Remembering+Voices+of+the+Holocaust

Mary Pollard

1. From whose perspective is the story told? (A Jew? A Nazi? A survivor? A Righteous Gentile? A Descendant of a survivor?) What are the benefits of getting the story from this perspective? This book was told by the survivors of the Holocaust. They were Jews, Polish, Russian, and gypsies. The benefits of having the survivors tell their stories is that each person’s experience was different but at the same time all the stories have the common thread of torment, death, fear, and separation of families.

2. What life lesson did you learn from the plot of this story? I think each time I read a book on the Holocaust I feel more compassion for people and pay more attention to what other people go through throughout their lives.

3. What did you like most about this book? I liked that the stories were placed in chronological order allowing the reader to feel the growing fear with the people and to see how Hitler’s reign progressed. I am always amazed that the survivors of the Holocaust can talk about their experiences and am more amazed at their ability to survive.

4. How does this text relate, if at all, to Parallel Journeys? It related to Parallel Journeys in that all the survivors experienced complete devastation then had to rebuild their lives following the war. My book did tell about some German soldiers that helped some of the prisoners in small ways, which was unlike Parallel Journeys.

5. How could you use this book to teach the Holocaust? This book would be an excellent book to help teach about the Holocaust because it is in chronological order so students will be able to see how the Nazi power managed to take over so many lives.

6. Would you recommend this book to a friend? Yes I would recommend this book to my friends and I recommend anyone here to read it. I am appalled that there are books written that try to say that the Holocaust did not happen. As each generation grows farther from the realities of the Holocaust it is our, teachers and parents, responsibility to see that the horrors of the Holocaust are not forgotten and that the stories of the survivors remain just as powerful and heart wrenching as they were just following the war to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again.