had to flee Paris. He believed everything we said.

To earn money for our keep, our uncle would butcher cattle and for payment the farmer and his wife would give him meat. They didn't have much money. They were just peasants. Everyday my mother went from farm to farm looking for work mending old clothes. My sister and I would spin yarn and make socks and sweaters. Mr. Hertaux and his family paid us with food. We had been there almost a year when this incident happened.

We were sitting at the table eating, and all at once Mr. Hertaux said, "You know, everyday in the paper there is Jews, Jews, Jews. If one of them comes on my property, I will get my pitchfork, get him right against the wall, and hold him there."

My uncle thought it was funny, so he said to him, "Well how would you know if he was a Jew?"

"I would know," he says. "They have ears like this, and they look like this."

My uncle asked, "Did you ever see one?"

He said, "I don't have to see them, I know, I know." That night, of course, we talked among ourselves about what he might do if he discovered we were Jews.

My mother said, "Well I hope we never find out. You know what is waiting for us if he does find out."

The place where we lived did not have an indoor bathroom. It had no running water, so when the weather was nice, my sister and I would take a little bowl of water and go outside in the morning to brush our teeth on the stairs of the little chapel next door. A few weeks after this conversation with Mr. Hertaux, we were outside brushing our teeth when a man on a bike came by. We came face to face with him. He was a neighbor of ours in Paris. He was a well-known collaborator with the Germans. We asked him what he was doing here, and he asked us the same question. Of course, he knew what we were doing. He knew that we were Jewish.

He turned right around, got on his bike, and left. We went into the house and told our mother. She said, "Oh, he has gone to the nearest Gestapo headquarters to the Nazis." French people were getting a good bit of money for each Jew that was denounced. We ran to ask my uncle what to do. We thought we should run away.

"When Mr. Hertaux finds out, what will he do?" we cried. "You know how he feels about Jews."

My uncle said, "No, we have to tell the truth. He loves us. He doesn't know what a Jew is. Where are we going to go? Either he turns us over or he hides us." My uncle went to him and said, "Mr. Hertaux, what I told you about us is a lie. We are Jews."

He said, "You're not."

"Yes, we are."

He said again, "You're not."

"Look," my uncle said, "we don't have much time. I'm going to tell you what happened." He explained to him that we had been discovered.

Mr. Hertaux fell to his knees, and he started to cry like a baby. My uncle couldn't quiet him. He thought maybe Mr. Hertaux was afraid, and he said, "Look you have to get yourself together. If you want us to leave, we'll leave."

"No, No, no," he says, "forgive me, forgive me. I am so ashamed." He was ashamed because of what he had said at the table about Jews. That is why he had been crying like a baby. He was quite smart. He said, "Look, he only saw the girls. He didn't see the mother. Does he know you?"

My uncle said, "No, he doesn't know me."

"All right, we have to think fast," he said. "If he went to the police, he will be back here in about two hours. You have to hide." He went into the cellar under his house and emptied three barrels full of wine. He put each of us in a barrel, my mother, my sister, and me. He told my uncle to sit down, act calm, and have a drink. And that's exactly what happened.

The French police came back . They said, "Where are the girls?"

Mr. Hertaux said, "What girls?" One of the policemen hit Mr. Hertaux over the head with the back of his gun. Then they asked my uncle where the girls were. After he said he didn't know, they beat him up as well.

Then Mr. Hertaux said, "Oh, the girls, that's right. A couple of hours ago a couple of Parisian girls came by. They were looking for food. You know how these Parisians come looking for food. I don't have any. But they stopped and brushed their teeth. I ran them off. I don't know where they went."

Mr. Hertaux said that if the Americans hadn't already landed in Normandy, no telling what the police would have done to them. They were afraid to do any more harm, so they left.

My uncle and Mr. Hertaux waited until dark, and then they came to the cellar with food. We stayed there almost five days in those barrels because we were afraid we were watched. Shortly after that the first two American soldiers came to the house in a jeep. They said, "We're already in Le Mans, and you're liberated."

Overview VII—Remembering and Forgetting

Back to Overview VI—Bystanders and Rescuers