the boy in the striped pyjamas

[workshy]

my yr5 DD watched this in school the other day

school sent home a permission slip explaining that it was a 12 but was related to a topic they had been covering in school

I know about the film and chatted to DD about it and was confident she would be ok so I gave my permission -obviously lots of parents had absolutely no idea what the film was like and many DCs were upset by it

is it really a film they should be showing to 9&10 year olds?

and no I haven't used it as a lesson but I have used it in an assembly but there is a primary lesson plan available on the HMDT site which looks at those who spoke out the holocaust.

I think the Butterfly poem is beautiful.

Thank you for sharing that.

I agree the discussion has been less than edifying at times which is a shame when everyone here has an interest in how best to share with and teach children about our history, presumably with the hope that such terrible things not be repeated and that we all live together more peacefully.

Not wishing to put any dampener on healthy, positive, debate though.

I'm surprised you don't know the poem it was written by Pastor Martin Niemoller who lived in Germany during the time of the Nazis. He opposed what they did and because of this they imprisoned him in a concentration camp. He always regretted not having done more to help the victims of the Nazis. After he was freed from the concentration camp by the US army he spent the rest of his life campaigning for peace, speaking up and speaking out to make sure the dreadful things he had witnessed did not happen again. One of the ways he did this was to write this poem, to remind us all how important it is to speak up and speak out when we see bad things happening.

(which is the basic info that is part of the assembly in case you wondered)

It's desperately sad though Juggling, whether 21 or 11.

Does the HMDT use that particular poem though mrz? (save me looking!).

I know the poem mrz.

I know the background too, which I think is a bit more complex than the piece you've just pasted.

Which poem are you referring to Yellowtip?

The second one you pasted.

Yes it was the 2012 theme

Would you link the primary lesson plan that you're referring to? I'd be interested to see.

education.hmd.org.uk/subject-area/cross-curricular

Thanks for that mrz. I've looked at it now.

But what I take from it is that the HMDT thinks that it's only appropriate to focus on the accounts of individual nobilty of spirit displayed by some at the time. I find that hard to do, knowing the rest. The rest seems too black.

It does throw up the issue of resources though, and the danger of lifting resources from the internet with no extra depth. I do appreciate that primary teachers are asked to teach the range of subjects though, so perhaps I'm expecting too much. Generally I'm sure it's adequate to do that, but surely not here?

Niemoller 's wasn't the 'classic' Holocaust experience. And he did survive. He regretted not speaking out. I can't see that the poem can be looked at without context which would be too complicated for a Y5.

As for the other poem, I've fished out the book. I see from Google that you're absolutely right about the date Pavel Friedmann was born but it's curious. The book is called '... I never saw another butterfly ... Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp 1942-1944'. The poem is in the centre of the book, with no birthdate, just the date it was written. Yet the art and poems came from the schoolhouse which makes me wonder if he was remedial. Nothing else springs to mind. That would be a whole new layer of sadness of course.

On the last page of the book it says simply: 'A total of around 15,000 children under the age of 15 passed through Terezin. Of these, around 100 came back.'

And on the back cover: 'The children's poems and drawings...are haunting reminders of what no child should ever have to see'.

That is the 2012 resource but there are many more published each year for example 2005 was Kindertransport hmd.org.uk/assets/downloads/1204038114-33.pdf

hmd.org.uk/assets/downloads/1204038114-33.pdf

Some accounts claim Friedmann was a poet and there is a collection of his work in the National Jewish Museum including The Butterfly. One theory is he was a "teacher" for some of the children of Terezín but there is no evidence as far as I know.

I see that HMDT has also put Pavel Friedmann's age down as 14, which seems to be wrong. Do you know why he was there in the schoolhouse mrz? I think his situation must have been even sadder than I originally thought. I hope I'm wrong.

I had no idea that this was how teachers can get their resources . Perhaps no teacher should tackle even the 'safe' side of the subject without physically visiting Auschwitz first.

I think my views are coloured by a strong antipathy to teaching half truth, or to find anything good about the Holocaust which isn't utterly crushed by the bad. Ultimately it is about truth.

I think it is possible to introduce awareness of subjects and then revisit at a deeper and deeper level. I'm not sure the whole truth is studied at GCSE (touched on IMHE) or even A level. So some pupils will therefore never know there was such an event never mind know the full horror,

I haven't been to the NJM, though I can see the same reference. I thought this was the only poem apart from perhaps a few other poems written during his time in Terezin, which doesn't get me much further.

I would have thought the set up in Terezin would have precluded him being a 'teacher', perhaps not. Where did you read of the theory?

I suppose the Auschwitz records would hold some sort of clue.

by teacher I mean someone who worked with the children unofficially, encouraging their work and hope. The sad fact is we will probably never know the truth

Yes, hence the inverted commas. But its curious that his poem is so very closely identified with the childrens art.

I'd just like to know.

Have you been to any of the camps yourself mrz?

I did wonder what you put in the post you asked to be deleted maples, because I missed it. Whatever it was, don't be harsh. Some had the mental constitiution to take risks and some didn't. I can't say how that level of fear and terror would lead me to act. I'm not sure that an ordinary human reaction to these circumstances is ignoble, we honestly aren't in a position to judge.

Oh, I'm so sorry for the things your family has suffered maples

maples one thing I've come to see after the moratorium in my own childhood on discussion of these things is how the Holocaust and the situation in Europe still casts a shadow over subsequent generations, even now.

I only understand it in the most rudimentary of ways; I'm no psychologist. But no-one really escaped. Those who escaped physically were so often bowed down with guilt. Sadly the awful toll it took on your own family is part of the less obvious cost, but every bit as bad; every bit.