you, your teach-
vived various Nazi
ers who teach
Germany death
you."
And a
camps, though vir-
warning: "Do
tually all his rela-
you see what a
tives (of an
simple act of call-
extended family of
ing someone by
80, three persons,
an ugly name can
including Jack,
lead to — what
survived) were
bullying can lead
murdered in the
to?"
Holocaust. He
MCHE has
came to the
monitored the
United States,
alone, when he
Jack Mandelbaum as he looks today and response to
Mandelbaum's
was 19.
as a young man.
talks; the organi-
"When survivors
zation has
first came here, we
received literally thousands of letters
wanted to be Americanized," he says.
from students. "A few years ago, I had
"We wanted to have all the things that
no idea about the Holocaust," one
Americans have: a family, children and
wrote. "Now I know your story. I
a home. This was good because it
know it's my responsibility to never let
meant we didn't have time to focus on
it happen again."
ourselves, we were so busy trying to
Mandelbaum believes the key to
make a living. Anyway, nobody asked
educating
children is in being honest
us about it [the Holocaust] because
and
direct
and clear, and making the
they didn't really want to know."
story personal. When he speaks, "the
But with time, Mandelbaum and
Holocaust" is no longer something the
other survivors "felt there was a greater
students read about in a book or see
reason for surviving than just to have
on a film. It's not something that hap-
the economic benefits of America, and
pened to "millions of Jews.' It's the
that's when we started to speak."
story of how an indescribable catastro-
Eleven years ago, Mandelbaum
phe affected one family named
approached his friend, Isak Federman,
Mandelbaum, a mother and a father
also a survivor. "I told him, 'No one in
and their children, a family who lived
Kansas City is doing anything about
by the sea, a little boy named Jack who
Holocaust education, and I want to
liked to sit on the shore and watch the
make sure this story is told."'
boats come in.
Each man committed money to
Though he tells the story time and
make certain the project got started
again,
the children's questions continue
and then paid the first-year salary of
to leave him breathless at times.
the new MCHE director out of their
"A student asked me once, 'What is
own pockets.
the last thing you said to your mother?'
Through MCHE, Mandelbaum,
How can you not choke up when you
whose life is the focus of the award
hear something like this?"
winning book for young readers,
Surviving Hitler by Andrea Warren, has
been speaking to adults and especially
No Paper Clips
children, middle school and older,
Like Jack Mandelbaum, Rene
about the Holocaust.
He talks about his life, and about the Lichtman survived the Holocaust. But
horrors of daily existence in the camps. he did so as a hidden child in France,
where he was cared for by a gentile
When he first started out, he was
woman.
extremely gentle with his words, but
Lichtman of West Bloomfield was
the children wanted more. So he told
born
in 1937 in France of Polish par-
them what it was like to see people
ents. In 1940, Rene's father joined the
being nearly beaten to death; about
French army and was killed in combat.
being forced to stand in the freezing
In 1942, Rene and his mother went
cold for hours only to view the corpse
into hiding, each in different locations,
of someone who was shot trying to
and both survived with the help of
escape; about men and boys charged
Christians. In 1950, the two settled in
with some minor infraction and then
the United States.
hanged to death while the rest of the
Six years ago, Lichtman helped
prisoners were made to watch.
found the World Federation of Jewish
Always in his talks, Mandelbaum
Child Survivors of the Holocaust, with
ends with a message: Appreciate every-
50 chapters in 12 countries. He holds
thing you have — your freedom, food
a Ph.D. in education and often speaks
and shelter, "your parents who love
calls the use of "gim-
micks" when talking
to children about the
Holocaust. He doesn't
support the idea of
using physical objects,
like paper clips, to try
and understand the
extraordinary number
of men, women and
children murdered by
the Nazis.
"There's something
missing when you do
that," he said. "I joke,
so maybe I should
frame a bunch of
paper clips and say,
Rene Lichtman, left, with Anne Legage, who protected
`This was my family'?"
him during the war.
Instead, teach chil-
dren that the
Holocaust meant the
murder of individuals, one by one by
to children — who, he says, can relate
one. Lichtman shows students a photo
to his experiences — about his life
of one boy, one girl, one baby killed by
during World War II.
In his talks, he "always tries to give
the Nazis.
Also, give children historical back-
them something positive. You have to
ground, he says. "Students ask me,
stress the positive aspects, even though
`Why did people hate the Jews?' So I
they were really minor. Because even
talk about Christian anti-Semitism. At
though there was great evil and even
though not many did anything to help least that should be said."
Finally, Lichtman speaks not only
the Jews, there were heroes — people
about the courage of Righteous
motivated only by trying to do the
Gentiles, like the one who saved him,
right thing. You have to talk about this
but of the Jews themselves.
or else it's too scary for the young peo-
"A lot of children want to know
ple. Plus, they need role models."
about resistance," he says. "So I talk
Lichtman often talks to middle-
about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising,
school students, and, like Jack
Mandelbaum, he believes children take but also about how Jews were in the
underground, about how Jews helped
away a message about their own
Jews. It's not that we went like 'sheep
responsibility for shaping the world.
,
to the slaughter' as some people like to
"Don't allow the bullies to take over,"
say. We did resist." ❑
he tells them. "Don't be a bystander."
Lichtman eschews, however, what he
Holocaust education is "more acces-
sible than ever," Charley Silow says. If
you're looking for information on the
Web, Dr. Silow recommends:
• The Simon Wiesenthal's Museum
of Tolerance at
www.museumoftolerance.corn
• The U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum at www.ushmm.org
• Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust
memorial, at www.yadvashem.org .
And, at your local library, consider
these books:
• Molly Pilgrim by B. Cohen. This
story, for children in grades 3-7,
teaches children to have pride in their
immigrant roots and understand the
wrongs of prejudice.
• Forging Freedom by Hudson
Talbott, for students in grades 3 7.
• The Diary of Anne Frank, for
grades 4 8.
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry is
the story of how Danish people
helped Jews during World War II. For
grades 3-8.
For more information on the
Midwest Center for Holocaust
Education, go to www.mchekc.org.
For more information on the World
Federation of Jewish Child Survivors
of the Holocaust, go to
www.wfjcsh.org.
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2005
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