HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULIM LESSON PLANS
THE NEW JERSEY
HELLENIC AMERICAN
HERITAGE COMMISSION
AND THE
COMMISSION ON
HOLOCAUST EDUCATION
PRESENT
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HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULIM LESSON PLANS
GREECEprior to, during and after the
HOLOCAUST
The New JerseyHellenic AmericanHeritage CommissionandThe Commission on Holocaust EducationPresent
HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM LESSON PLANS
THE NEW JERSEY
HELLENIC AMERICAN
HERITAGE COMMISSION
AND THE
COMMISSION ON
HOLOCAUST EDUCATION
PRESENT
G
H
HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM LESSON PLANS
CHRIS CHRISTIE Governor
KIM GUADAGNOLt. Governor
CHRISTOPHER D. CERFCommissioner of Education
ROCHELLE HENDRICKSSecretary of Higher Education
COMMISSION MEMBERSPHILIP KIRSCHNER, ESQ.Commission Chair
ABDELBAGY H. ABUSHANABDR. MARKUS I. BARTH, O.D.DINA L. COHENMAUD DAHMEFRANCES G. DORSKYRABBI EPHRAIM EPSTEIN, ED.S.MARGIT FELDMANHARRY FURMAN, ESQ.IRWIN D. GERECHOFFRABBI MATTHEW D. GEWIRTZPAUL F. GIBBONSRABBI ASHER Z. HERSONRABBI MOSHE HERSONRABBI ELI KORNFELDIGOR ABRAHAM KOTLERGINA H. LANCETERRABBI MICAH PELTZMARVIN RAABCAREN SOKOLOW, M.A., CCC-A YITZ STERNRABBI JAY WEINSTEINSHELLEY M. ZEIGER
DR. PAUL B. WINKLER, Executive Director
JUDY BAKER, Administrative Assistant
DR. ROSE THERING, O.P.- Commission Member Emerita
GERALD A. FLANZBAUM, ESQ.*MURRAY J. LAULICHT, ESQ.* STEVEN E. SOME* HELA YOUNG*
ASSOCIATESDR. VERA GOODKINRUTH RESPLERDR. JOAN RIVITZHELEN SIMPKINSLAWRENCE GLASER
deceased*Emeritus, Former Commission Chairs
Dear Educator:
The New Jersey Holocaust Commission and the New Jersey Hellenic American Heritage Commission are proud to present this curriculum of lesson plans for high schools in New Jersey.
The experiences that Greece endured during the long and torturous Nazi occupation are truly unique and worthy of study. In addition to the particularly brutal conditions imposed upon innocent civilians by the invading forces which led to unprecedented death and devastation, the occupation of Greece witnessed the largest percentage loss of its Jewish population along with some of the most heroic resistance and inspiring sacrifice. Although these stories and history are well known in many Greek circles, it has very rarely been consolidated for public discourse. The pages that fill this curriculum guide are the first of its kind in the United States and will help prepare the students of our state with a more clear understanding of the horrors of war and the virtues of righteousness.
Through first-hand accounts, student will have the opportunity to re-live the personal and communal struggles that defined one of history’s worst examples of bias, prejudice, hatred and evil.
It is our hope that each instructor will benefit from the tireless effort it took to complete this comprehensive guide and that your students will forever be enriched by the lessons of perseverance, hope and dedication to the highest ideals that it enshrines as they remember the victims.
We are sure that you will find the story of Greece’s resistance of tyranny and support of their Jewish brothers and sisters as inspiring as each of us have and we look forward to a day when prejudice and bias will be relegated to the chronicles of history.
Please feel free to utilize this curriculum to supplement the needs of your particular lesson plans as they meet a number of state and national standards and let us know if we can provide any further information and/or support.
Sincerely,
Philip Kirschner, Esq. Dr. Zenon C. Christodoulou Chair ChairNew Jersey Commission New Jersey Hellenic Americanon Holocaust Education Heritage Commission
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Visit our web site at: nj.gov/education/holocaust
Dedication
We dedicate this educational resource to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and the countless men and women who have (and have not yet) found the need to stand up for their fellow man. We may not know their names, we can’t picture their faces; although their sacrifice and deeds of virtue, built on the premise that good will triumph over evil, no matter the cost, is as familiar to us as the vivid lessons of the past. Their contributions will be a lasting tribute to the legacy which has ensured their own freedoms and will be an indelible example to those who follow. It is they who make our reverence for the past an enduring legacy. It is they who guarantee the well-being of our humanity. And it is they who time and time again stand up to give each generation hope. Although they will not need our, nor anyone’s, appreciation to fulfill their inner sense of moral duty, we are eternally inspired by those who are able to transcend the moment and see themselves in all human beings. To those who will knowingly suffer and willingly sacrifice to make sure that goodness, virtue and, as the ancient Greeks would say, ‘arete’, remain the essential characteristics of a life well lived, we say ‘axios’, worthy.
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Acknowledgements
Helen M. Simpkins, Curriculum Coordinator, New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education
Chair, Curriculum Writing Team
Curriculum Writing Committee:
Athena Borzeka, Administrator Morris County Vocational School District
Georgette Boulegeris, Principal
Somerville Middle School
Dr. Andrew Buchanan, History Teacher Department of Humanities, Randolph High School
Randolph Township Schools
Steven J. Corodemus, Esquire New Jersey Assemblyman – Retired
Isaak & Diana Dostis, Moral Courage Teachers
Isaak – survivor and son of Holocaust Victim
Asteris J. Fanikos, Esq. New Jersey District Secretary Order of AHEPA
Antoinette Marousis-Zachariades, President
Daughters of Penelope Foundation, Inc.
Colleen Tambuscio, President Council of Holocaust Educators
Demetra Thomas
Social Studies Teacher Teaneck Community Charter School Grand Secretary
Daughters of Penelope
Vasiliki Tsigas-Fotinis, Project Director Modern Greek Language Standards Task-Force
Sam Varsano, History Teacher, Parsippany Hills High School
(Son of Greek Holocaust Survivors)
Andrew Zachariades, Supreme Treasurer Order of AHEPA
Dr. Zenon C. Christodoulou, Chair, New Jersey Hellenic American Heritage Commission
Son of Holocaust Rescuer
Dr. Paul B. Winkler, Executive Director, New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Unit I – Background of Greece and Its Peoples Historical Overview 2 Unit II – Greece – Confronting the Past, Building a Future Lessons from Greece for the American Classroom – History & Overview 13 Historical Historian 19 Historical Method 44 Historians for Case Studies Activities 45 Lesson 1 - Why Study Greek History 46 Lesson 2 - Lessons from Greece for the American Classroom 51 Lesson 3 - Greeks and Jews – Hellenistic Period to 1940 54 Unit III – WWII & the Holocaust Victims, Collaborators, Resistance Fighters and Rescuers 59 Unit IV – Aftermath of the Holocaust in Greece Lesson 1 - Where Do I Go Now? 73 Lesson 2 - What Happened to You? 81 Lesson 3 - Is Greece Still Home? 92 Lesson 4 - Is Greece Still at War? 95 Unit V – Greece and the Jews - The Post War Years and Today Lesson 1 - Greeks and Jews – 1945 to the Present 99 Lesson 2 - The Future of Greek-Judeo Relations 103 Lesson 3 - The Memorialization of History – Monuments, Memories and Myths 106 PowerPoint Teacher Guide 108 Unit VI – Relationship of Past History to Present Day International Efforts on Holocaust Education and the Greek Role 111
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Unit I
Background of Greece and its Peoples
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Unit I Background of Greece and its Peoples
Lesson: Historical Overview Common Core Standards: RH 1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. Key Questions/Issues Addressed:
• How did the topography and the geographical location of Greece influence its development?
• How did colonization and the migration of peoples impact on the development of the Greek culture and influence its historical development?
• What is the basis for the reference to Greece as the “cradle of Western civilization”? • How did the Jews integrate into life in Greece and into the community of peoples that
comprised the Greek population? Lesson Goals/Objectives:
• Students will be able to describe a brief history of Greece and its civilization. • Students will be able to relate an overview of the history of Jews in ancient and medieval
Greece. Key Terms:
• Homer: In the Western classical tradition, Homer is the author of The Iliad and the Odyssey and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature and the culture of all Hellenes.
• Polis: Ancient Greek city-state. The polis centered on one town, usually walled, but included the surrounding countryside. The town contained a citadel on raised ground (acropolis) and a marketplace (agora). Ideally, the polis was a corporation of citizens who all participated in its government, religious cults, defense, and economic welfare and who obeyed its sacred and customary laws.
• Oath of Alexander: Alexander the Great’s oath given at Opis in Babylon in 324 BCE at a banquet before 9,000 Greek and Asian officers conveying a message of universal humanity.
• Septuagint: A 3rd century BCE translation of the Hebrew Bible and additional Jewish texts into Koine Greek. It incorporates the oldest of several ancient translations of what are now the Christian Old Testament, Biblical apocrypha and Deuterocannical books.
• Romaniotes: Jewish populations who have lived in the territory of today's Greece and neighboring areas with large Greek populations for more than 2,000 years. Their languages were Yevanic, a Greek dialect, and Greek.
• Ladino: Also known as Judaeo-Spanish, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish. As a Jewish language, it is influenced heavily by Hebrew and Aramaic but also Arabic, Turkish and Greek and other languages where Sephardic exiles settled around the world, primarily throughout the Ottoman Empire.
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• Lingua franca: A language or a mix of languages used among peoples of different native languages as a means of communicating; a language widely used among people who speak different native languages for the purpose of communicating.
• Hellene: The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes, are an ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and other regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world.
Materials Needed:
• Background information on Greece and its people • Maps of Greece and surrounding area • Access to Internet for sources listed • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greece • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_mythology • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Jews#cite_ref-SephardicStudies1_0-1 • http://www.greekembassy.org/embassy/Content/en/Article.aspx?office=1&folder=6&article=
24875 Maps:
• http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/ciamaps/gr.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greek_Colonization.png • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ArchaicGr.jpg • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MacedonEmpire.jpg
Background Information: Greece, known to its inhabitants as Ellada in Modern Greek and Hellas, in ancient Greek, is a country in southeastern Europe. Athens is the capital and the largest city in the country with the population approximately 10 million.
At the crossroads of three continents, Greece is a gateway to Asia, Africa and Europe. Greece has land borders with Albania, the Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Bulgaria (to the north) and Turkey (to the east). The Aegean Sea lies to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has a vast number of islands (approximately 1,400), including Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades and the Ionian Islands, among others. Eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains, of which Mount Olympus is the highest at 2,917 m (9,570 ft).
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http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/ciamaps/gr.htm
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Brief History of Greece:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Parthenon.JPG
Ancient Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilization. It is the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, the Olympic Games, Western literature and historiography, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, and Western drama, including both tragedy and comedy. Not only did its democratic ideals inspire the founding fathers of America to draft the U.S. Constitution, but ancient Greece also encouraged other countries around the world to follow its democratic system of government as well. Greece’s history stretches back over 4,000 years to a time when the people who inhabited the island of Crete developed the notable Minoan Civilization. The people of the mainland, called Hellenes, were influenced by the Minoan Civilization and further developed it. The Mycenaean Greeks were part of the Indo-European family of peoples who spread from their original location in central Europe into southern and Western Europe, India and Iran. This group entered the territory of Greece from the north around 1900 BCE and over time these people gained control of the Greek mainland and developed its civilization. By 1100 BCE, the Mycenaean culture was coming to an end and it is speculated that the collapse was due to invasion and migration from the north by another Greek speaking people called the Dorians. The Dorians established themselves in southwestern Greek as well as on some of the southern Aegean islands. The period of 1100 to 750 BCE was a period of migrations. Other Greek migrations included the Aeolian Greeks who were located in the north and central regions, Lesbos and the adjacent territory of the mainland as well as the Ionians who settled in Attica (Athens) and Asia Minor. The Greeks also organized expeditions which explored the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, reaching as far as the Caucasus Mountains (modern Georgia and Russia). Greek settlements were founded throughout the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and the coast of North Africa. Greek colonies varied in purpose and organization. Some were trading posts or centers for the transport of goods to Greece. Most were larger settlements which included good agricultural land, such as colonies in southern Italy and Sicily called by the Romans as “Magna Graceia” (Great Greece). Colonization proved a blessing in varied ways: it provided outlets for surplus population and adventurous spirits; and safety valves against agrarian discontent; it established foreign markets for domestic products and strategic depots for the import of food and minerals. In the end, it created a commercial empire whose thriving interchange of goods, arts, methods, and thoughts made possible the complex culture of Greece.
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The Greek world in the mid 6th century BCE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greek_Colonization.png
One of the most significant expeditions, the siege of Troy, was written by Homer in the first great European literary work, The Iliad and the Odyssey. The origins of The Iliad and the Odyssey, the first great epics of early Greece, are found in the oral traditions of reciting poems which recounted the deeds of the heroes of the Mycenaean age. Early in the 8th century BCE, Homer made use of these oral traditions to compose the Iliad, his epic of the Trojan War which recounts when Troy (known as Ilion) was attacked by four Mycenaean cities, Argos, Asine, Mycenae and Sparta. The Greeks regarded the Iliad and Odyssey as authentic history and these masterpieces gave to the Greeks an ideal past with a legendary age of heroes to be used as standard texts for the education of generations of Greeks. Throughout the Classical Period (5th century BCE), Greece consisted of poleis or city-states, with Athens and Sparta among the largest. In the most basic sense, a polis could be defined as a small but autonomous political unit in which all major political, social, and religious activities were carried out. A fierce spirit of independence and devotion to freedom was at the core of the Greeks. These traits encouraged the Greeks to oppose surpression and enabled them to defeat the Persians in battles in Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea. These cultural characteristics define the Greek people and influenced the course of history.
Greece in the Archaic Age (750-490 BCE)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ArchaicGr.jpg
In the second half of the 4th century BCE, the Greek city-states fell to Macedon, another Hellenic kingdom in the north of Greece, led by Philip II. His son, Alexander the Great would lead the Greeks and would conquer most of the then known world. Alexander’s conquest of the Persian Empire opened the door to the spread of Greek culture and Hellenism throughout the
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Near East. Greek settlers poured into the lands of the ancient Near East as bureaucrats, traders, soldiers and scholars. Alexander’s triumph blended together the achievements of the eastern world with the cultural outlook and attitudes of the Greeks.
Empire of Alexander the Great http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MacedonEmpire.jpg
Many historians have proposed that Alexander believed in an ideal of universal humanity. One such indication is the oath he gave at Opis in 324 BCE at a banquet before 9,000 Greek and Asian officers.
It is my wish, now that wars are coming to an end, that you should all be happy in peace. From now on, let all mortals live as one people, in fellowship, for the good of all. See the whole world as your homeland, with laws common to all, where the best will govern regardless of their race. Unlike the narrow minded, I make no distinction between Greeks and Barbarians. The origin of citizens, or the race into which they were born, is of no concern to me. I have only one criterion by which to distinguish their virtue. For me any good foreigner is a Greek and any bad Greek is worse than a barbarian. If disputes ever occur among you, you will not resort to weapons but will solve them in peace. If need be, I shall arbitrate between you. See God not as an autocratic despot, but as the common father of all and thus your conduct will be like the lives of brothers within the same family. I on my part, see you all as equal, whether you are white or dark-skinned. And I should like you not simply to be subjects of my Commonwealth, but members of it, partners of it. To the best of my ability, I shall strive to do what I have promised. Keep as a symbol of love this oath which we have taken tonight with our libations.
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This oath conveys a message that Alexander's purpose was not to conquer nations or to acquire riches, or even to satisfy rivalrous passions between nations, but to unite all people with the bonds of peace, amalgamation, understanding and mutual respect. Upon Alexander’s death, his generals engaged in a struggle for power and ultimately Alexander’s empire was divided into four Hellenistic kingdoms: Macedonia under the Antigonid dynasty, Syria and the East under the Seleucids, the Attalid kingdom of Pergamum and Egypt under the Ptolemies. The Hellenistic Civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE. The Hellenistic civilization represents a fusion of the Ancient Greek world with that of the Near East, Middle East and Southwest Asia. The Hellenistic period was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa. This mixture of Greek-speakers created the need for a common dialect, known as Hellenistic Greek, which became the lingua franca through the Hellenistic world. One vivid demonstration of Hellenistic Greek as the lingua franca is seen in the Septuagint. The Septuagint or the "Greek Old Testament" is a translation of the Hebrew Bible and additional Jewish texts into Koine Greek. It incorporates the oldest of several ancient translations of what are now the Christian Old Testament, Biblical apocrypha and Deuterocannical books. Some early pre-Christian Jewish versions of the Septuagint were held in great respect in ancient times. Philo, the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, and Josephus, the 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian, also ascribed divine inspiration to the Jewish translators.
In 146 BCE Greece fell to the Romans and in 330 A.D. Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, setting the foundations of the Byzantine Empire. Byzantium soon became profoundly Greek, as it transformed the heritage of ancient Greece into a vehicle for the new Christian civilization which slowly spread to Western Europe. As a historical religion, Christianity was born in Hellenistic Judaism and spread in the Greek world of late antiquity. The Christian scriptures were written entirely in Greek and Greek cities such as Antioch, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessaloniki and Corinth were the first to receive Christianity. The early Church was implanted in the Greek speaking world and expressed itself in the Greek language for many centuries.
The Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453 and the Greeks remained under Ottoman Empire control for nearly 400 years. During that long period, Greece’s language, traditions, culture and national consciousness defied extinction.
On March 25, 1821, the Greeks revolted against the Ottomans, and by 1828 had regained their independence. As the new state comprised only a tiny fraction of the country, Greeks struggled for the liberation of all the lands they inhabited. In 1864, the Ionian Islands were ceded to Greece; in 1881 parts of Epirus and Thessaly. Crete, the islands of the Eastern Aegean and Macedonia were added in 1913, and Western Thrace in 1919. After World War II, the Dodecanese islands were also returned to Greece. During World War II, Greece fought memorably against Fascism and Nazism alongside the Allies. Greece has been a member of NATO since 1952 and of the European Union since 1981.
Brief History of Jews in Greece: Greek Jews played an important role in the early development of Christianity, and became a source of education and commerce for the Byzantine Empire and throughout the period of Ottoman Greece.
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Jews have lived in Greece since ancient times and there have been organized Jewish communities in Greece for more than two thousand years. Since the Diaspora, large numbers of Jews did not live in Judea. There was a large population in Egypt, particularly Alexandria, as well as Jewish settlements throughout the cities of Asia Minor, Syria and Greece. In each city, Jews generally set up a synagogue and formed private association for worship as other foreigners did. But some city authorities also allowed the Jews to form a politeuma or political corporation that gave them greater rights than other resident aliens. Most importantly, they gained the privilege to live by their own laws and their own judicial system. Jews have lived in Greece possibly since the Babylonian exile. The oldest Jewish group that has inhabited Greece is the Romaniotes. The Romaniotes are a Jewish population who have lived in the territory of today's Greece for more than 2,000 years. Their historic language was Yevanic, a dialect of the Greek language. Large communities were located in Ioannina, Thebes, Chalcis, Corfu, Arta, and Corinth and on the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes and Cyprus, among others. A Romaniote oral tradition tells that the first Jews arrived in Ioannina shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. The earliest reference to a Greek Jew is an inscription dated c. 300-250 BCE, found in Oropos, a small coastal town between Athens and Boeotia, which refers to "Moschos, son of Moschion the Jew." Another reference is in the 2nd century BCE Hyrcanus, wherein a leader in the Jewish community of Athens, was honored by the raising of a statue in the agora (marketplace). In addition, according to Josephus (Contra Apionem, I, 176-183), a mention of a Hellenized Jew by a Greek writer was to be found in the work "De Somno" (nonextant) by the Greek historian Clearchus of Soli. Here Clearchus describes the meeting between Aristotle and a Jew in Asia Minor, who was fluent in Greek language and thought:
"'Well', said Aristotle, [...] 'the man was a Jew of Coele Syria (modern Lebanon). […] Now this man, who entertained a large circle of friends and was on his way from the interior to the coast, not only spoke Greek but had the soul of a Greek. During my stay in Asia, he visited the same places as I did, and came to converse with me and some other scholars, to test our learning. But as one who had been intimate with many cultivated persons, it was rather he who imparted to us something of his own.'"
Archaeologists have also discovered ancient synagogues in Greece, including the Synagogue in the Agora of Athens and the Delos Synagogue, dating to the 2nd century BCE. In the 12th century, Benjamin of Tudela recorded details about communities of Jews in Corfu, Arta, Aphilon, Patras, Corinth, Thebes, Chalkis, Thessaloniki, and Drama. The largest community he found in Greece was in Thebes, where approximately 2000 Jews lived. At the time, they were known as "Romaniotes". Moses-Symeon Pesach, Chief Rabbi of the Romaniote Greek Jewish community of Larisa in 1939. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rabbi_Romaniote_Greek_Jew.JPG
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In addition to the Romaniotes, Greece was also the home of a historical center of Sephardic life with its center, the city of Thessaloniki, called the "Mother of Israel." It was in 1492, with the conquest of Muslim Granada, that Spain took the drastic step of expelling all professed Jews from Spain. Waves of Sephardic Jews were expelled with many settling in Ottoman-ruled Greece. It is estimated that 150,000 out of 200,000 Jews fled Spain. Attracted by Ottoman Sultan Bayezid’s promises of economic concessions and political protection, Spanish speaking Jews arrived in droves. Some went on to Istanbul, Sarajevo and Alexandria but the largest colony took shape in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki. Sultan Bayezid II ridiculed the conduct of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in expelling a class of people so useful to their subjects. "You venture to call Ferdinand a wise ruler," he said to his courtiers — "he who has impoverished his own country and enriched mine!" The Sephardic community also spoke a separate language, Ladino, also known as Judeo-Espaniol. Thessaloniki had one of the largest Jewish communities in the world and a solid rabbinical tradition. The Greek Sephardim community "was a unique blend of Ottoman, Balkan and Hispanic influences", well known for its level of education. According to the Jewish Virtual Library:
Greece became a haven of religious tolerance for Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition and other persecution in Europe. The Ottomans welcomed the Jews because they improved the economy. Jews occupied administrative posts and played an important role in intellectual and commercial life throughout the empire. These immigrants established the city's first printing press, and the city became known as a centre for commerce and learning. The exile of other Jewish communities swelled the city's Jewish population, until Jews were the majority population in 1519.
By the middle of the 19th century, the Sephardic population of Thessaloniki had risen to between 25,000 and 30,000 members. The end of the century saw great improvements, as the mercantile leadership of the Sephardic community took advantage of new trade opportunities with the rest of Europe. As a result of the Jewish influence on the city, many non-Jewish inhabitants of Thessaloniki spoke Judeo Espaniol, and the city virtually shut down on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, giving it the name of 'Little Jerusalem". Many sea-travellers reaching the port of Thessaloniki humorously recalled that Thessaloniki was a city where people worked only four days while resting three consecutive days. This was due to the three major religions the population adhered to and their respective resting days: Friday for Muslims, Saturday for Jews and Sunday for Christians. Sources:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greece • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_mythology • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Jews#cite_ref-SephardicStudies1_0-1 • http://www.greekembassy.org/embassy/Content/en/Article.aspx?office=1&folder=6&article=
24875 • Crawford, Michael, Archaic and Classical Greece, (1994). • Durant, Will, The Life of Greece, (1966). • Encyclopedia of Ancient Myths and Culture, (2003). • Finley, M.I., Early Greece: The Bronze and Archaic Ages, (1981). • Glenny, Misha, The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers, (2001). • Homer, The Iliad, (translated by W.H.D Rouse). • Homer, The Odyssey, (translated by W.H.D. Rouse).
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• Lerner, Robert, Western Civilizations: Their History and Their Culture, (1993). • Mazower, Mark, Salonica: City of Ghosts, Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950
(2006). • Murray, Oswyn, Early Greece, (1980). • Seton-Williams, M.V., Greek Legends and Stories, (1993). • Spielvogel, Jackson, Western Civilization, Volume I: To 1715 (Second Edition 1994). • The Greeks: The Triumphant Journey (2002)
Maps:
• http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/ciamaps/gr.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greek_Colonization.png • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ArchaicGr.jpg • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MacedonEmpire.jpg
Instructional Activities/Procedures: The students should be engaged in class discussions involving the following topics and/or the teacher may choose to assign some of the topics as research/homework essays. 1. Discuss colonization and migration among the Greeks in the pre-classical period and during
the Hellenistic era. Discuss purposes and reasons for migration, i.e. economic and non-economic motivations.
2. Study the various maps and identify key features of the physical Greek world, i.e. bodies of water, land features, coastlines, islands, mountain valleys, etc.
3. Analyze how and why geography influenced the patterns of migration of peoples in the Greek world, the development of a commercial empire, and a complex culture.
4. Discuss Hellenistic civilization and the ideal of universal humanity. Read Oath of Alexander and discuss its meaning. Identify and explain how Alexander’s words and ideas stress the concept of the people as members of one family. Do Alexander’s words sound more like the words of a powerful warrior or of a confirmed pacifist? Explain your response.
5. Discuss the interrelationship between the Hellenistic civilization and Judaism. Such areas may include Greek as the lingua franca, the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) and the spread of Christianity to the Greek world.
6. Discuss the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Discussion should address religious and cultural intolerance and prejudice. Relate to student at personal level where one would have to immediately move with no or little possessions to a foreign land with a different language, customs and people. Explain why many of the Jews forced to flee from Spain went to Greece to settle and to start a new life.
7. Analyze the ways that the Jews adapted to their home in Greece and the impact the Jews had upon the society and the economy of Greece.
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Evidence of Understanding: 1. Write a short essay describing how the topography and geographical location of Greece
influenced its historical development as a people and a nation. 2. Make a chart showing the contributions of ancient Greece and the empire of Alexander to
the development of Western civilization. Categories should include arts and literature, political, economic, military, language, religion, philosophy.
3. Develop a timeline showing the appearance of the Jews in Greece (and the reasons for that appearance) and the development, contributions and impact of the Jews to their Greek world.
Extension Activities: 1. Research the history of Sephardic Jews in Thessaloniki, Greece. Include information on the
language(s) spoken, the cultural and economic as well as religious life of the Sephardic community, the group’s influences on the city, and its acceptance into the life of Thessaloniki.
2. Research information about the Septuagint and its history as a religious document, a cultural document, and historical document.
Unit II
Greece – Confronting the Past, Building a Future
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Unit II Greece - Confronting the Past, Building a Future
Lessons From Greece for the American Classroom
History and Overview The following positive key points can be made about modern Greece:
• Greece can be studied as a model of post-World War II reconstruction and a microcosm of “cold war” conflict.
• Greece serves as a case study for emerging nations and for Europe. • Greece offers a case study in contrast and contradiction - it has freely offered the world
its people and its artistic and scientific genius; it has also been at the source of devastating war and unparalleled genocide.
To best structure the lesson plans, always refer to the USHMM’s “Guidelines for Teaching About the Holocaust” so that you can work towards a well-formed rationale that will help address difficult questions and concerns. The key guidelines used for this unit were:
• Avoid simple answers to complex questions • Strive for balance in establishing whose perspective informs your study of the Holocaust • Avoid comparisons of pain • Do not romanticize history • Contextualize the history • Translate statistics into people
Questions to think about:
• How do communities make sense of, and respond to catastrophic events? • How do historians interpret catastrophic events, and community responses to them?
If there is no better message learned from studying Greece, then it is this, that ordinary people make a huge difference to history, by their actions and their inaction, their engagement and their indifference, their humanity and their inhumanity. Stage One: Essential UnderstandingS: The Unit Focus - What is the main focus/issue/ topic for the Designing for Understanding Unit?
• It is difficult to explain Modern Greek history without discussing the place and role of the Jews in it, who lived among Greeks for generations, for thousands of years and enriched Greek culture, society, along with its economic and scientific life.
• Greece offers a case study in contrast and contradiction - it has freely offered the world its people and its artistic and scientific genius; it has also been at the source of devastating war and unparalleled genocide.
• Greece is an industrially developed country with a highly educated population at the very heart of European culture.
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• Greece, its people and communities have had to deal with the catastrophic events of the
world wars and their consequences. • Individuals, communities, and historians are interpreting, determining the truth of, and
responding to the catastrophic events of the 20th century. Big Concepts - What are two or three big concepts you want students to understand as a result of this learning experience?
• Students will be able to explain how historians use the historical method to determine the truth about the past. Students will evaluate what is the proper unit for the study of the human past — the individual? The polis? The civilization? The culture? Or the nation state?
• Students will assess whether there are broad patterns and constant progress. Are there cycles? Is human history random and devoid of any meaning?
• Students will evaluate for what purpose we learn anything and why we need to study particular events.
An Essential Understanding - What is the essential understanding for the learning experience? Students will understand that…
• The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past.
• The question of the nature, and even the possibility, of a sound historical method is raised in the philosophy of history as a question of epistemology, that is, the study of knowledge.
• The determining of historical truth is very complex. Essential Questions: What are ONE to THREE essential questions that will help frame students’ learning? (Note: They will also help the teacher frame the Individual Summative Assessment, Stage Two and Stage Three for the unit.) 1. Why study Greek history and why is Greece relevant to our world? 2. How are modern Greeks determining the truth of Greek history and making it relevant for
future generations? 3. How do we determine what about the past is important to know? 4. Who, or what matters when studying history? State Content Standard(s) and Performance Indicator(s): (A hint! These standards and indicators will need to be assessed in the Individual Summative Assessment. The more you expect, the more you will need to assess! Therefore, “less is more!” (Another hint: You may find big concepts embedded within the content standards and/or the performance indicators.)
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NJ CS Social Studies: 6.2.12.A.4.a; 6.2.12.A.4.b; 6.2.12.A.4.c; 6.2.12.A.4.d; 6.2.12.D.4.i; 6.3.12.D.1 Stage Two: Individual Summative Assessment: Assessment Type
• Choose one assessment type to help you design the individual summative assessment. Writing Product
• Students will declare their answers to assigned questions and prepare to defend their positions.
Short Scenario for the Individual Summative Assessment.
• A paragraph inviting students to produce a document. Students will be given a role, a mission, and an audience for the assessment.
Students will create responses to their assigned paragraph.
• You are an historical historian http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/DocumentA.doc • You will determine whether or not your assigned document is worthy of entry into the
historical record and could be used in a court of law as reliable and accepted evidence • Use the Historical Method to determine your analysis
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/DocumentB.doc • Use your historian’s Historical Reasoning to evaluate your decision
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/DocumentC.doc • Case Study #1 – Evidentiary material from the town of Monastir
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy1.zip • Case Study #2 – Evidentiary material from the city of Ioannina
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy2.zip • Case Study #3 - Evidentiary material from the Island of Rhodes
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy3.zip • Case Study #4 - Evidentiary material from the city of Salonika
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy4.zip • Case Study #5 – Evidentiary material from the island of Zakynthos
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy5.zip Directions/Criteria: The themes of Unit II are extended and further explored in Unit V “Greece and the Jews Over the Last 50 Years and Today” in lessons 1, 2, 3 of Unit V. Lesson 1: Why study Greek history? 1. One group graphic product
• On a large white poster, students will record which three words come to mind when they think about Greece.
• On the same large white poster, students will write 3 statements that describe Greece. • On the same large white poster, students will choose 6 photographs that tell the story of
Greece. (Choose from the images provided and paste them to the poster)
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2. One individual writing product
• Students will declare their answers to assigned questions and prepare to defend their positions.
3. Speaking product
• Students will create a poster with their understandings of the key concepts of Greek history and present their points of view. Each small group will conduct a gallery walk of the student work and discuss their reactions.
Lesson 2: Lesson from Greece for the American Classroom 1. Students will be introduced to the topic via a teacher prepared PowerPoint.
• Why study Greek history? • Where did the Greeks come from? • What does the term Hellenic mean? • How has the geography of Greece affected its history? • How diverse is Greek culture? • What do we owe the ancient Greek philosophers, teachers, and artists? • How does Greece’s national story compare to the history of the United States? • How has Greece shaped its identity? • How are modern Greeks determining the truth of Greek history and making it relevant for
future generations? • Why is Greece relevant and important to our world today?
2. One individual writing product
• Students will declare their answers to assigned questions and prepare to defend their positions.
3. Speaking product
• Students will create a poster with their understandings of the key concepts of Greek history and present their points of view. Each small group will conduct a gallery walk of the student work and discuss their reactions.
Lesson 3: Jews in Greece, The Hellenic Period to 1940 1. Essential Question: How do we determine what about the past is important to know?
• Students will determine whether or not various documentary evidence is worthy of entry into the historical record and could be used in a court of law as reliable and accepted evidence. Students will evaluate the primary source document, and then will consider the point of view of an historical historian to determine whether the entry is acceptable as an historical record. Students will be required to provide their reasoning for their choice and to justify their answer.
• Differentiated instruction by content lesson: Students will be split into small groups to determine the position of their historical historian.
• After reading the various documents, respond to these questions: Determining Truth - Case Study Part 1: Jews in Greece, The Hellenic Period to 1940:
• What is the historical method? • What is history for? • Who writes history?
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• What does the evidentiary material say about inter-communal relations between Greeks and Jews from antiquity to 1940 in five distinct regional locations? What does the evidence suggest about the reality of personal and community relations, and, if possible, reveal about universal human truths?
• What were the effects of inter-communal relationships on the Jewish community of Greece? How could this have affected daily life, emotions and/or survival?
Internal Perspective/Reflecting:
• Writers tend to use a reflecting voice for this type of writing; they are examining themselves, their inner lives, their deepest thoughts and feelings. They reflect over matters of character and their dreams and hopes for the future. Many young writers describe their relationships and conflicts with family, friends, and first loves. Some writers use their diaries as a place to consider matters of faith, religion, and belief (or lack of belief) in God. How do any of the documents reflect or describe individual or community inner conflicts?
• How do we determine what about the past is important to know? • What about the past is important to know? • Whose individual experiences matter?
Reflection and Decision:
• According to your analysis of your historical historian, determine whether or not the various documents are worthy of entry into the historical record and could be used in a court of law as reliable and accepted evidence. Give your reasoning.
• How can law be used to protect civilians in a time of civil upheaval? One individual writing product
• Students will complete the prepared graphic organizer on the topic issue, and then defend their reasoning in a discussion with the class.
Speaking product
• Students will declare their answers to assigned questions and prepare to defend their positions.
The themes of Unit II are extended and further explored in Unit V “Greece and the Jews Over the Last 50 Years and Today” in lessons 1, 2, 3 of Unit V. Standards-Based Rubric - Please refer to the included samples and feel free to use the blank template in the packet as a guide. STAGE THREE: “FLESHING OUT” THE UNIT OF LEARNING: 1. A “Game Plan” for Planning:
• Re-visit Stage One and keep your eyes on the prizes: The Content Standard(s), the Performance Indicator(s), the Big Concepts, the Essential Understanding, and the Three Essential Questions! Also re-visit Stage Two, keeping the components in mind: the Scenario, the Directions/Criteria/Expectations for the tasks in the Individual Summative Assessment, and the Standards-Based Rubric. Also check for Alignment: the Cognitive Verb(s) and the Concept Connection(s)!
• Some Big Questions for Stage Three are: What will your students need to know, practice, and be able to do in order to succeed on the Individual Summative Assessment? How will you plan to prepare them for the Summative Assessment?
2. Specific Directions for Stage Three:
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• Design a plan based on each of The Essential Questions. Each Essential Question helps to frame the Unit of Learning and Prior Instruction. Each planning section needs to include: The Essential Question Specific strategies for adolescent literacy/differentiated instruction Specific learning activities and resources Formative Assessments that give students opportunities to learn, practice, and
demonstrate knowledge and complex thinking skills Resources needed for the unit.
• A Format for Stage Three: Complete the following planning sheets for each of the Three
Essential Questions. (Please Note: If you only chose one or two Essential Questions back in Stage One, then you only need to complete one of the Planning Sections.)
NOTE TO THE TEACHER: The following group of historians and the accompanying brief descriptions of their historical views are provided for your convenience. The pages are for distribution to your students to assist them in completing the activities of Unit II and Unit V in this curriculum guide. Each student will need only the information for the particular historian(s) that have been assigned to him/her. You may, of course, choose to distribute the entire set of pages to all of the students but it is not needed for completing the assigned activities.
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(Document A) HISTORICAL HISTORIAN
Herodotus Historical Reasoning: In order to ensure that great deeds are not forgotten Herodotus wrote his history:
“in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done, and of preventing the great and wonderful actions of the Greeks and the Barbarians from losing their due meed of glory, and withal to put on record what were their grounds of feud.”
This was a popular idea in the ancient world. Many historians made the same case. Some, notably Pliny the Younger, wanted to write history in order that they themselves might not be forgotten. Failing that, Pliny wrote to the great Roman historian, Tacitus, asking him to include Pliny’s own deeds in his history—assuming, rightly as it turned out, that Tacitus’s work would be read for centuries to come thereby ensuring Pliny’s own immortality. Tacitus himself made a similar case to that of Herodotus: Tacitus (1st-2nd century CE):
“My purpose is not to relate at length every motion, but only such as were conspicuous for excellence or notorious for infamy. This I regard as history’s highest function, to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil words and deeds.” (Tacitus)
Note that Tacitus added a corollary to Herodotus’s idea—he proposed that, knowing that histories would be written and future generations would remember, people would be deterred from performing evil deeds. Info on Herodotus: Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria (modern Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the 5th century BC (c. 484 BC – c. 425 BC). He has been called the "Father of History" since he was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative. The Histories — his masterpiece and the only work he is known to have produced — is a record of his "inquiry" (or historía, a word that passed into Latin and took on its modern meaning of history), being an investigation of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars and including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. Although some of his stories were not completely accurate, he claimed that he was reporting only what had been told to him. Little is known of his personal history since ancient records are scanty, contradictory and often fanciful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus#The_Histories Herodotus records in his Histories not only the events of the Persian Wars but also geographical and ethnographical information, as well as the fables related to him during his extensive travels.
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Typically, he passes no definitive judgment on what he has heard. In the case of conflicting or unlikely accounts, he presents both sides, says what he believes and then invites readers to decide for themselves. The work of Herodotus is reported to have been recited at festivals, where prizes were awarded, as for example, during the games at Olympia. Herodotus views history as a source of moral lessons, with conflicts and wars as misfortunes flowing from initial acts of injustice perpetuated through cycles of revenge. In contrast, Thucydides claims to confine himself to factual reports of contemporary political and military events, based on unambiguous, first-hand, eye-witness accounts, although, unlike Herodotus, he does not reveal his sources. Thucydides Historical Reasoning: In order to understand the present and prepare for the future One of the most enduring reasons for writing and studying history was given by Herodotus’s successor, the great Greek historian, Thucydides. He wrote of his history:
“…if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content.”
Thucydides focused on history’s use for understanding the future, and didn’t mention its role in helping one understand the present, but the Greek philosopher Aristotle did. He wrote:
“If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development.” This idea—that everything has a past and that knowing the past is crucial to understanding, is one of the great pillars on which history stands. Three centuries later, Cicero wrote, along the same lines:
“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?”
But was the past just like the present? Can one go beyond what the classical thinkers proposed and assert that one can predict future events and behaviors based on how things turned out in the past? My students often think so. They will often use the cliché that “history repeats itself” to justify why it is important to study history. Some Renaissance thinkers believed this. Machiavelli wrote, for example:
“Whoever considers the past and the present will readily observe that all cities and all people are and ever have been animated by the same desires and the same passions; so that it is easy, by diligent study of the past to foresee what is likely to happen in the future in any republic, and to apply those remedies that were used by the ancients…”
Few historians were so optimistic, though. During the Enlightenment, thinkers focused on the study of history not as a way to “foresee” the future but as an aid in planning for the future and avoiding mistakes. Thomas Hobbes and Voltaire both made this case:
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“For the principal and proper work of history being to instruct and enable men, by the knowledge of actions past, to bear themselves prudently in the present and providently towards the future…” “This benefit consists in the comparison which a statesman or citizen can make between foreign laws and manners and those of his own country…. The great errors of the past can also be used in this way. One cannot too often recall the crimes and misfortunes caused by absurd quarrels. It is certain that by reviewing the memory of these quarrels we can prevent them from being revived.”
In the 19
th century, Aristotle’s point was made again by Jules Michelet:
“He who would confine his thoughts to present time will not understand present reality.”
Meanwhile, Macaulay was making the case, again, for using history to understand the present and plan for the future:
“No past event has any intrinsic importance. The knowledge of it is valuable only as it leads us to form just calculations with respect to the future.”
“An intimate knowledge of the domestic history of nations is, therefore, absolutely necessary to the prognosis of political events.”
By the early 20
th century, this argument had become a little more sophisticated. James Harvey
Robinson was well aware that no historian could ever know everything about the past—the evidence for the reconstruction of most events has been lost. But even if one could know everything (in a “Godlike” way, as he put it), Robinson didn’t believe that the actions of people in the past would be able to provide useful “precedents of conduct.” He wrote:
“History… may be regarded as an artificial extension and broadening of our memories and may be used to overcome the natural bewilderment of all unfamiliar situations….Could we suddenly be endowed with a Godlike and exhaustive knowledge of the whole history of mankind…we should gain forthwith a Godlike appreciation of the world in which we live, and a Godlike insight into the evils which mankind now suffers, as well as into the most promising methods for alleviating them, not because the past would furnish precedents of conduct, but because our conduct would be based upon a perfect comprehension of existing conditions founded upon a perfect knowledge of the past.”
By the 1930s, Huizinga was rejecting the idea that any “laws” could be ascertained for history or that the future could be predicted based on the past:
“history is pre-eminently an inexact science, …its concept of causality is extremely defective…it resists the formulation of laws…the concept of historical evolution can be considered valid only so far as one accepts the organic analogy…” “Though the past supplies our material and compels our attention, though the mind realizes that not one minute of the future can be predicted, none the less it is the eternal future that moves our mind. The widespread and persistent opinion that history should deal with our understanding of the present rests on a misconception: a ‘present’ is as little known to historical thought as it is to philosophical thought.”
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Marc Bloch, one of the founders of the Annales school of history, emphasized this further. In his view, history never repeated itself, at least not exactly:
“History is, in its essentials, the science of change. It knows and it teaches that it is impossible to find two events that are ever exactly alike, because the conditions from which they spring are never identical.”
Nonetheless, even if history can’t predict the future, even if it doesn’t repeat itself, surely it is essential for understanding the present and for our sensible functioning in the world. The classic analogy of a people who have forgotten their history (though I’m not sure who first came up with it) is to someone waking up with amnesia. This person can’t make any rational decisions because he or she has no idea about his or her personal past. We all go through our days completely dependent on the wisdom accumulated from our past experiences. So it is with societies and nations. If they forget their pasts, they have no accumulated wisdom on which to act. Individuals can’t predict their personal futures with any accuracy—anything might happen due to circumstances that are out of their control—but that doesn’t prevent them from planning their activities and making decisions based on their past experiences. So it is with history’s usefulness to the population. Historians, even today, still go back to Thucydides’ and Aristotle’s basic idea, formulated almost 2,500 years ago:
“With the historian it is an article of faith that knowledge of the past is a key to understanding the present.” Kenneth Stampp
This idea has been expressed by many modern historians. A good example is found in the article by Peter Stearns that was distributed to the participants in this summit, where he writes as follows:
“The past causes the present, and so the future. Any time we try to know why something happened…we have to look for factors that took shape earlier…. Only through studying history can we grasp how things change; only through history can we begin to comprehend the factors that cause change; and only through history can we understand what elements of an institution or a society persist despite change.”
Info on Thucydides: Thucydides (c.460 BC – c. 395 BC) was a Greek historian and author from Alimos. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history", because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work. He has also been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the relations between nations as based on might rather than right. His text is still studied at advanced military colleges worldwide, and the Melian dialogue remains a seminal work of international relations theory. More generally, Thucydides showed an interest in developing an understanding of human nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plague, massacres, as in that of the Melians, and civil war.
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Thucydides views life exclusively as political life, and history in terms of political history. Conventional moral considerations play no role in his analysis of political events while geographic and ethnographic aspects are omitted or, at best, of secondary importance. Subsequent Greek historians — Ctesias, Diodorus, Strabo, Polybius and Plutarch — held up Thucydides' writings as a model of truthful history. Lucian refers to Thucydides as having given Greek historians their law, requiring them to say what had been done. Greek historians of the fourth century BC accepted that history was political and that contemporary history was the proper domain of a historian. Cicero calls Herodotus the "father of history;" yet the Greek writer Plutarch, in his Moralia (Ethics) denigrated Herodotus, as the "father of lies". Unlike Thucydides, however, these historians all continued to view history as a source of moral lessons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides#Thucydides_versus_Herodotus Josephus Historical Reasoning: In order to understand the will of God Ancient historians, especially Jewish and Christian historians, had a main reason for studying history, one that is never cited by historians today: one that now falls only into the realm of theology, not history. It was expressed clearly in the 1st century by Josephus:
“the main lesson to be learned from this history by any who care to peruse it is that men who conform to the will of God…prosper in all things beyond belief, and for their reward are offered by God felicity; whereas in proportion as they depart from the strict observance of these laws, things (else) practicable become impracticable, and whatever imaginary good thing they strive to do ends in irretrievable disasters.”
This idea remained popular throughout the Medieval period in Europe, and elaborate frameworks of thought developed around it, based on the Bible. To these historians, God played a role in history, rewarding virtue and punishing sin. Medieval historians readily predicted the future based on what they saw as the correlation between human history and biblical prophecy. Martin Luther agreed with Josephus that God’s will could be seen in history:
“histories are nothing else than a demonstration, recollection, and sign of divine action and judgment, how He upholds, rules, obstructs, prospers, punishes, and honors the world, and especially men, each according to his just desert, evil or good.”
Starting with the Scientific Revolution, however, and continuing into the Enlightenment, historians began to separate their studies from those of the theologians. History’s focus returned to the study of human activities and their human and natural causes. The study of God was something entirely separate. Info on Josephus: Josephus (37–c.100 AD), also Yoseph Ben Mattithyahu (Joseph son of Matthias) and Titus Flavius Josephus was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st cent. AD and the First Jewish–Roman War which resulted in the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. He has been credited by many as recording some of the earliest history of Jesus Christ outside of the gospels, this being an item of contention among historians. Josephus was a law-observant Jew who believed in the compatibility of Judaism and Graeco-Roman thought, commonly referred to as Hellenistic Judaism. His most important works were The
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Jewish War (c. 75 AD) and Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94 AD). The Jewish War recounts the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation (66–70). Antiquities of the Jews recounts the history of the world from a Jewish perspective for a Roman audience. These works provide valuable insight into 1st century Judaism and the background of Early Christianity. The works of Josephus provide crucial information about the First Jewish-Roman War and are also important literary source material for understanding the context of the Dead Sea Scrolls and late Temple Judaism. Josephan scholarship in the 19th and early 20th century became focused on Josephus' relationship to the sect of the Pharisees. He was consistently portrayed as a member of the sect, but nevertheless viewed as a villainous traitor to his own nation— a view which became known as the classical concept of Josephus. In the mid 20th century, this view was challenged by a new generation of scholars who formulated the modern concept of Josephus, still considering him a Pharisee but restoring his reputation in part as patriot and a historian of some standing. Some later authors argued that Josephus was not a Pharisee but an orthodox Aristocrat-Priest who became part of the Temple Establishment as a matter of deference, and not willing association. Josephus includes information about individuals, groups, customs and geographical places. Some of these, such as the city of Seron, are not referenced in the surviving texts of any other ancient authority. His writings provide a significant, extra-Biblical account of the post-Exilic period of the Maccabees, the Hasmonean dynasty, and the rise of Herod the Great. He makes references to the Sadducees, Jewish High Priests of the time, Pharisees and Essenes, the Herodian Temple, Quirinius' census and the Zealots, and to such figures as Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, Agrippa I and Agrippa II, John the Baptist, James the brother of Jesus, and a disputed reference to Jesus. He is an important source for studies of immediate post-Temple Judaism and the context of early Christianity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) Historical Reasoning: In order to provide a moral lesson—a model of good behavior and a warning about evil Tacitus mentioned the role of history in condemning evil behavior. This, and its corollary—the praise and emulation of virtue--became a common theme in works that promoted the study of history, even when God was not seen as rewarding virtue or punishing evil. In the Middle Ages, the Venerable Bede made this case:
“For if history records good things of good men, the thoughtful hearer is encouraged to imitate what is good: or if it records evil of wicked men, the good, religious listener or reader is encouraged to avoid all that is sinful and perverse, and to follow what he knows to be good and pleasing to God.”
History was a moral lesson, one that would improve and inspire the student. Petrarch, the early Renaissance writer agreed that history was designed to:
“point up to the readers those things that are to be followed and those to be avoided, with plenty of distinguished examples provided on either side.”
Petrarch, perhaps a little futilely, wrote letters to Cicero and other classical authors, as though they were his contemporaries (though they had been dead for well over a millennium), taking issue with, or applauding them, for their actions (and even wondering whether they might taken
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offense at his word. He was a little eccentric, to our eyes, but he clearly felt that there was much to be learned from the past. Two centuries later, Jean Bodin said much the same thing:
“This, then, is the greatest benefit of historical books, that some men, at least, can be incited to virtue and others can be frightened away from vice.”
Generally, modern historians make little mention of this idea that history provides such a clear-cut morality tale—even some “heroes” often prove to have feet of clay when studied in depth—but the idea was raised by the Bradley Commission in the late 1980s as a reason to promote the study of history in schools:
“It [history] can convey a sense of civic responsibility by graphic portrayals of virtue, courage, and wisdom—and their opposites.”
Some virtues in historical figures are obvious, but some are less clear. What about someone like Alexander the Great? Does he provide an example of virtue or vice? Anyone emulating Alexander today would be roundly condemned by the international community. But to condemn him for his behavior in the past would be ahistorical; he lived at a time when modern ideas of human rights had not yet developed. We now believe that is not our job, as historians, to judge the past based on modern values. Peter Stearns provides a more nuanced view related to this reason for the study of history. Rather than adopting the idea that there are clear, unambiguous instances of virtue and evil in history, he proposes that students of history look at the very complexities of situations in the past in order to “test” and “hone” their “moral sense”:
“Studying the stories of individuals and situations in the past allows a student of history to test his or her own moral sense, to hone it against some of the real complexities individuals have faced in difficult settings.”
Info on Petrarch: Francesco Petrarca (July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374), known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest Renaissance humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism". In the 16th century, Pietro Bembo created the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarch's works, as well as those of Giovanni Boccaccio and, especially, Dante Alighieri. This would be later endorsed by the Accademia della Crusca. His sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry. Petrarch was also known for being one of the first people to refer to the Dark Ages. Petrarch is traditionally called the father of Humanism and considered by many to be the "father of the Renaissance." He was the first to offer a combination of abstract entities of classical culture and Christian philosophy. In his work Secretum meum he points out that secular achievements did not necessarily preclude an authentic relationship with God. Petrarch argued instead that God had given humans their vast intellectual and creative potential to be used to their fullest. He inspired humanist philosophy which led to the intellectual flowering of the Renaissance. He believed in the immense moral and practical value of the study of ancient history and literature – that is, the study of human thought and action. Petrarch was a devout Catholic and did not see a conflict between realizing humanity's potential and having religious faith. A highly introspective man, he shaped the nascent humanist movement a great deal because many of the internal conflicts and musings expressed in his writings were seized upon by Renaissance humanist philosophers and argued continually for the next 200 years. For example,
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Petrarch struggled with the proper relation between the active and contemplative life, and tended to emphasize the importance of solitude and study. Later the politician and thinker Leonardo Bruni argued for the active life, or "civic humanism". As a result, a number of political, military, and religious leaders during the Renaissance were inculcated with the notion that their pursuit of personal fulfillment should be grounded in classical example and philosophical contemplation. Edward Gibbon Historical Reasoning: With reason and rational thought, human history will progress Depth and accuracy Gibbon’s methodology was so accurate that, to this day, little can be found to controvert his use of primary sources for evidence. While modern historical methodology has changed, his skill in translation of his sources was impeccable, and contemporary historians still rely on Gibbon as a secondary source to substantiate references. His literary tone is old-fashioned, skeptical, and pessimistic; it mirrors both his own character and the topic under discussion, the gradual decay of a mighty empire. Gibbon is considered to be a true representative of the Enlightenment; this is reflected in his famous verdict on the history of the Middle Ages: "I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion.” However, politically, he aligned himself with both Burke's rejection of the democratic movements of the time as well as Burke's dismissal of the "rights of man." It is generally accepted that Gibbon's treatment of Byzantium has had a detrimental effect on the study of the Middle Ages. There remains a question as to whether his poor analysis is primarily due to a lack of primary sources in this field or to the prejudices of the time. Gibbon's work has been praised for its style, his piquant epigrams and its brilliant irony. Winston Churchill noted, "I set out upon Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [and] was immediately dominated by both the story and the style. I devoured Gibbon. I rode triumphantly through it from end to end." Churchill modeled much of his own style upon Gibbon's, though with less use of irony. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Edward_Gibbon#Gibbon.27s_theory History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Because of its relative objectivity and heavy use of primary sources, at the time, its methodology became a model for later historians. Gibbon writes with pessimism and detached use of irony. Thesis Gibbon offers an explanation for why the Roman Empire fell, a task made difficult by a lack of comprehensive written sources, though he was not the only historian to tackle the subject. Most of his ideas are directly taken from what few relevant records were available: those of the Roman moralists of the 4th and 5th centuries. According to Gibbon, the Roman Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions in large part due to the gradual loss of civic virtue among its citizens. They had become weak, outsourcing their duties to defend their Empire to barbarian mercenaries, who then became so numerous and ingrained that they were able to take over the Empire. Romans, he believed, had become effeminate, unwilling to live a tougher, "manly" military lifestyle. He further blames the degeneracy of the Roman army and the Praetorian guards. In addition, Gibbon argued that Christianity created a belief that a better life existed after death, which fostered an indifference to the present among Roman citizens, thus sapping their desire to sacrifice for the
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Empire. He also believed its comparative pacifism tended to hamper the traditional Roman martial spirit. Finally, like other Enlightenment thinkers, Gibbon held in contempt the Middle Ages as a priest-ridden, superstitious, dark age. It was not until his own age of reason and rational thought, it was believed, that human history could resume its progress. Gibbon sees the primary catalyst of the empire's initial decay and eventual collapse in the Praetorian Guard, instituted as a special class of soldiers permanently encamped in a commanding position within Rome, a seed planted by Augustus at the establishment of the empire. As Gibbon calls them at the outset of Chapter V: The Praetorian bands, whose licentious fury was the first symptom and cause of the decline of the Roman empire. He cites repeated examples of this special force abusing its power with calamitous results, including numerous instances of imperial assassination and demands of ever-increasing pay. Citations Gibbon provides the reader with a glimpse of his thought process with extensive notes along the body of the text, a precursor to the modern use of footnotes. Gibbon's footnotes are famous for their idiosyncrasies. They provide an entertaining moral commentary on both ancient Rome and 18th-century Great Britain. This technique enabled Gibbon to compare ancient Rome to modern times. Gibbon's work advocates a rationalist and progressive view of history. Gibbon's citations provide in-depth detail regarding his use of sources for his work, which included documents dating back to ancient Rome. The detail within his asides and his care in noting the importance of each document is a precursor to modern-day historical footnoting methodology. The work is notable for its erratic but exhaustively documented notes and research. John Bury, following him 113 years later with his own "History of the Later Roman Empire," utilized much of the same research, and commended the depth and accuracy of Gibbon's work. It is notable that Bury, over a century after Gibbon, and Heather, over a century after Bury, both based much of their own work on Gibbon's factual research. Both found little to argue with his facts, though both disagreed with his theories, primarily on Christianity as a prime factor in the Empire's decline and fall. Unusual for the 18th century, Gibbon was notably not content with secondhand accounts when the primary sources were accessible, and used them so well that even today historians still cite his work as the definitive factual history of the western empire. "I have always endeavoured," Gibbon wrote, "to draw from the fountain-head; that my curiosity, as well as a sense of duty, has always urged me to study the originals; and that, if they have sometimes eluded my search, I have carefully marked the secondary evidence, on whose faith a passage or a fact were reduced to depend.” The Decline and Fall is a literary monument and a massive step forward in historical methodology. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_the_Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire#Legacy Info on Edward Gibbon: Edward Gibbon (April 27, 1737-January 16, 1794) was an English historian and MP. Gibbon's work has been criticised for its scathing view of Christianity as laid down in chapters XV and XVI. Those chapters were strongly criticised and resulted in the banning of the book in several countries. Gibbon's alleged crime was disrespecting, and none too lightly, the character of sacred Christian doctrine, by "treat[ing] the Christian church as a phenomenon of general history, not a special case admitting supernatural explanations and disallowing criticism of its adherents".
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More specifically, Gibbon's blasphemous chapters excoriated the church for "supplanting in an unnecessarily destructive way the great culture that preceded it" and for "the outrage of [practicing] religious intolerance and warfare". Gibbon, though assumed to be entirely anti-religion, was actually supportive to some extent, insofar as it did not obscure his true endeavour – a history that was not influenced and swayed by official church doctrine. Although the most famous two chapters are heavily ironical and cutting about religion, it is not utterly condemned, and its truth and rightness are upheld however thinly. Gibbon expected some type of church-inspired backlash, but the utter harshness of the ensuing torrents far exceeded anything he or his friends could possibly have anticipated. Contemporary detractors such as Joseph Priestley and Richard Watson stoked the nascent fire, but the most severe of these attacks was an "acrimonious" piece by the young cleric, Henry Edwards Davis. Gibbon subsequently published his Vindication in 1779, in which he categorically denied Davis' "criminal accusations", branding him a purveyor of "servile plagiarism." Davis followed Gibbon's Vindication with yet another reply (1779). Gibbon's apparent antagonism to Christian doctrine spilled over into the Jewish faith, leading to charges of anti-Semitism. For example, he wrote:
Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which [the Jews] committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives; and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of legions against a race of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but also of humankind.
Burke, Churchill and ‘the fountain-head' Gibbon is considered to be a son of the Enlightenment and this is reflected in his famous verdict on the history of the Middle Ages:
"I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion." However, politically, he aligned himself with the conservative Edmund Burke's rejection of the democratic movements of the time as well as with Burke's dismissal of the "rights of man."
Gibbon's work has been praised for its style, his piquant epigrams and its effective irony. Winston Churchill memorably noted,
"I set out upon...Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [and] was immediately dominated both by the story and the style. ...I devoured Gibbon. I rode triumphantly through it from end to end and enjoyed it all."
Churchill modelled much of his own literary style on Gibbon's. Like Gibbon, he dedicated himself to producing a "vivid historical narrative, ranging widely over period and place and enriched by analysis and reflection." Unusually for the 18th century, Gibbon was never content with secondhand accounts when the primary sources were accessible (though most of these were drawn from well-known printed editions). "I have always endeavoured," he says, "to draw from the fountain-head; that my curiosity, as well as a sense of duty, has always urged me to study the originals; and that, if they have sometimes eluded my search, I have carefully marked the secondary evidence, on whose faith a passage or a fact were reduced to depend." In this insistence upon the importance of primary sources, Gibbon is considered by many to be one of the first modern historians:
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In accuracy, thoroughness, lucidity, and comprehensive grasp of a vast subject, the 'History' is unsurpassable. It is the one English history which may be regarded as definitive. ...Whatever its shortcomings the book is artistically imposing as well as historically unimpeachable as a vast panorama of a great period.
Influence on other writers The subject of Gibbon's writing as well as his ideas and style have influenced other writers. Besides his influence on Churchill, Gibbon was also a model for Isaac Asimov in his writing of The Foundation Trilogy, which he said involved "a little bit of cribbin' from the works of Edward Gibbon". Evelyn Waugh admired Gibbon's style but not his secular viewpoint. In Waugh's 1950 novel Helena, the early Christian author Lactantius worried about the possibility of " '...a false historian, with the mind of Cicero or Tacitusand the soul of an animal,' and he nodded towards the gibbon who fretted his golden chain and chattered for fruit." J. C. Stobart, author of The Grandeur that was Rome (1911), wrote of Gibbon that "The mere notion of empire continuing to decline and fall for five centuries is ridiculous...this is one of the cases which prove that History is made not so much by heroes or natural forces as by historians." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon#Burke.2C_Churchill_and_.27the_fountain-head.27 Auguste Comte Historical Reasoning: In order to understand the history of one’s nation and to increase patriotism or sense of identity: With the development of the idea of the “nation” came a new role for history. People reasoned that a sense of national identity could be generated through a knowledge of shared history. Already, this was being voiced by Leonardo Bruni in the Renaissance when he referred to “our own history”:
“History: a subject which must not on any account be neglected by one who aspires to true cultivation. For it is our duty to understand the origins of our own history and its development; and the achievements of Peoples and of Kings.”
In the 19th century, French historian Augustin Thierry was typical of his time in proposing that national history be widely taught in order to strengthen patriotism:
“I believe that our patriotism would gain a great deal both in selflessness and in steadfastness if the knowledge of history, and particularly of French history, were more widely diffused among us and were to become in a certain sense more popular.”
By the late 20th century the Bradley Commission recognized the need for both a common political vision and a recognition of the multicultural nature of American society, both of which were aided through the study of history:
“An historical grasp of our common political vision is essential to liberty, equality, and justice in our multicultural society.”
Peter Stearns emphasized that awareness of a shared history could provide not only a nation, but a business, institution, or ethnic group with a common identity:
“History also helps provide identity, and this is unquestionably one of the reasons all modern nations encourage its teaching in some form….Many institutions, businesses,
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communities and social units, such as ethnic groups in the United States, use history for similar identity purposes.”
Info on August Comte: Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857), better known as Auguste Comte, was a French philosopher, a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism. He may be regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term. Strongly influenced by the Utopian socialist Henri de Saint-Simon, Comte developed the positive philosophy in an attempt to remedy the social malaise of the French revolution, calling for a new social paradigm based on the sciences. Comte was of considerable influence in 19th century thought, impacting the work of thinkers such as Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill. His version of sociologie and his notion of social evolutionism, though now outmoded, set the tone for early social theorists and anthropologists such as Harriet Martineau and Herbert Spencer. Modern academic sociology was later formally established in the 1890s by Émile Durkheim with a firm emphasis on practical and objective social research. Comte attempted to introduce a cohesive "religion of humanity" which, though largely unsuccessful, was influential in the development of various Secular Humanist organizations in the 19th century. He also created and defined the term "altruism". Lord Acton Historical Reasoning: In order to pass moral judgment Notable quotations of Lord Acton:
“And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
“Universal History is . . . not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.”
“The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.” "The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river; and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future."
"Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.”
Info about Lord Acton: John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, KCVO, DL (10 January 1834 – 19 June 1902), usually referred to simply as Lord Acton, was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer. Acton took a great interest in America, considering its Federal structure the perfect guarantor of individual liberties. During the American Civil War, his sympathies lay entirely with the Confederacy, for their defense of States' Rights against a centralized government that, by all historical precedent, would inevitably turn tyrannical. His notes to Gladstone on the subject helped sway many in the British government to sympathize with the South. After the South's surrender, he wrote to Robert E. Lee that "I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply
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than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo," adding that he "deemed that you were fighting battles for our liberty, our progress, and our civilization." He was an intimate friend and constant correspondent of Prime Minister Gladstone, and the two men had the very highest regard for one another. Matthew Arnold used to say that "Gladstone influences all round him but Acton; it is Acton who influences Gladstone."[4] Religion and writings In 1870 came the great crisis in Catholicism over the First Vatican Council's promulgation of the doctrine of papal infallibility.It was in this context that, in a letter he wrote to scholar and ecclesiastic Mandell Creighton, dated April 1887, Acton made his most famous pronouncement:
"I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or certainty of corruption by full authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it."
Thenceforth he steered clear of theological polemics. He devoted himself to reading, study and congenial society. With all his capacity for study, he was a man of the world and a man of affairs, not a bookworm.[4] His only notable publications were a masterly essay in the Quarterly Review of January 1878 on "Democracy in Europe;" two lectures delivered at Bridgnorth in 1877 on "The History of Freedom in Antiquity" and "The History of Freedom in Christianity" — these last the only tangible portions put together by him of his long-projected "History of Liberty;" and an essay on modern German historians in the first number of the English Historical Review, which he helped to found (1886). Legacy Acton's reputation for learning gradually spread abroad, largely through Gladstone's influence. The latter found him a valuable political adviser, and in 1892, when the Liberal government came in, Lord Acton was made a lord-in-waiting. Finally, in 1895, on the death of Sir John Seeley, Lord Rosebery appointed him to the Regius Professorship of Modern History at Cambridge. His inaugural lecture on The Study of History, afterwards published with notes displaying a vast erudition, made a great impression in the university, and the new professor's influence on historical study was felt in many important directions. He delivered two valuable courses of lectures on the French Revolution and on Modern History, but it was in private that the effects of his teaching were felt most. The Cambridge Modern History, though he did not live to see it, was planned under his editorship. According to Hugh Chisholm, editor of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica:
"Lord Acton has left too little completed original work to rank among the great historians; his very learning seems to have stood in his way; he knew too much and his literary conscience was too acute for him to write easily, and his copiousness of information overloads his literary style. But he was one of the most deeply learned men of his time, and he will certainly be remembered for his influence on others.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton
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Frederick Jackson Turner Historical Reasoning: In order to encourage civic participation and citizenship History could do more than simply make citizens feel proud of their nation, or share a common identity. It could make them better citizens. In the 19th century, Frederick Jackson Turner wanted history to come alive and to be relevant to students, and to inspire them to be good citizens.
“But perhaps its most practical utility to us, as public school teachers, is its service in fostering good citizenship… We must make history living instead of allowing it to seem mere literature, a mere narration of events that might have occurred on the moon….Historical study has for its end to let the community see itself in the light of the past, to give it new thoughts and feelings, new aspirations and energies.”
A few years later, John Bagnell Bury also emphasized the need for citizens to be knowledgeable about history, a theme continued, after World War II, in a yearbook put together by the National Council for Social Studies:
“it is of vital importance for citizens to have a true knowledge of the past and to see it in a dry light, in order that their influence on the present and future may be exerted in the right directions.”
NY Times on the NCSS Yearbook (1947):
“American history is called the necessary and vital core in any program of preparation for intelligent American citizenship in an interdependent world….The educators observe that citizens of the United States must, without losing their national identity, become citizens of the world.” (NY Times, Feb 2, 1947)
By the late 20th century and continuing today, this was seen as one of the most important reasons for placing history at the center of the school curriculum—a familiarity with history, along with the “habits of mind” it encourages, are seen as absolutely necessary in order for citizens to function in our democratic society.
“It [history] is vital for all citizens in a democracy, because it provides the only avenue we have to reach an understanding of ourselves and our society, in relation to the human condition over time, and of how some things change and others continue….The knowledge and habits of mind to be gained from the study of history are indispensable to the education of citizens in a democracy.” The Bradley Commission (1989)
“History that lays the foundation for genuine citizenship returns, in one sense, to the essential uses of the study of the past….studying history encourages the habits of mind that are vital for responsible public behavior, whether as a national or community leader, an informed voter, a petitioner, or a simple observer.” Peter Stearns (2007)
A number of other reasons for the study of history have been put forward over the last century, most of which remain valid and are uncontroversial.
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Info on Frederick Jackson Turner Frederick Jackson Turner (November 14, 1861 – March 14, 1932) was an influential American historian in the early 20th century. He is best known for his book, The Significance of the Frontier in American History, whose ideas are referred to as the Frontier Thesis. He is also known for his theories of geographical sectionalism. In recent years western history has seen pitched arguments over his Frontier Thesis, with the only point of agreement being his enormous impact on historical scholarship and the American mind. Turner's "Frontier Thesis", was put forth in a scholarly paper in 1893, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History", read before the American Historical Association in Chicago during the Chicago World's Fair. He believed the spirit and success of the United States was directly tied to the country's westward expansion. Turner expounded an evolutionary model; he had been influenced by work with geologists at Wisconsin. The West, not the East, was where distinctively American characteristics emerged. The forging of the unique and rugged American identity occurred at the juncture between the civilization of settlement and the savagery of wilderness. This produced a new type of citizen - one with the power to tame the wild and one upon whom the wild had conferred strength and individuality. As each generation of pioneers moved 50 to 100 miles west, they abandoned useless European practices, institutions and ideas, and instead found new solutions to new problems created by their new environment. Over multiple generations the frontier produced characteristics of informality, violence, crudeness, democracy and initiative that the world recognized as "American". Turner's ideas influenced many areas of historiography. In the history of religion, for example, Boles notes that William Warren Sweet at the University of Chicago Divinity School, argued that churches adapted to the characteristics of the frontier, creating new denominations such as the Mormons, the Church of Christ, the Disciples of Christ, and the Cumberland Presbyterians. The frontier, they argued, shaped uniquely American institutions such as revivals, camp meetings, and itinerant preaching. This view dominated religious historiography for decades. Moos (2002) shows that the 1910s to 1940s black filmmaker and novelist Oscar Micheaux incorporated Turner's frontier thesis into his work. Micheaux promoted the West as a place where blacks could transcend race and earn economic success through hard work and perseverance. Slatta argues that the widespread popularization of Turner's frontier thesis influenced popular histories, motion pictures, and novels, which characterize the West in terms of individualism, frontier violence, and rough justice. Disneyland’s Frontierland of the late 20th century reflected the myth of rugged individualism that celebrated what was perceived to be the American heritage. The public has ignored academic historians' anti-Turnerian models, largely because they conflict with and often destroy the icons of Western heritage. However, the work of historians during the 1980s-1990s, some of whom sought to bury Turner's conception of the frontier and others who have sought to spare the concept while presenting a more balanced and nuanced view, have done much to place Western myths in context and rescue Western history from them. Turner ignored gender and race, downplayed class, and left no room for victims. His values represented a challenge to historians of the 1960s and later who stressed that race, class and gender were powerful explanatory tools. The new generation stressed gender, ethnicity, professional categorization, and the contrasting victor and victim legacies of manifest destiny and imperialist expansion. Some criticized Turner's frontier thesis and the theme of American exceptionalism. The disunity of the concept of the West, the similarity of American expansion to European colonialism and imperialism in the 19th century, and the realities of minority group oppression revealed the limits of Turnerian and exceptionalist paradigms.
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His sectionalism essays are collected in The Significance of Sections in American History, which won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1933. Turner's sectionalism thesis had almost as much influence among historians as his frontier thesis, but never became widely known to the general public as did the frontier thesis. He argued that different ethno-cultural groups had distinct settlement patterns, and this revealed itself in politics, economics and society. Turner's theories slipped out of fashion in the 1960s, as critics complained, unfairly, that he neglected regionalism. They complained that he celebrated too much the egalitarianism and democracy of a frontier that was rough on women and minorities. His ideas never disappeared; indeed they influenced the new field of environmental history. Turner gave a strong impetus to quantitative methods, and scholars using new statistical techniques and data sets have, for example, confirmed many of Turner's suggestions about population movements. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Jackson_Turner George Macaulay Trevelyan Historical Reasoning: In order to lessen prejudices: Knowing more about the histories of peoples different from oneself tends to generate more understanding. Trevelyan referred to this as “sympathizing with others:
“It [history] can mould the mind itself into the capability of understanding great affairs and sympathizing with other men.”
Others have written more recently of history’s ability to undermine stereotypes and diminish unfounded prejudices. Info on George Macaulay Trevelyan: George Macaulay Trevelyan, (16 February 1876 – 21 July 1962), was an English historian. Trevelyan was the third son of Sir George Trevelyan, whose staunch liberal Whig principles he espoused in accessible works of literate narrative avoiding a consciously dispassionate analysis that became old-fashioned during his long and productive career. The noted historian E. H. Carr considered Trevelyan to be one of the last historians of the Whig tradition. Many of his writings promoted the Whig Party, an important aspect of British politics from the 17th century to the mid-19th century, and of its successor, the Liberal Party. Whigs and Liberals believed the common people had a more positive effect on history than did royalty and that democratic government would bring about steady social progress. Trevelyan's history is engaged and partisan. Of his Garibaldi trilogy, "reeking with bias", he remarked in his essay "Bias in History", "Without bias, I should never have written them at all. For I was moved to write them by a poetical sympathy with the passions of the Italian patriots of the period, which I retrospectively shared." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._M._Trevelyan Simon Schama Historical Reasoning: In order to appreciate arts and literature: All works of art and literature were produced during specific time periods. In many instances the works cannot truly be appreciated without an understanding of the histories of those times.
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“Another educative function of history is to enable the reader to comprehend the historical aspect of literature proper….For much of literature is allusion, either definite or implied….History and literature cannot be fully comprehended, still less fully enjoyed, except in connection with one another.” George Macaulay Trevelyan (1913)
“History provides both framework and illumination for the other humanities. The arts, literature, philosophy, and religion are best studied as they develop over time and in the context of societal evolution. In turn they greatly enliven and reinforce our historical grasp of place and moment.” Bradley Commission (1989)
Info on Simon Schama Simon Michael Schama (born 13 February 1945) is a British historian and art historian. He is a professor at Columbia University. He is best known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC documentary series A History of Britain. Other works on history and art include The Embarrassment of Riches, Landscape and Memory, Dead Certainties, Rembrandt's Eyes, and his history of the French Revolution, Citizens. Schama is an art and cultural critic for The New Yorker. Schama is a supporter of the Labour Party, donating £2,000 to Oona King's bid to become Labour's candidate for the 2012 London Mayoral election. Schama was critical of a call by British novelist John Berger for an academic boycott of Israel over its policies towards the Palestinians. Writing in The Guardian in an article co-authored with lawyer Anthony Julius, Schama compared Berger's academic boycott to policies adopted by Nazi Germany, noting "This is not the first boycott call directed at Jews. On 1 April 1933, a week after he came to power, Hitler ordered a boycott of Jewish shops, banks, offices and department stores." In 2006 on the BBC, Schama debated with Vivienne Westwood the morality of Israel's actions in the Israel-Lebanon war. He characterised Israel's bombing of Lebanese city centres as unhelpful in Israel's attempt to "get rid of" Hezbollah. With regard to the bombing he said: "Of course the spectacle and suffering makes us grieve. Who wouldn't grieve? But it's not enough to do that. We've got to understand. You've even got to understand Israel's point of view." Schama is a vocal supporter of Barack Obama and critic of George W. Bush. He appeared on the BBC's coverage of the 2008 U.S. presidential election, clashing with John Bolton. Schama has a literary way of writing that is attractive to both historians and a wider readership. It is "packed with evocative detail: rich fruit cakes crammed with raisins, currants, nuts and glacé cherries all mulled in brandy sauce". He has also received criticism from one critic for dumbing down history, presenting a "grossly oversimplified and mythologising view of the history of nations" and not fostering critical thinking. Susan Buck-Morss criticizes Schama's The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age for its "selective national history" of the Dutch Republic, "that omits much or all of the colonizing story." "One would have no idea that Dutch hegemony in the slave trade (replacing Spain and Portugal as major players) contributed substantially to the enormous "overload" of wealth that he describes as becoming so socially and morally problematic during the century of Dutch "centrality" to the "commerce of the world."" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Schama
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Michel Foucault Historical Reasoning: In order to foster personal growth In addition to making us better, more informed citizens, a knowledge of history simply makes us wiser, according to this line of thought.
“It [history] can satisfy young people’s longing for a sense of identity and of their time and place in the human story. Well-taught, history and biography are naturally engaging to students by speaking to their individuality, to their possibilities for choice, and to their desire to control their lives.” Bradley Commission (1989)
“[History] offers the only extensive evidential base for the contemplation and analysis of how societies function, and people need to have some sense of how societies function simply to run their own lives.” Peter Stearns (2007)
Info on Michel Foucault: Paul-Michel Foucault (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984), was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas. He held a chair at the prestigious Collège de France with the title "History of Systems of Thought," and also taught at the University at Buffalo and the University of California, Berkeley. Foucault is best known for his critical studies of social institutions, most notably psychiatry, medicine, the human sciences, and the prison system, as well as for his work on the history of human sexuality. His writings on power, knowledge, and discourse have been widely influential in academic circles. In the 1960s Foucault was associated with structuralism, a movement from which he distanced himself. Foucault also rejected the poststructuralist and postmodernist labels later attributed to him, preferring to classify his thought as a critical history of modernity rooted in Kant. Foucault's project was particularly influenced by Nietzsche, his "genealogy of knowledge" being a direct allusion to Nietzsche's "genealogy of morality". In a late interview he definitively stated: "I am a Nietzschean." Foucault was listed as the most cited scholar in the humanities in 2007 by the ISI Web of Science. The English edition of Madness and Civilization is an abridged version of Folie et déraison: Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique, originally published in 1961. A full English translation titled The History of Madness has since been published by Routledge in 2006. "Folie et deraison" originated as Foucault's doctoral dissertation; this was Foucault's first major book, mostly written while he was the Director of the Maison de France in Sweden. It examines ideas, practices, institutions, art and literature relating to madness in Western history. Foucault begins his history in the Middle Ages, noting the social and physical exclusion of lepers. He argues that with the gradual disappearance of leprosy, madness came to occupy this excluded position. The ship of fools in the 15th century is a literary version of one such exclusionary practice, namely that of sending mad people away in ships. In 17th century Europe, in a movement Foucault famously calls the "Great Confinement," "unreasonable" members of the population were institutionalised. In the 18th century, madness came to be seen as the reverse of Reason, and, finally, in the 19th century as mental illness.
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Foucault also argues that madness was silenced by Reason, losing its power to signify the limits of social order and to point to the truth. He examines the rise of scientific and "humanitarian" treatments of the insane, notably at the hands of Philippe Pinel and Samuel Tuke who he suggests started the conceptualization of madness as 'mental illness'. He claims that these new treatments were in fact no less controlling than previous methods. Pinel’s treatment of the mad amounted to an extended aversion therapy, including such treatments as freezing showers and use of a straitjacket. In Foucault's view, this treatment amounted to repeated brutality until the pattern of judgment and punishment was internalized by the patient. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault#Criticisms Niall Ferguson Historical Reasoning: In order to prepare for work by developing analytical skills: The skills one uses in learning to read, analyze, and interpret history extend to many other aspects of life. Whether at home (for example, trying to determine the credibility of information on a website) or at work (e.g. doing research for a business report), skills learned in well-taught history classes have a lasting value. Such skills even help students do well on standardized tests of reading, though this can hardly be viewed as an end in itself. More important is that a different (and arguably more useful) type of literacy is needed for reading primary or secondary sources in history than is required for reading fiction.
“A proper teaching of history, the Yearbook authors hold, can develop critical thinking among students, as well as built democratic attitudes.” NY Times on NCSS Yearbook (NY Times, Feb 2 1947)
“History is generally helpful to the third aim of education, preparation for work. It is needed for such professions as law, journalism, diplomacy, politics, and teaching. More broadly, historical study develops analytical skills, comparative perspectives, and modes of critical judgment that promote thoughtful work in any field or career.” Bradley Commission (1989)
“History is useful for work. Its study helps create good businesspeople, professionals, and political leaders.” Peter Stearns (2007)
These are not the only reasons for studying history, of course. One can think of many more. What rings true throughout the centuries, however, is that history has always been an essential element of the educational curriculum. It is not a luxury or an add-on to be brought in if time allows. Its study is part of the life-blood of a society. Info on Niall Ferguson: Niall Campbell Douglas Ferguson (born April 18, 1964) is a Scottish historian who specializes in financial and economic history, particularly hyperinflation and the bond markets, as well as the history of colonialism. Ferguson, who was born in Glasgow, is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University as well as William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and also currently the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at the London School of Economics. He was educated at the private Glasgow Academy in Scotland, and at Magdalen College, Oxford. During the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Ferguson advised Senator John McCain's campaign.
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In 2008, Ferguson published The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World, which he also presented as a Channel 4 television series. Both at Harvard College and at LSE, Ferguson teaches a course entitled "Western Ascendancy: The Mainsprings of Global Power from 1600 to the Present." In October 2007, Ferguson joined the Financial Times where he is now a contributing editor. He also writes for Newsweek. Ferguson has often described the European Union as a disaster waiting to happen, and has criticized President Vladimir Putin of Russia for authoritarianism. In Ferguson's view, certain of Putin's policies, if they continue, may stand to lead Russia to catastrophes equivalent to those that befell Germany during the Nazi era. Ferguson is an academic champion of counterfactual history, and edited a collection of essays exploring the subject titled Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals (1997). Ferguson likes to imagine alternative outcomes as a way of stressing the contingent aspects of history. For Ferguson, great forces don't make history; individuals do and nothing is predetermined. Thus, for Ferguson there are no paths in history that will determine how things will work out. The world is neither progressing nor regressing; only the actions of individuals will determine whether we live in a better or worse world. His championing of the method has been controversial within the field. Ferguson is critical of what he calls the "self-flagellation" that he says characterizes modern European thought.
"The moral simplification urge is an extraordinarily powerful one, especially in this country, where imperial guilt can lead to self-flagellation," he told a reporter. "And it leads to very simplistic judgments. The rulers of western Africa prior to the European empires were not running some kind of scout camp. They were engaged in the slave trade. They showed zero sign of developing the country's economic resources. Did Senegal ultimately benefit from French rule? Yes, it's clear. And the counterfactual idea that somehow the indigenous rulers would have been more successful in economic development doesn't have any credibility at all."
Fellow academics have questioned Ferguson's commitment to scholarship. Benjamin Wallace-Wells, an editor of The Washington Monthly, comments that:
"The House of Rothschild remains Ferguson's only major work to have received prizes and wide acclaim from other historians. Research restrains sweeping, absolute claims: Rothschild is the last book Ferguson wrote for which he did original archival work, and his detailed knowledge of his subject meant that his arguments for it couldn't be too grand."
John Lewis Gaddis, a renowned Cold War era historian, characterized Ferguson as having unrivaled "range, productivity and visibility" at the same time as criticizing his work as being "unpersuasive". Gaddis goes on to state that "several of Ferguson's claims, moreover, are contradictory". Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm has praised Ferguson as an excellent historian. However, he has also criticized Ferguson, saying, on the BBC Radio programme "Start the Week", that he was a "nostalgist for empire". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_Ferguson#Career_as_commentator
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Fernand Braudel Historical Reasoning: History Provides Identity History also helps provide identity, and this is unquestionably one of the reasons all modern nations encourage its teaching in some form. Historical data include evidence about how families, groups, institutions and whole countries were formed and about how they have evolved while retaining cohesion. For many Americans, studying the history of one's own family is the most obvious use of history, for it provides facts about genealogy and (at a slightly more complex level) a basis for understanding how the family has interacted with larger historical change. Family identity is established and confirmed. Many institutions, businesses, communities, and social units, such as ethnic groups in the United States, use history for similar identity purposes. Merely defining the group in the present pales against the possibility of forming an identity based on a rich past. And of course nations use identity history as well—and sometimes abuse it. Histories that tell the national story, emphasizing distinctive features of the national experience, are meant to drive home an understanding of national values and a commitment to national loyalty. Info on Fernand Braudel: Fernand Braudel (24 August 1902 – 27 November 1985) was a French historian and a leader of the Annales School. His scholarship focused on three main projects, each representing several decades of intense study: The Mediterranean (1923–49, then 1949–66), Civilization and Capitalism (1955–79), and the unfinished Identity of France (1970–85). His reputation stems in part from his writings, but even more from his success in making the Annales School the most important engine of historical research in France and much of the world after 1950. As the dominant leader of the Annales School of historiography in the 1950s and 1960s, he exerted enormous influence on historical writing in France and other countries. Braudel has been considered one of the greatest of the modern historians who have emphasized the role of large-scale socioeconomic factors in the making and writing of history. He can also be considered as one of the precursors of World Systems Theory. At the outbreak of war in 1939, he was called up and subsequently taken prisoner in 1940 by the Germans. While a prisoner of war in a camp near Lübeck in Germany, Braudel drafted his great work La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen a l'époque de Philippe II (The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II), without access to his books or notes but relying on his prodigious memory. Braudel became the leader of the second generation of Annales historians after 1945. In 1962, he wrote A History of Civilizations as the basis for a history course, but its rejection of the traditional event-based narrative was too radical for the French ministry of education, which in turn rejected it. A feature of Braudel's work was his compassion for the suffering of marginal people. He articulated that most surviving historical sources come from the literate wealthy classes. He emphasized the importance of the ephemeral lives of slaves, serfs, peasants, and the urban poor, demonstrating their contributions to the wealth and power of their respective masters and societies. Indeed, he appeared to think that these people form the real material of civilization. His work was often illustrated with contemporary depictions of daily life, rarely with pictures of noblemen or kings. According to Braudel, prior to the Annales approach, the writing of history was focused on the courte durée (short span), or on histoire événementielle (a history of events). Political and diplomatic history is a prime example of histoire événementielle, which he criticized as too limited.
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His followers admired his use of the longue durée approach to stress the slow and often imperceptible effects of space, climate and technology on the actions of human beings in the past. The Annales historians, after living through two world wars and massive political upheavals in France, were deeply uncomfortable with the notion that multiple ruptures and discontinuities created history. They preferred to stress inertia and the longue durée, arguing that the continuities in the deepest structures of society were central to history. Upheavals in institutions or the superstructure of social life were of little significance, for history, they argued, lies beyond the reach of conscious actors, especially the will of revolutionaries. They rejected the Marxist idea that history should be used as a tool to foment and foster revolutions. A proponent of historical materialism, Braudel rejected Marxist materialism, stressing the equal importance of infrastructure and superstructure, both of which reflected enduring social, economic, and cultural realities. Braudel's structures, both mental and environmental, determine the long-term course of events by constraining actions on, and by, humans over a duration long enough that they are beyond the consciousness of the actors involved http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Braudel E.H. Carr Historical Reasoning: Why study history? Why study history? The answer is because we virtually must, to gain access to the laboratory of human experience. When we study it reasonably well, and so acquire some usable habits of mind, as well as some basic data about the forces that affect our own lives, we emerge with relevant skills and an enhanced capacity for informed citizenship, critical thinking, and simple awareness. The uses of history are varied. Studying history can help us develop some literally "salable" skills, but its study must not be pinned down to the narrowest utilitarianism. Some history—that confined to personal recollections about changes and continuities in the immediate environment—is essential to function beyond childhood. Some history depends on personal taste, where one finds beauty, the joy of discovery, or intellectual challenge. Between the inescapable minimum and the pleasure of deep commitment comes the history that, through cumulative skill in interpreting the unfolding human record, provides a real grasp of how the world works. Info on E.H. Carr: Edward Hallett "Ted" Carr (28 June 1892 – 3 November 1982) was a liberal and later left-wing Marxist British historian, journalist and international relations theorist, and an opponent of empiricism within historiography. Carr was best known for his 14-volume history of the Soviet Union, for his writings on international relations, and for his book What Is History?, in which he laid out historiographical principles rejecting traditional historical methods and practices. Educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, London, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, Carr began his career as a diplomat in 1916. Becoming increasingly preoccupied with the study of international relations and of the Soviet Union, he resigned from the Foreign Office in 1936 to begin an academic career. In 1961, he delivered the G. M. Trevelyan lectures at the University of Cambridge that became the basis of his book, What is History? Moving increasingly towards the left throughout his career, Carr saw his role as the theorist who would work out the basis of a new international order.
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Carr is famous today for his work of historiography, What is History? (1961), a book based upon his series of G. M. Trevelyan lectures, delivered at the University of Cambridge between January–March 1961. In this work, Carr argued that he was presenting a middle-of-the-road position between the empirical view of history and R. G. Collingwood's idealism. Carr rejected the empirical view of the historian's work being an accretion of "facts" that he or she has at their disposal as nonsense. Carr claimed:
"The belief in a hard core of historical facts existing objectively and independently of the interpretation of the historian is a preposterous fallacy, but one which it is very hard to eradicate".
Carr maintained that there is such a vast quantity of information, at least about post-Dark Ages times, that the historian always chooses the "facts" he or she decides to make use of. In Carr's famous example, he claimed that millions had crossed the Rubicon, but only Julius Caesar's crossing in 49 BC is declared noteworthy by historians. Carr divided facts into two categories, "facts of the past", that is historical information that historians deem unimportant, and "historical facts", information that the historians have decided is important. Carr contended that historians quite arbitrarily determine which of the "facts of the past" to turn into "historical facts" according to their own biases and agendas. Carr stated that:
"Study the historian before you begin to study the facts. This is, after all, not very abstruse. It is what is already done by the intelligent undergraduate who, when recommended to read a work by that great scholar Jones of St. Jude's, goes round to a friend at St. Jude's to ask what sort of chap Jones is, and what bees he has in his bonnet. When you read a work of history, always listen out for the buzzing. If you can detect none, either you are tone deaf or your historian is a dull dog. The facts are really not at all like fish on the fishmonger's slab. They are like fish swimming about in a vast and sometimes inaccessible ocean; and what the historian catches will depend partly on chance, but mainly on what part of the ocean he chooses to fish in and what tackle he chooses to use – these two factors being, of course, determined by the kind of fish he wants to catch. By and large, the historian will get the kind of facts he wants. History means interpretation. Indeed, if, standing Sir George Clark on his head, I were to call history "a hard core of interpretation surrounded by a pulp of disputable facts", my statement would, no doubt, be one-sided and misleading, but no more so, I venture to think, than the original dictum"
For this reason, Carr argued that Leopold von Ranke's famous dictum wie es eigentlich gewesen (show what actually happened) was wrong because it presumed that the "facts" influenced what the historian wrote, rather than the historian choosing what "facts of the past" he or she intended to turn into "historical facts". At the same time, Carr argued that the study of the facts may lead the historian to change his or her views. In this way, Carr argued that history was "an unending dialogue between the past and present." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._H._Carr#Contribution_to_the_theory_of_International_relations Eric Hobsbawm Historical Reasoning: What Kind of History Should We Study? The question of why we should study history entails several subsidiary issues about what kind of history should be studied. Historians and the general public alike can generate a lot of heat about what specific history courses should appear in what part of the curriculum. Many of the benefits of
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history derive from various kinds of history, whether local or national or focused on one culture or the world. Gripping instances of history as storytelling, as moral example, and as analysis come from all sorts of settings. The most intense debates about what history should cover occur in relation to identity history and the attempt to argue that knowledge of certain historical facts marks one as an educated person. Some people feel that in order to become good citizens students must learn to recite the preamble of the American constitution or be able to identify Thomas Edison—though many historians would dissent from an unduly long list of factual obligations. Correspondingly, some feminists, eager to use history as part of their struggle, want to make sure that students know the names of key past leaders such as Susan B. Anthony. The range of possible survey and memorization chores is considerable—one reason that history texts are often quite long. Info on Eric Hobsbawm: Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (born 9 June 1917) is a British Marxist historian, public intellectual, and author. His best known works include the trilogy about the long 19th century: The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848, The Age of Capital: 1848-1875 and The Age of Empire: 1875-1914. One of Hobsbawm's interests is the development of traditions. His work is a study of their social construction in the context of the nation state. He argues that many traditions are invented by national elites to justify the existence and importance of their respective nation states. Hobsbawm has written extensively on many subjects as one of Britain's most prominent historians. As a Marxist historiographer he has focused on analysis of the "dual revolution" (the political French revolution and the industrial British revolution). He sees their effect as a driving force behind the predominant trend towards liberal capitalism today. Another recurring theme in his work has been social banditry, a phenomenon that Hobsbawm has tried to place within the confines of relevant societal and historical context thus countering the traditional view of it being a spontaneous and unpredictable form of primitive rebellion. He has published numerous essays in various intellectual journals, dealing with subjects like barbarity in the modern age to the troubles of labour movements and the conflict between anarchism and communism. Thirty years ago Hobsbawm was described by the newspaper The Spectator as "arguably our greatest living historian — not only Britain's, but the world's." James Joll wrote in The New York Review of Books that "Eric Hobsbawm's nineteenth century trilogy is one of the great achievements of historical writing in recent decades." Tony Judt, director of the Erich Maria Remarque Institute at New York University, argued that Hobsbawm's tendency to disparage any nationalist movement as passing and irrational weakened his grasp of parts of the 20th century. Judt however, also wrote that "Hobsbawm is a cultural folk hero. His fame is well deserved. Hobsbawm doesn't just know more than other historians, he writes better, too." In Neal Ascherson's view "Eric's Jewishness increased his sensitivity about nationalism. He's the original happy cosmopolitan, who's benefited from being able to move freely." Hobsbawm has attracted criticism for his support for communism, even after the Hungarian and Czechoslovak rebellions. Oliver Kamm wrote: "Hobsbawm has rarely missed an opportunity even after communism’s demise to obfuscate its record". while Michael Gove has criticised Hobsbawm's defense of Marxism, saying that "only when Hobsbawm weeps hot tears for a life spent serving an ideology of wickedness will he ever be worth listening to." Also, Robert Conquest has claimed that in an interview with Canadian author and politician Michael Ignatieff on British television in 1994, Hobsbawm responded to the question of whether 20 million deaths may have been justified if the proposed communist utopia had been created as a consequence by saying "yes". More
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specifically, Hobsbawm reportedly said that "in a period in which, as you might imagine, mass murder and mass suffering are absolutely universal, the chance of a new world being born in great suffering would still have been worth backing". He stressed that since the utopia had not been created, the sacrifices were in fact not justified—a point that he also emphasized in his own 1994 book, Age of Extremes:
“Still, whatever assumptions are made, the number of direct and indirect victims must be measured in eight rather than seven digits. In these circumstances it does not much matter whether we opt for a "conservative" estimate nearer to ten than to twenty million or a larger figure: none can be anything but shameful and beyond palliation, let alone justification.”
J. Bradford DeLong strongly criticized Hobsbawm's Age of Extremes, writing: "The remains of Hobsbawm's commitment to the religion of World Communism get in the way of his judgment, and twist his vision. On planet Hobsbawm, for example, the fall of the Soviet Union was a disaster, and the Revolutions of 1989 a defeat for humanity. On planet Hobsbawm, Stalin planned multi-party democracies and mixed economies for Eastern Europe after World War II, and reconsidered only after the United States launched the Cold War." David Evanier, in an article published in the American conservative magazine The Weekly Standard, called Hobsbawm "Stalin's cheerleader," writing: "One can learn almost nothing about the history of communism from Hobsbawm's "Interesting Times"--nothing about the show trials, the torture and execution of millions, the Communist betrayal of Spain." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hobsbawm
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(document B) Historical Method
“historians, therefore, are the most useful people and the best teachers, so that one can never honor, praise, and thank them enough.” Martin Luther
“Given a good school or town library…and given an energetic, devoted teacher to direct and foster the study of history and politics and economics, we would have an intellectual regeneration of the state.” FJ Turner
The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past. The question of the nature, and even the possibility, of a sound historical method is raised in the philosophy of history as a question of epistemology. Source Criticism Core principles The following core principles of source criticism were formulated by two Scandinavian historians, Olden-Jørgensen (1998) and Thurén (1997): 1. Human sources may be relics such as a fingerprint; or narratives such as a statement or a
letter. Relics are more credible sources than narratives. 2. Any given source may be forged or corrupted. Strong indications of the originality of the source
increase its reliability. 3. The closer a source is to the event which it purports to describe, the more one can trust it to
give an accurate historical description of what actually happened. 4. A primary source is more reliable than a secondary source which is more reliable than a tertiary
source, and so on. 5. If a number of independent sources contain the same message, the credibility of the message
is strongly increased. 6. The tendency of a source is its motivation for providing some kind of bias. Tendencies should
be minimized or supplemented with opposite motivations. 7. If it can be demonstrated that the witness or source has no direct interest in creating bias then
the credibility of the message is increased. Procedures Bernheim (1889) and Langlois & Seignobos (1898) proposed a seven-step procedure for source criticism in history: 1. If the sources all agree about an event, historians can consider the event proved. 2. However, majority does not rule; even if most sources relate events in one way, that version
will not prevail unless it passes the test of critical textual analysis. 3. The source whose account can be confirmed by reference to outside authorities in some of its
parts can be trusted in its entirety if it is impossible similarly to confirm the entire text. 4. When two sources disagree on a particular point, the historian will prefer the source with most
"authority"—that is the source created by the expert or by the eyewitness. 5. Eyewitnesses are, in general, to be preferred especially in circumstances where the ordinary
observer could have accurately reported what transpired and, more specifically, when they deal with facts known by most contemporaries.
6. If two independently created sources agree on a matter, the reliability of each is measurably enhanced.
7. When two sources disagree and there is no other means of evaluation, then historians take the source which seems to accord best with common sense.
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(document C) Historians for case studies activities : Herodotus Thucydides Josephus Petrarch Edward Gibbon Auguste Comte Lord Acton Frederick Jackson Turner George Macaulay Trevelyan Simon Schama Michel Foucault Niall Ferguson Fernand Braudel E.H. Carr Eric Hobsbawm
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Unit II Greece – Confronting the Past, Building a Future
Lesson 1 Lesson: Why Study Greek History? Common Core Standards: RH 1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical references from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. RH 2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. SL 2 Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. Essential Question: Why study Greek history? Key Questions/Issues Addressed:
• It is difficult to explain Modern Greek history without discussing the place and role of the Jews in it, who lived among Greeks for generations, for thousands of years and enriched Greek culture, society, economic and scientific life.
• Greece offers a case study in contrast and contradiction - it has freely offered the world its people and its artistic and scientific genius; it has also been at the source of devastating war and unparalleled genocide.
Lesson Goals/Objectives:
• Students will be able to analyze and explain the impact of geographic location and topography on Greece and its historic influence.
• Students will be able to analyze and explain the impact of the Greeks on the process of integration in European history.
Background information:
• Greece is a prime mover in European integration. • Greece is geographically located in the center of Europe with political, economic, and
social windows that open East and West. • Greece is the ancestral home to millions of immigrants to the United States. • Greece and the United States have common problems; a comparative analysis can help
both nations find appropriate solutions. Materials Needed:
• Copy of PowerPoint – Why Study Greek History http://www.state.nj.us/education/holocaust/pres/WhyStudyGreekHistory.pdf
• Copies of prepared handout - Determining Truth – Introduction • White poster roll, cut for a number of small groups • Sufficient copies of the photographs for use by groups • Scissors, tape or glue stick
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Instructional Activities/Procedures: 1. Students will be introduced to the topic via a teacher prepared PowerPoint – “Why Study
Greek History”. 2. Students and teacher will learn together via the PowerPoint, stopping frequently to take time
to concentrate on the issues raised in the PowerPoint. 3. Students will be split into pairs or small groups to determine answers to the assigned
questions and tasks. Learning Activity #1 1. Students will answer the following questions from their general knowledge:
• Why study Greek history? • Why is Greece relevant to our world? • How are modern Greeks determining the truth of Greek history and making it relevant for
future generations? • How is Greece shaping its identity?
Learning Activity #2 1. On a large white poster, students will record which three words come to mind when they
think about Greece. 2. On the same large white poster, students will write 3 statements that illustrate Greece 3. On the same large white poster, students will choose 6 photographs that tell the story of
Greece (Choose from the images provided and paste them to the poster) FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT(s): These formative assessments will help students to prepare for “Meeting the Standard” on the Individual Summative Assessment. Stage Three should also give students, parents, administrators and other constituents a view of the EXPECTATIONS for students as they demonstrate their knowledge and skills based on established content standards. 1. Students will declare their answers to assigned questions and prepare to defend their
positions. Students will create a poster with their understandings of the key concepts of Greek history and present their points of view. Each small group will conduct a gallery walk of the student work and discuss their reactions.
Determining Truth – Introduction: 1. Why study Greek history? 2. Why is Greece relevant to our world? 3. How are modern Greeks determining the truth of Greek history and making it relevant for
future generations? 4. How is Greece shaping its identity? 5. Which three words come to mind when you think about Greece? 6. Write 3 statements that illustrate Greece. 7. Choose 6 photographs that tell the story of Greece. (Choose from the images and paste
them below)
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Teachers Guide: Places Acropolis White Tower of
Thessaloniki Hellenic Parliament The Ionian Academy
in Corfu (The first academic institution of modern Greece)
Holy Monastery of Rousanou St Barbara, Meteora
Holy Monastery of Varlaam, Meteora
Monastery of Simonos Petra, Mt Athos
Holy Trinity monastery in Meteora, Thessaly
Santorini Musala Summit in Bulgaria looking towards Greece (highest peak in Balkan Peninsula, at 2,925 m or 9,596 ft)
Mt Olympus Taygetus (mountain range in Peloponnese peninsula - Southern Greece)
People Socrates Plato Pythagoras The School of
Athens by Raphael
Aristotle
Christina Onassis
Anna Vissi Melina Mercouri Maria Callas Arianna Stassinopoulos
Manos Hatzidakis (composer and theorist of Greek music)
Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco)
Georgios Papanikolaou
Elia Kazan Prince Philip
Mythology Medusa Dionysos Apollo Oedipus Helen of Troy Alexander King Constantine II of Greece - Gold medal in sailing (Dragon Class) at 1960 Rome Olympics
Olympic Games 1896 Euro 2004 Champions
Athena Aphrodite Poseidon Zeus Hades Delphi Independence and Nationhood Count Ioannis Kapodistrias Leonidas at Thermopylae
by Jacques-Louis David Eleftherios Venizelos
Dionysios Solomos, wrote Hymn to Liberty, Greek national anthem
The Alexander Mosaic, originally from the House of the Faun in Pompeii
The sortie of Messologhi by Theodore Vryzakis
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Unit II Greece – Confronting the Past, Building a Future
Lesson 2 Lesson: Lessons from Greece for the American Classroom Common Core Standards: RH 2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. SL 3 Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric. Essential Question: How do we determine what about the past is important to know? Essential Questions/Issues Addressed:
• What is the historical method and how is it used by historians? • How does Greece’s educational level and industrial level influence its role in
international relations? • Is human progress constant with identifiable patterns that it follows or is it random and
without meaning? Lesson Goals/Objectives:
• Students will be able to explain how historians use the historical method to determine the truth about the past.
• Students will be able to evaluate the proper unit for the study of the human past — the individual? The polis? The civilization? The culture? Or the nation state?
• Students will be able to assess whether there are broad patterns and constant progress. Are there cycles? Is human history random and devoid of any meaning?
Background information:
• Greece has provided a legacy of literary and political thought that has impacted the evolution of Western Civilization.
• Greece is an important player in European integration. • Greece is geographically located in the Balkans with political, economic, and social
windows that open East and West. • Greece can be studied as an example of post World War II trauma and a microcosm of
“cold war” conflict. • Greece is the ancestral home to millions of immigrants to the United States. • Greece and the United States have many common problems; a comparative analysis
can help both nations find appropriate solutions. • Greece offers a case study in contrast and contradiction - it has freely offered the world
its people and its artistic and scientific genius; it has also been involved in many devastating wars and conflicts
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Materials Needed: • Teacher prepared PowerPoint – Lessons from Greece for the American Classroom
http://www.state.nj.us/education/holocaust/pres/LessonsfromGreecefortheAmericanClassroom.pdf
• Teacher Prepared handout - Determining Truth – Lessons from Greece for the American Classroom
Instructional Activities/Procedures:
1. Students will be introduced to the topic via a teacher prepared PowerPoint 2. Students will discuss whether individuals are important to our understanding of history –
they will differentiate between who they believe is important and those unimportant. 3. Students will be split into pairs or small groups to determine answers to the assigned
questions and tasks. 4. Students will complete the prepared graphic organizer on the topic issue, and then defend
their reasoning in a discussion with the class.
• Why study Greek history? • Where did the Greeks come from? • What does the term Hellenic mean? • How has the geography of Greece affected its history? • How diverse is Greek culture? • What do we owe the ancient Greek philosophers, teachers, and artists? • How does Greece’s national story compare to the history of the United States? • How has Greece shaped its identity? • How are modern Greeks determining the truth of Greek history and making it relevant for
future generations? • Why is Greece relevant and important to our world today?
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS: 1. Students will declare their answers to assigned questions and prepare to defend their
positions. Students will create a response and reflection with their understandings of the key concepts and present their points of view. Each small group will conduct a debrief of their work and discuss their reactions.
Determining Truth – Lessons from Greece for the American Classroom: 1. Why study Greek history? 2. Where did the Greeks come from? 3. What does the term Hellenic mean? 4. How has the geography of Greece affected its history? 5. How diverse is Greek culture? 6. What do we owe the ancient Greek philosophers, teachers, and artists? 7. How does Greece’s national story compare to the history of the United States? 8. How has Greece shaped its identity? 9. How are modern Greeks determining the truth of Greek history and making it relevant for
future generations? 10. Why is Greece relevant and important to our world today?
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Reflection and Decision: 1. Why is Greece relevant and important to our world today?
• Give your reasoning. Extension Activities:
1. Write a letter introducing your own family to a young Greek who is coming to live with you for an extended stay. Address the following issues in your letter: • Would it be easy or difficult for this child to fit into your home or community, and why? • What will he or she have to know to feel at home? • Are there things such as food, clothing, language, customs, or music that are unique to
your family or that reflect the place in which you live? • What aspects of your home and family would likely be similar to those of your visitor’s?
2. Write about a time when you traveled. What items such as food, clothing, language, customs, or music did you notice? Could people distinguish you as a visitor? Why or why not?
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Unit II Greece – Confronting the Past, Building a Future
Lesson 3 Lesson: Greeks and Jews – Hellenistic Period to 1940 Common Core Standards: RH 1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text RH 2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. Essential Question: How do we determine what about the past is important to know? Key Questions/Issues Addressed:
• Why and how do historians use the historical method to determine the truth about the past?
• What is the proper unit of study for studying and learning about the human past? • Does human progress occur on a constant basis with specific pattern(s) or is it random
and without meaning? Lesson Goals/Objectives:
• Students will be able to explain how historians use the historical method to determine the truth about the past.
• Students will be able to evaluate what is the proper unit for the study of the human past — the individual? The polis? The civilization? The culture? Or the nation state?
• Students will be able to assess whether there are broad patterns and constant progress in human history. Are there cycles? Is it random and devoid of any meaning?
Background information:
• The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past.
• The question of the nature, and even the possibility, of a sound historical method is raised in the philosophy of history as a question of epistemology, that is, the study of knowledge.
Materials Needed:
• Teacher prepared PowerPoint – Hellenistic Period to 1940 http://www.state.nj.us/education/holocaust/pres/HellenisticPeriodto1940.pdf
• Teacher Prepared handout – The Historical Method http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/DocumentB.doc
• Teacher Prepared handout – The Historical Historian http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/DocumentA.doc
• Teacher Prepared handouts – Various historical documents
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• Teacher prepared handout – Determining Truth - Case Study Part 1: Jews in Greece, The Hellenic Period to 1940
Instructional Activities/Procedures:
1. Students will be introduced to the topic via a teacher prepared PowerPoint. 2. Students will discuss whether individuals are important to our understanding of history –
they will differentiate between who they believe is important and those unimportant. 3. Students will be asked to determine whether or not various source material is of
consequence in telling us about life throughout Greek history. 4. Students will determine whether or not various documentary evidence is worthy of entry into
the historical record and could be used in a court of law as reliable and accepted evidence. Students will evaluate the primary source document, and then will consider the point of view of an historical historian to determine whether the entry is acceptable as an historical record. Students will be required to provide their reasoning for their choice and to justify their answer.
5. Differentiated instruction by content lesson: Students will be split into small groups to determine the position of their historical historian.
6. After reading the various documents, respond to these questions: Determining Truth - Case Study Part 1: Jews in Greece, The Hellenic Period to 1940: 1. What is the historical method? 2. What is history for? 3. Who writes history? 4. What does the evidentiary material say about inter-communal relations between Greeks and
Jews from antiquity to 1940 in five distinct regional locations? What does the evidence suggest about the reality of personal and community relations, and if possible reveal about universal human truths?
5. What were the effects of inter-communal relationships on the Jewish community of Greece? How could this have affected daily life, emotions and/or survival?
Internal Perspective/Reflecting: 1. Writers tend to use a reflecting voice for this type of writing; they are examining themselves,
their inner lives, their deepest thoughts and feelings. They reflect over matters of character and their dreams and hopes for the future. Many young writers describe their relationships and conflicts with family, friends, and first loves. Some writers use their diaries as a place to consider matters of faith, religion, and belief (or lack of belief) in God. How do any of the documents reflect or describe individual or community inner conflicts?
2. How do we determine what about the past is important to know? 3. What about the past is important to know? 4. Whose individual experiences matter? Reflection and Decision: 1. According to your analysis of your historical historian, determine whether or not the various
documents are worthy of entry into the historical record and could be used in a court of law as reliable and accepted evidence. • Give your reasoning.
2. How can law be used to protect civilians in a time of civil upheaval?
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One Individual Writing Product: 1. Students will complete the prepared graphic organizer on the topic issue, and then defend
their reasoning in a discussion with the class. Speaking Product:
1. Students will declare their answers to assigned questions and prepare to defend their positions
Extension Activities: 1. Reflect on the meaning of home. What parts of home can and cannot be taken with you? In
a poem, a story, or another medium of creative expression, write about the ways in which refugees in the past, as well as today, have attempted to create home in a new place.
2. Write a letter to a parent or guardian, or to someone who is important to you who live far away. Once you have completed this letter, shorten it to 25 words, including salutation and closing—the limit on the postcards that the Red Cross could deliver during World War II. • Can you convey the same message? • How does it change?
3. Illustrate what your home means to you. If you had to leave your home, how would you draw what your life, family and town means to you, so that children or grandchildren you may have will have something visual to show them what your childhood was like. Consider you are an older person in a different country and culture where your children or grandchildren may not be familiar with life in America. • Students will complete the prepared graphic organizer on the topic issue, and then
defend their reasoning in a discussion with the class. FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS: 1. Students will declare their answers to assigned questions and prepare to defend their
positions. 2. Students will create a response and reflection with their understandings of the key concepts
and present their points of view. 3. Each small group will conduct a debrief of their work and discuss their reactions. Determining Truth - Case Study Part 1: Jews in Greece, The Hellenic Period to 1940: 1. Why do we study history? 2. What is the historical method? 3. What is history for and who writes it? 4. What about the past is important to know? 5. Whose individual experiences matter? 6. What can one individual tell us about Greece? 7. What is the proper unit for the study of the human past — the individual? The polis? The
civilization? The culture? Or the nation state? 8. Are there broad patterns and progress?
• Are there cycles? • Is human history random and devoid of any meaning?
9. What does the evidentiary material say about inter-communal relations between Greeks and Jews from antiquity to 1940 in five distinct regional locations?
10. What does the evidence suggest about the reality of personal and community relations, and if possible reveal about universal human truths?
11. What were the effects of inter-communal relationships on the Jewish community of Greece?
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• How could this have affected daily life, emotions and/or survival? Internal Perspective/Reflecting: 1. Writers tend to use a reflecting voice for this type of writing; they are examining themselves,
their inner lives, their deepest thoughts and feelings. They reflect over matters of character and their dreams and hopes for the future. Many young writers describe their relationships and conflicts with family, friends, and first loves. Some writers use their diaries as a place to consider matters of faith, religion, and belief (or lack of belief) in God. • How do any of the documents reflect or describe individual or community inner conflicts?
2. How do we determine what about the past is important to know? 3. What about the past is important to know? 4. Whose individual experiences matter? 5. How does the document you have reviewed describe an individual’s or a community’s inner
conflicts? Reflection and Decision: According to your analysis of your historical historian, determine whether or not the document you have reviewed is worthy of entry into the historical record and could be used in a court of law as reliable and accepted evidence. Give your reasoning. Extension Activities: 1. Research how law can be used to protect civilians in a time of war, and then write a letter
introducing your ideas to your local Congressional Representative. 2. Reflect on the meaning of home. What parts of home can and cannot be taken with you? In
a poem, a story, or another medium of creative expression, write about the ways in which refugees in the past, as well as today, have attempted to create home in a new place.
3. Write a letter to a parent or guardian, or to someone who is important to you who live far away. Once you have completed this letter, shorten it to 25 words, including salutation and closing—the limit on the postcards that the Red Cross could deliver during World War II. • Can you convey the same message? • How does it change?
4. Illustrate what your home means to you. If you had to leave your home, how would you draw what your life, family and town means to you, so that children or grandchildren you may have will have something visual to show them what your childhood was like. Consider you are an older person in a different country and culture where your children or grandchildren may not be familiar with life in America.
Unit III
WWII & The Holocaust
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Unit III WWII & The Holocaust
Lesson: Victims, Collaborators, Resistance Fighters, and Rescuers Common Core Standards: RH 1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical references from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. WHST 2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. SL 2 Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. Key Questions/Issues Addressed:
• Why did some people choose to be bystanders and/or collaborators while others chose to become upstanders and rescuers?
• What dangers and threats did those who became resisters and rescuers face from the perpetrators and collaborators?
• How are the resisters and rescuers being remembered and memorialized for their courage and humanity?
Lesson Goals/Objectives:
• Students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of the timeline and major events of the Holocaust in Greece.
• Students will be able to describe the fate of the Jewish population in Greece. • Students will be able to explain the role of the Greek non-Jews as victims, collaborators,
resistance fighters and rescuers. Key Terms:
• Resistance Fighter: An underground organization engaged in a struggle for national liberation in a country under military or totalitarian occupation.
• Collaborator: One who cooperates, usually willingly, with an enemy nation, especially with an enemy occupying one's country.
• Deported: One who was taken from his/her normal place of residence to one of the camps or ghettos. There were literally thousands of camps varying in size, location, and purpose and prisoners frequently were moved from one camp to another. Although the extermination camps (killing centers) are perhaps most notorious and well known for their murderous operations, many died in the other camps also as a result of starvation, medical experiments, forced labor, and other cruel, inhumane treatments.
• Upstander: One who speaks out and takes action in protest and in defense of person(s) or group(s) who are being harassed, persecuted, and generally victimized by another person, group, or government. One who stands up for what is good in the face of evil.
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Materials needed: • Access to the Internet for readings, maps, and other information • Maps and timeline (information included as part of lesson materials; also see
Resources) • Copies of readings provided for students
Background Information: Map showing Occupation Areas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Triple_Occupation_of_Greece.png Jews have lived in Greece since ancient times. In the early modern era, their numbers increased with the immigration of Sephardic Jews after their expulsion from Spain in 1492. These thriving Jewish communities lived in harmony amongst the Greek people as fellow citizens of Greece. In the spring of 1941, Nazi forces invaded mainland Greece after Italian forces were repelled by Greece’s fierce defense of its homeland. Even though deportations did not start until March of 1943, Greece lost at least 87 percent of its Jewish population during the Holocaust. Between 60,000 and 70,000 Greek Jews perished, most of them at Auschwitz-Birkenau. However, between 8,000 and 10,000 Greek Jews were saved due to the unwillingness of the Greek people to betray them to the Nazis. Many gave their own lives to help their fellow brethren escape the “Final Solution”. The country was divided into three zones, controlled by the occupying powers of Germany, Italy and Bulgaria. The Germans controlled Athens, Central Macedonia, Western Crete, Milos, Amorgos and the islands of the Northern Aegean. Bulgaria annexed Thrace and Northern Macedonia. Italy occupied the remainder of the mainland and the islands. It must be noted that the Italians adopted a rather relaxed attitude toward their security duties. Where Jews resided and the corresponding occupation they endured determined not only their possibility of escape, but also their ultimate fate. Nazi Germany maintained its occupations until the fall of 1944. Instructional Activities/Procedures: 1. Students will study the fate of the Jewish population in Greece and it will be a prelude to the
remaining topics.
• Using the Triple Occupation of Greece Map and the online exhibit from U.S. Holocaust Museum-The Holocaust in Greece.
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/greece/nonflash/eng/intro.htm
• Have the students note the population of the eight major Greek cities having Jewish communities. The population of Thessaloniki was 53,000. It is not listed on exhibit. Further, have them note the number of Greek-Jews that were deported. Using the analogy of your school population and or town population, discuss with the students the sheer devastation of the amount of Greek-Jews that were deported.
2. Students will study the role of the Greek non-Jews as victims, collaborators, resistance fighters and rescuers. • Distribute copies of the readings to the students. The students may read independently
or the class may be divided into small groups to share the responsibility to read aloud within the group. (If the teacher prefers, the readings may be assigned for homework in preparation for class discussion/other activities.)
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• Define and discuss the meaning of the terms victims, collaborators, resistance fighters, rescuer, bystander, and upstander. Discuss the terms in reference to “courage” and “honor”. Which terms do the students associate with courage and honor? Have them explain their choice(s). How do they feel about people they read about or heard about who have behaved as upstanders? How do they feel about collaborators and perpetrators? What descriptive terms would they associate with collaborators and perpetrators? Which would you want to be if it was your nation/home being invaded? Explain your response. Student responses may be part of a discussion or brief individual written paragraphs.
3. Students will read about examples of Greek resistance and learn about some of the leaders in the resistance efforts. • Define heroic behavior by examining the character traits of those who risked their own
lives to rescue others during the Greek-Jewish Holocaust by reading one or more of the following listed below. (Note: The teacher may choose to divide the readings among groups of students and have the students share their reactions in a class discussion or essay. See the general readings and the supplemental readings. Include the short descriptions in the Extension Activities also.)
• Ask students to define the terms “hero” and “heroic”. How are these terms often inappropriately applied in today’s common use of the terms? Why do the students think this occurs? Ask for some examples of individuals and behaviors that are true modern day examples of “hero” and “heroic”. Does the individual and/or behavior fit the definition of hero and heroic developed by the class? By a dictionary definition?
• Have student’s select two individuals from the readings for this lesson that they would consider as heroes or provide specific examples of what they would consider heroic actions. (Include individuals and actions in Activities/Procedures, Supplemental Readings, and Extension Activities.) Briefly explain why they think each is a good example of the true meaning of the term(s). (This may be a brief written assignment or a part of large or small group discussion.)
Evidence of Understanding: 1. Explain how and why religious figures and civic officials assumed leadership roles in
speaking out regarding Nazi actions against the Greek Jews. Provide an example. 2. Make a chart or drawing or write an essay that draws upon the contributions of Greece to
Western civilization that also supports the Greek idea of a strong spirit of independence as well as a strong sense of civic and community responsibility. The chart, drawing, or essay should illustrate the connection between the concepts.
3. Write a paragraph explaining and defending the importance of upstanders in all levels of
society from a friendship to a family all the way to the international world. Describe a situation in which an upstander at a school or neighborhood level can be an important and decisive factor in correcting a bad situation and/or a threatening person or group.
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Extension Activities: 1. Working as an individual or small group research project, research more information about
Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou and the statement made about him and his fellow Greeks by The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. Read the documents listed below and view the video. Prepare a PowerPoint presentation for the class demonstrating the things that they did, the importance of their actions, why their actions were unique, and the results/consequences of those actions.
• Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou was the spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox
people of Athens and All Greece, from 1941 until his death in 1949. He worked very hard to live up to his position during the hard times of the occupation. He frequently clashed with the German authorities and the collaborationist government. In 1943, the Germans began the persecution of the Jews of Greece, and their deportations to Nazi concentration camps. Damaskinos formally protested the actions of the occupational authorities.
• According to The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation the appeal of Damaskinos and his fellow Greeks is unique as no document similar to the protest against the Nazis during World War II has come to light in any other European country.
• Archbishop Damaskinos and Greek Intellectuals Protest Persecution of Greek Jewry-
Letter to Prime Minister http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/greekbishop.html
• Proclamation by the Greek National Liberation Front (EAM) to the Greek People to assist in Rescuing of Jews
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/GreekRescueProc.html
• The story of Metropolitan Chrysostomos & Mayor Lucas Carrer and accompanying Video “The Rescue on the Greek Island of Zakinthos by Righteous Among the Nations” a survivor’s story:
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/chrysostomos_karreri.asp General Readings: Birth of the Resistance: Few Greeks cooperated with the Nazis: most chose either the path of a bystander or active resistance. Active Greek resistance started immediately on the mainland as many Greeks fled to the hills, where a partisan movement was born. One of the most touching episodes of the early resistance took place just after the Nazi forces reached the Acropolis on April 27, 1941. The German forces ordered the flag guard, Evzone Konstandinos Koukidis, to retire the Greek flag. The Greek soldier obeyed, but when he was done, he wrapped himself in the Greek flag and threw himself off of the plateau where he met death. It was one of the first actions of Greek resistance and among the first in Europe, and became an inspiration not only for Greeks but also for other Europeans under German domination. A commemorative plaque was placed at the Acropolis, to remind people of his act of pride and sacrifice. In the early autumn of 1941 the first signs of armed resistance activity took place in northern Greece, in the town of Drama in eastern Macedonia, in the Bulgarian occupation zone. The Bulgarian authorities had initiated large-scale policies, causing the Greek population to revolt. The people of Drama and its outskirts rose up.
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However, this badly-organized revolt was suppressed by the Bulgarian Army, and in retaliation executed over three thousand people in Drama and in the next few weeks an estimated fifteen thousand Greeks were killed in the countryside. Entire villages were machine gunned and looted. The brutality of these reprisals led to a collapse of the early resistance movement and would later be revived in 1942 on a much larger scale. There were numerous resistance groups, however the three most active were the Communist-backed resistance fighters; the National Liberation Front (EAM); and its military wing, the National People's Liberation Army (ELAS), which carried out operations of sabotage and attacks against the German forces with great success. Other resistance groups included a right-wing partisan organization, the National Republican Greek League (EDES), led by Colonel Napoleon Zervas, a former army officer and well-known Republican, and the National and Social Liberation (EKKA) led by Colonel Dimitrios Psarros, a Royalist. These groups were formed from remnants of the Hellenic Army and the conservative factions of Greek society. Greek non Jews as Victims and Rescuers: Increasing attacks by resistance fighters in the latter years of the occupation resulted in a number of executions and slaughter of civilians. In total, the Germans executed some 21,000 Greeks, the Bulgarians 40,000 and the Italians 9,000. The most well-known examples in the zone of German occupation are:
• The destruction of Kommeno, which on August 16, 1943, saw its 317 inhabitants executed and the village torched.
• The "Holocaust of Viannos" which took place on September 14–16 in 1943, in which over 500 civilians from several villages in the region of Viannos and Ierapetra in Crete were executed.
• The "Massacre of Kalavryta" on December 13, 1943, in which German troops carried out the extermination of the entire male population and the total destruction of the town; the "Distomo massacre" on June 10, 1944, where an SS Police unit looted and burned the village of Distomo in Boeotia as 218 civilians died that day.
• The "Holocaust of Kedros" on August 22, 1944 in Crete, 164 civilians were executed and nine villages were dynamited after being looted.
• Further, during the course of the anti-guerrilla campaign, hundreds of villages were systematically torched and almost 1,000,000 Greeks left homeless.
Thousands of Jews were saved due in part to Greek neighbors hiding them and through heroic acts of defiance by the leaders of the Greek Orthodox Church and local government officials. The actions taken by Bishop Chrysostomos and Mayor Lucas Carrer on the island of Zakynthos and the actions of Archbishop Damaskenos and Police Chief Angelos Evert were admirable. As upstanders they received the title of “Righteous Among the Nations”. The “Righteous Among the Nations” is a program sponsored by Yad Vashem in Israel. Established in 1953 as the world center for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem preserves the memory of the Holocaust and conveys the significance for future generations to come. In 1963, this worldwide program came to fruition; the project grants the title of “Righteous Among the Nations” to non-Jews who as upstanders helped rescue the Jews in their time of need during the Holocaust. Most rescuers were ordinary people, some acted out of political, ideological or religious convictions; others were not idealists, but merely human beings who cared about the people around them.
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Faced with Jews knocking on their door, upstanders were faced with the need to make an instant decision. In many cases they never planned to become rescuers, however in the moment, they precisely did just that. There were those who gave food to Jews, or directed Jews to people who could help them and others would hide them in their homes or on their property. Some would provide false papers and false identities and others would assist in smuggling the Jews to safety. Let us not forget the rescuing of the Jewish children in which many were taken in by families or placed in convents for protection. As of January 1, 2012, Yad Vashem has recognized Righteous upstanders from 44 countries, and will continue doing so. The “Righteous Among the Nations” teaches that every person can make a difference. The country of Greece has 313 upstanders who have been named “The Rightous Among the Nations”. All recipients who are bestowed this title are recognized with a medal and a certificate of honor and their names are commemorated on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem. Collaborators: As in other European countries, there were Greeks willing to collaborate with the occupying force. Some did so because they shared the National Socialist ideology, others because of extreme anti-Communism, and others because of opportunistic advancement, fear and isolation. Eager to find support from fascist and anti-Semitic groups, the Germans supported and helped organizations such as the National Union of Greece (EEE), the Greek National Socialist Party (EEK), led by George S. Mercouris, and other minor pro-Nazi, fascist or anti-Semitic organizations such as the Hellenic Socialist Patriotic Organization (ESPO). Some of the most notable collaborators were government officials. General Georgios Tsolakoglou who had signed the armistice treaty with Germany was appointed as chief of a new government in Athens. He was later succeeded as Prime Minister by two other prominent Greek collaborators: Konstantinos Logothetopoulos and Ioannis Rallis. The latter was responsible for the creation of the Greek collaborationist Security Battalions. Supplemental Readings-Stories of Rescuers and Resistance Fighters: The Story of Dr. Christopher Christodoulou: When WWII took hold in Greece, Dr. Christopher Christodoulou was studying theology at the University of Athens. After the Greeks repelled an invasion by Mussolini’s fascist forces through a fierce defense of their country, the Germans directed the full might of their military machine to the Balkans and overtook Greece in 1941. During the German occupation of Greece, Christopher Christodoulou worked nights at the 2nd Military Hospital so he could continue his studies. His work schedule gave him the flexibility to assist the guerrilla resistance against the Nazis. His particular contribution to the resistance was to get Greek Jews false baptismal certificates which would indicate a Christian heritage and save them from deportation and extermination. The Archbishop of Greece, Damaskinos, had given the order for the Orthodox clergy to assist in the effort to save their Jewish compatriots from the growing threat of Nazi barbarism. Dr. Christodoulou played a vital role in securing the necessary documentation for many Jews who lived in and around Athens by operating as a liaison between local Jews, the Archdiocese and the Athens police department. The underground operation was a very risky endeavor which constituted a capital offence.
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Even with this in mind, he aided the resistance by supplying the names and addresses of local Jews to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese which would secretly process the necessary documentation to prove that they had been baptized as Greek Orthodox Christians. Helping these efforts was his college roommate, then Deacon Makarios, who would later become the founding President and Archbishop of the Republic of Cyprus. After the documents were prepared and stamped for authenticity, he would return them to the police chief who would then issue a Christian ID for distribution to the now ‘Christianized’ Jews. The Police Chief of Athens, incidentally, was a Greek of German decent. One evening while walking from the Archdiocese with falsified papers in his jacket sleeve, he was stopped by a German officer who signaled to his forearm with an inquisitive and urgent look. With evidence of his complicity with the resistance in his sleeve, the situation could have proved fatal. But, to comply with the officer’s request, he pulled his sleeve up above his wrist, exposing his timepiece and motioned that he was very late for work at the hospital and quickly walked away narrowly escaping certain execution and the exposure of the underground operation. Undeterred by this near disaster, Dr. Christodoulou continued his efforts and the noble cause of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. But, on November 29, 1943, Christopher was arrested for suspicion of helping the Jews and sentenced to the Haidari concentration camp in a suburb of Athens. Had he been arrested for actually helping the Jews and not merely on suspicion of helping, he would have been killed immediately. As the arresting officer put handcuffs on him, he said, “This will teach you not to help the Jews”. One of his Jewish friends, Sifi (Joseph), however, was a beneficiary of the underground’s efforts before he was arrested. The false ID Sifi was provided allowed him to travel from Athens to the countryside in relative safety. The two friends, however, lost touch by the end of the war. While incarcerated, the 2,000 prisoners in Dr. Christodoulou’s compound suffered from beatings, torture, hard labor and deprivation during the cold winter of 1943. Each of them became the skeletons we have seen memorialized in heart wrenching photographs. The commander of the Concentration camp was a ruthless German named Commandant Rodamski who often executed prisoners on the spot to evoke fear and compliance with the harsh rules. To further prove his brutality, after he shot a prisoner, he would smash the heads of their lifeless corpse with his boot telling the rest of the inmates that the same fate awaited them if they resisted or conspired against the occupation. In retaliation for a modest success by the resistance in Athens, Rodamski ordered 25 prisoners to be executed, as was typical by the Nazi captors. The selected prisoners, including Christopher, were marched into the woods outside the camp, ordered to dig their own graves and stand in front of them as they awaited execution by a machine gun fire. At the young age of 23, Christopher didn’t think it was his time to die, so he resisted and tried to disarm one of the guards. Overpowered and beaten to the ground, he was thrown into his grave as the others were shot dead above him. As other prisoners went to bury the dead, they found Christopher barely alive. Undetected by the guards, they quickly filled in his empty grave and sneaked him back to the camp where they nursed him back to relative health. A scar from the attack was visible on his skull for the rest of his life. When asked decades later how the guards didn’t recognize him, he replied, “deprived skeletons all look the same and have no personality to distinguish them, so they never found out that I survived the execution”.
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The Christmas of 1943 was not a time for celebration, but the Red Cross managed to provide a holiday dinner for the prisoners. When the dinners were handed out, the Jewish prisoners were omitted. Reminded that the holiday was a particular time for family unity, they shared their Christmas dinners with their Jewish brothers. As soon as the commandant learned of this cooperation among the prisoners, he ordered everyone’s meals taken from them and fed to the dogs. Through the brutal winter of hard labor, limited food, and a mattress of cold cement, many prisoners died of pneumonia and a few even committed suicide with no hope in sight. Capitalizing on the prisoners’ defeated state of mind, the mostly Bulgarian mercenaries who carried out the day to day operations of the concentration camp played a form of Russian roulette in which they called the name of a prisoner who would either be let go or be executed on the spot. One afternoon, a guard called the name of Iakovos Christodoulou (Christopher’s given name before he was ordained as a priest). Tempted to declare his presence, something told him to remain silent. Moments later, a prisoner who cracked from the pressure of incarceration assumed the name and stood up, hoping to be released. The guard took him to the center of the compound in full view of the rest of the prisoners and executed Iakovos’s namesake who now lay lifeless on the arid dirt. It truly seemed as if the future held no hope; but, on March 25th 1944, in recognition of Greek Independence Day which commemorates Greece’s independence from 400 years of Ottoman Turkish occupation in 1821, 25 prisoners from the Haidari prison camp were selected to be freed. Christopher Christodoulou was one of them. From the original 2,000 prisoners, only 25 survived the brutal nightmare. Somehow, by the Grace of God, the life of the Very Reverend Dr. Christopher Christodoulou, who risked his life to save others, was spared. To his dying days, he recalled the virtues of being an upstander and never missed an opportunity to encourage others to stand up against injustice and ill will. To prove his dedication to these ideals and to overcome the feelings that his imprisonment had caused, he decided to conclude his academic studies at the University of Munich where he learned the language, earned a Doctor’s Degree in theology, found the goodness in a people it would have been easier to hate and regained his faith in mankind. His final word was a simple yet powerful concept which he imparted to his son at his side. With the twinkle in his eye, which only wisdom can bring, he left a lasting legacy of one word – “courage”.
This story is used with the permission of Dr. Zenon Christodoulou as told to him by his father Dr. Christopher Christodoulou
Excerpts from the book entitled “Tribute”
A Tribute to Greek America Presented by the Greek American Foundation
Christ and Anna Pappas by Gregory C. Pappas: In May of 1941 the Nazis invaded Crete. My dad was a teenager and often recounted stories later in life about the “umbrella men” falling from the sky, referring to the German parachute landing of thousands of troops. The war was brutal and throughout most of his later life, he told stories he could remember of escapes from firing squads in nearby villages and round ups of the Jewish population of Hania.
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As a teenager he was active in the organized resistance against the Nazis, serving as a “runner” of messages between the various safe houses and resistance camps. Such messages were often sewn into hems of pants, or pasted into schoolbooks to make the passing of German checkpoints possible. He was also used as a decoy—a skinny, unassuming youngster, to distribute “prokirikseis” or anti-German propaganda flyers throughout the city in the middle of the night, encouraging the civilians to participate in the resistance against the Nazis. He was often accompanied by friends from the neighborhood. One in particular whose name he recalled was Stelios Kohilakis. My grandmother Anna had already experienced emigration to the United States to marry a stranger, a difficult life in a mining town, repatriation to Greece in the 1930s and the difficult decision to send two of her children back to the United States alone. Now the horrors of the Second World War were upon her, during which she chose to be especially active in the resistance against the Nazis, assisting Allied troops during the ten-day Battle of Crete and in the ensuing evacuation of the island. The Allied Supreme Commander, with a letter of acknowledgement, honored my grandmother for her actions in support of the Allied cause. My grandfather Michael, did his part too, in the war effort by hiding a friend and neighbor—a member of the Cretan Jewish community and assisting him to ultimate freedom, never to hear from him again, but knowing for certain that he didn’t share the same fate with other Cretan Jews, who perished when their boat was sunk by a torpedo while they were on their way to Auschwitz. Christos Temo by Melina Kanakaredes: In 1934, my grandparents decided to take their children back to Greece to meet their grandparents and family. Unfortunately, their visit to Greece came at a terrible time as the preparations for WWII were just beginning to take shape in Adolf Hitler’s Germany. What was supposed to be a short vacation turned into an eight and a half year stay. Unable to escape, the Temo family faced many challenges during the war, especially when they were forced to live in a German occupied Greece. Because my Papou owned a truck and had the ability to speak English, Greek, Albanian, a little German, (he was a salesman and knew a little of every language) he was given the coveted job of bringing in sugar, flour and wheat rations for the town of Naoussa. He had permission to be out after curfew and would use this power to do a lot more than the Germans realized. On one dark evening during his run, his headlight beamed onto a small foot peeking out from the bushes. It belonged to the youngest of three children from a family of Greek- Jews hiding in the woods. Seeing his own family in them, he quickly hid each one in potato sack bags and housed them in the basement of their home until it was safe to help them escape through the borders of Yugoslavia. Just one month after helping the family, a high-ranking German soldier was stationed to live in my grandparent’s home. Timing is everything, a few weeks earlier and this story would never have been told. Xirohakis-Dokimos Family by Christos Epperson: In 1943, Kyriako Xirouhakis and his sisters Eleftheria and Rita joined the resistance group "Pibli" in Hania, Crete. Eleftheria spoke three languages and worked in a German office where she had access to classified documents that she would steal, translate and give to the resistance group. On June 11, at a wedding reception the Germans arrested the siblings except Artemisia who was a baby at the time.
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During a search of their house, the Germans found a diagram of the "Perivolitsa Camp" behind a painting on the wall. They interrogated the siblings and Eleftheria took responsibility for the diagram in order to protect her brothers and sisters. Her exact words according to German Lieutenant Volf Sinter were, "I am a spy, I work with the resistance group 'Pibli' and I will not reveal anything else." They were all taken to the prison at Agia where Eleftheria was severely tortured by the Germans Hoffman and Fritz Sterling to reveal her contacts in the resistance. She was hung naked in the ladies room and beaten repeatedly for three days and nights, but did not reveal any information. There was a German guard next to her 24 hours a day to prevent her from sleeping. On July 13, 1944 the Germans executed Eleftheria. Her last words according to the records of German nurse Fritz Nider who went to check that she was dead were, "Away with your dirty hands so you don’t pollute a Greek woman. Long live Greece." Kyriako, Manoli and Dimitri were sent to the Dachau concentration camp and Rita was sent to another concentration camp somewhere in Eastern Europe. They all survived and returned to Crete after the war was over. The three brothers returned the same day their parents were having a memorial for them in the belief that they had died. On April 4, 2004 the cultural group "Omonia" honored Eleftheria with a statue at the church grounds in Aroni, Crete. Resources: Map showing Occupation Areas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Triple_Occupation_of_Greece.png Online Exhibit to be used with lesson http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/greece/nonflash/eng/intro.htm Proclamation by the Greek National Liberation Front (EAM) to Rescue Jews to rally the Greeks to stand and support the protection of the Greek Jews http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/GreekRescueProc.html The story of Metropolitan Chrysostomos & Mayor Lucas Carrer and a Video “The Rescue on the Greek Island of Zakinthos by Righteous Among the Nations” a survivor’s story: http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/chrysostomos_karreri.asp Sources: www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/greece/nonflash/eng/intro.htm www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_occupation_of_Greece_during_World_War_II www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Greece_during_World_War_II www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretan_resistance www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archbishop_Damaskinos www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantinos_Koukidis www.thefreedictionary.com www.dictionary.com www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation www.kis.gr/en/ www.jewishmuseum.gr/en www.yadvashem.org
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TIMELINE of the Nazi Occupation of Greece: October 28, 1940 Fascist Italy invades Greece “Oxi Day” Greek Army forces them out of Greece April 6, 1941 Nazi forces invade Greece and Yugoslavia April 27, 1941 Nazi forces enter Athens, Greece April 28, 1941 Greece is divided into 3 Axis Occupation Zones-German, Italian and Bulgarian May 20, 1941 The island of Crete is invaded by Nazis forces June 1941 Greek Islands under Nazi Control June 1941 German forces confiscate Jewish libraries, manuscripts and art from the Jews of Thessaloniki and sent it to Germany July 1942 Parts of Nuremberg Laws are put in effect in German and Bulgarian Zones Greek-Jews ordered to wear “Yellow Star of David” Greek-Jews of Thessaloniki are conscripted into forced labor December 1942 German forces demolish cemeteries, use ancient tombstones as building material for sidewalks and walls January 22, 1943 Proclamation by the Greek National Liberation Front (EAM) calling on Greeks to help save the Greek-Jews February 1943 Greek-Jews of Thessaloniki ordered into Ghettos adjacent to rail lines-Baron Hirsch March 3, 1943 Greek-Jews from Bulgarian Occupation Zone transported to Treblinka killing centers. (Alexandroupolis, Drama, Kavala, Komotini, Serres, Xanthi) March 15, 1943-August 19, 1943 Greek-Jews from the German Occupation Zone in the Thessaloniki area deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau (Thessolaniki, Veroia) March 23, 1943 Archbishop Damaskinos & Greek intellectuals send a letter to the Prime Minister of Greece and publish it in newspapers “Protesting the Persecution of Greek-Jews”
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May 4, 1943 Greek-Jews from Didymotichio and Orestiada arrested and transferred to Thessaloniki, and eventually deported onto Auschwitz-Birkenau September 8, 1943 Italy surrenders to Allied forces September 8, 1943 German forces take over. Italian Occupation Zone Implements the “Final Solution” plan in Greece. September 9, 1943 German forces occupy the island of Zakynthos September 1943 Greek-Jews of Karditsa with the help of the resistance were given fake Identification papers and Christian names all escaped to the mountain town of Mastroyianni and were hidden and protected to the end of the war. October 8, 1943 German forces order the reorganization of the Athens Greek-Jews 1944 Mayor Carrer of Zakynthos at gunpoint ordered to submit a list with the names of the Greek-Jews. The list was presented to the Germans containing only two names: Mayor Carrer and Bishop Chrysostomos. The Bishop bravely told the Germans, "Here are your Jews. If you choose to deport the Jews of Zakynthos, you must also take me and I will share their fate." March 25, 1944 Most of the remaining Greek-Jews of Greece are arrested and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. April 14, 1944 First transport of Greek-Jews from Athens arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau. June 1944 Greek-Jews of the island of Crete are arrested and put on ship with Greek & Italian prisoners, ship is sunk with no survivors. July 22, 1944 Greek-Jews from the islands of Kos and Rhodes sent to Piraeus on crowded cargo ships eventually deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. October 1944 Germany orders the evacuation of mainland Greece through Yugoslavia. October 5, 1944 British forces land in Greece and join New Zealand and Australia expedtionary forces. October 7, 1944 “The Greek Uprising” Auschwitz-Birkenau Revolt of the Sonderkommando resulting in the destruction of 1 ½ crematoriums thus slowing down the killing process. October 14, 1944 Athens is liberated.
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January 27, 1945 Soviet troops liberate the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. April 30, 1945 Adolf Hitler commits suicide. May 7, 1945 Germany surrenders to the western Allies. May 9, 1945 Germany surrenders to the Soviets. May 12, 1945 German forces surrender on the island of Crete. Sources: www.historyplace.com www.ushmm.org www.kis.gr www.jewishmuseum.gr
Unit IV
Aftermath of the Holocaust in Greece
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UNIT IV AFTERMATH OF THE HOLOCAUST IN GREECE
Lesson 1 LESSON: "Where do I go now?" COMMON CORE STANDARDS: RH 2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. SL 3 Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric. Social Studies Standards (NJ): [6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6] KEY QUESTIONS/ISSUES ADDRESSED:
• What is the importance of recording first person accounts by survivors for the historical record as well as for remembrance and the determination of the human spirit?
• How were the experiences of survivors influenced by their geographic location and the people with whom they had contact (fellow prisoners, rescuers, resisters, collaborators, perpetrators, liberators, etc.)?
LESSON GOALS/OBJECTIVES:
• Students will be able to identify the different categories of Greek survivors based on their location and experience during the Nazi occupation of Greece.
• Students will be able to recognize the challenges and the choices that death camp survivors had to face after liberation.
KEY TERMS:
• Death Camp - Death March - Auschwitz - Birkenau • Mauthausen/Ebensee • Kapo
MATERIALS needed:
• Access to Internet for resource information (http://www.ushmm.org) • Reprint, (Athens—Auschwitz, Errikos Sevillias, copyright 1983, Lycabettus Press. pages
81-87) Reprint, (A Liter of Soup and Sixty Grams of Bread, Heinz Salvator Kounio, copyright 2003, pages 161-164)
BACKGROUND information:
• Some prior study of the Holocaust. INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES/PROCEDURES: 1. Students will view a film clip of the liberation of Mauthausen/Ebensee Death Camp, the
location of the large majority of Greek Jews who survived the death march from Auschwitz. (Site specific addresses may change slightly but a search of the site will lead to several film clips that may be accessed if there is a problem with this specific clip.)
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/phistories/viewmedia/phi_fset.php?MediaId=1201
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2. Students will read several first person accounts of the experiences after liberation written by
two Greek Jewish survivors. (Athens — Auschwitz, Errikos Sevillias, copyright 1983, Lycabettus Press, pages 81-87) and (A Liter of Soup and Sixty Grams of Bread, Heinz Salvator Kounio, copyright 2003, pages 161-164)
3. Students will form into pair-share groups to contemplate who might be categorized as a survivor. They will then note in their journals where survivors were located and what their experiences might have been during the war (eg: In hiding versus in a death camp.) As students report their conclusions, a student or teacher will record them on a central board.
4. With their conclusions on the board, students will then discuss their reaction to the question posed after liberation, "Where do I go now?" according to the experience one might have had either being in a camp or in hiding. Students will be encouraged to apply their own feelings in answering the question.
EVIDENCE OF UNDERSTANDING: 1. Class journals 2. Class discussion 3. Write a paragraph explaining some of the factors that might influence a survivor's response
to the question "Where do I go now?". EXTENSION ACTIVITIES: 1. Accessing the site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
(http://www.ushmm.org), search for firsthand accounts of their stories by survivors. Select several of these accounts and read and review them for factors that may help account for their survival and for the post liberation choices that each made in answer to the question "Where do I go now?".
2. Write an essay that includes information about each survivor's story and responds to the following questions. • Are there any common factors to be found in the different accounts? • What significant differences are there? • Where did each decide to settle to begin a new life? • What influenced their choices?
3. In cooperation with your teacher(s), arrange for a Holocaust survivor or offspring to visit your class to speak with the students. Provide fellow students with basic biographical information about the survivor in preparation for the visit. (country of birth, age at beginning of Holocaust period, current city/town of home, etc.) Also, students should have received at least a basic study of the Holocaust prior to the visit. If the class has or is going to study incidents of human rights violations and/or genocides, arrange for a visit by a survivor of that genocide when possible. Following each visit by a survivor, students should record their reactions to the survivor's story in a journal. Also, a written "thank you" note should be sent to the survivor for visiting and sharing her/his story. If it is not possible to arrange for a visit by a survivor, video recordings of survivors telling their stories are available from a variety of sources and these may be used also. (Athens—Auschwitz, Errikos Sevillias, copyright 1983, Lycabettus Press. pages 81-87)
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Freedom! May 6, 1945 An excerpt from “A Liter of Soup and Sixty Grams of Bread”, Heinz Salvator Kounio. We didn't hear a sound. Not a leaf was moving on the trees. I went to the window. The sentries were still at their posts, only now they were military guards and not SS. About 10:00 in the morning, as we were in bed, we heard shouting in the square: "The Americans are coming!”. With whatever strength I had left, I lifted myself up, and hurriedly dressed. I ran with the others to greet our liberators. It was another hallucination! There was a German on horseback, wearing a khaki uniform. He was coming towards the camp! I returned to my block and fell into bed both physically and emotionally exhausted. I stayed there until noon. At our midday meal, our block captain informed us that we would be given bread three times a day and that our food would be more nourishing. "It's still the same margarine and bread made from wood scraps", he added. Our joy was indescribable. It was 3:30 in the afternoon, and I was standing by the window, deep in thought. I saw a crowd running towards the square. It was real. The Americans were finally arriving! Unbelievably, the sentries were still at their posts. I could not believe what I saw next. Armored tanks were entering our camp. An American sergeant opened the door of his jeep and shouted to those of us who were running to the large entrance gate of the camp: "Prisoners, your time has come! You are free! You are no longer slaves of Fascism!" Imagine how we felt, hearing those words. We started to cry like babies. We began to line up in groups according to our nationalities. We began to sing, each group singing its national anthem. Flags appeared, hurriedly made from our louse-infested rags and uniforms. To make the Greek flag, we needed white and blue. We used the dirty sheets from the hospital for the white, and old blue clothing for the blue. We raised our makeshift flag high and sang our national anthem. Then we calmly returned to our block. The Americans brought us the news of our freedom and then left. We hoped they would return and that, by tomorrow, we would be eating as free men. We were alone. What about the 16,000 of us that remained in the camp? Were we really free or would the Germans return? The Russian prisoners began to tear apart the storage sheds. They began marching towards the city. The block captains tried to escape without being noticed, fearing for their lives. Inmates ran after them to revenge the death of thousands who had lost their lives at their hands. The block captains did not escape the wrath of God! We heard gunshots sounding out in the night. Prisoners had taken guns from the wooden huts where the SS had stored them. With every shot that rang out, we knew that another block captain had received his just punishment. The vermin ran like hunted animals. Voices could be heard begging for help. Most of the block captains were lynched. Nothing could save them from the furious rage of the newly freed inmates. They could not escape. No matter where they fled, they were quickly captured.
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At 11:00 in the evening, we were awakened by loud noises and the sound of people running. The large wooden can used to store gasoline had been set on fire. There was fear that the whole camp would burst into flames if the wind carried the fire in the wrong direction. American troops ran over to contain the fire and to prevent it from spreading to the neighboring buildings and trees surrounding the camp. The fire was finally contained later that night. At daybreak, I heard a voice calling out for help. I looked out the window to see what was happening. The inmates were stoning a kapo known throughout the camp for his cruelty. It was the infamous Gypsy from Melk. The inmates were taking their revenge for the thousands he had killed or tortured. More than one hundred Russians and Jewish inmates surrounded him. They were stoning him. The scene was wild. A Russian grabbed a large heavy stone and flung it at the kapo's head. It found its mark, and the Gypsy fell down. He appeared to be dead. However, he started to get up again. It was not so easy to kill this vermin. The inmates lifted him up and took him to the hospital, but it was not his fate to survive their rage. The blood of his victims was seeking revenge. Other inmates in the hospital decided to burn him alive. They carried him to the crematory. The crematory was no longer functioning and had to be relit. The kapo was lying on a stretcher. Awakened from his lethargy, he got up and crawled towards the wall and tried to leave undetected. He stared at the flames of the oven and realized what was in store for him. He tried to raise himself up and began to scream. I was leaning against the wall, watching all of this. I closed my eyes to block out the abominable sight. They placed the kapo on the stretcher, the same one that had carried corpses as they were thrown into the oven with a large iron hook passing through their legs. The Gypsy kapo would now suffer the same martyrdom. Without mercy, they punched him in his bloody face, and prepared to throw him directly into the crematory oven. He was aware of everything. He tried to get up, screaming for help. There was no help for him. It was too late. The fires were lit. They attached the hook to the stretcher and threw him into the oven. I shall never forget this terrible sight. The flames engulfed him and he tried to push open the door. He screamed in agony. It was the most horrible of deaths. The image of the Kapo's last attempts to free himself is deeply engraved in my memory. I can still see him trying to free himself from the oven and save himself from the flames that were engulfing his body. His death was quite mild compared to the death of his victims. He should have suffered like his victims did. His death should have been prolonged. The minutes should have dragged on. He should have undergone the excruciating torture of knowing that he was going to die like his victims did. Like in ancient times, the Furies had taken their revenge. RETURN: As soon as we were ready, we took food for three days and documents saying that we were prisoners and went to the station. There we would take a train to Hungary and would return to Greece via Serbia as many others had done. At the station we found a Pole who was returning to his country. We asked him which train to take because he said he knew the schedules. We asked him to help us get to Hungary. He suggested that we go with him and he promised to show us where to get off and which train to take to Hungary.
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We travelled all night and in the morning we stopped because a bridge had been destroyed and we had to continue on foot for about three kilometers in order to catch another train. Because I was so weak I had a lot of trouble walking. Fortunately, I found a German on the road with a bicycle, and I asked him to put me on it and he took me to the station. If it hadn't been for him I would not have managed to arrive in time and would have missed the train as well as my companions, who had left me behind on the road and gone on without helping me at all. When I got to the train I was exhausted. Then I understood how stupid I had been to leave the hospital. In the afternoon, when the train stopped, we saw that the Pole was missing. He had gotten off at one of the stops, leaving us to our fate. Since we didn't know where we were going, we got off at the next stop. When we asked the station master, he said that we were in Poland. We had taken a completely different train that the one we should have taken to get to Budapest. We slept that night in the station and in the morning began asking whatever Pole we met which train to take. Unfortunately, however, all of them were inhospitable, and no one took the time or trouble to give us exact information. So, in the end, we took a train by chance, without knowing where it was going. After three hours we arrived at Auschwitz, the place the Germans first brought us when they caught us. When we got off the train we began to walk without knowing where we were going. I was extremely tired and bitterly regretted my foolishness. Fortunately, however, as we were walking, some Russians saw us who, when they heard what had happened to us, directed us to take the next train. They told us that it would take us to Gleiwitz where they would help us return to our homeland. Gleiwitz was a big city. When we arrived, some Red Cross representatives took us in hand and directed us to a building where there were other prisoners. There they gave us beds and plenty of food. They also took care of my boils and changed the dressings. In this way I recovered from the hardships I went through for the three days on the road. We stayed there for five days, during which we took walks in the town. We also went to a Jewish community where they gave us money, various useful things, and a lot of food. On the fifth day we were put on a train with a lot of others and taken to Katowice, a much bigger town that Gleiwitz. There the Russians took us to a camp where there were many other Greeks. The food was plentiful. Every day they gave meat and a loaf of bread to each one of us. I rested well there and got excellent medical care. I stayed there twelve days, during which I visited all the city. It was beautiful and clean. Thanks to the food and the sweets I bought I regained my strength. From Katowice we went by train to Leipzig in Germany to a camp where there were thousands of prisoners. After four days there we were transferred to the Russian zone where we were given to the Americans in exchange for Russian prisoners the Americans had. When that was over the doctors came and examined us. Since I was thin and wrapped in bandages they put me in a hospital car of a train which had eight beds. Soon the doctor returned and, after examining me carefully, told the nurse to change my bandages every morning and evening and to apply an ointment which he gave her. After each of us was given a package containing canned food, chocolate, sweets, and cigarettes, our train got under way. Our trip took three days, during which time the nurse who was with us looked after us so that we had no discomfort at all. We had plenty of food.
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Finally, we arrived in the city of Spenheim where ambulances met us and took us to an enormous and beautiful hospital. There doctors examined us again, telling me and one other that we should remain since we needed treatment. I fell into a depression as I was in a hurry to return to Greece to see my wife and child, whom I still had not been able to notify that I was well. The post office wouldn't accept letters for any place; we were constantly told to have patience and that when they could accept letters they would tell us. I told the doctor that I wanted to leave but, before I could finish, a French doctor took me to the ward where I had to stay. The others went to Mannheim where they would be sent to Greece. When I went upstairs they put me in a bath, then they gave me pajamas and took me to a very clean bed in a ward with ten beds, each patient of a different nationality. Soon after I was settled a Greek came to visit me. He told me that there were twenty-two Greeks in the hospital and that he was acting in a way as their leader, looking after all of them. If I wanted anything, I was to tell him. From the window he showed me the place in the gardens, which were double the size of our Royal Garden, where the Greeks gathered every afternoon to pass the time. The sick of the other nationalities went elsewhere in the gardens. Each group had its own corner and everywhere were scattered lawn chairs so that we could sit comfortably. That afternoon I went down and had a good time with the others speaking our own language. The care here was more thorough and even better than the care we had at the other hospitals. And the food was plentiful. A few days later the Americans brought us some cards to fill our which they would send, at last, to our homes. This was the first time since I had been released that I sent news that I was well, and I imagined my family's joy when they would receive it. The card, however, reached Greece two months after I did. Time passed very pleasantly in the hospital. Every afternoon all the Greeks met and we thought about the time when we would be able to go to our homeland. After about one month I had gained enough weight, thanks to the good care and the good food, but I was still covered with boils that tortured me. I had a French nurse who felt sorry for me, seeing how much I suffered, and she tried as best as she could to relieve the pain. Every evening she would drain the boils because they hurt me a great deal and this relieved the pain, but in the morning there would be more. Finally, three doctors, an American, a Frenchman, and a Pole, examined me thoroughly and, after a long consultation, gave instructions to the nurse and then left. In a short while the French nurse came and gave me an injection, telling me that it would cure the boils but that I was not to worry if I got a fever as it would be a result of the injection. It was better that I recover even if it did mean the discomfort of fever. She gave me an injection in the right buttock and told me not to eat any of the food given to the others as long as I had fever. She said that she would bring me what I should eat. During these days, since I couldn't go downstairs, some of the Greeks came and kept me company. When they weren't with me I passed the time speaking with one of the Italians, who was in my room. On the seventh day my fever began to subside and the results of the injection began to show. I stopped having any new boils and the old ones began to dry up. On the tenth day, as both the fever and the pain in my leg had disappeared, I went down to the garden where my comrades met me with great joy. So the same life began again, except that now I was free from the boils and I was very happy that this torture had finished. Forty days after my arrival in the hospital I weighed and saw that I had reached 62 kilos, as compared to the 32 when I had been released and the 48 when I had left the other hospital.
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On the 12th of August some men came from the camp at Mannheim to take us since they had begun to send the prisoners back to their homelands. I was full of joy thinking of my family. From the twenty-two of us sick, only sixteen left because the others were still too ill to travel. Before leaving I went to the nurse who had stood by me so well. She did not stop looking after me until the last moment. When I told her that I was leaving she was very moved. I said goodbye to her and she gave me a package of biscuits and sweets. I was so touched that I couldn't find the words with which to thank her. When I arrived at Mannheim I found the Greeks with whom I had travelled before. It surprised me as I thought they had long since returned to Greece. They found me much changed and fat. The next day we left for Munich where we were sent by air to Greece. On our arrival, however, we were told that our flight had been postponed for a few days. This made me very unhappy. The closer I got to home the more impatient I became. We stayed in Munich for ten days. They looked after us well, particularly the sick, of whom I was one. All day we wandered about the city, often going to pass the time at the marvelous zoological gardens. On the 22nd of August we left by train for Italy. We spent one day in Rome before going on to Bari, where we were put into a military camp surrounded by a wire fence and were forbidden to leave it. On the night of the 25th of August they took those of us who were still weak to send us to Athens. We went by train to Taranto where the (Queen) Elizabeth, the ship that was to take us to Greece, was waiting. It was an enormous ship with over 2,000 passengers on board. Englishmen, Indians, and we Greeks who numbered 300. As we boarded they gave each of us a life jacket, showing us how to put it on and telling us to keep it with us always as there were mines in the sea and the journey would be dangerous. We left at 3:00. Fortunately, the ship was very large and, although the sea was rough, it didn't roll much and I didn't get seasick. At night I had nightmares and kept waking up thinking we had hit a mine. Fortunately, however, nothing happened. I had run out of cigarettes and was bothered that I didn't have money to buy any. I started talking with some Indians, who were all very nice and immediately offered me cigarettes. So that problem was taken care of. At 11:00 the ship's siren blew. I was terrified. They told all of us to go on deck wearing our life jackets. When we got there we were checked by an officer who again told us how to put on the life jackets. These precautions were taken because we were going to cross a very dangerous zone and, therefore, we needed to be ready for anything. We were instructed to stay on deck until we were given permission to go below. Hearing this I was terrified because I didn't know how to swim. Fortunately, at 1:00 they told us that most of the danger had passed and that we could go down to eat but without taking off our life jackets. After eating I went on deck and began to wait anxiously to see land because they had told us that at 7:00 we would arrive in Piraeus. I was full of joy, making plans about how I would meet my wife and child. At 5:00 we could see the mountains of Lavrion and at 6:00 we began to see Piraeus. The closer we drew, the more impatient I became. We entered the harbor at 7:00, but we dropped anchor far from shore. I got ready to go ashore among the first, but then I saw that nothing was being done about disembarking. Soon an officer came and told us that we would stay on board that night as it was forbidden to disembark after the setting of the sun. I felt as though I had been stabbed when I heard this. It made me crazy to think that I was so close to my family but couldn't get to them. At night, after dinner, I went on deck and looked at Piraeus, smoking incessantly in my depression. That night I hardly slept at all. Every minute seemed a century. Finally, dawn broke and I could
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hardly wait to leave. It was Sunday, the 22nd of August. After breakfast, at 9:00, at last, lighters came to get us. I got off among the first and, after passing customs, went to leave, but an officer stopped me and said that they would take us all to Athens and release us there. Another torment! Immediately we got into some vans that were waiting for us and ours started off first. In a short while we arrived in Athens and were taken to the Eighth Gymnasium, which had been cordoned off with barbed wire. There an officer told us that we had to wait to be given identity cards and, afterwards, whoever wanted was free to leave. Whoever had no place to go could stay at the school to sleep and eat. In the meantime, the second van had arrived. Two of the men who got off told me that, just as I left, three women had come with my photograph asking for me. When told that I had just left for Athens, they couldn't believe that I was alive. I understood that it was my wife and my agitation increased. In one hour I got my I.D. and I was just getting ready to leave when a soldier called my name and said that three women were asking for me. I went out immediately and saw my wife and my two nieces. I'll never forget what I felt at that moment. We were all crying like small children. We took a taxi and went home immediately. At the door stood my daughter, waiting for her mother who was late. When she saw me she fell on me, hugging me continuously. At that moment my joy was so great that I forgot all I had suffered. My house filled with people asking about their relatives. Many years have passed since then. Nonetheless, many times I see in my dreams that I am in the camp and I jump up thinking it is true. Afterwards, I can't sleep for the rest of the night. Other times I think that all I went through was no more than a nightmare I saw in my sleep. Immediately, however, the number 182699 on my left arm brings me back to reality. This was the story of my imprisonment. Reprint, (A Liter of Soup and Sixty Grams of Bread, Heinz Salvator Kounio, copyright 2003, pages 161-164)
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Unit IV Aftermath of the Holocaust in Greece
Lesson 2 LESSON: “What happened to you?”
Common Core Standards: RH 1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. RH 2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. Social Studies Standards (NJ): [6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6] Key Questions/Issues Addressed:
• Why did the different experiences of Jewish victims of the Holocaust cause tension among them?
• Why did relations develop between the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and Greek Christian survivors of the Nazi occupation?
• How and why did the influence of the Greek Jews in Salonica/Thessaloniki change after the Holocaust?
Lesson Goals/Objectives:
• Students will be able to identify the strained relations between survivors who returned from death camps with survivors who were in hiding.
• Students will be able to identify the strained relations between Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and Greek Christian survivors of the Nazi occupation.
• Students will be able to examine through population statistics the shift in influence of Greek Jews in Salonica before and after the Holocaust.
Key Terms:
• Anti-Semite • Protocols of the Elders of Zion • Synagogue • Mosques • Minarets
Materials needed:
• Reprint, Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 by Mark Mazower (copyright 2004 pages 388-391).
• Reprint, Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 by Mark Mazower (copyright 2004 pages 417-428).
Background information:
• Some prior study of the Holocaust
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Instructional Activities/Procedures: 1. Students will read a chapter segment from Salonica, City of Ghosts. This will detail
population demographics for Salonica before Nazi occupation. Also, students learn the significant influence on daily life in the city attributable to its Jewish history. Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 by Mark Mazower (copyright 2004 pages 388-391).
2. After reading the assigned piece, students will work in their pair groups to identify the specific reasons that Salonica could be distinguished in the world as a city heavily influenced by its Jewish identity. Journal entries will be followed by class discussion.
3. Students will read about the awkward aftermath of survivors returning to Greece after repatriation to face survivors who had not been in the death camps as well as Christians who now owned Jewish homes and businesses. Students will also consider the basis for strained relations among survivors as to why some went to death camps and some were able to survive in hiding. (Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950, pages 417-428)
4. Students will then use their pair-share groups to consider how to administer justice when Jewish survivors returned to Greece to reclaim property and possessions and found that they had been “purchased” by non-Jews.
Evidence of Understanding: 1. Class journals 2. Class discussion 3. Write a short paragraph explaining one of the following:
Why can restitution and compensation be very difficult to achieve? Or
Why may tension develop among individuals of very different experiences during a genocide?
Extension Activities: 1. Draw up a procedure and a plan to provide for restitution for persons who have been
victimized by the Holocaust or a genocide and have lost all property. What are some factors that you think would be essential to consider? • What forms of property might be restored to the individual or heirs? • What forms of property might be compensated but could not be restored? • If several generations have passed, what provision, if any, would you make for the 2nd
and 3rd generation who have current “ownership” of the property? 2. The city of Salonica, like many cities after a war, underwent tremendous changes.
Research some of the changes that occurred in Salonica and other war-torn cities and identify some of the cultural heritage damaged and lost to future generations not only as a result of the war but also as a result of the renovations and rebuilding of the post war years. • What are some of the reasons that make the preservation of cultural heritage so
important? • What are some of the factors that must be weighed when heritage and modernization
seem to stand in conflict? Reprint, Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 by Mark Mazower
(copyright 2004 pages 388-391).
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Attitudes and Mentalities: The Greek State might have formalized the structure of the Jewish community, and treated it for most of the interwar period as collectivity, distinct from the Christian majority, but at the level of daily life the boundaries between the two religions and communities were permeable, and became more so with time. Political affiliations created ties across the ethnic divide. And even more than in Ottoman times, the city made its own demands, and created realities quite different from those established by law or imagined by the political elite. In the large mostly Jewish 151 quarter, for instance, Avramatchi, the Jewish grocer, sold his kezo blanko (white cheese) to Greek and Jewish housewives alike. The very language of shopping combined Turkish words which everyone still used – ‘bakkal’ for grocer, the ‘bakkal defteri’ for the book containing his customers’ accounts – Judeo-Spanish and Greek. Jewish women talked of going home to their ‘sinyor’ (husband) but were themselves known as ‘nikotcheras’, after the Greek word for housewife (noikokyria). Greek and Jewish children played games like ‘aiuto’ together in the streets, shouting Judesmo terms that refugee kids were quick to pick up. Few Greeks ever acquired more than a few words of Judeo-Spanish. One of the few who were fluent was the so-called “Jewish” Panayiotis Constantinidis, who had worked from a young age for Jewish customs-brokers near the docks. “Panayiot” liked to play practical jokes such as dressing up and impersonating the rabbi who went around on Fridays at dusk telling the Jewish stallholders to close for the Sabbath, or, on another occasion, alarming local women at their prayers by entering the church where he served on the administrative committee dressed as a Jewish salesman and pretending to sell them candles. Stories of his pranks circulated for years precisely because his skill was so unusual. On the other hand, even though Judesmo remained in use at home, most male Jews and younger females knew enough Greek to pursue a living. Elderly wandering street-sellers advertised their wares – shirts, tumblers, oranges, tomatoes – in a broken Greek which amused their clients. Poor Jewish women worked as wet-nurses for the Ayios Syylianos orphanage, while seamstresses like Luna Gattegno had “Jewish and Christian clients.” Although many of the city’s trade guilds were exclusively Christian Orthodox or Jewish, a surprising number had a mixed membership. In 1922, for example, the Praxiteles guild of marble carvers had four Greek, eleven Jewish and one Muslim member; the old vegetable-sellers’ guild included fourteen Greeks and thirty-three Jews, while fishmongers, street porters and traders in the central market all promoted their interests together. Ethnic homogeneity was certainly not the rule even for the small businessmen, traders and sellers who dominated the city’s economy. Among the workers in its factories and warehouses there was a strong vein of inter-communal association and solidarity, especially in the unions and left-wing political groups. For the city’s business elite, the exclusive Club de Salonique, which had been founded in the late nineteenth century to provide a place to receive foreign visitors, still provided a discreet and civilized setting for influential Greek businessmen and officials to meet Jewish fellow-members. The balance of power was shifting, and the Greek membership now outnumbered Jews. But like most clubs it was proud of its rules and traditions, and continued to accept Jewish members even after the German occupation began in 1941. Faith remained the key marker of ethnic difference. Some Greek liberals and socialists accused Jews of preserving what they called their “ottoman mentality,” by still seeing themselves as a separate collectivity. And indeed among Jews the term “Greek” was often used as a synonym for “Christian” – as when one man described his sister, who had converted, as having “become Greek.” Similarly, for the elderly Uncle Bohor in the Judesmo press satire, a man with a rather traditional outlook, a Greek barber is simply “one of them.” But then in his eyes Jewish “atheists,” like his neighbor upstairs who had shaved off his beard, were not much better.
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The older generation was still devout, attendance at both church and synagogue was high, and families paid regular visits to the cemetery. A handful of weddings each year took place across the religious boundary, but this remained a fraught business for both faiths. When a refugee priest baptized a young Jewish woman without having first consulted Metropolitan Gennadios, his action provoked an angry response from the chief rabbi, and Gennadios, who was himself a product of the old Ottoman system and well understood the sensitivity of the matter, ordered the priest to be punished. The city’s diocesan archives contain at least seventy-eight applications from Jews, mostly young women, seeking to marry Greek Orthodox men during the interwar period. But in the old days, converts had risked ostracism by marrying out. By the late 1930s this was less of a worry. And the much-maligned “Ottoman mentality” was not to be found only among Jews. Greek society itself still harbored deeply rooted prejudices against them. As Judaioi they were linked in the popular imagination to the figure of Judas, the betrayer of Christ. The journalist who translated the Protocol of the Elders of Zion into Greek in 1928 also published Judas through the Ages, an equally nasty tract welcomed by none other than the Archbishop of Athens. Had the Jews not crucified Christ, after all, and had they not desecrated the corpse of the Greek Patriarch in Constantinople in 1821? Their supposed religious and national crimes were thus easily merged. In the summer of 1931, Makedonia serialized a fictional story of unhappy love between a Jewish girl and a Christian boy: the moral – that befriending Jews led Christian families to ruin – was powerful enough to be taken up in one of Greece’s most popular post-war novels, The Third Wedding Wreath. Religious anti-Semitism and a sense of ethnic rivalry and competition colored the atmosphere of the interwar city. But as we have seen, they only became a recipe for violence when politicians sought to use an anti-Jewish policy for their own electoral advantage. Stereotypes facilitated but did not cause the Campbell riot. Nor did stereotypes prevent the Greek authorities from recognizing and supporting Jewish life in various ways. Indeed, an anti-Venizelist administration made Yom Kippur a public holiday in Salonica – to the consternation of Nazi diplomats. Although the anti-Semites fulminated, there is no indication that this was an unpopular move among a majority of the city’s inhabitants for whom co-existence and increasing interaction were facts of life. The metropolitan, Gennadios, and the chief rabbi, Koretz, preserved cordial relations, and tried to ensure that their subordinates did too. Thus in the mid-1930s, the sources of communal tension were largely fading even as official anti-Semitism intensified in Germany, Poland and Romania. Left to themselves, Greeks and Jews might well have sorted out their differences. In the Second World War, hundreds of young Jewish men from the city fought in the ranks of the Greek army, and some of these went on to join the resistance. But they found themselves now up against an infinitely more deadly and highly organized form of anti-Semitism – nor the petty discrimination of Greek officials, or the mob violence of provincial right-wing louts, but the genocidal capabilities of the most advanced state in Europe. Reprint, Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 by Mark Mazower
(copyright 2004 pages 417-428).
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Survivors: The Germans finally pulled out of Salonica at the end of October 1944, two weeks after the liberation of Athens. The previous eight Jews had been discovered in hiding and shot. Another five or six survived until liberation. Several hundred, who had escaped into the mountains, or gone to fight with the partisans, now made their way back. Hundreds more had survived by hiding in or around Athens and many of them also gradually returned. But first-hand news of the fate of the tens of thousands who had been deported to Poland did not come until March 1945 with the appearance of the first survivors from Auschwitz. The first to arrive was an Athenian Jew named Leon Batis who reached Salonica from the north on March 15. That evening, tired, irritated and suspicious, eager to return to Athens to see whether his family was still alive, he told his story over ouzo to a large audience in a café. Journalists demanded the facts, while the Jews who had come wanted to know about their relatives and friends. “This was the first time we heard these terms: gas chambers, selections. We froze and dared not ask for details,” wrote one of the listeners. “Batis spoke coldly, without regard for our emotions…He thought everyone knew [these things].” The next day, his account was in most of the city’s newspapers. It was a precise and largely accurate description of the fate of the community. “They burned all the Jews from Thessaloniki in the crematorium,” was one headline. A few weeks later others brought further details, including for the first time reports of the sterilization and other medical experiments performed on many women. By August, two hundred had returned and more were on the way. One year after liberation, there were just over one thousand “Poles” – as the others called them – who had come back from the camps. The survivors found Salonica transformed and unrecognizable after Nazi occupation. Yehuda Perahia, a tobacco merchant who had gone through the war in hiding, recorded his feelings in verse: How into rusty iron pure gold has been transmuted! How what was ours has been changed into a foreign symbol!... I walk through the streets of this blessed city. Despite the sun, it seems to stand in darkness
Jewish tombstones were to be found in urinals and driveways, and had been used to make up the dance-floor of a tavern built over a corner of the former cemetery itself. Because graves had been ransacked for the treasure that had been supposedly hidden there, “many Jewish skulls and bones are visible.” The Hirsch quarter was demolished except for the synagogue and lunatic asylum which were being used as warehouses. Other synagogues had been dynamited by the Germans, and lay in ruins. Trying to cope with an acute housing shortage in 1945, there were sixty thousand refugees from eastern Macedonia in the city. The over-stretched local authorities did not provide any Spartan assistance to Jewish returnees. Without homes, and for the most part, no work, the survivors faced destitution. Relief workers reported an urgent need for clothing, mattresses and blankets. Many were sleeping on benches or on the floor in the remaining few synagogues. The overwhelming short-term priority – as throughout Greece at this time – was for food, shelter and medical assistance. The UN Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (UNRRA) was active in the city helping Jews and Christians alike and one of its officials, Bella Mazur, who had been seconded from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (better known simply as the “Joint”) spent her spare time “trying to help organize the community so that it can have the semblance of a normal and official set-up.” Like many in the city, Jewish survivors were dependent on UNRRA for food and clothing.
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Mazur gave each former concentration camp inmate, most of whom lacked anything other than the clothes they had returned in, underclothes and double blankets which served as mattresses. Some received old pairs of shoes. Several communal buildings were cleaned up, renovated and whitewashed for refugees from the Bulgarian zone had squatted in them during the war – to house the neediest occupants. There was no disguising the disappointment, anger and bitterness many felt on their return. “The deportee was filled with hopes glamorizing his return home to friends, some relatives, a place in which to find a job and the future,” wrote one observer. “These hopes are shattered on arrival.” Unexpected though it might be for us, those returning from Auschwitz were “greeted coldly” by those who had survived war in Greece itself; they were asked “why they, and no others, had made it through the camps alive” – the unspoken and sometimes not so unspoken implication being that they had collaborated and allowed the others to go to their death. “The questions is almost always asked” why are you alive and not my relative – my mother, my father, sister and so forth,” wrote an aid worker in December 1945. “This led to the usual generalization on the part of the leading people…that in the end only the worst elements of the Jews survived the concentration camps.” Angered by such charges, many returnees claimed that “they had been better treated in Germany than here,” and accused those who had stayed of hoarding their wealth and failing to help them out. An unemployed former camp inmate threw a stone through the glass window of Haim B.’s shop, and then shouted to the crowd of onlookers that men like the shop’s owner “had taken all the millions of the world while men like these die of hunger.” To the police he declared that he had wanted “to take revenge on all the rich Jews who did not care about the fate of the poor and never set foot in the community except when they need certificates of the death of their relatives or other favors.” For his part the shopkeeper blamed the community authorities for not doing more both to help the needy, and to clamp down on such incidents – of which this was evidently not the first. The 1157 “Poles” formed their own party for the communal elections early in 1946 and thanks to their numbers won the largest share of the vote. Yet in truth, their program scarcely differed from that of their rivals – the Zionists, and the so-called (mostly left-wing) Resurrectionists. Each wanted greater control over the communal assets, a more active welfare program and pressure on the Greek authorities to give back their property. Even after the “Poles” won, they spent most of their time attacking the foreign Jewish relief agencies for their condescending approach. This aggressiveness was really an outward manifestation of the suspicion, individualism and anxiety that harrowed survivors’ lives. But such attitudes made it frustrating for outsiders to work with them. Relations deteriorated as the new communal authorities tried to insist proudly on their right to handle all funds from abroad. By 1947 the quarrel had gotten so bad that the main Jewish relief agency actually withdrew from the city. Its subsequent verdict on the way the survivors were handling their affairs was that they were poorly led, lacked any communal solidarity, and allowed party politicking – the old curse – to get in the way of proper organization. Restitution: None of this helped in the battle to get Jewish property back. After liberation, the new Greek government had repudiated the wartime legislation passed by its predecessors and thus, in theory at least, committed itself to restoring Jewish properties to their former owners. But in the city itself such a policy collided with the interests of the wartime beneficiaries and their patrons, and it soon became clear that they were not going to give up without a fight.
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At first things went well. For four months the city was run by EAM/ELAS – the left-wing national resistance movement – which was broadly sympathetic to the plight of Salonica’s Jews. Its officials had lists of collaborators who had taken properties, and warned them to hand them back or face charges: several dozen complied. But in the winter of 1944-45 relations in Athens between EAM/ELAS and the British-backed government broke down and the crisis eventually led to the “December events” in which the two sides fought openly in the streets, and RAF planes strafed leftist suburbs. In Salonica an uneasy understanding was preserved but this conflict and the victory for the right that followed entirely altered the balance of power. After February 1945 the once-powerful EAM/ELAS was gradually marginalized and the middle ground in Greek politics disappeared, and the British-backed government (and its successors) came to rely on anti-communists and former collaborators. In far-off Athens, governments were weak and changed frequently. Despite making all the right noises for international consumption on the issue of Jewish property, they found it hard to combat the increasingly organized opposition to restitution in Salonica itself. After March 1945, the hand-over slowed down to a trickle. Under EAM/ELAS, forty to fifty properties had been restored, and others had been reclaimed through various forms of direct action as the old owners simply evicted the new ones, confident that the police would not intervene. But over the following year only another thirty-seven were handed over, and the police started to behave less sympathetically. In early spring 1946, there were stories of claimants being assaulted, and of the wartime caretakers appealing to the courts to try to get eviction orders rescinded, demanding “their” shop back. A vegetable merchant who had thrown a Jewish grocer out of his shop across the street in 1945 challenged an eviction order three years later and managed to persuade the court of appeal to find in his favor. One reason why the courts were reluctant to intervene was the severe housing shortage afflicting the city as a whole. At least ten thousand refugee families were still living in the primitive huts they had inhabited since the 1920s and many of the newcomers who had come during the war were worse off still. Cement worker Georgios D., his wife and six children lived in a large damp hole within the Byzantium walls. The family of Constantine T. inhabited a one-room shack three and a half meters square; another family, refugees from the Bulgarian zone lived in an “old half-destroyed wooden hut” with no mattresses, blankets, clothing, plates or utensils – at least according to the relief workers that visited them: for meals they boiled wild herbs. One downtown shop was shared between seven families; another group of eight families, again wartime refugees, camped out in a vacant house near the station. There were hundreds of such stories. The housing shortage also provided an excuse to protect politically well-connected clients; and even when courts did issue restitution orders little was done. YDIP continued to function in 1945 and 1946, under a new director, and remained part of the governor-general’s office: on several occasions the governor-general, a political appointee, instructed it to ignore court instructions to hand properties back. Douros was reassigned to his old job running the city’s mortgage office and publicly protested accusations of collaboration, claiming he had been threatened by the Germans as a “saboteur,” and insisting he had never wanted the job in the first place. Alexander Krallis, the former president of the Chamber of Commerce, and Simonides were arraigned as collaborators at the end of 1945, but the trial against them was suspended. Wartime YDIP personnel were tried later and mostly acquitted. Legally speaking, too, restitution was not a straightforward matter. It was not just survivors who were claiming their properties; others made claims on the basis of kinship to, or even business associations with a deceased owner. Children and siblings were usually considered to inherit automatically; but survivors demanded that more distant degrees of consanguinity be accepted as well. Lack of witnesses to the death of most of the Jews meant that lawyers and religious authorities found themselves having to make the macabre adjudication on whether parents and
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children had been gassed simultaneously or not in order to rule on whether claimants really were justified in presenting themselves as the heirs of the dead. To prove kinship applicants needed special certificates from the town hall, a process which the local authorities began to obstruct to slow down the rate of return. “If the citizen is called Nikolaos, Georgios or Ioannis,” wrote one journalist angrily, “he is freely given the certification of kinship which he needs to inherit the property of his parents or more distant relatives. But if he is called Avraam, Isaac or Iakov, it is not issued. Fine logic!” By the spring of 1949, the mayor’s office had been blocking the issue of such certificates for more than a year. At bottom, the problem was a political one. In the spring of 1945 many of the wartime caretakers were sufficiently worried at being branded collaborators to pass on their properties to third parties; but by the summer, as the political climate changed, they had lost these fears and were already beginning to mobilize in a more overt fashion. In fact, they formed a “Union of Trustees” to put pressure on the governor-general’s office, and built up close ties with the Venizelist Liberal Party in particular; the pre-war link between Salonica’s Liberals and anti-Jewish sentiment had survived the war, and intensified as the party did well in elections locally. In later 1945 a judge decided that since Jews had “abandoned” their properties during the war, they had no automatic right of return. Then a new governor-general froze all transfers. “We haven’t enough strength to control ourselves any longer and keep quiet about this scandal,” wrote one Jewish journalist in 1946. “Our interest is also that of Greece as a whole: the country cannot identify itself with a handful of collaborationist caretakers.” But others disagreed. As elsewhere in Europe, post-war arguments over the restitution of properties intensified anti-Jewish feelings. One public prosecutor in the city exclaimed that “the persecution which the Jews endured at the hands of the Germans has not turned since Liberation into persecution of Christians by Jews.” A local Liberal politician complained it was “not fair that every Jew should inherit fifteen shops.” The governor-general – and then the Athens government – advised the community to restrict its demands lest it create what they described as a “social problem” in the city. By the summer of 1947 there was a full-scale press campaign in Salonica against Jewish claims. The poverty of the refugees was contrasted with the supposed wealth of the surviving Jews. “To get rid of my boredom and sorrow I bought a newspaper. To my great astonishment I read that I’d become stinking rich,” commented a survivor in a satirical sketch. “All the Jews have become filthy rich, it said. I am a Jew – what I went through in Hitler camps proves it – so I must be filthy rich too.” The contrast in the way Athens and Salonica approached these issues was as apparent after the war as it had been during it. In February 1945 Salonica welcomed Archbishop Damaskinos, the most senior figure in the Greek church, who was then serving as regent of the country. Damasikinos and his counterpart in the city, Gennadios, both made speeches at a ceremony to celebrate liberation. But while Damsikinos included explicit references to the suffering of “our Jewish fellow-citizens,” Gennadios did not mention the deportations at all, even though they had affected his flock far more directly. Meanwhile, the municipality’s pursuit of its own interests continued to cause conflict. The inauguration of the new university hospital “on top of Jewish bones” (as one newspaper put it) was boycotted by the Jewish community’s officials. The old cemetery was still being looted for buried treasure and, more alarmingly, despoiled by council workers; carts were carrying away gravestones daily. The mayor promised a Jewish delegation that they would be collected and returned to the community, but eleven months later little had been done.
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There were further painful negotiations both locally and nationally over the expropriation of the Hirsch hospital, and the rubble-strewn area where the 151 neighborhood had once stood. In January 1949, a Jewish newspaper published an open letter to the mayor accusing him not merely of a “lack of interest” but actual discrimination against Jewish claims. Weakness forced Salonika’s Jews to seek support outside the city, and the newly formed Athens-based Central Jewish Council (KIS) lobbied ministers on its behalf and liaised with American Jewish organizations and U.S. government officials. But KIS’s very creation – and location – was a reminder of how far the fortunes of Salonican Jewry had fallen. Before the war, the city had housed two-thirds of the country’s total Jewish population and had been the centre of its intellectual and cultural life; after 1945, however, only one-fifth of the approximately eleven thousand Greek Jews who had survived the war lived there and the spotlight shifted to the nation’s capital. The Salonicans were suspicious of the Jews in Athens, claiming they were less educated and politically inexperienced: they had formed KIS to protect their own interests, they were slow to worry about the plight of their fellow-Jews in Salonica, and they were led by Zionists, who would compromise the Greek government on the property issue in order to facilitate emigration to Palestine. There may have been some truth on all counts; far more important was that KIS itself, like the Salonican community, was racked by political infighting. In the end, after several years of hard bargaining and thanks to behind-the-scenes American intervention, an agreement was reached with the Greek government by which a new, Jewish-run successor to YDIP would administer the large amount of property left unclaimed after the war. Greece had been quick to recognize the need for restitution in principle, noted one Salonica journalist, but slow to implement it in practice. YDIP was wound up in 1949, and the new organization started to negotiate directly with the caretakers and the municipal government. By 1953 it had regained control of 543 homes, 51 shops, 67 plots of land and 18 huts. The political repercussions of the wartime property free-for-all had not, however, been laid entirely to rest and the quick rehabilitation of collaborators in the conservative climate of post-war Greece created many hostages to fortune. In 1957 Max Mertin, the wartime military administrator of the city, visited Greece to testify at the trial of his former interpreter. To the shock of the West German embassy – which had assured him he would be safe – and the Greek government itself which was taken completely by surprise, a zealous public prosecutor in Athens had him arrested and charged with war crimes. On trial for his activities in Salonica, as one survivor after another recounted the events of 1943, Merten made the explosive allegation that among his wartime contacts had been members of the current Greek government, and other individuals very close to the prime minister, Konstantine Karamanlis. The timing could not have been worse, for Greece was in the middle of negotiations to enter the Common Market. Karamanlis could not prevent the trial from going ahead, but he quietly agreed with the Germans that, in return for Bonn’s backing of his country’s membership application, Merten would be transferred to the Federal Republic as soon as the trial was over. The sordid bargain was struck and after a perfunctory second trial there, Merten was released. In Greece, there was speculation that Merten’s real motive for returning had been to recover his loot. Even today divers scour the rocky sea-bed off the south of the Peloponnese for the treasure Merten supposedly sank there. So far they have not found anything. In any event, to focus exclusively on Merten is something of a distraction. He was a career bureaucrat, whose real responsibility had been to allow the city to run smoothly in the interest of the German war effort throughout the 1943 deportations. To the extent that he had done this, it had been with the help of other bureaucrats among the local and regional Greek authorities, and the network of other interest groups they had brought into play.
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Their priority had been to keep out the Bulgarians and to ensure that Greek control over Salonica was unimpaired. They had not sought the deportation of the Jews, but they had not obstructed it either since it enabled them to complete the process which had started twenty years earlier – the Hellenization of the city. Vanished Pasts, New Problems: The drawn-out post-war quarrel over the restitution of Jewish property can only be understood against the backdrop of the infinitely more urgent political problems Greece as a whole faced in the late 1940s. After months of tension, fighting broke out again between leftist guerrillas and the government in 1946, and the country was plunged into a bitter civil war which turned it into the first international battle-ground of the Cold War. The resulting damage was in some ways even greater than had been caused by the Germans. Thousands died and hundreds of thousands of villagers were forcibly relocated as government troops with British and American advisers battled against a highly effective guerrilla insurgency organized by the communist Democratic Army of Greece. Only in August 1949 did the government regain control; by then, it had rounded up tens of thousands of suspected leftists, executed several thousand by firing squad, and built up a network of shady anti-communist paramilitary units on whom it relied for several decades afterwards. Never before or since had the authority of the Greek state looked so fragile. Compared with this, the issue of Jewish property was a side-show. In what novelist Nikos Bakolas called “the season of fear,” Salonica itself was deeply traumatized. Thousands of refugees fled there for shelter, and the city was rocked by assassinations, round-ups, mortar fire, and occasional gun-fights between left and right. The insurgents were in the hills and in January 1949, they kidnapped a group of schoolboys from the nearby American Farm School. With a strong left-wing presence in worker suburbs, the authorities felt nervous and hundreds of people were incarcerated. Fear of the communists blended with memories of the long-running struggle with the Bulgarians; the rebels were written off as a Slav fifth column, fighting once again to tear Greek Maceconia away for incorporation in a Balkan communist federation. Anti-communists who had work alongside the Germans in the early 1940s now gave their services to the British and Americans. In no country in Europe were the trials of collaborators wound down so soon. As Cold War fever reached its height, UFOs were spotted over the city and there were rumors of Russian planes on their way from the north. The church was drawn into the fray, and the Christian youth groups warned the city’s residents not to be tempted by the godless left. Saints – one who was “well-dressed, freshly shaved, wearing blue clothes and a white shirt” – were reported to be politely getting into taxis at the station and being driven to local churches before vanishing. Once again, they seemed to have taken the city under their protection. Ghostly images of the Virgin Mary appeared in the windows of department stores and apartment blocks. In 1951, barely a year after the fighting ended, the funeral of Metropolitan Gennadios, the religious leader who had shepherded his flock ever since 1910, provided a show of strength for church and the right. His corpse was dressed in the regalia of office, and after lying in state for several days in Ayios Dimitrios, it was paraded through the crowded streets on a throne draped in the national flag. Through the celebration of Gennadios’s remarkable life, the defeat of the left was linked to Hellenism’s other triumphs over Turks, Bulgarians, and Germans alike. The 1940s left the city polarized politically and economically destitute. Even in 1951 its population was not much larger than before the war. But in the decades which followed, the country’s economy took off and Salonica grew faster than ever. The refugees who had landed in 1922 now became the old guard as thousands of new migrants arrived from the countryside looking for work, creating the drift from the rural economy which was transforming post-war Greece, and Europe. They packed into the old buildings and land densities soared.
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Salonica’s population increased faster than Athens’s, and by 1971 it had risen to over half a million. Most of the newcomers had no knowledge of the city as it had existed before the war, and did not remember its now-vanished mosques and synagogues. The little which did survive from those days was quickly being bulldozed and sacrificed to redevelopment. As land became more valuable, the old log houses were torn down and replaced with multi-storied apartment blocks. Contractors and developers were the city’s new life force. What remained of the Ottoman urban fabric was largely demolished and gardens and greenery gave way to concrete. The tramlines were torn up overnight and replaced by buses, a cheaper form of public transport which allowed suburbs to spread in all directions. As they killed off the ferry-boats, which used to carry passengers across the ba Bara and the Beshchinar, gardens disappeared under new warehouses and factories. As the roads leading into town were widened, Varden Square was modelled and remodelled, and the last of the faded Ottoman cafes was torn down. Workers’ apartments spread over the hills and pushed up against the old walls. In-fill created a new seafront promenade. The elegant Royal Theatre by the landmark White Tower disappeared under the bulldozers, as did the neo-classical mansions along the old Hamidie, and the Alliance Israelite headquarters in the center of town which was replaced by a new tourist hotel. New faculty buildings, swimming pool and observatory went up on the site of the Jewish cemetery, where tens of thousands of students now studied. Kalamaria, remembered one local author, was transformed from a muddy village into a “luxury suburb which justified…the effort and the tears of the refugee element. Only in the Upper Town, still inhabited by the poorest, did a lack of money protect the old gable-fronted Ottoman houses. When a British foot-soldier who had slogged through the Macedonian mud in 1915 returned nearly half a century later he was struck by the change. The seafront villas that survived were mostly empty and had a “sinister air”; the minarets (bar one) had vanished and the Muslims with them, and all around he saw “blocks of offices and flats…indistinguishable from their counterparts in Lisbon, Stockholm and London.” A Turkish woman, who had grown up on endless stories of the Hamidian city told to her by her mother, found it impossible to reconcile these with the reality: “The great houses had been torn down and the gardens destroyed…It was all gone.” For returning Jews the experience was a haunting one. Jacques Strousma was a young engineer who had helped construct the Hirsch camp, and had survived Auschwitz, where his parents and his pregnant wife had been killed. After the war, unwilling to return home, he had left for good. When eventually he came back for a brief visit, he spent hours sitting on his hotel balcony and looking out over the sea: “I was smoking cigarette after cigarette for fear the tears would come. A Greek Orthodox friend found me alone around midnight and said: ‘I understand you, Jacques, you don’t really know any more where to go in Salonica, the city where you once knew every stone.’ And that’s how it was.”
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Unit IV Aftermath of The Holocaust in Greece
Lesson 3 Lesson: “Is Greece Still Home?” Common Core Standards: SL 2 Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. Social Studies Standards (NJ): [6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6] Key Questions/Issues Addressed:
• Why did Greek Christians and Greek Jews interpret the concept of Hellenization differently?
• How did the demographics of the various populations in Greece change by the end of the World War II? What accounts for the different rates of change among the groups?
Lesson Goals/Objectives:
• Students will be able to analyze the difference in demographics for the Jews of Greece between Northern Greece (Salonica and Ioninna) and the rest of the country.
• Students will be able to assess why the difference in Jewish population before the war versus after the war influenced Jewish emigration from Greece.
• Students will be able to identify what Hellenization meant in the mid-twentieth century and evaluate why it became a code word for national pride to Greek Christians and a threat to security for Greek Jews.
Key Terms:
• Demographics • Hellenization • Equity • Justice • National identity • Restitution
Materials needed:
• Reprint (A Liter of Soup and Sixty Grams of Bread, Heinz Salvator Kounio, copyright 2003, page 201) and other academic resources. (chart from p. 201 at end of lesson plan)
Background information:
• Some prior study of the Holocaust Instructional Activities/Procedures: 1. Students will work in small groups to retrieve population statistics and demographics for the
ethnic composition of Greece before World War II. Students will be referred to the Heinz Kunio Diary, (A Liter of Soup and Sixty Grams of Bread, Heinz Salvator Kounio, copyright 2003, page 201)
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2. Students can prepare a short skit reflecting on the issues and emotions of a Greek Jew
returning home to Salonica compared to a Jew returning to Athens. 3. Students will also consider in their skits the equity and justice issues of settling competing
claims for property and possessions between returning Jewish survivors and the Greek Christians who purchased them in their absence.
4. Students will also write a journal assessment comparing and contrasting the impact of Hellenization and national identity on Greek Christians versus Greek Jews.
Evidence of Understanding: 1. Class journals 2. Skits 3. Class discussion Extension Activities: 1. Research the emigration of Greek Jews after liberation and the end of World War II. 2. Create a chart indicating point of origin, destination(s), and numbers of emigrants. 3. Write a brief explanation of the reasons for Greek Jewish emigration and the things that
influenced the choice(s) of destination.
Region 1940After
Deportation 1947 1959 1994 2001 DeportedThrace 2853 161 74 38 0 0 2692
0Macedonia 62800 11638 2309 1410 1015 1207 51162Thessaloniki 56500 10409 1950 1279 1012 1200 46091
0Thessaly 2727 2322 1831 856 624 440 405
0Mainland 3825 2045 5100 2669 3614 3265 1780
Athens 3500 1810 4930 2557 3524 3200 16900
Epirus 2584 200 169 115 92 50 23840
The Islands 4625 770 667 135 80 119 3855Corfu 2000 205 185 85 45 80 1795
Zakynthos 275 275 275 0 0 0 0Crete 350 90 7 1 0 1 260
Rhodes 2000 200 200 49 35 38 18000
Total 79414 17136 10019 5223 5425 5081 62278
Jewish Population of Greece
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
1940 1944 1947 1959 1994 2001
Thrace
Thrace
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
1940 1944 1947 1959 1994 2001
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
0
50000
100000
1940 1944 1947 1959 1994 2001
Total
Total
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Unit IV Aftermath of The Holocaust in Greece
Lesson 4 Lesson: “Is Greece Still At War?” Common Core Standards: WHST 3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured even sequences. WHST 7 Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. Social Studies Standards (NJ) in Lesson: [6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6] Key Questions/Issues Addressed:
• Why would Greek Christians and Greek Jews react quite differently to the Greek Civil War?
• What were the goals of each, the Royalist and the Communist movements, in the Greek Civil War in addition to the power to govern?
• What role did the Greek Civil War play in the coming of the international Cold War era? Lesson Goals/Objectives:
• Students will be able to analyze the impact of the Greek Civil War for the differing reactions on its Christian and Jewish citizens.
• Students will be able to identify the difference between the Royalist and Communist movements in Greece.
• Students will be able to connect the aftermath of the Holocaust and the Greek Civil War(s) on the demographics of Greece today.
Key Terms:
• Royalist • Communist • Civil War • Demographics
Materials Needed:
• Reprint (A Liter of Soup and Sixty Grams of Bread, Heinz Salvator Kounio, copyright 2003, page 201). (chart from p. 201 at end of lesson plan)
• Access to the Internet and library/media center for research Background information:
• Some prior study of the Holocaust and its aftermath
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Instructional Activities/Procedures: 1. Students will research the advent of the strife between Monarchist (Royalist) parties with the
rise of Communist movements during and after World War II. Information should include but not be limited to the ideas of each on the proper role of government, the role that each faction played in Greece during WWII, source of support in Greece for each faction, connections to other nations, strategies and tactics of fighting, etc.
2. Students will then write a journal entry speculating how two young Greek families, one
Christian and one Jewish, might respond about planning for the future in light of the civil war.
3. Students will also examine population demographics in modern day Greece to evaluate the aftermath of the Holocaust on the Greek population. (see Kounio, page 201)
Evidence of Understanding: 1. Class journals 2. Class discussion 3. Quality of research Extension Activities: 1. Research information about the role of the Greek Civil War in the development of the
international Cold War. Prepare two maps. The first map will be a map of Greece with major sites that played a role in the Greek Civil War, major battles indicated, and two different colors to indicate areas controlled by the Royalists vs. those controlled by the Communists. The second map will be a world map with areas that became centers of Cold War tensions and incidents shaded on the map. Write a brief paragraph explaining the advent of the Cold War, the causes of the “war”, and the events marking the end of the Cold War.
2. Research the necessary information to create a timeline of Greek history from the year 1920 – 2012. Indicate important events, crises, and celebrations during these years on the timeline. Highlight those events occurring during the Holocaust and during the Greek Civil War.
Region 1940After
Deportation 1947 1959 1994 2001 DeportedThrace 2853 161 74 38 0 0 2692
0Macedonia 62800 11638 2309 1410 1015 1207 51162Thessaloniki 56500 10409 1950 1279 1012 1200 46091
0Thessaly 2727 2322 1831 856 624 440 405
0Mainland 3825 2045 5100 2669 3614 3265 1780
Athens 3500 1810 4930 2557 3524 3200 16900
Epirus 2584 200 169 115 92 50 23840
The Islands 4625 770 667 135 80 119 3855Corfu 2000 205 185 85 45 80 1795
Zakynthos 275 275 275 0 0 0 0Crete 350 90 7 1 0 1 260
Rhodes 2000 200 200 49 35 38 18000
Total 79414 17136 10019 5223 5425 5081 62278
Jewish Population of Greece
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
1940 1944 1947 1959 1994 2001
Thrace
Thrace
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
1940 1944 1947 1959 1994 2001
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
0
50000
100000
1940 1944 1947 1959 1994 2001
Total
Total
Unit V
Greece and the Jews - The Post War Years and
Today
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Unit V Greece and the Jews - the POST WAR Years and Today
Lesson 1 Lesson: Greeks and Jews –1945 to the Present Common Core Standards: RH 1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical references from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. WHST 2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. SL 2 Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. Essential Question: How do we determine what about the past is important to know? Key Questions/Issues Addressed:
• What is the most appropriate and effective unit for the study of the human past? • Is there a pattern to the nature of human progress? If so, what is the pattern and does it
have any meaning for humans? • What purpose, if any, does the study of human progress serve?
Lesson Goals/Objectives:
• Students will be able to explain how historians use the historical method to determine the truth about the past.
• Students will evaluate what is the proper unit for the study of the human past — the individual? The polis? The civilization? The culture? Or the nation state?
• Students will assess whether there are broad patterns and constant progress. Are there cycles? Is human history random and devoid of any meaning?
Background information:
• The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past.
• The question of the nature, and even the possibility, of a sound historical method is raised in the philosophy of history as a question of epistemology, that is, the study of knowledge.
Materials needed:
• Teacher prepared PowerPoint – Greeks and Jews - 1945 to the Present http://www.state.nj.us/education/holocaust/pres/1945tothePresent.pdf
• Teacher Prepared handout – The Historical Method http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/DocumentB.doc
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• Teacher Prepared handout – The Historical Historian
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/DocumentA.doc • Teacher Prepared handouts – Various historical documents • Case Study #1 – Evidentiary material from the town of Monastir
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy1.zip • Case Study #2 – Evidentiary material from the city of Ioannina
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy2.zip • Case Study #3 - Evidentiary material from the Island of Rhodes
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy3.zip • Case Study #4 - Evidentiary material from the city of Salonika
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy4.zip • Case Study #5 – Evidentiary material from the island of Zakynthos
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy5.zip • Teacher prepared handout – Determining Truth - Case Study Part 2: Jews in Greece,
1945 to the Present Instructional Activities/Procedures: 1. Students will be introduced to the topic via a teacher prepared PowerPoint 2. Students will discuss whether individuals are important to our understanding of history –
they will differentiate between who they believe is important and those unimportant. 3. Students will be asked to determine whether or not various source material is of
consequence in telling us about life throughout Greek history. 4. Students will determine whether or not various documentary evidence is worthy of entry into
the historical record and could be used in a court of law as reliable and accepted evidence. Students will evaluate the primary source document, and then will consider the point of view of an historical historian to determine whether the entry is acceptable as an historical record. Students will be required to provide their reasoning for their choice and to justify their answer.
5. Differentiated instruction by content lesson: Students will be split into small groups to determine the position of their historical historian.
6. After reading the various documents, respond to these questions:
Determining Truth - Case Study Part 2: Jews in Greece, 1945 to the Present: 1. What is the role of modern Greeks in determining the truth of Greek history and making it
relevant for future generations? 2. How does history teach lessons? 3. How does the study of history encourage active citizenship? 4. How does studying history predict or shape the future? 5. Who, or what matters when studying history? 6. Why should we teach about the Holocaust to learn about modern Greece? 7. How do you communicate the incommunicable? 8. How do non-Greeks understand and respond to the Holocaust? 9. How do Greeks understand the legacy of the Holocaust? 10. What does the evidentiary material say about inter-communal relations between Greeks and
Jews from 1945 to the present in five distinct regional locations? What does the evidence suggest about the reality of personal and community relations, and if possible reveal about universal human truths?
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Internal Perspective/Reflecting: 1. Writers tend to use a reflecting voice for this type of writing; they are examining themselves,
their inner lives, their deepest thoughts and feelings. They reflect over matters of character and their dreams and hopes for the future. Many young writers describe their relationships and conflicts with family, friends, and first loves. Some writers use their diaries as a place to consider matters of faith, religion, and belief (or lack of belief) in God. How do any of the documents reflect or describe individual or community inner conflicts?
2. How do we determine what about the past is important to know? 3. What about the past is important to know? 4. Whose individual experiences matter? Reflection and Decision: 1. According to your analysis of your historical historian, determine whether or not the various
documents are worthy of entry into the historical record and could be used in a court of law as reliable and accepted evidence. Give your reasoning.
2. How can law be used to protect civilians in a time of civil upheaval? Formative Assessment: 1. One individual writing product –
• Students will complete the prepared graphic organizer on the topic issue, and then defend their reasoning in a discussion with the class.
2. Individual speaking product - • Students will declare their answers to assigned questions and prepare to defend their
Positions. 3. Students will complete the prepared graphic organizer on the topic issue, and then defend
their reasoning in a discussion with the class. Summative Assessments: 1. Students will declare their answers to assigned questions and prepare to defend their
positions. Students will create a response and reflection with their understandings of the key concepts and present their points of view. Each small group will conduct a debrief of their work and discuss their reactions
Extension Activities: 1. Reflect on the meaning of home. What parts of home can and cannot be taken with you? In
a poem, a story, or another medium of creative expression, write about the ways in which refugees in the past, as well as today, have attempted to create home in a new place.
2. Write a letter to a parent or guardian, or to someone who is important to you who live far away. Once you have completed this letter, shorten it to 25 words, including salutation and closing—the limit on the postcards that the Red Cross could deliver during World War II. Can you convey the same message? How does it change?
3. Illustrate what your home means to you. If you had to leave your home, how would you draw what your life, family and town means to you, so that children or grandchildren you may have will have something visual to show them what your childhood was like. Consider you are an older person in a different country and culture where your children or grandchildren may not be familiar with life in America.
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Determining Truth - Case Study Part 2: Jews in Greece, 1945 to the Present: 1. What lessons do we learn from this period of history? 2. What is the role of modern Greeks in determining the truth of Greek history and making it
relevant for future generations? 3. How does the study of history encourage active citizenship? 4. How does studying history predict or shape the future? 5. Who, or what matters when studying history? 6. Why should we teach about the holocaust to learn about modern Greece? 7. How do non-Greeks understand and respond to the holocaust? 8. How do Greeks understand the legacy of the holocaust? 9. What does the evidentiary material say about inter-communal relations between Greeks and
Jews from 1945 to the present in five distinct regional locations?
10. What does the evidence suggest about the reality of personal and community relations, and if possible reveal about universal human truths?
11. What were the effects of inter-communal relationships on the Jewish community of Greece? How could this have affected daily life, emotions and/or survival?
Internal Perspective/Reflecting: 1. Writers tend to use a reflecting voice for this type of writing; they are examining themselves,
their inner lives, their deepest thoughts and feelings. They reflect over matters of character and their dreams and hopes for the future. Many young writers describe their relationships and conflicts with family, friends, and first loves. Some writers use their diaries as a place to consider matters of faith, religion, and belief (or lack of belief) in God. • How do any of the documents reflect or describe individual or community inner conflicts?
2. How do we determine what about the past is important to know? 3. What about the past is important to know? 4. Whose individual experiences matter? 5. How does the document you have reviewed describe an individual’s or a community’s inner
conflicts? Reflection and Decision: 1. According to your analysis of your historical historian, determine whether or not the
document you have reviewed is worthy of entry into the historical record and could be used in a court of law as reliable and accepted evidence. Give your reasoning.
Extension Activities: 1. Children’s Art and Poetry: Comparing Art from Terezin with Art from Greece
(See accompanying lesson plans)
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Unit V Greece and the Jews - the POST WAR Years and Today
Lesson 2 Lesson: The Future of Greek-Judeo Relations Common Core Standards: RH 1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical references from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. WHST 2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. Essential Question:
• How do we determine what about the past is important to know? Key Questions/Issues Addressed:
• Why is the historical method used to determine the truth about the past? • Is the historical method an effective and accurate tool for use in measurement of truth? • Has the relationship between Greeks and Jews changed significantly in recent years? • What events/international relationships have impacted upon the relationship of the
Greeks and Jews? Lesson Goals/Objectives:
• Students will be able to explain how historians use the historical method to determine the truth about the past.
• Students will be able to evaluate what is the proper unit for the study of the human past — the individual? The polis? The civilization? The culture? Or the nation state?
• Students will be able to assess the current status of Greek - Jewish relations. Background information:
• The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past.
• The question of the nature, and even the possibility, of a sound historical method is raised in the philosophy of history as a question of epistemology, that is, the study of knowledge.
MATERIALS NEEDED:
• Teacher prepared PowerPoint – Greeks and Jews - 1945 to the Present http://www.state.nj.us/education/holocaust/pres/1945tothePresent.pdf
• Teacher Prepared handout – The Historical Method http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/DocumentB.doc
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• Teacher Prepared handout – The Historical Historian
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/DocumentA.doc • Case Study #1 – Evidentiary material from the town of Monastir
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy1.zip • Case Study #2 – Evidentiary material from the city of Ioannina
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy2.zip • Case Study #3 - Evidentiary material from the Island of Rhodes
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy3.zip • Case Study #4 - Evidentiary material from the city of Salonika
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy4.zip • Case Study #5 – Evidentiary material from the island of Zakynthos
http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/greece/CaseStudy5.zip • Teacher prepared handout – Determining Truth - Case Study Part 2: Jews in Greece,
1945 to the Present Instructional Activities/Procedures: 1. Students will be introduced to the topic via a teacher prepared PowerPoint 2. Students will discuss whether individuals are important to our understanding of history –
they will differentiate between who they believe is important and those unimportant. 3. Students will be asked to determine whether or not various sources of material are of
consequence in telling us about life throughout Greek history. 4. Students will determine whether or not various documentary evidence is worthy of entry into
the historical record and could be used in a court of law as reliable and accepted evidence. 5. Students will evaluate the primary source document, and then will consider the point of view
of an historical historian to determine whether the entry is acceptable as an historical record. Students will be required to provide their reasoning for their choice and to justify their answer.
What is the role of modern Greeks in determining the truth of Greek history and making it relevant for future generations? 1. How does studying history predict or shape the future? 2. Why should we teach about the holocaust to learn about modern Greece? 3. What does the evidentiary material say about inter-communal relations between Greeks and
Jews from antiquity to the present in five distinct regional locations? 4. What does the evidence suggest about the reality of personal and community relations, and
if possible reveal about universal human truths? 5. What were the effects of inter-communal relationships on the Jewish community of Greece?
• How could this have affected daily life, emotions and/or survival? Perspective/Reflecting: 1. What are the key points of the document you reviewed? 2. What happened in the aftermath of the war to deal with the trauma of the Greek-Jewish
community? 3. What outcomes resulted from the end of the war: war crimes trials, reconstruction,
compensation, restitution and recognition of righteous individuals? 4. How and what does the document you reviewed teach us about modern Greek-Jewish
relations? 5. How has the Greek-Israeli relationship developed and changed over the years?
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Evidence of Understanding: 1. Write a poem or an essay expressing the emotional/psychological impact of the Holocaust
on the Greek people and the Greek-Jewish community. 2. Write a short essay analyzing and evaluating the impact of the Holocaust in Greece on the
post war relationship between Greek Jews and non-Jewish Greeks. What are some of the signs/indications of a recent change in the relationship of the Greeks and the Israelis?
Extension Activities: 1. Select one piece of art, literature, or music that attempts to reflect the impact of the
Holocaust, a genocide, or some other group tragedy. Analyze and evaluate the work and how successful it has been in recording and responding to the human tragedy.
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Unit V Greece and the Jews - the POST WAR Years and Today
Lesson 3 Lesson: The Memorialization of History – Monuments, Memories and Myths Common Core Standards: RH 1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical references from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. WHST 2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. SL 2 Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. Key Questions/Issues Addressed:
• Why do we memorialize and build memorials? • What purpose do memorials serve for future generations as well as for that generation
building the memorial? • How do memorials reflect the importance/impact of an event, situation, individual/group,
etc. to the individual/community/nation raising the memorial? Lesson Goals/Objectives:
• Students will be able to explain the importance and meaning of memorials and memorialisation to individuals, communities, and to nations.
• Students will be able to explain some of the themes, images, materials, etc. that are utilized in creating memorials.
Materials Needed:
• Access to the Internet for research on examples of memorials • Teacher prepared PowerPoint – The Memorialization of History
http://www.state.nj.us/education/holocaust/pres/TheMemorializationofHistory.pdf • Copies of documents for students
Instructional Activities/Procedures: 1. Students will be introduced to the topic via a teacher prepared PowerPoint. 2. Differentiated instruction by content lesson: Students will be split into small groups to
determine the position of their historical historian. 3. After reading their assigned documents, students will respond to these questions:
• What is the value of memorials to the Holocaust? • What should a memorial look like? • Where should a memorial be placed? • Who are memorials for? • How should memorials be funded? • How should memorials be chosen?
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• Why should we care about memorials? • How do we make sense of the Holocaust from memorials?
Perspective/Reflecting: 1. Why should we teach about the Holocaust to learn about modern Greece? 2. How do non-Greeks understand and respond to the Holocaust? 3. How do Greeks understand the legacy of the Holocaust? Evidence of Understanding: 1. Write a one page essay explaining the purpose(s) that memorials serve for individuals,
communities, nations, etc. 2. Write a poem, a song, draw a picture, or create a photo mosaic that reflects the emotional
and psychological impact of a great tragic event for an ethnic/racial/religious/cultural group of people.
Extension Activities: 1. Using the Internet, research memorials for the Holocaust created in different nations
including Greece but not limited to Greece, Germany, Poland, Russia, France, the United States, and Israel. Write a brief description of each memorial regarding nature of the memorials, materials used, images, etc. Analyze how the memorials are similar and different. How does each reflect the nation/culture that created the monument? (Remember that while memorials are often living expressions (trees, flowers, gardens, etc.) or wood and stone that they also take other formats such as scholarships, schools, libraries, museums. etc.
2. Research memorials for at least four other genocides or significant tragic event of a nation that have occurred since 1960. Identify the genocide and/or tragic event and the nation(s) involved. Describe the form that the memorial has taken and how it reflects both the nation and effectively reflects the genocide and/or event.
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Powerpoint teacher guide Refer to memorialization memorials
http://www.state.nj.us/education/holocaust/pres/TheMemorializationofHistory.pdf
Memorials List of Photographs
Slide#
What are you looking at?
2 Athens, Greece 3 Rhodes, Greece 4 Salonika, Greece 5 White Rose, Hofgarten, Munich 6 Viscardigasse (Shirker’s Alley), Munich 7 Platz der Opfer des Nationalsozialismus (Square and memorial to
the Victims of National Socialism) Brienner Strasse, Munich 8 Memorial to destroyed Hauptsynagoge, Herzog-Max Strasse,
Munich 9 Zeppelinfeld Tribune, Nuremberg 10 Officers’ Baracks and Administation buildings, Buchenwald 11 Crematoria oven, Buchenwald 12 Track 17 Memorial, Berlin Grunewald Station 13 Track 17 Memorial, Berlin Grunewald Station 14 Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Georgenstraße , Berlin 15 Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Georgenstraße , Berlin 16 Berlin's oldest Jewish cemetery, established in 1672, and Berlin's
first Jewish old people's home were located at this site. The Nazis used the building as a detention centre for Jews, and 55,000 people were held here awaiting deportation to camps. A memorial tablet and a sculpted group of haggard-looking figures, representing deportees, mark the spot where the home stood, Grosse Haburger Strasse, Berlin
17 Missing House, Grosse Hamburger Strasse 15/16, Berlin 18 Stolpersteine (Stumbling Stones), Berlin 19 Jews in Berlin are only allowed to buy food between four and five
o’clock in the afternoon, July 4, 1940 Bayerischer Platz memorials, Schöneberg, Berlin
20 Poland. Łopuchowo forest, site of mass murder of Tykocin’s approximately 1,400–1,700 Jewish population by SS Einsatzkommando firing squad commanded by SS-Obersturmführer Hermann Schaper, August22- 25, 1941.
21 Nathan Rappaport Memorial to Heroes of Warsaw Ghetto, Ludwika Zamenhofa Street, Warsaw, Poland
22 Nathan Rappaport Memorial to Heroes of Warsaw Ghetto, Ludwika Zamenhofa Street, Warsaw, Poland
23 Memorial to the Ghetto Fighters, Mila Street, Warsaw, Poland 24 Umschlagplatz, Stawki Street, Warsaw
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25 Grzybowski Square, Warsaw, Poland 26 Treblinka death camp, Poland 27 Memorial Wall, Kazimierz Dolny, Poland 28 Umschlagplatz at the Podgorze Ghetto, Krakow, Poland 29 Płaszów Memorial, Krakow, Poland 30 Autopsy table, Majdanek, Poland 31 Judenrampe, Birkenau, Poland 32 Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel 33 British Army Sgt Charles Coward, Avenue of the Righteous
Gentiles, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel 34 Lohamei HaGeta'ot, The Ghetto Fighters Kibbutz Museum, Israel 35 Holocaust Memorial, Baltimore 36 Holocaust Memorial, Boston 37 Ioannina, Greece 38 Arta, Greece
39 – 64 Desecrations and Demonstrations
Unit VI
Relationship of Past History to Present Day
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Unit VI Relationship of past history to present day
Lesson: International Efforts on Holocaust Education and the Greek Role NOTE: The Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education is changing its name to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Common Core Standards: WHST 7 Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. WHST 9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. RH 9 Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources. Key Questions/Issues Addressed:
• What is the role/responsibility of government to provide the youth of the nation with an accurate, comprehensive education about causes, consequences, and individual and collective responsibility for the Holocaust, genocides, and other acts of inhumanity?
• What are the roles/responsibilities of government(s) and the individual(s) in working for recognition of responsibility, restitution and reconciliation?
• How do we preserve the knowledge of the events of the Holocaust and the memory of those lost in the Holocaust when there are no more survivors to give witness and to stand against the deniers?
KEY TERMS:
• Humanitarian • Confiscation • Task force • SHOAH • Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust • Detention camps • Haganah • A.K.E.L • Joint
MATERIALS NEEDED:
• Access to the Internet for research purposes. http://www.holocausttaskforce.org/index.php
• Background readings from the lesson on the Greek government and education • A copy of the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust;
readings on the Jewish detention camps in Cyprus Background information: Read about the ITF (name changing to International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance - IHRA) on its website for general background information.
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Greek Government: The Greek government supports programs for the education, remembrance and research of the Holocaust and through their commitment on national policies Greece has made some legislative law changes. In November of 2003, the Greek Deputy Minister of Interior, Nikos Bastis declared January 27th to be Holocaust Remembrance Day in Greece. These events take place in various Jewish communities throughout Greece. They are attended by religious, political, academic and other personalities, and diplomatic representatives. Foreign guests and survivors participate in the ceremonies as well as the general public. Further, the Jewish Museum of Greece presents a yearly relevant exhibition at the venues and at the same time offers a two week program of educational holocaust programs and activities for school groups. In November of 2005 Greece became a member of The Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research. It is an intergovernmental body whose purpose is to place political and social leaders' support behind the need for Holocaust education, remembrance, and research both nationally and internationally. Initiated by Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson in 1998, the Task Force currently has 31 member countries. Membership in the Task Force is open to all countries. Members must be committed to the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, and must accept the principles adopted by the Task Force regarding membership. The Greek State became the first European country to return Jewish properties which had been confiscated in the course of the War. Further it waived its lawful right of inheritance to those properties whose owners had not left descendants to the fourth degree, and the property of the deceased was transferred to a common fund to aid Jews impoverished by war. The 1944 decision of the Council of Ministers stated that "the Greek Government, not willing to take advantage in any way of the persecutions against the Jews by the enemy's occupation authorities, decided that all items of property that would be placed into custody of the Greek State, as intestate heir of Jews who perished in concentration camps without any legal heirs, would not become part of the general state property. Instead they would be used for special humanitarian purposes, mainly in order to serve the needs of the Jewish community." This law passed in January of 1946. Law 846/1946 In 2011 the Greek Parliament voted to compensate the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki in the amount of € 9,943,697 for the confiscation during the Nazi occupation of land belonging to the Jewish Community where the historic Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki was located for centuries. The cemetery was violently destroyed and desecrated by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. Education: The Holocaust is taught in Greek schools from grade 6 to grade 12 in the context of the subjects of History, Literature and Religion. The subject of History refers to the Holocaust as a historical event in the context of World War II and war crimes against humanity. The history of the Jewish Community in Greece and its tragic fate during World War II is an integral part of the history of the Greek nation and could not be taught as an independent section. The teachings are further supported by maps, photographs and sources.
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The subject of Literature, texts and photographic material are used to inform students about anti-Semitism before and during World War II. Classic works, like the "Diary of Anne Frank", or works of Greek authors such as Yiorgos Ioannou referring to the prosecution of the Jews of Thessaloniki by Nazis, are included as teaching materials. Further, theatre performances, photo exhibitions and visits to synagogues and museums are part of these activities. Students are encouraged to discuss the devastation of the Holocaust in the classroom. In the subject of Religion, there is a thorough discussion of Judaism as a religion, including elements on the history of the Jewish religion, a description of the synagogue, the religious symbols and rites of the Jews and a short description of a boy's religious maturity ceremony, as well as an excerpt from a Hebrew psalm. Also, teaching of the Nazis' effort to exterminate Judaism during World War II is described. Further, teachers may spend additional time teaching about their local Jewish community where students from several schools participate in special projects on the Holocaust and on the teaching of local history with reference to Jewish life and religion, the contribution of Jews to the social and political life of Greece, and of course the Holocaust. Students of Greek schools visit the three Jewish museums in Greece: the Jewish Museum of Greece in Athens, the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki and the Jewish Museum of Rhodes. Further they also visit Holocaust Memorials that are located in 29 cities throughout Greece, to honor the victims of the Holocaust of the Greek Jews. This is one approach used for teaching the issues of racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism. Seminars and conferences for educators are held by both universities and The Minister of National Education & Religious Affairs. With financial assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, yearly seminars organized by the Jewish Museum of Greece and Greek Ministry of Education are held in Athens. The seminars have created a network for teachers who follow developments in the methods of teaching the Holocaust at all different grade levels. Special seminars from the International School of Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem have also been sponsored for educators. Research: Some of the recent research activities of the academic community and scholars in Greece: The Latsis Foundation has established a grant for the Group for the Study of the History of the Greek Jews. The project entails the collecting over 500 testimonies of Greek Jews, survivors of the Holocaust, from state and private archives in Greece and abroad. Greece is also interested in repatriating the Archives of the Greek Jewish Communities looted by the Nazi occupation forces that have been held since the end of World War II known as the Bad Arolsen Archives. Presentation of papers on the Holocaust by three well-known European scholars of Holocaust issues, at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki. A four-day conference organized by the Network for the Study of Civil Wars in collaboration with Yale University entitled "Holocaust as Local History" (University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, June 2008).
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Presentation of five documentary films on Greek Jews organized by the Group for the Study of the Jews of Greece (Byzantine Museum of Thessaloniki, February 2007). Presentation at the European Parliament of a publication with Christian, Muslim and Jewish monuments of Xanthi, published by the Diocese of Xanthi in 2005 (June 2008). 4th international conference on the Ladino language (Thessaloniki, October 2008). Participation in the international conference "Beyond Caps and Forced Labour: Current International Research on Survivors of Nazi Persecution" (London 2006). Conference in Kastoria entitled "The Jews of Kastoria" (Technical University of West Macedonia, October 2008). Presentation of new research on the Jews of Greece in the framework of the Master's program in History at the University of Thessalia (Volos, April 2008). Meeting of Israeli and Greek historians (University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, February 2008). One of thirteen countries to participate in the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) it is a project aimed at supporting the European Holocaust research community by establishing unified online access to dispersed sources relating to the Holocaust all over Europe and Israel. Encouraging collaborative research through the development of tools through research institutions, libraries, archives, museums and memorial sites - The Digital Curation Unit IMIS-Athena Research Centre, Maroussi, Greece. Additional teaching material: Video about the Sonderkommando Greek Jew uprising on October 7, 1944 at Auschwitz-Birkenau “The Revolt of the Greek Jews” http://vimeo.com/5207246 Documentary from the book “Greeks in Auschwitz-Birkenau” by Photini Tomai (Constantopoulou) Director, Minister A', Service of Diplomatic and Historical Archives Book Published by the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs and documentary copyrighted by Hellenic Ministry of Foreign 2009 Source: www.dictionary.com www.holocausttaskforce.org www.dcu.gr Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust: The members of the Task Force are committed to the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, which reads as follows:
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1. The Holocaust (Shoah) fundamentally challenged the foundations of civilization. The
unprecedented character of the Holocaust will always hold universal meaning. After half a century, it remains an event close enough in time that survivors can still bear witness to the horrors that engulfed the Jewish people. The terrible suffering of the many millions of other victims of the Nazis has left an indelible scar across Europe as well.
2. The magnitude of the Holocaust, planned and carried out by the Nazis, must be forever seared in our collective memory. The selfless sacrifices of those who defied the Nazis, and sometimes gave their own lives to protect or rescue the Holocaust's victims, must also be inscribed in our hearts. The depths of that horror, and the heights of their heroism, can be touchstones in our understanding of the human capacity for evil and for good.
3. With humanity still scarred by genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia, the international community shares a solemn responsibility to fight those evils. Together we must uphold the terrible truth of the Holocaust against those who deny it. We must strengthen the moral commitment of our peoples, and the political commitment of our governments, to ensure that future generations can understand the causes of the Holocaust and reflect upon its consequences.
4. We pledge to strengthen our efforts to promote education, remembrance and research about the Holocaust, both in those of our countries that have already done much and those that choose to join this effort.
5. We share a commitment to encourage the study of the Holocaust in all its dimensions. We will promote education about the Holocaust in our schools and universities, in our communities and encourage it in other institutions.
6. We share a commitment to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to honour those who stood against it. We will encourage appropriate forms of Holocaust remembrance, including an annual Day of Holocaust Remembrance, in our countries.
7. We share a commitment to throw light on the still obscured shadows of the Holocaust. We will take all necessary steps to facilitate the opening of archives in order to ensure that all documents bearing on the Holocaust are available to researchers.
8. It is appropriate that this, the first major international conference of the new millennium, declares its commitment to plant the seeds of a better future amidst the soil of a bitter past. We empathize with the victims' suffering and draw inspiration from their struggle. Our commitment must be to remember the victims who perished, respect the survivors still with us, and reaffirm humanity's common aspiration for mutual understanding and justice.
Source: http://www.holocausttaskforce.org/about-the-itf/stockholm-declaration.html Video about the Sonderkommando Greek Jew uprising on October 7, 1944 at Auschwitz-Birkenau “The Revolt of the Greek Jews” http://vimeo.com/5207246 Documentary from the book “Greeks in Auschwitz-Birkenau” by Photini Tomai (Constantopoulou) Director, Minister A', Service of Diplomatic and Historical Archives Book Published by the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs and documentary copyrighted by Hellenic Ministry of Foreign 2009
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INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES/PROCEDURES Part I of lesson:
1. Brief class discussion of issues: Why is it important for current and future generations to learn about the causes and consequences of the Holocaust and other genocides? How can governments and individuals act to prevent the occurrence of such human-instigated horrors in the future? What role should/could education play in the efforts to prevent future genocides and human rights violations?
2. Distribute copies of the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust. (Locate on IHRA website at http://www.holocausttaskforce.org/index.php)
3. Divide the class into small groups of 4-5 students. Assign each group one or two of the member countries of the IHRA. Students will locate the assigned country(ies) on the “Member Countries” list page and click on the page. Students will explore the information provided about the activities of the assigned county and create a summary list of the actions and activities the country has taken or is currently planning to implement. Using this list, the students should then compare and contrast the activities, projects, legislation, etc. to the goals and objectives of the Task Force as set forth in the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust.
4. Each group should make a chart for its assigned countries with three columns as follows: Steps Taken to Meet Task Force Goals; Steps in Planning Stages; Goals to Be Addressed. Are there areas of similar actions between the assigned countries? A unique action by one of the countries? Goals both need to address?
5. Each group will report back to the whole class with the results of its review. From the information provided, create a master chart of all of the efforts of countries. Highlight common actions taken, unusual or unique actions taken, goals identified by the Task Force that remain to be addressed by all or most countries.
6. Using the list of goals that remain to be addressed, inform the students of the next step that they will take. Students will return to their small groups to brainstorm possible actions/activities a nation could or should take to address one or more of the list of goals. After discussion and evaluating the possible effectiveness of each idea, the students will select the one or two ideas they believe would be best to implement. The group will prepare a letter to the designated country presenting the group’s idea for addressing the Task Force goal in that nation. The letter should include reference(s) to and appreciation for the work that the nation already is doing.
7. Returning to the whole class, each group will share its letter and ideas with the other groups. The class will develop a letter to be sent to the IHRA indicating their interest in the work of the Task Force and sharing the list of ideas and activities they have sent to individual member nations.
Part II of Lesson:
1. Class Discussion: Why did the Allies establish camps for liberated survivors at the end of World War II? What services did the camps provide for those living in them? Where did those in the camps go when they departed from the camp? What process did they follow to leave the camp?
2. Locate the following on a map: England, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Palestine, and Israel. Why did many survivors decide to try to go to what was then called Palestine? What was the involvement of the British in this struggle by many survivors to reach Palestine?
3. Distribute the readings on the Jewish Detention Camps in Cyprus. Why did the British establish detention camps in Cyprus? How and why did the purpose and operation of these detention camps differ from the displaced person camps in Europe after WWII?
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4. The British Army operated the camps in Cyprus under the rules for “Prisoners of War.” Research the Internet for information about these rules. Suggested web site addresses: http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/full/305?opendocument http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/y3gctpw.htm
5. How did the detention camps established by the British in Cyprus become part of the history of the struggle for independence by both Cyprus and Israel? Although the Jewish Agency and the Joint Distribution Committee opposed the existence of the camps, they became involved in the operations, directly and indirectly. Analyze how each group involved themselves in the camps and the results of their activities. How did the Cypriots involve themselves in the camps? Why were so many of those detained in the camps so young (between early teens and age 35)?
6. Identify each of the following and describe their role in the life and work of the camps as well as their roles in the struggle for independence. The Joint; Youth Aliya; Rutenberg Teachers’ Seminary; Hagana; Palmah; Jewish Agency; A.K.E.L.; summer camps; winter camps.
7. Why was so little known about the camps for so many years? Why is so little known about the former detention camps in Cyprus among the Cypriots themselves today? What are some resources for information that exist today in the United States about the camps?
8. What role does memorialization and the placement of memorials play in maintaining knowledge of such events and conditions for future generations? How and why can these efforts of remembrance also serve to influence the attitudes and actions of individuals, groups, and governments?
Evidence of Understanding:
• Design a memorial to serve as a remembrance of the Holocaust and a tribute to those murdered and to those who survived. The design may be a drawing, a model, or a written work (a poem, piece of music, etc.). Explain how your memorial can serve to educate the young and preserve the memory of what occurred as well as honor the memory of those who suffered.
• Write a brief explanation of how the British built detention camps in Cyprus failed to achieve their purpose and how they became training grounds for military resistance as well as for centers of education and culture for the Jewish prisoners.
Extension Activities:
• Identify some groups that exist today that work for human rights, to document human rights violations and to assist victims of those violations. Develop a bulletin board, a chart, or some type of visual display that highlights these groups and the work that they do. Would you consider joining and supporting such a group? If so, which group(s)? How do these groups serve all people in the work that they do? Do any of these groups use tactics and strategies in their work that you find unacceptable? If so, explain the tactic and why you think it is the wrong way to operate. How would you address the issue with the group? If you agree with their cause but not their tactics, explain how you think the issue can be addressed.
• Research and identify some government groups – local, state, national, and international – that work to end the violation of human rights and to improve the lives of victims of abuse. Write to each of these government groups to request pamphlets, documents, etc. about the charge/responsibility that they have been given, the work that they have done, where they have worked, and some of their ongoing activities. Create a display of the materials that you receive. Work with your teachers and administrators to develop a series of programs involving the work of these government agencies/commissions, etc.
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by inviting them to visit the school and speak with the students about what is being done and what needs to be done. Notify local newspapers and request coverage of the program. Write a blog, start and maintain a web site or other tech resource with information about the various groups and what you and your fellow students are doing to support the work of both the government and non-governmental groups working for human rights.
Jewish Detention Camps in Cyprus: by www.greeknewsonline.com New York.- By Susan Drucker and Gary Gumpert Monuments help us to remember or prevent us from forgetting. We choose who and what to commemorate and the cumulative result constitutes our shared public memory. At a time when the Holocaust moves from lived experience to historical phenomenon in the memories of succeeding generations, the function and significance of memorials becomes increasingly important in the drive to “never forget.” Monuments and memorials serve to mourn, to honor the heroic, or to pay homage to martyrdom. They create a shared memory or version of a story or events in history. For several years we have been researching monuments that preserve and shape collective memory. This work has spanned nations with diverse relationships to the Holocaust ranging from Germany and Holland to Greece, Italy, Brussels, Hungary, Austria, England, France, and Israel among others. Simultaneously, in a very different part of our research agenda, we began visiting Cyprus. We have come to appreciate the fact that Cyprus is a land that values its history, whose collective memory is sacred. The importance of memory in Cyprus became very clear to us as we studied the role that communication plays in the current division of Cyprus. After many visits we were reminded that part of Exodus, the 1960 motion picture directed by Otto Preminger and starring Paul Newman, was filmed in Cyprus. Exodus is the story of one of the ships that attempted to carry its Jewish passengers from Europe to Palestine immediately after World War II. Being in the midst of work on memorials and collective memory elsewhere, it seemed natural to ask a seemly simple question, “Are there any memorials to the Jews held in detention camps by the British on Cyprus?” The responses revealed that there was little to no memory of the Jewish presence on the island after WWII. It is curious that most Cypriots and Cypriot Americans have not heard about this chapter in the islandʼs history. The few who remember have a vague sense that Cyprus had helped facilitate the transport of Jews who had survived the World War II death camps and later the displaced persons camps of Europe. These were the desperate displaced victims seeking a home in Palestine (later the state of Israel established in 1948). We came to learn that the British authorities held Jewish “illegal” immigrants in detention camps on Cyprus from 1946 to 1949. This policy was part of an effort to deter Jewish immigration to Palestine, under British control, as was Cyprus. During that time over 53,000 Jews passed through the barbed wire camps, held against their will, with a quota of only 1,500 per month permitted to leave Cyprus for Palestine. The Jews considered illegal immigrants by the British were intercepted by British naval forces and turned back from the shores of Palestine and escorted to Cyprus or temporarily imprisoned in Palestine (Atlit) before being deposited in the camps of Cyprus.
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The two major camps were Caraolos, north of Famagusta, and in Dekhelia, outside of Larnaca. The compounds stretched for several miles. The story of these camps has been well documented as an episode in the history of the modern state of Israel. Museums and archives in Israel have extensively documented the camps. The United States Museum of Tolerance in California, the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City have devoted exhibitions to this period. Yet, in Cyprus, memories are dim, if not forgotten of this traumatic period. Some of the elderly do remember but have not shared their experiences and memories with the younger generations. On a hot summer morning last year one 73-year-old farmer who lived in Xylotymbou, the village adjacent to the camps, told us, “I never told my children about this.” Anecdotes tell of Cypriots working in the camps, smuggling in potatoes to the undernourished internees, assisting in escapes from the camps through underground tunnels. Local Cypriots from laborers to doctors worked in the camps. Translators were British employees. The Jews were prisoners living in overcrowded tents and barracks under harsh conditions with inadequate food supply. The barbed wire camp was also a vibrant community with marriages, illness, deaths, and celebrations. 2,200 children were born in the camps during this period – pregnancy moved the family up on the Palestine waiting list. But the relationship between Cyprus and the detention camps is more than a momentary historical inconvenience. The tale of the camps is entwined with the independence movements of Cyprus and Israel. They became the training ground for Jewish combatants who would eventually reach Palestine. Cultural workers were sent from Palestine/Israel to teach Hebrew, geography, history and culture of their future homeland and skills that would be valuable upon eventual release. Workshops teaching tailoring, carpentry and other trades were held. Both Cyprus and Palestine were in the colonial grasp of the United Kingdom and the camps contained thousands of military age men British authorities were particularly concerned with detaining from entry to Palestine/Israel and who were of great interest to those groups in Israel fighting for independence. Groups from the Haganah, the militant Israeli faction, came into the camps to secretly train and drill the interned. There is evidence that by 1948 there was contact between A.K.E.L and members of the Haganah. Haganah personnel were smuggled into the camp to provide military training in the guise of organized sports activities that included drilling, calisthenics, throwing, marching and negotiating an obstacle course. While there is some question as to whether it was A.K.E.L. alone or whether the British identified anyone in Cyprus seeking independence as part of A.K.E.L., there is no question that relationship between Cypriots seeking independence and the activities in the camps did in fact come to the attention of the British administration of Cyprus. British documents were kept secret as classified documents for many years; secrecy agreements prevented British employees from speaking. After 60 years many of these documents have been declassified and secrecy agreements have expired. Documentation is now available to support the intertwined relationship between the camps and Cypriot history. In an interview with President Dimitris Christofias in 2005, at that time head of Parliament and General Secretary of A.K.E.L, Mr. Christofias pointed out that A.K.E.L. tried to help the Jews at the time and that the relationship between the camps and A.K.E.L. was part of the history of his party.
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Returning to our initial question “Are there any memorials to the Jews held in detention camps by the British on Cyprus?”, we learned that in 1950 a group of former internees, by then citizens of Israel, expressed their gratitude, by funding a childrenʼs playground in Famagusta. The only other commemorative evidence is a plaque dedicated in 1998 in the port of Larnaca. A formal dedication of the plaque made by the Jewish organization Keren Hayesod in June of that year thanked the Cypriots for their friendship and particularly honored Prodromos Papavasilliou of Famagusta who played a major role in aiding the Jews in their flight to Palestine (Mr. Papavasilliou died in 2006. Few, even those working at the Larnaca port, are currently aware of its existence. For those for whom this chapter of history was part of their personal recollections, the years are passing and most are in their late seventies and eighties. They remain willing to speak to those who know to ask about this time in history, but their story needs to be told and preserved. This is not merely a tale of the elderly and a time long past, but rather it is a memorial and indicator along the path to the independence of Cypriots and Jews. Another site regarding detention camps in Cyprus – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nntyeErIgAw Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies CYPRUS DETENTION CAMPS Transshipment and detention camps on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, in which the British authorities held Jewish "illegal" immigrants, most of them European survivors of the Holocaust trying to enter Palestine. On August 7,1946, the British government made a decision to detain these Jews in Cyprus, hoping that this deterrent would put an end to Jewish immigration. The decision was geared to the British policy of breaking the power of the "Hebrew resistance movement" in Palestine. But before long the British came to realize that detention was not achieving the desired aim. The would-be immigrants continued their attempts to reach Palestine despite violent clashes with British troops and transshipment to Cyprus. By December 1946 the British government, under pressure from the Jewish Agency and in view of the rapid rise in the number of people interned in the Cyprus camps, was allotting half the legal immigration quota (that is, 750 visas, or certificates, a month) to the Cyprus detainees. The use of the Cyprus detention camps began on August 13, 1946, and ended on February 10, 1949, when the last group of detainees left for what had become the state of Israel. During this period, fifty-two thousand Jews passed through the Cyprus camps, having been taken off thirty-nine boats in their attempts to get to Palestine. Twenty-two hundred children who were born in the camps must be added to this number. Some of the detainees spent only a few months in Cyprus, but many were held there for a year and longer. Responsibility for setting up the camps and for their administration and security was of the British army in Cyprus, which handled the camps according to the rules applicable to prisoner-of-war camps. There were two kinds of camps. The "summer camps," of which there were five, were located at Kraolos, near Famagusta, and the detainees in them were housed in tents. The seven "winter camps" were located at Dekalia, north of Larnaca. Here the housing consisted of tin huts and some tents. Conditions in the camps were quite harsh, especially for mothers of children.
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Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies and babies: The tents and barracks were overcrowded. There was no privacy, and families had to share accommodations with single persons. There were no partitions, no lighting fixtures, and no furniture except beds. The food supplied by the British army was of poor quality. Because of the inadequate facilities in the field kitchens, food was wasted and people went hungry. The detainees also suffered from a lack of clothing and shoes, which the British supplied only in limited quantities from army surplus. The insufficient supply of water, particularly in the hot summer months, caused sanitary conditions to deteriorate and led to skin diseases and infections. Most of the British officers and troops in charge of the camps carried out their duties indifferently or unwillingly. Those who wanted to ease the refugees' lot for humanitarian reasons had little authority or resources. The British administration in Palestine, which was charged with establishing and maintaining the camps, had to bear the costs out of its budget, which in any case showed a deficit, and it sought to put the responsibility for the welfare of the detainees on the Jewish Agency and the Joint Distribution Committee (also known as the Joint).
This put the Jewish Agency in a dilemma. It did not recognize the legality of the detention, nor did it want to relieve the British authorities of their responsibility for the maintenance of the camps and the detainees' state of health. The Agency therefore asked the Joint Distribution Committee to take on responsibility for the welfare of the camp population, which the Joint readily did. As early as September 1946, a few weeks after the camps were set up, the Joint was already engaged in welfare operations there, which they maintained throughout the camps' existence. The Joint greatly reduced the hardships from which the refugees suffered. It recruited medical and welfare teams in Palestine to run nurseries and clinics in the camps, it improved the quality of food rations for those in special need and supplemented the basic food supplies of the general camp population, it catered to religious requirements, and it set up a bureau for the search of missing relatives. Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies: Teenagers (of whom there were large numbers in the camps, most having been orphaned in the Holocaust) was yet another task taken on by the Joint, in partnership with Youth Aliya. The majority of the youngsters were put into one camp, Camp 65, which became a kind of youth village. There, Youth Aliya educational teams established a school system based on the few teachers found among the refugees. The welfare teams recruited in Palestine included Jewish Agency appointed emissaries of various political movements. Morris Laub, the Joint's director in Cyprus, became the spokesman and representative of the detainees vis- א-vis the British authorities on the island. The detainees in the Cyprus camps were relatively young, with 80 percent of them between the ages of thirteen and thirty-five. Thus, they were among the more spirited and lively survivors of the Holocaust. They came to the camps as members of youth movements, immigration groups, and political parties imbued with a strong Zionist ideology. Their ideology and self-discipline enabled them to adapt to the conditions in the camps. In addition to being deprived of their liberty and exposed to harsh physical conditions, the detainees also suffered greatly from the enforced idleness of the camps. Efforts to keep them busy with cultural activities met with difficulties, owing to lack of means and scarcity of qualified personnel. An important contribution was made by emissaries from Palestine who lived with the
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refugees in the camps. Some of these were "legal": representatives of the various Zionist movements, welfare workers under Joint auspices, and teachers dispatched to Cyprus by the Rutenberg Teachers' Seminary. Others were "illegal": they were sent to Cyprus by the Palmah, the underground strike force of the Hagana (the Yishuv's underground military organization), to provide the young people in the camps with military training and prepare them for service with the Hagana when they arrived in Palestine. Living among the detainees and sharing their lot, these emissaries had great influence. They represented the Jewish national institutions and were the link between the refugees and the Jewish population in Palestine. Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies: A few of the refugees who had second thoughts applied to the British authorities to return to the country from which they had set out. But generally, despite all their suffering, the Cyprus detainees displayed impressive moral strength and staying power during their internment. Though there were no written laws and no real sanctions that could have been applied, not a single criminal act was recorded among the detainees.
