The Story of a German Officer
Having viewed the video above on Salitter, consider and discuss any application of the Szymborska’s categories from her poem vis-a-vis the German officer’s chosen behaviour.
Course: Poetry and the Holocaust
More on Primo Levi
In this short biographical video on Primo Levi, made by Yad Vashem, there are several sketches and paintings done by survivors that have been laced into the dialogue.
Discussing the Poem “Shema”
Please join me in this video, in which I deal with aspects of Primo Levi’s poem “Shema”.
Displaced Persons’ (DP’s) Camps and their Role in Rebuilding a life
In the previous step we were exposed to the difficulties of liberation for surviving Jews. Let’s now turn to another short video that will describe the complex functions of the …
The Difficulties of Liberation
Before we turn to the first poem dealing with liberation, we will present the short video above, which will help us understand the complexities facing the survivors at the end …
Discussing the Poem “Testimony”
From your understanding of the poem’s content and the tone of the writing, as it was presented in the video above, whom would you say Dan Pagis had placed on …
The Poem “Shema”
In the context of the historical background of the stages and difficulties of liberation, we proceed to the first poem in this lesson which deals with one survivor’s take on …
Concluding the Course
This last activity concludes our course on aspects of the Holocaust as seen through eleven poems that we chose in the hope that we could open a few avenues of …
Philosophical Reverberations
The Meaning of the ‘Mark of Cain’ The Cain of Pagis’s attention is the big brother who is to be apprised of his mother’s message as soon as contact is …
Final Messages and the Scourge of Denial
The Human Need to Leave Testimony An outstanding feature of this short poem is its non-completion. The last line, “Tell him that I” leaves the message that Eve wishes to …
A Close Reading of the Poem and Its Biblical Connection
In the following 3 steps, we will present seven themes from a close reading of the poem and the verses from Genesis. The Use of the First Biblical Family as …
The Poem “Written in Pencil in the Sealed Freightcar”
We now arrive at our last poem and set of steps in this concluding activity for the Poetry and the Holocaust course, and pride of place goes to what I …
Testimony by Dan Pagis
This activity opens with the profile of Holocaust survivor Dan Pagis: Dan Pagis was born in Bukovina, Romania in 1930 into a German speaking Jewish family. He was eleven years …
Welcome to the course
It is our warm pleasure to welcome you to this course on Poetry and the Holocaust that has been devised and put together at Yad Vashem. My name is Jackie …
Literature Complementing History
Prof. Lawrence Langer on the value of Literature and how it adds to the historical narrative