Alicia: My Story Lesson Plan for Chapter 11

“Milek”

TITLE: Food and Society in Alicia: My Story: Surviving the Jewish Ghettos RATIONALE: Life for the individuals living in ghettos was undoubtedly dark and torturous; the roles of many individuals had to change in order to survive. This lesson is built to facilitate student understanding of deeper social and psychological aspects of life in the Jewish ghettos. It explores food as a societal function, which in turn contributes to students’ overall comprehension of the suffering victims of the Holocaust endured. It also explores foods as a cultural product; something that was often removed from the lives of Jewish people living in the ghettos. This lesson is linked to Chapter 11 in Alicia: My Story. In this chapter, Alicia is given money, which will allow her to purchase food in the ghetto:

“I now had one hundred zlotys that I could use to buy food. I gave Milek fifty zlotys for his household and I used the rest very frugally. Thanks to the generosity of the Golds we did not starve to death that winter.”

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVE(S): Students will be able to: - Evaluate connections between culture, social relations, and experiences in the Jewish ghettos. - Analyze primary and secondary sources for information. - Synthesize information by discussing what they have learned and learning from others in their

group. NEXT GENERATION SUNSHINE STATE STANDARD(S): SS.912.W.7.8 Explain the causes, events, and effects of the Holocaust (1933-1945) including its roots in the long tradition of anti-Semitism, 19th century ideas about race and nation, and Nazi dehumanization of the Jews and other victims. SS.912.W.7.6 Analyze the restriction of individual rights and the use of mass terror against populations in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and occupied territories. COMMON CORE STATE STANDARD(S): CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.9 Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

PREPARATIONS: - Create two packets for each topic (a total of 6 packets). Each packet will contain one set of the

documents for the given topic, and enough copies of the analysis worksheet for the students in the group (this depends on class size, generally 5-6 copies). The teacher may wish to include the Food and Ghettos final worksheet in the packets as well, or hand them out as the students work. (See Attachments).

- Before students enter the classroom, desks should be set up into groups of 5-6. Again, this depends on the class size.

- Students should be familiar with a group, or know which group they should sit in upon entering the room. Here, they are listed as “letter” groups.

- If unfamiliar with the concept, visit http://www.jigsaw.org/overview.htm to learn more about Jigsaw activity procedures and grouping.

- It is expected at this point that students have been introduced to the concept of Jewish ghettos. LESSON: Introductory Phase: Introducing Concepts and Think-Pair-Share Activity 1. As students enter the classroom, have them sit in their “letter” groups (Group A, B, C, D, E).

This is the group they will return to towards the end of class. 2. If necessary, call on a volunteer to remind the class what a ghetto was, and how the Nazis

used them during the Holocaust. 3. Explain to students that they will be learning about one of the biggest struggles for Jewish

people living in the ghettos: dealing with hunger. Tell students that food in the ghettoes was rationed, and then many people died from starvation.

4. Ask a volunteer to define “ration” for the class, as some students may be unaware of its meaning. An example of an acceptable response may be “each person was allowed a pre- determined or fixed amount of food and nothing more”.

5. Think- Pair- Share For information on Think-Pair-Share procedure, visit http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/interactive/tpshare.html • Ask aloud what kinds of meals students have during the holidays. This can be any holiday

or special time for their families. • Tell students to respond with 3-5 written sentences individually. Give students

approximately five minutes to complete this step. • Next, ask students share their responses with the person next to them. Tell students to note

any similarities or differences between their answers and their partners’ answers. Give students about two minutes to complete this step.

• Bring the attention of the class back to you, and ask for volunteers to share their ideas and responses with the entire class. Call on three to four students to share with the class.

6. Close the Introductory Phase by explaining to students that they will be working with their groups to examine how food transformed, and sometimes maintained, social roles in the ghettos. Further explain that food is an important part of many cultures, and that it was difficult for many Jewish families to not have food.

Jigsaw Activity, Part One 1. Number off students into six groups, their “number” groups and have them move to the

appropriate location to join their new group. There should be six “number” groups in all. 2. There are three topics for study; this means groups 1 and 2 will get packets on Food and

Culture, groups 3 and 4 will get packets on Rationing and Coupons, and groups 5 and 6 will get packets on Smuggling and the Black Market. (Each letter group should have at least one member in each number group).

3. Hand out the appropriate packet to each group. In addition to having a set of documents, and an “Analysis Worksheet”, each student should receive the “Food in Ghettos Worksheet”.

4. Advise students that their first step is to analyze the documents and fill out the “Analysis Worksheet” (on “Food, Coupons and Rationing”, or “Smuggling and Black Markets”; see materials) with their group. This worksheet is directly related to the documents.

5. Explain to students that after the “Analysis Worksheet” is done, they should fill out the appropriate column on the “Food and Ghettos Worksheet”. This is what they will use to advise their letter groups.

6. Give students 25 minutes to complete these tasks. The teacher should circulate the room in order to assist in clarification, answer questions, and note participation.

Jigsaw Activity, Part Two 1. After calling time, ask students to move back into their original, “letter” groups. 2. Tell students that they now need to explain what they just studied to their group-mates so that

the remainder of the chart on the “Food and Ghettos” worksheet can be filled out. 3. Give students 15 minutes to complete this task. The teacher should circulate the room in order

to assist in clarification, answer questions, and note participation. 4. Collect “Food and Ghettos” worksheet. Closure 1. Read the quotation from Alicia, “I now had one hundred zlotys that I could use to buy food. I

gave Milek fifty zlotys for his household and I used the rest very frugally. Thanks to the generosity of the Golds we did not starve to death that winter.”

2. Remind students that there were many people who tried to help victims of the Holocaust, especially at their own risk.

3. Tell students to think about what they learned today; even though they learned about struggles and hardships, ask if they can think of any examples of how people and communities were able to stick together and assist each other, even through hunger.

Assessment The Food and Ghettos worksheet should be collected at the end of class. Though answers will vary, the chart should be checked for:

- Accuracy of response; did the students understand the concepts? - Thoroughness; did the students respond appropriately to all of the questions?

Extensions and Modifications - Many of the resources for this lesson can be found at http://ghetto.galim.org.il/eng/street.html.

This is an interactive website made for students, that allows them to explore life in the ghetto with safe and accurate primary sources.

• Consider having students in the computer lab to evaluate other aspects of life in Jewish ghettos.

• This website could also serve as an alternative assignment, in which students evaluate certain topics on the website and explain them to their group. This might replace the first part of the Jigsaw Activity; instead the teacher would assign each individual in the group a topic to explore on the website.

- During group work, consider putting ELLs or other struggling students in groups with students who exhibit strong communication skills. Jigsaw activities allow for students to teach each other; this can be a great advantage for ELLs or other special needs individuals.

- Consider modifying questions for ELLs, especially if they are at lower stages of language development. Their worksheets may emphasize telling what they see in the photograph documents, for instance.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Appleman-Jurman, A. (1988). Alicia: My story. (p. 108). New York: Bantam Book.

Children in the ghetto. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://ghetto.galim.org.il/eng/street.html

Food: Culture. (2004). Retrieved from http://epyc.yivo.org/content/10_1.php

Rawicki, J. (2009). Interview by C Ellis []., Retrieved from

http://digital.lib.usf.edu/SFS0021979/00001/citation?search=jerry

US Holocaust Memorial Museum. (1941). [Print Photo]. Retrieved from

https://ushmm.org/wlc/sp/media_ph.php?ModuleId=10005174&MediaId=956

ATTACHMENTS:

Packet 1: Food in Jewish Culture Packet 2: Rationing and Coupons Packet 3: Smuggling and the Black Market Food and Ghettos Analysis Worksheet

Packet 1: Food and Hunger for Jewish People

Food and Culture

“Tsholent (sometimes spelled cholent), the Sabbath stew, is representative of the Ashkenazi Shabes meal. It is a hearty, meaty stew prepared a day in advance and left to slow cook on a burner or in the oven overnight. The smell of the tsholentpot whetted the appetites of hungry Jews returning from synagogue prayers on Saturday afternoon.

Rosh Hashanah, the New Year on the Jewish calendar, is celebrated for two days in September or early October. The traditional foods of this holiday are symbolic of the qualities that are hoped for the oncoming year: sweetness, roundness, and fullness.

The Round Challah The Rosh Hashanah challah is often round like a circle, with no beginning or end, much like the calendar year that has just ended and the new one that has just begun. It can also be braided like a ladder, to remind us that we should aspire to ascend to greater heights in the New Year. This challah is usually baked with raisins, providing extra sweetness for a sweet new year. On the table there also will be honey, in which apples and the bread are dipped.

Tsimmes One Rosh Hashanah dish particularly popular among Eastern European Jews is tsimmes, a sweet carrot stew. In addition to sweetness, the carrots here also symbolize reproduction, as mern, the Yiddish word for carrots, also shares that meaning. A typical recipe for tsimmes calls for the carrot to be sliced and cooked with honey or jam.

Fruits The pomegranate, another Rosh Hashanah food symbol in addition to the apple. Its many seeds represent fertility, on the one hand, and, on the other, the 613 commandments of the Torah. Would you want to count the seeds to corroborate this?

Fish In Eastern European Jewish tradition, fish are often cooked and served with the head intact, to symbolize the beginning of the coming year.”

From the Educational Center on Yiddish Culture Website (Food: Culture, 2004)

“We were restricted to this one street, you know. It was, of course, a ghetto, but without a wall. And there was a bakery somewhere on the outskirts of this thing. And the smell of fresh baked bread—when it wafted in, it was just excruciating. I can only compare from what I read and from what I know about narcotics, narcotic agent—addicts. You know, how they crave a fix. They don’t know; they just get out of their mind, especially if it’s hard narcotics like cocaine or whatever. It’s there. That’s how we felt.

“So when you ask me what we did, I don’t know, but there we were, just spending the time—dreading the time when the smell of the bread will come. And that was just nothing, waiting from—to get, you know, during the mid-day, when my mother had to go get that soup that was rationed to us.”

(Rawicki, 2009)

(Children in the ghetto) website

Packet 1 Analysis Name __________________________ Date _______ Period _________ Group _______

Read “Food and Culture” and Jerry Rawaki’s testimony to answer questions 1 and 2.

1. How do you think living in the ghetto, where there was very little food, affected Jewish culture during the holidays?

2. What kind of decisions do you think families would have to make during this difficult time?

Examine the photograph to answer question 3.

3. What do you notice about the children in the picture? What are some possible explanations for their location and appearance?

With these documents and what you already know about ghettos in mind, make some predictions about how people in ghettos were able to survive on small rations.

Packet 2: Rationing and Coupons

A boy lies in bed, he wants to sleep. He can’t fall asleep because he is hungry […]. It is quiet in the room, everybody is asleep, mother, father and a little sister, and there in the box lies half a loaf of bread. Maybe he can come down quietly and cut a little thin slice, a very, very thin slice, no one will notice. His conscience doesn’t let him, this bread should be rationed for two more days; they have already cut more than they should. An argument between the hunger and his conscience. It will not be enough anyway; they have already eaten too much. Take! Take! Just a small slice. No, says the conscience. This bread belongs to your mother, your father and your little sister, don’t take from them, they are hungry too. Eventually, hunger won. The boy lies in bed, his blanket over his head, and bites from the dry bread soaked in his salty tears…”

Sara Plager Zyskind, “The Lost Crown”

(Children in the ghetto) website

The food coupons made it possible to receive small portions of food. There were food coupons for children as well. The food coupons were generally distributed by the Jewish Council which had been appointed to manage the ghetto (the Judenrat). Food coupons were a precious possession. If a food coupon got lost or stolen, it was not possible to receive any food.

(Children in the ghetto) website

Packet 2 Analysis Name___________________________ Date________ Period_______ Group_________

For question 1, consider all of the documents in the packet.

1. How could one get food in the ghetto? What challenges did ghetto residents face when it came to receiving food?

2. Read the passage from “The Lost Crown”. What information can you gather about how the Nazis rationed the food from this passage?

3. How do you think the family of the boy will feel when they find that he has eaten the bread? Do you think he should feel guilty?

4. With all of these documents in mind, explain why the food coupon system was ineffective and predict how people in the ghettos might have combatted these issues.

Packet 3: Food Smuggling and

the Black Market

Hershek \ Stephania Nay On his way to work every day, he felt terrible fear Twelve years old, he already knew that one must work Because Hershek was a smuggler, to the other side He crawled through barbed wires to carry the bread through First he had to wait until the soldier turned his back Then to lift up the barbed wire and squeeze his way through Sneak into the gate to the Aryan side Remove the armband from his arm. Quickly quickly, his partner is already waiting Hi Antko! Heil Jewboy! Give me two, you'll get the change. Stick the bread inside the coat, glance ahead once more: did someone see? And under the barbed wire again he must crawl. Hershek was not brave at all, he was full of fear But he went on, since his family was very poor If Hershek will not go, his family will starve And father has already sold the last bed In the angry mornings of the ghetto walks the child, Ashamed of his fear, his body shivers Whistling on his way, only one wish on his mind: God, if only I'll get back home!

(Children in the ghetto) website – above & below

(US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

“I now had one hundred zlotys that I could use to buy food. I gave Milek fifty zlotys for his household and I used the rest very frugally. Thanks to the generosity of the Golds we did not starve to death that winter.”

(Appleman- Jurman, 1988)

Packet 3 Analysis Name_______________________________ Date_______ Period____ Group________

1. Based on the poem “Hershek”, why do you think the child felt that it was his responsibility to provide for the family?

For questions 2 and 3 reference the picture of the child coming through the wall.

2. Why were children used to smuggle food?

3. How do you think the child in that picture feels about smuggling?

4. Based on the photograph of the bread seller and the passage from Alicia, what advantage did wealthy people have in ghettos?

Analysis Worksheet Name______________________________ Date________ Period ______ Group_________

Food & Culture Why was food important to the Jewish people, and how did life in the ghetto affect them?

Rationing & Coupons Why didn’t the rationing work? What was the significance of coupons?

Smuggling & Black Market How was food smuggled into the ghettos? Who could buy food on the black market? How did family roles change during this time?