South Carolina Voices: Lessons from the Holocaust - Teaching Lesson Seven

Motivate: Read Overview V and summarize for students. In this lesson, students will read the stories of three South Carolinians who narrowly escaped death. Unlike most of the other survivors students have read about, two of these people, Leo Diamantstein, who now lives in Greenville and Francine Taylor, who lives in Charleston, were never in concentration camps. Both spent the war years in hiding. The third, Bert Gosschalk, whose family lives in Charleston, spent much of the war in hiding until his capture and imprisonment in the Dutch concentration camp Westerbork where he remained until liberation.

Begin the lesson by writing the words "member of the underground" and "resistance" on the chalkboard. Ask students what associations these phrases bring to mind. Where do students' ideas about the work and life of such people come from? (war movies, television dramas, suspense novels) From the media and war stories, students often have the impression that such work is exciting or glamorous.

Develop: As they read, encourage students to think about the personality traits and other factors that contributed to the survival of Bert, Leo, and Francine in these life-threatening situations. Guide the discussion so that students become aware that although the resourcefulness of Bert, Leo, and Francine under pressure were important factors in their narrow escapes, they were also just plain lucky. Point out that for every one who survived because of bravery, resourcefulness, and chance good fortune, many hundreds of thousands more who were equally as brave and resourceful went to their deaths in labor camps or gas chambers.

In Handout 7A students will read about a South Carolina survivor in the Dutch Resistance. As students read, encourage them to consider whether the experience he recounts supports this view. Note as well the dangers of such participation and the way the Germans discouraged resistance activity. Use the following questions for discussion.

1. What helped Bert and his wife avoid capture and survive in hiding? Why did they get caught?
2. Judging by this selection, how had Bert been helping the resistance movement? How do you think the ID and ration cards and the other items the Germans found hidden in Bert's house were used to aid Jews and others persecuted by the Germans?
3. In your own words, restate the Nazi policy of collective responsibility. (See Overview V.) 

Explain how this policy was applied in the situation Bert describes. Why was this a very effective method of stopping resistance to the Nazis? (People who might be willing to risk their own lives to fight the Nazis would hesitate to endanger the lives of family, friends, and other innocent people.)

4. What did Bert mean when he said, "I was lucky, if you can call it lucky."
5. What do you think would have been the hardest part of being in the Resistance? The most rewarding?

Before distributing Handouts 7B and 7C, make sure students understand the difference between Free France and Occupied France. Jews in Occupied France were subject to the German military government and faced essentially the same threat to their lives as did Jews in other parts of Eastern Europe.

Throughout all parts of France, German administrators and their French collaborators in the Vichy government could rely on a long tradition of French anti-Semitism for cooperation with its anti-Jewish policy. Many thousands of Jews were placed in French concentration camps and then deported to the killing centers and slave labor camps in Eastern Europe. In Free France, a collaborationist government headed by aging Marshal Henri Petain was centered in the city of Vichy. The Vichy government enacted anti-Semitic laws as early as August 1940, forbidding French Jews to serve as teachers, lawyers, and in many other professions.

Eventually all property belonging to French Jews in Free France was confiscated. Jewish refugees who had fled to France from Eastern Europe were placed in French concentration camps and later deported to the killing centers in Poland where thousands died.

Write the following quotation from Leo on the board: "Everybody has stories like these to tell because besides doing things, you had to have luck. Many people tried to do what we did. Most of them did not make it." Divide students into groups; give each group copies of Handouts 7B and 7C. In their own words, have the groups restate what Leo meant when he said, "you had to have luck." What "luck" did Leo, his father, and Francine have? In what sense did each make his or her own luck? How much control or influence did Leo or Francine actually have over the life-threatening situations in which they found themselves? Francine's experience showed that she could not trust strangers to help her. Lacking proper identification and ration cards, neither had much chance of surviving on their own.

Have each group pick one of the episodes described by Leo or Francine and write an alternative ending in which a bystander willingly assists them. When all groups have answered the questions and written their alternative endings, each should select a spokesperson to report the group's answers and read the alternate ending to the class.
Extend: Student groups can be given one of the three dilemmas in Handout 7D. Each group should write a paragraph explaining how it has decided to respond to the situation and the reasons for its decision. Help students recognize that in situations such as these, there is not a best choice, but a least bad choice. Assign student to research and report to the class on the many forms resistance took during World War II in both occupied and Allied countries.
 

Extend: Student groups can be given one of the three dilemmas in Handout 7D. Each group should write a paragraph explaining how it has decided to respond to the situation and the reasons for its decision. Help students recognize that in situations such as these, there is not a best choice, but a least bad choice. Assign student to research and report to the class on the many forms resistance took during World War II in both occupied and Allied countries.