Post- Holocaust Jewish Literature

The theme that was emphasized the most in all the interpretations was death. Death is the action or fact of dying or being killed, the end of the life of a person or organism. It can be very tricky to introduce death to adolescent children because of the situations that they have gone through in their own lives. I do believe it is very important to help a student speak about things to empower them and to help them overcome real life issues that some of them may not feel comfortable speaking about. When we read books or short stories different emotions come out that we either did not know were there or that we as people try to suppress. Students experience death in different ways and in these passages, I will explain the different connections to death, or how it can be interpreted.

In the first reading ‘’This way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen’’ by Taduesz Borowski put so many emotions into this story and death was a main theme that stuck out. In this passage it reads ‘’It is the camp law: people going to their death must be deceived to the very end. This is the only permissible form of charity’’ (Greenblatt 2012, p.1459). In this passage the Jewish people are being lied to, to ‘’cope’’ with the way things have turned out. Death is inevitable but when someone is forced to face it, it can be hard to swallow. Someone else is in control of your destiny and that is the conundrum with death in this story. The Jews may feel like they have died already because their lives will never be the same. Some of the people in the story may feel like death would be life then to be treated the way they were treated. 

Some of the women at the concentration camps

In the next story “The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman,” by Clarice Lispector, this character seems to be broken and dead inside. It reads, ‘’I’m so miserable, dear God! If she wished, she could even pour more wine into her glass, and, protected by the position which she had attained in life, become even more drunk just so long as she did not lose her self-respect’’ (Greenblatt 2012, p. 812). This woman is very unhappy with the way that her life has turned out she is dead inside but getting up everyday pretending that things are not as bad as they seem. She wished for more in her life and thought she would be doing more, and she is not. She drinks to hide the pain of her not being able to keep up with life’s expectations for a woman. She probably has dreams of doing other things but feels guilty because of her family. Her unhappiness has killed her.

  

The next passage is coming from a poem from “Deathfugue'' by Yehuda Amichai This is a Jew describing how it is on the concentration camp. It reads ‘’Black milk of daybreak we drink it at evening we drink it at midday and morning we drink it at night we drink and we drink we shovel a grave in the air where you won’t lie too cramped’’ (Greenblatt 2012, p. line 5). In this passage the Jewish are describing how they prepare for the grave, it seems to be better them being cramped all together. The black milk represents the suffering and oppression they experience as prisoners in the camp, deported from their homes—the opposite of a promised land. Death is a master from Germany, who injures his targets with leaden bullets, and sets his dogs on the victims, leading to their grave in the sky. That is what the soldiers are being compared to a master of death.

The challenge for educators is to provide children with a variety of strategies that allow them to discuss openly the issues surrounding death and dying. To do so effectively requires sensitivity, courage, and the creation of a classroom climate where children feel comfortable discussing their feelings. These lessons were created to provide teachers with multiple entry points for dealing with children's experiences of death, dying and the afterlife. The following lesson will be useful in helping children deal with the death or illness of a family member, friend, or pet, as well as media reported deaths, including those of celebrities and victims of mass tragedies. 

This is a Link that will help students understand death and grief.

In my own lesson I would have the students read ‘’The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman’’ and ‘’This way to the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen’’ and the students will pick a favorite character from each of two stories and write a new story or play in which they meet. I would have the students in class act out the new story. This way death would probably not be the outcome for the characters of  ‘’This way to the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen’’ and the woman from ‘’The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman’’ would become alive inside and find some peace.  I would also have the students create a support network. List all the people who are part of their support system, so that when something like this happens to them, they can remember their support network, and what helps them cope during these types of situations.

The elements of pop culture that can be interconnected into this lesson about death would I divide the class into small groups. Have each group find a local or community resource that deals with grief and death and dying for youth. Find the group's mission, phone number, and website. Write a brief evaluation of what you think of the group's ideas based on what you've learned through the previous lessons. Then the students would meet again as a whole group to share what the small groups have learned.  The students will compile the information and create a classroom bulletin board, booklet, and/or web page to share with the rest of the school. 

Works Cited

Greenblatt, S. (2012). The Norton anthology of English literature. New York: W.W. Norton.