A Fable for Yom HaShoah

There are many stories we tell to ensure that the Holocaust will never be forgotten. Some are dark, like Elie Wiesel's Night, and some are stories of hope, like Lois Lowry's Number the Stars. This spring, we are proud to offer a book that shows the power of bravery and the importance of never forgetting.

An old man, known as the Wren, plays his hurdy-gurdy, and with the help of his student, the Sparrow, brings hope and inspiration to the people of a small Polish town during the Holocaust. This beautifully illustrated fable by US Children's Poet Laureate (2011-2013) J. Patrick Lewis weaves a lyrical and elegant tale of a mysterious musician and the trusted young friend who rescues the hurdy-gurdy and hides it from its intended fate at the hands of the Nazis. The richly colored illustrations are by award-winning Russian painter and stage designer Yevgenia Nayberg.

This story is a work of imagination inspired by the street performers of the Lodz Ghetto. In the city of Lodz, as in Jewish communities throughout Europe, the Jews were rounded up and packed into a fenced section of Lodz, which became known as the Lodz Ghetto.

In 1940, the Lodz Ghetto, one of the largest ghettos in Europe, held 230,000 people. Six years later, in 1945, when the Soviet Army liberated the city, fewer than 1000 of Lodz’s Jewish community had survived the Nazi horrors.

Music was part of the life of the ghettos, helping to sustain the spirits of the Jewish community in those dark days. Street performers, including children, sang or played music in exchange for a coin, a bit of food, or often nothing at all. Like the Wren, these performers resisted the Nazis with their songs, offering a glimmer of a better world.

As in this story, some of the musical instruments played in the ghettos and concentration camps survived the Holocaust; most of their owners did not. But their music inspired both adults and children to believe that, even in the bleak world of the Shoah, beauty and hope for humanity still lived.

Author Jennifer Elvgren Finds Inspiration in Stories of Bravery

In this week's guest blog post, author Jennifer Elvgren talks about what inspired her to write The Whispering Town.

In The Whispering Town, it is 1943 in Nazi-occupied Denmark. Anett and her parents are hiding a Jewish woman and her son, Carl, in their cellar until a fishing boat can take them across the sound to safety in neutral Sweden. With the help of the baker, the librarian, the farmer, and her neighbors, Anett keeps Carl and his mother safe even as Nazi soldiers search her street for hidden Jews. With the Nazis closing in, and worried about Carl's safety, Anett thinks of a clever and unusual plan to get Carl and his mother safely to the harbor on a cloudy night without the moon to guide them.

See the book trailer, with illustrations by Fabio Santomauro, here.

"I have always been drawn to Holocaust literature. As a child, my grandmother shared her copy of Corrie ten Boom's The Hiding Place with me: my mother, her copy of Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl.

Reading them from cover to cover, I lingered especially on the photos and sketches provided in the front of both editions. I practiced pronouncing the names and places foreign to my tongue such as The Beje (pronounced bay-yay), the name of the ten Booms' house.

Studying the floor plans of The Beje and 263 Prinsengracht (the office building where the Franks and the Van Daans hid for just over two years), I tried to understand where the hiding places were; how they were entered; how little room they provided; and how many people shared those small, secret spaces.

The photos of Corrie ten Boom and Anne Frank captured me. How could they be so brave? How could Corrie keep calm and collected when a German soldier burst into her father's clock shop at night and demanded to go upstairs to their living quarters that currently housed their family and seven permanent Jewish guests? How could Anne, who needed to run outside and feel the sun on her face as every child should, turn her attention to indoor, silent pursuits day after day, month after month, when she felt her limbs stiffening?

Over the years I continued to ponder these books as I finished college, then graduate school. I worked as a print journalist for a number of years before I began writing exclusively for children. Around that time another nonfiction Holocaust book was published, Ellen Levine's Darkness Over Denmark. This book told the story of the Danish resistance and how the Danes worked together to smuggle nearly all of the 8,000 Danish Jews out of the country.

About 1,700 Jews escaped from the small fishing village of Gilleleje. One moonless night, the town's citizens whispered directions to a man making his way to the harbor. That image moved me deeply. A story seed was planted in my mind, and I knew I wanted to write about the Holocaust for younger readers.

The Whispering Town's title came first, followed by the characters. Anett appeared, then Carl. As they started to move through the story set in Gilleleje (pronounced GeeLAYleh), I imagined a hiding place, bravery, friendship, and hope.

It became imperative for Anett to bring comfort to Carl and his mama in their cellar hiding place int he form of visits, good food, and books. When she came face to face with Nazi soldiers at her own door, I knew Anett had to be calm and collected so that she did not give away her friends in the cellar.

Facing a moonless night, I wanted Anett to be part of the solution, arranging for a chain of whispering voices to guide Carl and his mama to the harbor. The hope of escape and reuniting Carl with his papa in Sweden sealed Anett's and Carl's friendship forever."

In honor of Remembrance Day, Jennifer is giving away a signed hardcover copy of The Whispering Town. Visit her Facebook author page here and either like or leave a comment on the book give-away post. The winner will be drawn on May 1.

Praise for The Whispering Town

"Santomauro's thoughtful illustrations, with their restrained colors, subtly remind the reader of the village’s determined solidarity." -- The New York Times Book Review

"The direct simplicity of the story’s telling serves well as an introduction for younger children to the Holocaust. Dark cartoon sketches reminiscent of Tomi Ungerer in opaque black, blues, grays and khaki green markers and word bubbles with the key words of direction paint the ominous atmosphere. This uncomplicated narrative of Danish resistance will facilitate teaching and discussion of a difficult yet necessary subject." -- Kirkus Reviews

Planning a Program for Yom Hashoah? Free Educator Materials

Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, is April 19. Many schools and community organizations create programs to observe the gravity of the loss of lives during the Holocaust and to educate and create awareness among future generations.

Creating compelling programming for schools can pose a challenge, especially for children in younger grades who have not yet learned about the magnitude of the Holocaust. Children's picture books can be important tools for teaching about the Holocaust. A book like Benno and the Night of Broken Glass tells about Kristallnacht, but follows a day in the life of a cat in Berlin to show the destruction and disappearance of people from the community. A picture book like this can provide a basis for thought-provoking discussion and real learning even among children in very early grades.

This free resource guide provides context, definitions for vocabulary and allusions, questions for pre- and post-reading, and suggested activities. Download it here.






Kar-Ben has free resource materials to accompany several Holocaust related books:

This resource guide for Janusz Korczak's Children provides context, definitions for vocabulary and allusions, questions for pre- and post-reading, and suggested activities. Download it here.




 
A Comprehensive Study Guide for Teachers prepared by Tolerance Minnesota©, a program of the Jewish Community Relations Council.

This study guide is designed to help students, teachers, and families prepare for and discuss Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children's Holocaust Memorial. It contains background information, lessons and activities for students in grades 6-12. Download it here.

The Secret of Priests Grotto combines natural history and family history to tell the remarkable story of the Stermer family, an extended Jewish that survived the Holocaust by hiding in the labyrinth of Ukrainian caves known as Priests Grotto to escape Nazi persecution. Download a teacher's guide.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day: History Through Children's Literature

In November 2005, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution introduced by Israel that designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The assembly did so to urge the nations of the world to observe the day so future generations would be spared from history repeating itself.

This year the special theme of “Children and the Holocaust” is the focus of the international observance, with events and programs about the experiences of children. Introducing children to the history of the Holocaust can be challenging, but sharing material that they can most easily relate to—stories about children, families or pets—can be a thoughtful, gentler way to educate young and innocent readers who would have a difficult time conceptualizing the magnitude and brutality of the Holocaust.

As a publisher of Jewish literature for children, Kar-Ben has created books and educational materials (for use by parents or teachers) that can serve as a bridge for children learning about the Holocaust.



Marcel Marceau Master of Mime is a picture book that shares the remarkable early life of the famous mime. From the time he was five, young Marcel, the son of a kosher butcher, wanted to be a performer like his idol Charlie Chaplin. However, World War II intervened and Europe became a very dangerous place for a Jewish teenager like Marcel. Joining the French Resistance, he risked his life to help save the lives of French children, smuggling them across the border into Switzerland. Download the free eSource Guide that accompanies this book.

Benno and the Night of Broken Glass deftly describes Kristallnacht and its aftermath from the perspective of a neighborhood cat. Benno was the neighborhood’s favorite cat. During the week, he napped in a sunny corner of Mitzi Stein’s dress shop, and begged scraps from Moshe the Butcher. He spent Shabbat evenings with Sophie Adler’s family in Apartment 3B. But one night the Nazis came to Berlin. Windows were shattered, books were burned, and Benno’s Jewish friends disappeared. Life would never be the same. Download the free eSource Guide that accompanies this book.
 

Janusz Korczak's Children: In the years between WWI and WWII, young Henryk Goldszmidt dreamed of creating a better world for children. As an adult, using the pen name Janusz Korczak, he became a writer, doctor, and an enlightened leader in the field of education, unaware to what use his skills were destined to be put.  Dr. Korczak established a Jewish orphanage in Warsaw where he introduced the world to his progressive ideas in child development and children’s rights. When the Nazis occupy Warsaw, the orphanage is moved to the ghetto, and when the 200 children in his care are deported, Dr. Korczak famously refuses to be saved, marching with his charges to the train that will take them to their deaths. Download the free eSource Guide that accompanies this book.

Who Do You Honor On Holocaust Remembrance Day?

This year Yad Vashem has created a special online "I Honor" event on their Facebook Page to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The virtual event connects people through Facebook to the name and story of a Righteous Among the Nations. People can also post to the Facebook wall and share the names of people they honor, well-known figures like Irena Sendler and others who may not have name recognition but whose intervention literally meant life and death for Jewish people attempting to escape Nazi persecution.

Remarkable courage by ordinary people is what was--and still is-- required to do the right thing in the face of injustice. A Kar-Ben book, Marcel Marceau, Master of Mime, recently named a National Jewish Book Award Finalist and Sydney Taylor Notable Book, honors the little known biography of the famed mime Marcel Marceau. Originally born Marcel Mangel, the son of a kosher butcher, he survived the Nazi occupation and actively aided others as a member of the French Resistance. A talented artist, he forged documents to make children appear younger than they were. He also led children across the border into Switzerland several times, posing as scout troops pretending to be on their way to camp. After Paris was liberated from the Nazis, Marcel joined the Free French Army and served as a liaison to the U.S. forces under General George Patton, all while holding fast to his dream to be a performer.

This International Holocaust Remembrance Day, with its focus on children in the Holocaust, we honor all those to acted righteously, for the reasons Marcel himself once explained:

“Among those kids [killed at Auschwitz] was maybe an Einstein, a Mozart, somebody who [would have] found a cancer drug. That is why we have a great responsibility. Let us love one another.”

Who do you honor on International Holocaust Remembrance Day?