Holocaust Media
Introduction
The film, 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus as well as Pressman’s accompanying book, 50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple’s Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany, should play an integral role in Holocaust Education in the United States. 50 Children incorporates Eleanor’s journal entries which enables students to develop a deep connection with her story. Additionally, the film provides accounts of children during the war, which allows students to relate to those affected and further their understanding of the Holocaust. While the Kraus story primarily focuses on the conditions in Europe that created the need for the children to leave, it also deals with the American environment and reactions during the war. 50 Children would also stimulate discussions concerning individual choice and decision-making in the same vein as the curriculum of Facing History and Ourselves, one of the premiere organizations for Holocaust education.
Film Summary
After reading the journal of his wife’s grandmother, Eleanor Kraus, journalist Steven Pressman felt compelled to create and release a documentary in 2013 titled 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus. Developed in collaboration with HBO Documentary Films and in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this film details the formerly untold story of one Philadelphia-based Jewish couple, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, who undertook a rescue mission of 50 Viennese children in 1939. Despite backlash from federal and state government officials, Jewish acquaintances, family, friends, and a general American distrust of immigrants, the Krauses left their two young children at home and traveled into the heart of Nazi Germany and Nazi occupied Austria. They discovered that 50 unused American visas existed and they planned to grant those visas to Jewish children in need. They were accompanied by their child’s pediatrician Dr. Robert Schless who would be able to provide medical exams for all of the children as required by United States law. Excerpts from Eleanor’s journal as well as interviews with several of the children involved in the rescue mission provide a first hand account of the event. Archival footage and photographs of Nazi rule in Germany and Austria provide historical context for the setting in which the rescue occurred. Paul Shapiro, Director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Jonathan Sarna, Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, are interviewed in the film to provide necessary context.
50 Children Promotes Student Connection
Especially resonant with young students, 50 Children recounts the stories of those 50 children rescued by the Kraus family. Research has demonstrated that because children are able to better relate to other children, learning about child Holocaust victims/survivors is an effective way to teach the Holocaust in schools. In the summer of 1992, the University of Michigan Institute conducted a national phone survey on the Holocaust for Social Research as part of their monthly Survey of Consumer Attitudes (Bischoping, 109). When asked to define Anne Frank, respondents of every age mentioned her youth (Bischoping, 115). This signifies that her youth remains one of her most pertinent characteristics. Associate Professor at York University, Katherine Bischoping in “Interpreting Social Influences on Holocaust Knowledge,” hypothesizes that Anne’s story remains particularly salient to young children as they can identify with her everyday reflections.
The connection students form with Anne Frank’s diary as a result of her youth also applies to 50 Children. In the film, the child survivors of this rescue mission share their fond prewar memories of family life in Austria, the anti-Semitism that they endured following the Anschluss, or German annexation of Austria, and the experience of separating from their parents to go to the United States. While these survivors are now speaking as adults with an understanding of the Holocaust that they undoubtedly lacked as children, their childhood optimism remains ever present. Hedy Neufeld recounts saying goodbye to her mother with the belief that they would meet again. Immediately after this statement, she breaks into tears sharing that she never saw her mother again (50 Children).
50 Children as “Global” and “Local” Teaching Aid
While globalization has altered the way in which children are taught about the Holocaust, 50 Children addresses the nuances of the global nature of the Holocaust while simultaneously localizing and personalizing it for American students. According to Falk Pingel, author of article "The Holocaust in Textbooks: From a European to a Global Event," before globalization, information was transmitted in a manner that reflected the specific necessary knowledge and values for a particular country but as a result of globalization, teachers must pass on knowledge and values that will remain constant regardless of the country in which the lesson is being taught (Fracapane & Haß, 84). There has been a wide scale trend towards studying the Holocaust as an example of human rights violations rather than on its own as a single historical event (Fracapane & Haß, 84). 50 Children places the Kraus story as well as the Holocaust in the context of global values rather than nation specific ones. For example, the idea of collective responsibility repeats continuously. Best exemplified when, Henny Wenkart, one of the 50 children, states, “What people don’t understand is that at the beginning, you could get out. Everybody could get out. Nobody would let us in. Everyone could have been saved” (50 Children). Had countries opened their borders and worked together, many could have been saved.
If 50 Children were a film trying to transmit American-specific values, information about the anti-immigrant sentiment present in the United States may not have been included. While most American school curriculums include information on American involvement in World War II, the general American opposition to (both Jewish and non-Jewish) Jewish refugees before the impending Holocaust remains rarely studied in depth. The information presented about the American anti-refugee climate in 50 Children paired with Wenkart’s testimony above shows that the United States bears some responsibility for the millions that perished during the Holocaust. The film presents countries that stood idly by (without allowing refugees in) as perpetrators rather than bystanders. While the United States could have been presented as a heroic country that eventually stood up against the Nazis and home to the Krauses, it is instead portrayed in a somewhat negative light as a country that fought to stop the Krauses and refused to take in refugees. In 50 Children, Pressman also describes the conditions in and the history of the United States, Germany, and Austria during the Holocaust. Giving students access to information on more than one country remains crucial to understanding the effect that Nazi ideology had on Europe and beyond. As a global society, understanding the interaction of countries rather than just the history of each individual country becomes essential.
Globalizing events like the Holocaust may cause the personal aspect of the event to be lost, a problem combatted by 50 Children through a number of methods including the use of diary entries. During the Holocaust, millions suffered. Each of individual has a personal story, no two alike. Pingel argues that when globalizing education we cannot lose sight of those affected by the Holocaust and simply focus on the global messages that come out of the event (Fracapane & Haß, 85). Pingel suggests that, “Globalization has to be localized and personalized… to transmit a didactical message that makes the global significance of the event applicable to students’ views and experiences” (Fracapane & Haß, 85). Lawrence Langer, a Holocaust scholar specializing in Holocaust literature, echoed this idea when he explained, “As we approach the twenty-first century, the need grows more urgent for teachers to achieve a balance between the history of the catastrophe and the various ways of representing the private ordeals of its victims” (Langer). There must be a balance between overarching global ideas and the personal stories of those affected.
50 Children localizes and personalizes the Holocaust by providing information about the event through this particular private story of rescue. Eleanor’s diary entries presented in the film create a personal perspective. Those watching 50 Children feel as though they are immersed in the inner thoughts of someone who experienced the rescue and therefore feel more attached to the context in which the event occurred. The book reads as a novel using different diaries, letters, and official government documents to enhance the account and create dialogue. One reading the book becomes engrossed in the story just as he would any other book.
Choice Making and 50 Children
50 Children, a story of resistance and rescue, can prompt discussions on decision making for the students working with the source. Students can use this theme to engage with the Krauses as an example of how people can make a difference wherever they may be. Students can also brainstorm different ways in which they could have helped other than by going into Nazi Germany. This will be applicable to the problems of today when students ask themselves whether they must act just as the Krauses did. Facing History and Ourselves highly regards the idea of ensuring that students leave the classroom with a takeaway message surrounding individual and collective responsibility. Facing History’s Scope and Sequence ends with “Choosing to Participate.” This section of the curriculum shows how ordinary citizens create history every day. The past and present stay forever connected. The students learn that they can change the course of history by choosing to participate or not.
Fran Sterling, Senior Research and Development Associate at Facing History and Ourselves, states this decision-making aspect of the curriculum helps combat genocide fatigue. Genocide fatigue, she explains, is the mental and emotional toll on individuals studying such horrendous acts of violence and oppression (Sterling). When an individual experiences genocide fatigue, that person becomes too overwhelmed to enjoy learning anything more about the Holocaust (Sterling). Enjoyment in this instance would not mean happiness considering the material but an interest in the subject matter. So as to prevent genocide fatigue, Facing History balances the history of the Holocaust with ideas concerning human behavior. A curriculum accompanying 50 Children would also be able to balance the history of the Holocaust with ideas of human behavior/ decision-making.
Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAnRo2ejEW8
Sources
50 Children. Seventh Art Releasing, 2013. Film.
Bischoping, Katherine. "Interpreting Social Influences on Holocaust Knowledge." Contemporary Jewry 17.1 (1996): 106-35. JStor. Web. 29 Mar. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/23451105>.
Fracapane, Karel, and Matthias Haß. "The Holocaust in Textbooks: From a European to a Global Event by Falk Pingel." Holocaust Education in a Global Context. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2014.
Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara, and Jeffrey Shandler. "Introduction: Anne Frank, the Phenomenon." Anne Frank Unbound. Bloomington: Indiana U, 2012. 1-24. Print.
Landfried, Jessica. "Anne Frank, the Holocaust Victim: The Controversy about Her Diary in School Education, and the Controversy about Her Image." UCSB Oral History Project. Harold Marcuse, 1 June 2002. Web. 4 Mar. 2015. <http://www.history.ucsb.edu/projects/holocaust/Research/AnneFrank/AnneF20pFinalHM.htm>.
Langer, Lawrence. "Holocaust Testimonies." International Perspectives on Anne Frank. Brandeis University, Waltham. March 23, 2015. Conducted. Class Lecture.
Langer, Lawrence L. "Opening Locked Doors: Reflections on Teaching the Holocaust." Humanities 19.6 (1988). Humanities. Web. 29 Mar. 2015. <http://www.neh.gov/humanities/1998/novemberdecember/feature/opening-locked-doors>.
Sagan, Alex. "Examining Optimism: Anne Frank's Place in Postwar Culture." Anne Frank in Historical Perspective: A Teaching Guide for Secondary Schools. By Alex Grobman and Joel Fishman. Los Angeles: Martyrs Memorial an Museum of the Holocaust, 1995. 60-70. < http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED391710.pdf>.
Sterling, Fran. "The Use of Anne Frank in the Facing History and Ourselves' Curriculum." Telephone interview. 9 Mar. 2015.
The film, 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus as well as Pressman’s accompanying book, 50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple’s Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany, should play an integral role in Holocaust Education in the United States. 50 Children incorporates Eleanor’s journal entries which enables students to develop a deep connection with her story. Additionally, the film provides accounts of children during the war, which allows students to relate to those affected and further their understanding of the Holocaust. While the Kraus story primarily focuses on the conditions in Europe that created the need for the children to leave, it also deals with the American environment and reactions during the war. 50 Children would also stimulate discussions concerning individual choice and decision-making in the same vein as the curriculum of Facing History and Ourselves, one of the premiere organizations for Holocaust education.
Film Summary
After reading the journal of his wife’s grandmother, Eleanor Kraus, journalist Steven Pressman felt compelled to create and release a documentary in 2013 titled 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus. Developed in collaboration with HBO Documentary Films and in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this film details the formerly untold story of one Philadelphia-based Jewish couple, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, who undertook a rescue mission of 50 Viennese children in 1939. Despite backlash from federal and state government officials, Jewish acquaintances, family, friends, and a general American distrust of immigrants, the Krauses left their two young children at home and traveled into the heart of Nazi Germany and Nazi occupied Austria. They discovered that 50 unused American visas existed and they planned to grant those visas to Jewish children in need. They were accompanied by their child’s pediatrician Dr. Robert Schless who would be able to provide medical exams for all of the children as required by United States law. Excerpts from Eleanor’s journal as well as interviews with several of the children involved in the rescue mission provide a first hand account of the event. Archival footage and photographs of Nazi rule in Germany and Austria provide historical context for the setting in which the rescue occurred. Paul Shapiro, Director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Jonathan Sarna, Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, are interviewed in the film to provide necessary context.
50 Children Promotes Student Connection
Especially resonant with young students, 50 Children recounts the stories of those 50 children rescued by the Kraus family. Research has demonstrated that because children are able to better relate to other children, learning about child Holocaust victims/survivors is an effective way to teach the Holocaust in schools. In the summer of 1992, the University of Michigan Institute conducted a national phone survey on the Holocaust for Social Research as part of their monthly Survey of Consumer Attitudes (Bischoping, 109). When asked to define Anne Frank, respondents of every age mentioned her youth (Bischoping, 115). This signifies that her youth remains one of her most pertinent characteristics. Associate Professor at York University, Katherine Bischoping in “Interpreting Social Influences on Holocaust Knowledge,” hypothesizes that Anne’s story remains particularly salient to young children as they can identify with her everyday reflections.
The connection students form with Anne Frank’s diary as a result of her youth also applies to 50 Children. In the film, the child survivors of this rescue mission share their fond prewar memories of family life in Austria, the anti-Semitism that they endured following the Anschluss, or German annexation of Austria, and the experience of separating from their parents to go to the United States. While these survivors are now speaking as adults with an understanding of the Holocaust that they undoubtedly lacked as children, their childhood optimism remains ever present. Hedy Neufeld recounts saying goodbye to her mother with the belief that they would meet again. Immediately after this statement, she breaks into tears sharing that she never saw her mother again (50 Children).
50 Children as “Global” and “Local” Teaching Aid
While globalization has altered the way in which children are taught about the Holocaust, 50 Children addresses the nuances of the global nature of the Holocaust while simultaneously localizing and personalizing it for American students. According to Falk Pingel, author of article "The Holocaust in Textbooks: From a European to a Global Event," before globalization, information was transmitted in a manner that reflected the specific necessary knowledge and values for a particular country but as a result of globalization, teachers must pass on knowledge and values that will remain constant regardless of the country in which the lesson is being taught (Fracapane & Haß, 84). There has been a wide scale trend towards studying the Holocaust as an example of human rights violations rather than on its own as a single historical event (Fracapane & Haß, 84). 50 Children places the Kraus story as well as the Holocaust in the context of global values rather than nation specific ones. For example, the idea of collective responsibility repeats continuously. Best exemplified when, Henny Wenkart, one of the 50 children, states, “What people don’t understand is that at the beginning, you could get out. Everybody could get out. Nobody would let us in. Everyone could have been saved” (50 Children). Had countries opened their borders and worked together, many could have been saved.
If 50 Children were a film trying to transmit American-specific values, information about the anti-immigrant sentiment present in the United States may not have been included. While most American school curriculums include information on American involvement in World War II, the general American opposition to (both Jewish and non-Jewish) Jewish refugees before the impending Holocaust remains rarely studied in depth. The information presented about the American anti-refugee climate in 50 Children paired with Wenkart’s testimony above shows that the United States bears some responsibility for the millions that perished during the Holocaust. The film presents countries that stood idly by (without allowing refugees in) as perpetrators rather than bystanders. While the United States could have been presented as a heroic country that eventually stood up against the Nazis and home to the Krauses, it is instead portrayed in a somewhat negative light as a country that fought to stop the Krauses and refused to take in refugees. In 50 Children, Pressman also describes the conditions in and the history of the United States, Germany, and Austria during the Holocaust. Giving students access to information on more than one country remains crucial to understanding the effect that Nazi ideology had on Europe and beyond. As a global society, understanding the interaction of countries rather than just the history of each individual country becomes essential.
Globalizing events like the Holocaust may cause the personal aspect of the event to be lost, a problem combatted by 50 Children through a number of methods including the use of diary entries. During the Holocaust, millions suffered. Each of individual has a personal story, no two alike. Pingel argues that when globalizing education we cannot lose sight of those affected by the Holocaust and simply focus on the global messages that come out of the event (Fracapane & Haß, 85). Pingel suggests that, “Globalization has to be localized and personalized… to transmit a didactical message that makes the global significance of the event applicable to students’ views and experiences” (Fracapane & Haß, 85). Lawrence Langer, a Holocaust scholar specializing in Holocaust literature, echoed this idea when he explained, “As we approach the twenty-first century, the need grows more urgent for teachers to achieve a balance between the history of the catastrophe and the various ways of representing the private ordeals of its victims” (Langer). There must be a balance between overarching global ideas and the personal stories of those affected.
50 Children localizes and personalizes the Holocaust by providing information about the event through this particular private story of rescue. Eleanor’s diary entries presented in the film create a personal perspective. Those watching 50 Children feel as though they are immersed in the inner thoughts of someone who experienced the rescue and therefore feel more attached to the context in which the event occurred. The book reads as a novel using different diaries, letters, and official government documents to enhance the account and create dialogue. One reading the book becomes engrossed in the story just as he would any other book.
Choice Making and 50 Children
50 Children, a story of resistance and rescue, can prompt discussions on decision making for the students working with the source. Students can use this theme to engage with the Krauses as an example of how people can make a difference wherever they may be. Students can also brainstorm different ways in which they could have helped other than by going into Nazi Germany. This will be applicable to the problems of today when students ask themselves whether they must act just as the Krauses did. Facing History and Ourselves highly regards the idea of ensuring that students leave the classroom with a takeaway message surrounding individual and collective responsibility. Facing History’s Scope and Sequence ends with “Choosing to Participate.” This section of the curriculum shows how ordinary citizens create history every day. The past and present stay forever connected. The students learn that they can change the course of history by choosing to participate or not.
Fran Sterling, Senior Research and Development Associate at Facing History and Ourselves, states this decision-making aspect of the curriculum helps combat genocide fatigue. Genocide fatigue, she explains, is the mental and emotional toll on individuals studying such horrendous acts of violence and oppression (Sterling). When an individual experiences genocide fatigue, that person becomes too overwhelmed to enjoy learning anything more about the Holocaust (Sterling). Enjoyment in this instance would not mean happiness considering the material but an interest in the subject matter. So as to prevent genocide fatigue, Facing History balances the history of the Holocaust with ideas concerning human behavior. A curriculum accompanying 50 Children would also be able to balance the history of the Holocaust with ideas of human behavior/ decision-making.
Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAnRo2ejEW8
Sources
50 Children. Seventh Art Releasing, 2013. Film.
Bischoping, Katherine. "Interpreting Social Influences on Holocaust Knowledge." Contemporary Jewry 17.1 (1996): 106-35. JStor. Web. 29 Mar. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/23451105>.
Fracapane, Karel, and Matthias Haß. "The Holocaust in Textbooks: From a European to a Global Event by Falk Pingel." Holocaust Education in a Global Context. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2014.
Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara, and Jeffrey Shandler. "Introduction: Anne Frank, the Phenomenon." Anne Frank Unbound. Bloomington: Indiana U, 2012. 1-24. Print.
Landfried, Jessica. "Anne Frank, the Holocaust Victim: The Controversy about Her Diary in School Education, and the Controversy about Her Image." UCSB Oral History Project. Harold Marcuse, 1 June 2002. Web. 4 Mar. 2015. <http://www.history.ucsb.edu/projects/holocaust/Research/AnneFrank/AnneF20pFinalHM.htm>.
Langer, Lawrence. "Holocaust Testimonies." International Perspectives on Anne Frank. Brandeis University, Waltham. March 23, 2015. Conducted. Class Lecture.
Langer, Lawrence L. "Opening Locked Doors: Reflections on Teaching the Holocaust." Humanities 19.6 (1988). Humanities. Web. 29 Mar. 2015. <http://www.neh.gov/humanities/1998/novemberdecember/feature/opening-locked-doors>.
Sagan, Alex. "Examining Optimism: Anne Frank's Place in Postwar Culture." Anne Frank in Historical Perspective: A Teaching Guide for Secondary Schools. By Alex Grobman and Joel Fishman. Los Angeles: Martyrs Memorial an Museum of the Holocaust, 1995. 60-70. < http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED391710.pdf>.
Sterling, Fran. "The Use of Anne Frank in the Facing History and Ourselves' Curriculum." Telephone interview. 9 Mar. 2015.