Shoah Literature Group 2017-18

Table of Contents

Introduction and Historical Context ................................................................................ 2

Project Inspiration ............................................................................................................. 4
Project Proposal ................................................................................................................. 7
Justification of Project and Approach ............................................................................. 9
Format and Method of Project ....................................................................................... 10
Enacting Project ............................................................................................................... 12
Works Cited ...................................................................................................................... 15

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Introduction and Historical Context

In September 2017, our final year Shoah literature class was tasked with organising an

event for Holocaust Memorial Day at the start of 2018. This document will outline our

plans for the event and the process of arriving at our final idea of a physical exhibition in

the SECL foyer on January 25th 2018. The exhibition will consist of a suitcase filled with

objects compiled from responses to the following question:

'It's been over 70 years since the Holocaust. If contemporary society was confronted with

a similar horror and you were to be transported to a work camp (unsure of the conditions

that await you), what one personal item would you choose to take with you?'

The following introduction will contextualise the topic, detailing what we found actual

victims of the Holocaust chose to take with them during the transportation process. The

focus in the later sections will then shift towards our motivations behind the event, as well

as its logistical planning.

Nazi ideology propagated notions of ‘racial purity’ and aimed to achieve an idealistic

Aryan state. Among the subgroups threatening this ideal were homosexuals, the disabled,

Roma and Sinti gypsies and, most substantially, Jews. The scale of Jewish inhabitants

within the European countries over which they hoped to gain control stood at eleven

million. This was problematic to the Nazi party, as their highly anti-Semitic philosophy

conceived Jewishness as a parasitical threat to their ethnic ideals. The term used to describe

this argument was the ‘Jewish problem’. From their rise to power in 1933, Nazis aimed to

combat this ‘problem’ by attempting to make Germany Judenrien (without Jews). Initial

responses included segregating German Jewry and stripping them from their rights,

demonstrated by the boycotts of Jewish doctors and lawyers of the same year. The

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marginalization of Jews was further exacerbated by the implementation of the Nuremberg

Laws in 1935. These laws prohibited romantic and sexual relationships between Jews and

non-Jews in Germany, to ensure the Germanic race was free of any Jewish trace. In

addition, discriminatory events such as Kristallnacht (1938) also aimed to make the Jewish

community flee from Nazi persecution. By 1939, when World War II had been declared,

Nazis began to implement ghettos in which Jews were confined in small segregated areas

and subjected to extremely poor treatment after being removed from their own homes.

When in the Jewish question was still not solved in 1940, Adolf Eichmann, an SS official,

released a memorandum outlining potential plans to relocate the German Jewry to the island

of Madagascar. Each of these responses proved to be ineffective; and, by 1941, the final

solution to the Jewish question was established: concentration camps. In retrospect, it is

widely known that in such camps Jews, along with other groups deemed as undesirable to

Nazi ideology, were subjected to hard labour, malnutrition and death by gas. However,

when the concentration camps were first established, it was publically believed they were

work camps, in which families would be kept together until the war was over, when they

would finally be released. As a way by which to reinforce this notion, those deported were

instructed to pack only their most valuable items to bring with them to their new destination.

This served a double purpose, as the most valuable items were then easily at the disposal

of Nazi guards, alongside acting as a reassurance to those deported, that there was a still a

life awaiting them at their new destination. As the Nazis sought to portray the deportations

as resettlements; the mundanity of some of the items chosen by those deported reflect their

ignorance of their true fate. The Auschwitz museum exhibits preserved artefacts such as

kitchenware, shoe shine and a vast collection of brushes (teeth, hair, etc.), all of which were

among the items deported that families packed in their suitcases. Once the true motivation

of the camps was widely known, deportations typically took place during the night to avoid

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commotion. During which guards would break into homes and instruct individuals to get

dressed and hastily pack their valuables, in which these people would take only sentimental

objects and items that would aid their survival, i.e photos/food.

Project Inspiration
A prominent theme of our early discussions as a group was the potential of using the

opinions of children to gauge how younger generations viewed the Holocaust, and how

perceptions of the Holocaust were evolving and changing. It was with this exploration of

ideas that we began to seek inspiration from Michael Moore’s documentary Where to

Invade Next, a piece that explores how different countries manage a variety of social and

economic issues in comparison to the United States of America. He explores how Germany,

unlike the USA and their role within the transatlantic slave trade, have fully acknowledged

and work to memorialise those who suffered under the Nazi regime. He narrates how the

German people, “treat [the Holocaust] as their original sin, a permanent mark on their

collective German soul - one for which they must always seek redemption, and make

reparation, and never forget”. (Moore, 2016: 3:08) Annika Schmidt, a student who is

interviewed, reflects upon how her and her classmates “had the chance to meet survivors

and they told us their stories… you can’t forget it” (Moore, 2016: 2:29) . Sami Ahmed,

another student, comments “I just adopted the German nationality, and I think by my

adopting the German nationality I have to adopt the history of Germans too, and also feel

responsible for the things the Germans did, because I am German too”. (Moore, 2016: 2:51)

He makes a point of acknowledging the way in which people of a younger generation view

the importance of remembering, regardless of their own cultural background: they are

German, and it is their responsibility to remember.

In the original documentary, Michael Moore links together Germany’s history with the

Nazi movement and the creation of other documentaries, namely Leni Riefenstahl’s

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Triumph of The Will, 1935. An experiment is then held, where German schoolchildren are

showed a suitcase of a man that was deported to a Concentration camp (see fig a). The

children are around 11-12, and clearly have an understanding of the historical context that

is being referred to. The children are then asked to place within a suitcase (see fig. b) an

item that they had been asked to bring in for that day, an item that is “very important to

[them]”, (Moore 2016) helping to make the experiment and the lesson more personal for

the children. The narrator (Michael Moore) quotes that “every day, in every school, they

teach the young what their predecessors did”. It is clear that with the teaching of this history,

there is a strong emphasis on the importance of remembrance, with a clip shown of a class

blackboard saying “Why remember?” (see fig. c) utilised in the documentary. Michael

Moore addresses this importance of remembering and commends the children for not

dismissing this history as “before their time”. However we can see a generational gap. As

seen in fig. d, the children mostly bring in their phone and their wallet, not necessarily a

personal artefact. We found this particular facet of the experiment interesting, and that it

would be an interesting idea to bring across to our idea: what would English children do

and how would a more modern generation act?

In 2014 The Holocaust Memorial Society, a British government affiliated organization,

promoted a lesson plan similar to the exercise shown in Michael Moore’s documentary,

praising it as a good way of introducing the Holocaust to children of a younger age. The

theme they choose was Journeys, drawing a link between the importance of taking a

physical step as part of a journey and a developmental step towards a greater understanding

of the importance of remembrance and shared social consciousness. They explain how the

suitcase exercise aims to create a connection with those forced to take unwilling journeys

during the Holocaust.

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The Holocaust Memorial Society states ‘For Holocaust Memorial Day 2014, we will learn

of the multitude of Journeys that people were forced to undertake, in fear of what would be

found at the end.’ (Holocaust Memorial Day Trust)

We agreed with The Holocaust Memorial Society’s approach to educating children in an

appropriate and emotionally sensitive way, allowing access to knowledge for all people to

be part of the social consciousness and understanding of a horrific and important part of

international history. We saw this as a skilful way to engage with children, and wanted to

implement a similar idea into our event.

Fig. A (0:37)

Fig. B (1:31)

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Fig. C (2:17)

Fig. D (1:45)

Project Proposal
In relation to the social experiment conducted by the school that was detailed in the

previous section, our group discussed how interesting it would be to directly compare

responses not only from English children, but a range of different ages. We constructed the

following project statement to highlight our stimuli:

‘It’s been over 70 years since the Holocaust. If contemporary society was confronted with

a similar horror and you were to be transported to a work camp (unsure of the conditions

that await you) what one personal item would you choose to take with you.’

Below are the minutes of a meeting that explored this concept:

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Project plan meeting, 01/11/17-

· We spoke about general ideas, i.e. the possibility of talking to children about their

experiences and knowledge of the holocaust

· Decided to speak to local children aged 12-14

· Discussed the idea of using the “suitcase experiment” to illustrate generational

differences in attitudes.

· Idea to show the children what actual people would have brought in their suitcases?

Does it inspire a response? How does that make them feel?

· Have the idea of then demonstrating and showing the results, maybe showing

physical suitcase of what the most common results were, i.e. phones etc. displayed

in Keynes/Cornwallis.

· Idea of going into the school and meeting with the children in person.

· Spoke about the importance of getting involved with the Jewish Society

· Perhaps Skype call with older people?

· Hypothesis behind it, is more education needed? Should education about the

Holocaust be brought in at a younger age? Is there a generational difference? Should

we change what we teach or expose children or young people to?

We adapted the original experiment in order to allow for a broader insight into our current

society’s understanding of the ever changing perception of the Shoah and its impact. To

generate our responses, we targeted individuals at various stages of their academic careers,

through to seniority; school children (12 – 16), university students (19 – 21), and mature

adults (60 +). In the United Kingdom, it is easy to become ignorant to our privilege, and

thus is particularly interesting to engage with how people, from such an advantaged

background, can empathise with those who were so tragically and involuntarily forced out

of their homes and tortured.

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Justification of Project and Approach

As a group, we decided upon mimicking the ideas of the Berlin exhibition for a few key

reasons. The first and most significant is that it is interactive. It forces the individual taking

part to involve themselves with an aspect of the Holocaust. This differentiates the idea from

other art forms such as photography and testimonial literature. Whilst these formats are

fundamentally necessary and invaluable, it is possible for the person engaging with them

to detach themselves from what they are viewing/reading. Indeed, it is a natural human

response to struggle processing immense trauma. Our project seeks to avoid this

potentiality by asking individuals a direct question. We theorise that this simple technique

will necessitate their full involvement and attention, drawing them closer to the topic of the

Holocaust.

The second reason we chose to recreate our own version of the Berlin exhibition was to

illustrate the potential disparity in responses from varying age groups. Throughout our

meetings in October and November, we frequently discussed the concept of comparing

responses from secondary school children (aged 12-16), the university community

(typically aged 19-22), and mature adults (60+).

From our project plan meeting (as discussed earlier), we formed the hypothesis that

younger people would be far more inclined to choose modern items such as smartphones,

tablets or laptops. This is not only because a vast majority of teenagers are reliant upon

them in their everyday lives, but also because they could be viewed as a vehicle to stay

‘connected’ with the outside world. For example, they could potentially be used to

determine locations, raise alarms, etc. In contrast, our view is that as the participants get

older, the items chosen to accompany them would be more sentimental in nature. Our logic

behind this is that the older generation were alive in an era much closer to the Holocaust

itself; therefore their understanding of the brutal reality of the event may proveto be more

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sophisticated than that of secondary school children. Hence they may recognise a phone as

futile in a situation of enslavement, and instead opt for items that endow a sense of personal

peace or solace.

Format and Method of Project

Given the narrow focus of the original experiment, we chose to adopt a more

comprehensive format for our project. As previously mentioned we decided to collect

responses from multiple demographics as a means of acquiring a range of data. In order to

do this, we attempted to contact various institutions and individuals directly. Firstly, we

amassed responses from the university community largely fixated within the 19-22 age

group. We asked individuals to articulate their answers within a sentence and proceed to

record them in writing. To begin with we submitted our own responses to the question,

speculating that with our position as university students, coupled with a pre-established

knowledge of the time our responses would be varied. Some would take objects that hold

sentimental value, others would take objects of practicality. Supplementing this, we also

contacted the university’s Jewish society via email. We believed their responses would

come from a hereditary place or perhaps they would prove to be similar to ours. Our

correspondence with them can be seen as followed:

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Our second set of responses would involve the elderly within the 60+ age range. This

provided a creative outlet as we were able to film a number of their responses. Collaborating

with the university, we found the opportunity to volunteer for the Alzheimer’s society in

Canterbury over the holidays, situated in the Beaney library/cafe in town. Weekly

congregations enabled us the means to collect our data. To bolster our results, we also

acquired responses from any elderly family members of our own. We surmised that they

would provide nostalgic responses given their consciousness of the time.

Lastly, we opted for the secondary school population. Our reasoning behind this choice

was due to the contemporary angle they would take on the topic, and to provide a direct

contrast to Moore’s project. Reverting back to the same manner in which we acquired data

from university students, we attempted to contact various schools in the area. Namely, we

emailed the St Edmunds and Kings schools within Canterbury and the university’s outreach

coordinator as means of gathering responses from teenagers within the 12-16 category. Our

communication with the outreach coordinator can be seen as followed:

In addition, we also discussed the possibility of contacting schools within our respective

hometowns as a means of providing more data for the project. Overall, we postulated that

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responses would be based upon technological comforts such as phones, as they would serve

as means for teenagers to stay connected to wider society.

Enacting Project
In terms of our actual event, on the 25th of January our group will meet at Cornwallis North

West, having accumulated the materials we will need beforehand. The area itself is a part

of the University and has therefore been subject to safety checks and there will be little risk

of any accidents or injuries, as we carry out this stage of our project. We will have access

to the foyer, from 12 to 6, as well as Seminar Room 2 of the same building from 12 to 2.

We will have purchased a suitcase in which to place our props, and food and drinks-

including tea and coffee- are to be provided with the funding and assistance of the SECL

department. Upon arrival, a table will be set up in the centre of the foyer, as it is a sizeable

open space which can accommodate us, with the refreshments and suitcase upon it.

Hopefully,we will also have boards provided by SECL onto which we can pin quotes and

images which relate to our project, as well as some of the answers we received to the

question, which we have posed to people of various ages.

There will be 3-4 members of the group at a time running the display, as some have other

obligations throughout the day, and the area may become overcrowded if too many of us

were to remain all day. As people come through the foyer, they will be offered

refreshments- the food and drink we have prepared- and we will speak to those who are

interested about why we are running this event, what we thought we would find, and what

we actually discovered. We will also tell them about the original German study upon which

our project is based, which will be shown on the Projector in Seminar Room 2 for those

who want to see it, and what else we have learnt in the course of our Shoah module thus

far, relating to the quotes that will be displayed.

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To advertise what we are doing, we have sent a small description of it to the SECL

marketing department, who will be using social media- including Twitter and Facebook-

and sending out emails to advertise not only our display but a range of events going on

around the campus across the week of Holocaust Memorial Day. An example of this is as

follows:

Hopefully this will lead to more people stopping by and learning more about what is going

on and why, and potentially prompt them to think more about what life would have been

like for those who had actually lived through the situation which, in this study, is a mere

hypothetical.

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Word Count - 3049

Works Cited

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. ‘Lesson Plan: The Holocaust.’

https://hmd.org.uk/sites/default/files/HMD_files/lesson_plan_-_the_holocaust.pdf

(Accessed 1 November 2017)

Moore, Michael. 2016. ‘Michael Moore's “Where to invade next?”, Germany.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MixO_amdabs (Accessed 1 November 2017)

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