Children’s Literature and the Holocaust
During the 1940’s Jewish Europeans experienced an unthinkable and atrocious
collective trauma. In her work “Survivor-Parents and Their Children” taken from
the anthology Generations of the Holocaust, Judith S. Kestenberg has argued
that regardless of location, the effects of the Holocaust are felt on survivors
parenting. The children of survivors receive a secondary traumatic impact by
being forced to deal with the impact the Holocaust had directly on their parents.
The novel Briar Rose by Jane Yolen is an example of a Holocaust survivor
sharing her experiences through a fictionalized tale made for young adults.
Some may believe that a traditional, educationally focused history source or a
first hand account from a survivor is the best way to inform children about the
Holocaust. It has been discovered through research of survivors and their
families that first hand accounts passed down from parent to child are
traumatizing. However, history books are ineffective because people are turned
into statistics, thereby trivializing the terror of the Holocaust. This essay
argues that a fictional style of storytelling or literature is the best way to
inform children and adolescents about the Holocaust. Witnessing is important, however,
there is no educational value in traumatizing children; it is better to use
literature that explains the Holocaust at a level children and young adults can
handle.
Milton Meltzer, author of Never forget: The Jews of the Holocaust discusses the
importance of witnessing: “To forget what we know would not be human. To
remember (it) is to think of what being human means. . . Indifference is the
greatest sin. . . . It can be as powerful as an action. Not to do something
against evil is to participate in the evil” (Sherman 173). Meltzer gives the
straightforward conclusion that people must be educated about the Holocaust
because to remain silent about it is just as bad as playing a role in
persecuting Jews. This conclusion also gives the rationale for teaching
children about the Holocaust. But more specifically, why else may witnessing be
important and what are the drawbacks of witnessing?
Despite the logic and seemingly usefulness of witnessing, it can be a traumatic
experience for the witness. The trauma experienced through first hand accounts
can be further explained through the use of Marianne Hirsch’s article
“Projected Memory: Holocaust photographs in Personal and Public Fantasy,” which
discusses ways people can perceive traumatic information of the past. People
can either have “the ability to say ‘it could have been me, it was me, also’
and at the same time ‘that it was not me’” or the line between the witness and
the listener can be blurred and the historical trauma interiorized. Hirsch
identifies a negative identification with trauma as idiopathic or
“self-sameness” (408). An over-identification with trauma causes the witness to
act out and become a victim. As Hirsch writes, “Acting out is based on tragic
identification and the continuation of one’s self as a surrogate victim. It is
based on over identification and repetition. Keeping the wounds open, it
results in retraumatization” (414).
It is because of these reasons that painful histories must be carefully passed
on with the witness’s welfare in mind. Anyone who hears a first hand account
about the Holocaust may experience trauma. According to Judith S. Kestenberg,
author of “Survivor-Parents and Their Children,” first hand witnessing of the
Holocaust has long-term traumatic effects that are passed down through
generation. As shown through out the studies and cases discussed in the
anthology Generations of The Holocaust, the “psychological task” children of
survivors have to face is dealing with the trauma handed down from their
parents as a result of their experiences with the Holocaust. Children of
survivors are traumatized because “survivor-parents introduce into their
parenthood the usual identification and counter identifications not only with
their own living or deceased parents and siblings, but also with various
people-some well known to them, some anonymous-who were part of their
persecution experience” (Kestenberg 96). The knowledge of their parents trauma
causes the child to over-identify with their parents.
But not only children of survivors are traumatized by information of the
Holocaust. Even gentiles maybe traumatized by hearing first hand accounts from
Holocaust survivors. “The Holocaust In Fiction; Naming The Unnamable; Morality
In Literature” describes how author Joyce Hackett was negatively affected by
the year she spent researching about the Holocaust: “In the months she spent
conducting interviews with survivors of Theresienstadt- -a Nazi camp...Hackett
found herself casually buying rope with which to fashion her own noose, and ‘idly
wondering whether it would hurt to drop a blow-dryer in my bath water’” (B6).
Hackett had an idiopathic reaction to witnessing. She over-identified with the
survivors she interviewed and showed evidence of acting out, the interviews
with survivors sparked her preoccupation with suicide.
Since it has been shown that first hand witnessing causes trauma to children
and also carries the risk of traumatizing more remote witnesses, history books
may be seen as the next alternative to informing children of the Holocaust.
However, history books are ineffective in teaching children about the
Holocaust. The article “Historian’s WWII Book Sanitizes History for Youth”
discusses a history book that fails to convey more than mundane facts.
Historian Stephen E. Ambrose wrote a book or “an introduction to the war for
young readers” (Eskenazi 1). “The book fails resoundingly. Instead it presents
a prettified version of the war and the role of the United States: Ambrose does
mention such figures as 4,600 U.S. military personnel killed at Pearl Harbor,
85,000 Japanese incinerated at Hiroshima, and 11 million dead via Hitler's
Final Solution, including 6 million Jews” (Eskanzi 1). The facts in the history
books are ineffective. Whereas witnessing causes a problem of over identification,
history books cause the problem of too little identification. The information
the reader of a history book receives is not enough to create a significant
impact or understanding. Because of this, no heteropathic identification is
formed. The reader has no emotional connection with the work and the reader
child gains nothing from reading the book.
After eliminating the use of first hand witnessing and history books, the next
alternative for teaching children about the Holocaust is through fictional
literature. Some have declared writing fiction about the Holocaust is
impossible and immoral: “The arguments about the immorality of creating fiction
about the Holocaust are related to concerns about exploiting the victims and
survivors, as well as the fear of being cooped by the act of describing evil.
There are concerns that imaginative works about the Holocaust, as opposed to
factual texts such as autobiographies or histories, will somehow subvert the
truth of what actually happened” (Walter 40). However, unlike first hand
witnessing and history books, novels are the best way to relay information
about something as complex as the Holocaust.
As discussed in “Juvenile Picture Books About the Holocaust: Extending the
Definitions of Children’s Literature” Jeffrey Derevensky, professor of
educational psychology, has a theory about the stages of childhood development
and Holocaust literature: “At the concrete operational stage, from ages seven
to eleven, children can begin to comprehend the objective events of the
Holocaust. They will be unable to understand the broader philosophical and
psychological issues until they reach the stage of formal operation and
thought, at approximately age eleven” (Walter 41). Derevensky has concluded
through his studies that children and adolescents do have special and different
needs. Considering these factors he has determined that starting from the age
of seven, children may be introduced to the Holocaust. The child at that age
will not be ready for all the information but as her or she ages more
information may be introduced.
The novel Briar Rose by Jane Yolen is an example of literature made for young
adults that deals with the Holocaust. Within the story itself, the reader is
confronted with the controversy of what children can handle hearing about the
Holocaust. How much should children be told? And how should they be told? In
Briar Rose, Gemma uses a fairy tale to explain her experiences to her
grandchildren. As discussed in the book Generations of the Holocaust parent
survivors traumatize their children because of their experiences with the
Holocaust. The novel succeeded in the ways that first hand witnessing and
history books failed; the novel was not traumatic and the reader formed an
emotional connection with the characters in the book adding to the
understanding of real events.
In Briar Rose, a family discovers only after the death of the matriarch that
she was a Holocaust survivor. Gemma, mother of one and grandmother of three,
hinted but never told her family members of her involvement with the Holocaust.
Her family always assumed she immigrated to the United States before World War
II. What she did tell them was the story of Briar Rose, in which she used a
fairy tale of a sleeping beauty named Aurora to elude to her experiences under
Nazi occupation. In her story the bad fairy was described as “the one in black
with big black boots and silver eagles on her hat” (Yolen 27). The spell cast
by the bad fairy is described as a mist that covered the entire kingdom: “Everyone
in it- the good people an d the not-so-good, the young people and the
not-so-young, and even Briar Rose’s mother and father fell asleep. Everyone
slept. So fast asleep they were not able to wake up for a hundred years” (Yolen
46).
Using the ideas of M.P. Machet, author of “Authenticity in Holocaust Literature
for Children” one can analyze Briar Rose. The article discusses the way that
Jewish people are represented in children’s books. This author agrees that
books are a good way to teach children about the Holocaust. Machet says:
“Novels can help children become aware of the Holocaust by conveying some of
the complexity of the historical situation and also by personifying the events
through fictional characters with who children can identify” (Machet 1).
Yolen’s novel succeeds in teaching about the Holocaust while at the same time
using characters the reader may identifies with. In Briar Rose Gemma tells her
story using the fairy tale because she feels that her daughter and
grandchildren will be able to comprehend the fairy tale. Gemma uses a princess
to be the fictional character that her witnesses are to identify with. Although
the listener is not royalty, a princess is something children (especially
little girls) can identify with. However, this identification only happens when
the child is very young. Eventually as the child grows and matures, this
identification will not be sufficient. Looking at the novel itself which
teaches about the Holocaust, the fictional characters are family members that have
to deal with the loss of an important member of the family. Gemma, the
Holocaust survivor is given more than just a face, the reader of the novel
forms a connection with the character as more of her secret past is disclosed.
Since learning first hand witnessing causes trauma to the witness and that
history books lack significant impact, children should be taught about the
Holocaust through literature. “The more our young know about why the Holocaust
happened, and how it took place, the more they, as our future adults will be
prepared to deal with the trends in society that endanger our humanity” As the
plot progresses more information is divulged, with age and time more and more
can be taught. Well written literature about the Holocaust can provide children
elements of the issue that parents and history books cannot give. Not only can
it cover a variety of complex issues at a level young adults can relate to, the
characters, although emotionally provoking, are distanced enough that the young
readers are not traumatized.
Works Cited
Eskenazi, Joe. “Historian’s WWII Book Sanitizes History for Youth.” Jewish
Bulletin. 105.50 (2001).
Hirsch, Marianne. "Projected Memory: Holocaust photographs in Personal and
Public Fantasy"
Machet, M.P. “Authenticity in Holocaust Literature For Children.” South African
Journal of Library & Information Science. 66.3 (1998): 114-22.
Sherman, Ursula F. “Why Would A Child Want To Read About That? The Holocaust
Period in Children’s Literature.” How Much Truth Do We Tell the Children?. Ed.
Betty Bacon. Minneapolis: MEP Publications, 1988. 173-184.
Walter, Virginia A., and Susan F. March. “Juvenile Picture Books About the
Holocaust: Extending the Definitions of Children’s Literature.” Publishing
Research Quarterly. 9.3 (1993): 36-52.
Generations of the Holocaust. Ed. Martin S. Bergmann and Milton E. Jucovy. New
York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1982.
“The Holocaust In Fiction; Naming The Unnamable; Morality In Literature.”
Chronicle of Higher Education. 48.19 (2002)