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On October 28,1938 a trainload of Jews were deported from Germany and arrived at the Polish border the following day These were the at
of t«r»R of thmisarvlfi of Polish nationals livinn in fiftrmanv to be deDOfted
4 Today the term ghetto generally refers to racially
segregated neighborhoods in America's large cities There
are important differences between the American urban
ghettos which are the result of economic and social forces
and the Jewish ghettos of Nazi occupied Europe which were
created by force of arms for the purpose of concentrating
Jews for slaughter Discuss these differeoces Also, how
■ . were the ghettos created for Jews by the Nazis different from
- the Jewish ghettos of the middle ages 9
5 What have you heard about Babi Yar 9 Now you have
seen what actually happened there The Russians have
never allowed a monument for the Jews murdered by the
Nazis, to be set up at Babi Yar A Russian poet by the name
of Yevgeny Yevtushenko, however, wrote a famous poem
about Babi Yar It begins "No gravestone stands at Babi Yar "
Over 100.000 people were killed at Babi Yar, the majority
of them were Jewish men, women and children
Issues for Discussion with Children Before Part III
To Be Telecast April 18,1978
1 1 Notice how the Germans acquired property belonging to
the Jews without questioning the wrong or right of it and
certainly without paying for it—how do Dorf and Marta
rationalize their "appropriation" of the piano 9
'v 2. Heydrich says: "The Fuehrer (Adolf Hitler) says Here I
■ stand with my bayonets and there you stand with your law
We shall see which wins (prevails)." Think about that
3 Notice the Red Cross and their actions Why do they
accept the German's obvious lies?
4 Some of the Nazis (Heydric for example) knew that their
co-workers were behaving immorally, yet they went along
with these policies and people As you watch the series,
think about this What made thern do it?
5. How did the anti-semitism of non-Jewish East Europeans
(Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Poles) affect yie Jews chances for
survival and resistance?
6 What do you think about Rudi's reluctance to kill, even” -
though he himself has almost been killed dozens of times by
lust such young men?
7. The homeland of the Jews is mentioned often. What does
it mean? What difference would it have made if the state of
' Israel had existed?
8. Think about how each Nazi is depicted as a good and
kind man to his own family—Dorf, Hoess, etc.
Imum for Discussion with Children After Part III
To Be Teiocast April 18,1978
1 What is a conscience? How do you learn right from
wrong? Can you suddenly forget what you learned all your
life and make right wrong and wrong right? How do you feel
when Marta talks about the goodness of all living things
while she knows what is being done to the Jews by her
husband and others? How about Dorfs statement that
“Hoess is a kind man He adores his wife, children, animals
and nature and yet”
2. What about the Jewish leaders? Dr Kohn, a Jew himself,
speaks of the other Jews who will be killed as “they.” What
about Moses and Dr Weiss? What about AnielewiczandUncle
Sasha, Zalman and Aaron? Think of how hard it must be to
resist if you know that your family and many other .Jews will
be killed, if you even harm one German soldier. When
Heydrich was killed, the town of Lidice in Czechoslovakia
was leveled to the ground and everyone in it murdered by
the Nazis. There were many other such examples What
decision do you think you would have made? There were
many Jewish leaders who did everything within their power
to help. Most of them were caught and killed, some
committed suicide, one tried to keep the Jews in his ghetto
working so that they would be indispensible to the Nazis and
would not be killed (he almost succeeded) Another tried to
make decisions carefully as to who would go and who would
remain. Some refused to make the choices They were all
killed. The chairman of the Jewish Council in the Warsaw
Ghetto, Adam Czerniakow. committed suicide when he
learned where the transports were going He refused to
make the decision for the Nazis There were also people just
like ‘Uncle Sasha': there was an Uncle Misha Gildenman.
who was a partisans Dr Maheskiel Atlas who fought bravely
with the partisans, boys like Aaron who lived at the Three
Crosses Square in Warsaw: Vitka Kemper and Abba Kovner
from VHna who became partisans And later there was
Alexander Pechersky, a Russian Jew who organized the
revolt at Sobibor. In the death camp of Treblinka there was an
uprising that caused so much damage that the death factory
there was never rebuilt In an uprising at Auschwitz the most
dreaded of all camps, one of the crematoria was destroyed
Rabbi Isaac Nissenbaum. in the Warsaw Ghetto, a
courageous and holy man, encouraged the resistance
fighters and at the same time urged that Jews do everything
within their power to stay alive He developed a theory that
Jews performed a Mitzvah by staying alive He called this
Mitzvah “Kiddush Ha-Chayim." In Kovno. the council
chairman. Dr. Elkhanan Elkes and Moshe Levin the chief of
police, pretended to follow Nazi orders, while working with
the resistance to hide children and smuggle out young men
and women to join the partisans This was true of many of the
leaders In Lvov the first two council chairmen were killed for
refusal to cooperate with the Nazis In 45 out of 73 towns, the
Jewish Councils resisted in some way
3 Maria in Theresieristadt says, "No one ever asks what
right the Nazis had to imprison us at all They seem to think it
is all right for Jews to be jailed providing they are not
murdered Did any International organizations visi' any
other camps 9 What did the Red Cross do 9
4 What about heroes 9 What makes a hero? Was Moses a
hero? Dr Weiss 9 Mrs Weiss 9 Aaron 9 Zalman? Uncle Sasha?
Rudi? Think about them The Jewish partisans in the forest
were killed as often by the Poles and Ukrainians as by the
Germans When they did fight with the Polish resistance they
did not say they were Jews
5 Do you think, as Helena did, that the Jews need a
homeland 9 Would the Holocaust have happened if the state
of Israel was in existence 9 How does Entebbe illustrate the
difference in the position of Jews today 9
6 What about Inga s statement to Muller "We ve let you
take over We are as evil as you are " What about those
people who stood and watched and did nothing Were they
also guilty? Were we also guilty?
7 The artists described in ftiefesienstadt were real people
There really was a man named Otto Unger whose hands
were broken in the Fortress and Bedrich Fritta really drew the
hand of the drowning man, Leo Haas and Karel Fleischman
were also real artists at Theresienstadt How can art be a
protest? Do, you know of any American artists who made
drawings protesting something 9 Many of the Theresienstadt
drawings are found in a book called The Artists of
Theresienstadt, by Gerald Green, the author of NBC s
"Holocaust “
Imum for DiscuMion with Children Before Part IV
To Be Telecast April 19,1978
1. Notice the cold, impersonal manner in which the Nazi
officials examine the gassing and burning installations in
Auschwitz.
2. Think about the title of this program: “The Saving
Remnant “
3 Notice how Dorf tries to destroy all the evidence.
4 Dorf quotes the Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, as saying “We were
completing the work of Christianity, defending Western
culture " Think about that as you watch the film
5 Palestine—what is it s real meaning to these hopeless,
helpless Jews?
laauM for Dlacussion with Children After Part IV
To Be TelecMt April 19,1978
1 Did you notice the development of Dorfs character 9 Was
he good or bad? Why? This was probably true of many
Germans. First they became involved for personal gain and
then they were caught up in the lies and the terror It is
always easier to be the persecutor than the persecuted
Hitler said. “I stand here with my bayonets and you stand
there with your law We will see which prevails (wins)." But
often law can also be turned to evil purposes How?
2. When Dorf returned from the Eastern front why do you
think he could not sleep 9 (Was he worried about the war and
his job, or was he troubled by the killing of the Jews 9 )
3. Did you notice how Dorf tried to destroy the evidence 9
The Germans kept track of everything There were
thousands of pieces of paper, pictures and orders that the
Allies found when the war ended Those pictures on the
screen in Nazi headquarters came from actual Nazi files
They were among the thousands of feet of film which were
saved by the Nazis Is it good that the Nazis did not destroy
most of the evidence? Did you know that there are people
today who deny that the Holocaust took place, despite the
evidence 9
If a person thinks he is doing the right thing he is not afraid
to speak up and to let people know what he is doing Vtet the
Nazis, though they claimed that what they were doing to the
Jews was moral, made every effort to keep the gassings and
the murders totally quiet What does that say to us?
4 At the end Uncle Kurt spoke about facing up to what the
Germans had done—insisting that the younger generation
should know What is the object of insisting that they know 9
What can be accomplished by this 9
5 Not all Nazi war criminals were captured and punished
after World War II Some still live in Germany Some even
escaped to America where many have not been identified or
prosecuted It is now more than 30 years after the Holocaust.
Should they still be punished 9 Can Wfe forgive and forget ?
6 Many have said that the Jews did not resist The question
really is how, under the circumstances, so very many found
the strength and courage to fight back in various ways As
o*ne author put it, “the shame is not that of the victims, but
that of the persecutors.' What were some of the non-physical
modes of resistance depicted in the TV program? " *
7 The Nazis killed 6,000,000 Jews They destroyed a
Jewish world of great culture and religious richness and
variety This world is really not described in the TV
docu-drama What do you know about the cultural ancf
religious life of European Jewry 9 Why is it important to learn
-more?
8 Was there something self-destructive in the German
insistence on using the trains to transport Jews rather than
help their own war effort? What motivated them?
9 Rudi was a fighter and he survived But there were many
who survived who were not fighters in the physical sense of
the word Does Rudi really change, as, for example Dorf
changes?
10 In the end, it is Palestine, (Israel) which provides some
hope What is its real meaning to these hopeless, helpless
Jews 9