Parallel
Journeys
by Eleanor Aye
Standards
8.2(A)
8.1(A)
8.2(B)
8.5(e)
8.5(B)
8.3
8.5(g)
8.5(f)
8.6(A)
8.6(D)
8.6(C)
8.6(E)
I will use academic language to discuss and compare the parallel journeys presented in "Parallel Journeys."
By the end of the lesson, students will understand the concept of parallel journeys and how it contributes to the development of characters and themes in literature.
- I can exhibit a deep understanding of the text by accurately identifying key themes and character development related to parallel journeys.
- I can demonstrate critical thinking by making insightful connections between the text and broader historical contexts.
Do Now:
- What do you make of this image from WWII?
- What do you know, or have learned about WWII?
Introduction
Parallel Journeys weaves together the stories of two young Germans—Alfons Heck (1928-2005), an enthusiastic participant in the Hitler Youth, and Helen Waterford (b. 1909), a Jewish girl who flees to Holland to avoid persecution by the Nazis, only to be captured and sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. Partially narrated in the protagonists' own words, the book serves as a warning against hatred and discrimination and offers an uplifting message about peace and understanding. The excerpt here focuses on recollections of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. *Watch StudySync Video
Vocabulary
demonstration
accommodate
bizarre
noun
a public display or protest to show support or opposition for someone or something
verb
to make room for
adjective
strange or unusual
Vocabulary
symbol
emblem
notify
noun
an object or action that represents an idea
noun
an image that represents a group or idea
verb
to inform or report
Background & Context
- Pogrom: an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group, in particular that of Jewish people in Russia or eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- References to the Nazi regime
- (“SA and SS men
- the Brownshirts and the Blackshirts”
- “concentration camps,”
- “Buchenwald”
Some German for you
- Kristallnacht: (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes.
- Schutzstaffel: an elite military unit of the Nazi party that served as Hitler's bodyguard and as a special police force
- Strasse: a road, especially a large or main road
- Schweinhunde: A bastard, an arse; used as a stereotypically German insult.
- Marks: German currency
VIDEO
The story of the Holocaust
Summary
This narrative weaves together two voices: one is a member of the Hitler Youth and the other is a young girl sent to Auschwitz. This excerpt describes the events of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, when German stormtroopers attacked Jewish-owned businesses, smashing windows and vandalizing stores. Next, they set fire to synagogues. This night was momentous, as it marked the point in time when the Nazis’s dark threats became reality. By morning, twenty thousand Jews had been arrested and property damage amounted to millions of marks. In a cruel twist of policy, the Nazi government declared that the Jews must pay for the property damage, which was impossible as they were not allowed insurance. Even though the future was bleak for German Jews, many of them refused to leave, believing that things could not get any worse.
From Chapter 4: Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass On the afternoon of November 9, 1938, we were on our way home from school when we ran into small troops of SA and SS men, the Brownshirts and the Blackshirts. We watched open-mouthed as the men jumped off trucks in the marketplace, fanned out in several directions, and began to smash the windows of every Jewish business in Wittlich.
Paul Wolff, a local carpenter who belonged to the SS, led the biggest troop, and he pointed out the locations. One of their major targets was Anton Blum’s shoe store next to the city hall. Shouting SA men threw hundreds of pairs of shoes into the street. In minutes they were snatched up and carried home by some of the town’s nicest families—folks you never dreamed would steal anything. It was Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. For Jews all across Europe, the dark words of warning hurled about by the Nazis suddenly became very real. Just two weeks earlier, thousands of Polish Jews living in Germany had been arrested and shipped back to Poland in boxcars. Among them was the father of seventeen-year-old Herschel Grynszpan, a German Jew who was living in France. Outraged by the Nazis’ treatment of his family, Herschel walked into the German Embassy in Paris and shot Ernst vom Rath, the secretary.
The murder spawned a night of terror. It was the worst pogrom—the most savage attack against the Jews of Germany—thus far in the twentieth century. Leading the attack was the brutal, boorish SS—the Schutzstaffel. On their uniforms, SS members wore emblems shaped like double lightning bolts, perfect symbols of the terror and suddenness with which they swooped from the night to arrest their frightened victims.
Heading the Schutzstaffel was Heinrich Himmler who worshipped Adolf Hitler. Himmler was a man of great organizational skills, with a passion for perfect record keeping and a heart as black as his Schutzstaffel uniform. His power in the Reich was tremendous; only Hitler reigned above him. Working under Himmler to carry out the savagery of Kristallnacht was Reinhard Heydrich, the number-two man in the SS. His victims dubbed him “The Blond Beast.” Even Hitler called him the man with the iron heart. On direct orders from Heydrich, Jewish homes and businesses were destroyed and synagogues burned. “Demonstrations,” the SS called the violence, and they informed police that they were to do nothing to stop them. “As many Jews, especially rich ones, are to be arrested as can be accommodated in the prisons,” the orders read. Immediately officials at the concentration camps—the special prisons set up by the Nazis—were notified that Jews would be shipped there right away. SS men stormed the streets and searched the attics of Jewish homes, throwing their victims onto trucks to be hauled off to the camps. Four or five of us boys followed Wolff’s men when they headed up the Himmeroder Strasse toward the Wittlich synagogue. Seconds later the beautiful lead crystal window above the door crashed into the street, and pieces of furniture came flying through doors and windows. A shouting SA man climbed to the roof and waved the rolls of the Torah, the sacred Jewish religious scrolls. “Use it for toilet paper, Jews,” he screamed. At that, some people turned shamefacedly away. Most of us stayed, as if riveted to the ground, some grinning evilly. It was horribly brutal, but at the same time very exciting to us kids. “Let’s go in and smash some stuff,” urged my buddy Helmut. With shining eyes, he bent down, picked up a rock and fired it toward one of the windows. I don’t know if I would have done the same thing seconds later, but
that moment my Uncle Franz grabbed both of us by the neck, turned us around and kicked us in the seat of the pants. “Get home, you two Schweinhunde,” he yelled. “What do you think this is, some sort of circus?” Indeed, it was like a beastly, bizarre circus of evil. All across Germany the scene was the same. Terror rained down upon the Jews as Nazis took to the streets with axes, hammers, grenades, and guns. According to reports from high Nazi officials, some 20,000 Jews were arrested, 36 killed, and another 36 seriously injured. Thousands of Jews were hauled to concentration camps during Kristallnacht. There many died or were beaten severely by Nazi guards who used this chance to take revenge on a hated people.
****************************************************************************************** Across Europe, Jews panicked as news of the horrors of Kristallnacht reached them. In Amsterdam, Helen and Siegfried got their first reports in a phone call from Helen’s family. My hometown of Frankfurt, with its 35,000 Jews, had four synagogues. The pogrom started with the burning of the synagogues and all their sacred contents. Jewish stores were destroyed and the windows shattered. Nearly every house was searched for Jewish men. The SA, in plain clothes, came to my parents’ apartment to arrest my father and eighteen-year-old brother. A “helpful” neighbor had shown them where in the roomy attic Jews might be hiding. My brother was deported to Buchenwald—a concentration camp near Weimar in eastern Germany—as was Siegfried’s brother, Hans.
It was not enough for the Jews to suffer destruction of their homes and businesses, beatings and arrests by the SS, and deportation to concentration camps. The Nazis now ordered that the victims must pay for the loss of their own property. The bill for broken glass alone was five million marks. Any insurance money that the Jews might have claimed was taken by the government. And because many of the buildings where Jews had their shops were actually owned by Aryans, the Jews as a group had to pay an additional fine “for their abominable crimes, etc.” So declared Hermann Goring, a high-ranking Nazi who was in charge of the German economy. He set their fine at one billion marks.
For the Jews still left in Germany, the future looked very grim. Many had fled, like Helen and Siegfried, after the first ominous rumblings from Hitler’s government. But thousands still remained. These people simply refused to believe that conditions would get any worse. They thought the plight of the Jews would improve, if only they were patient. Helen’s father was among them. Although he had lost his business, he was still stubbornly optimistic about the future of the Jews in Germany. Earlier in the summer of 1938 he had been arrested, for no particular reason, and sent to Buchenwald. At that time it was still possible to get people out of a camp if they had a visa to another country. Siegfried and I got permission from the Dutch government for him to come to Holland, but he did not want to leave Germany without his wife and son. Since they had no visas, he stayed with them and waited—until it was almost too late.
THANK YOU!
Parallel Journeys
Ashley Campion
Created on January 8, 2024
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Transcript
Parallel
Journeys
by Eleanor Aye
Standards
8.2(A)
8.1(A)
8.2(B)
8.5(e)
8.5(B)
8.3
8.5(g)
8.5(f)
8.6(A)
8.6(D)
8.6(C)
8.6(E)
I will use academic language to discuss and compare the parallel journeys presented in "Parallel Journeys."
By the end of the lesson, students will understand the concept of parallel journeys and how it contributes to the development of characters and themes in literature.
Do Now:
Introduction
Parallel Journeys weaves together the stories of two young Germans—Alfons Heck (1928-2005), an enthusiastic participant in the Hitler Youth, and Helen Waterford (b. 1909), a Jewish girl who flees to Holland to avoid persecution by the Nazis, only to be captured and sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. Partially narrated in the protagonists' own words, the book serves as a warning against hatred and discrimination and offers an uplifting message about peace and understanding. The excerpt here focuses on recollections of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. *Watch StudySync Video
Vocabulary
demonstration
accommodate
bizarre
noun a public display or protest to show support or opposition for someone or something
verb to make room for
adjective strange or unusual
Vocabulary
symbol
emblem
notify
noun an object or action that represents an idea
noun an image that represents a group or idea
verb to inform or report
Background & Context
Some German for you
VIDEO
The story of the Holocaust
Summary
This narrative weaves together two voices: one is a member of the Hitler Youth and the other is a young girl sent to Auschwitz. This excerpt describes the events of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, when German stormtroopers attacked Jewish-owned businesses, smashing windows and vandalizing stores. Next, they set fire to synagogues. This night was momentous, as it marked the point in time when the Nazis’s dark threats became reality. By morning, twenty thousand Jews had been arrested and property damage amounted to millions of marks. In a cruel twist of policy, the Nazi government declared that the Jews must pay for the property damage, which was impossible as they were not allowed insurance. Even though the future was bleak for German Jews, many of them refused to leave, believing that things could not get any worse.
From Chapter 4: Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass On the afternoon of November 9, 1938, we were on our way home from school when we ran into small troops of SA and SS men, the Brownshirts and the Blackshirts. We watched open-mouthed as the men jumped off trucks in the marketplace, fanned out in several directions, and began to smash the windows of every Jewish business in Wittlich. Paul Wolff, a local carpenter who belonged to the SS, led the biggest troop, and he pointed out the locations. One of their major targets was Anton Blum’s shoe store next to the city hall. Shouting SA men threw hundreds of pairs of shoes into the street. In minutes they were snatched up and carried home by some of the town’s nicest families—folks you never dreamed would steal anything. It was Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. For Jews all across Europe, the dark words of warning hurled about by the Nazis suddenly became very real. Just two weeks earlier, thousands of Polish Jews living in Germany had been arrested and shipped back to Poland in boxcars. Among them was the father of seventeen-year-old Herschel Grynszpan, a German Jew who was living in France. Outraged by the Nazis’ treatment of his family, Herschel walked into the German Embassy in Paris and shot Ernst vom Rath, the secretary. The murder spawned a night of terror. It was the worst pogrom—the most savage attack against the Jews of Germany—thus far in the twentieth century. Leading the attack was the brutal, boorish SS—the Schutzstaffel. On their uniforms, SS members wore emblems shaped like double lightning bolts, perfect symbols of the terror and suddenness with which they swooped from the night to arrest their frightened victims.
Heading the Schutzstaffel was Heinrich Himmler who worshipped Adolf Hitler. Himmler was a man of great organizational skills, with a passion for perfect record keeping and a heart as black as his Schutzstaffel uniform. His power in the Reich was tremendous; only Hitler reigned above him. Working under Himmler to carry out the savagery of Kristallnacht was Reinhard Heydrich, the number-two man in the SS. His victims dubbed him “The Blond Beast.” Even Hitler called him the man with the iron heart. On direct orders from Heydrich, Jewish homes and businesses were destroyed and synagogues burned. “Demonstrations,” the SS called the violence, and they informed police that they were to do nothing to stop them. “As many Jews, especially rich ones, are to be arrested as can be accommodated in the prisons,” the orders read. Immediately officials at the concentration camps—the special prisons set up by the Nazis—were notified that Jews would be shipped there right away. SS men stormed the streets and searched the attics of Jewish homes, throwing their victims onto trucks to be hauled off to the camps. Four or five of us boys followed Wolff’s men when they headed up the Himmeroder Strasse toward the Wittlich synagogue. Seconds later the beautiful lead crystal window above the door crashed into the street, and pieces of furniture came flying through doors and windows. A shouting SA man climbed to the roof and waved the rolls of the Torah, the sacred Jewish religious scrolls. “Use it for toilet paper, Jews,” he screamed. At that, some people turned shamefacedly away. Most of us stayed, as if riveted to the ground, some grinning evilly. It was horribly brutal, but at the same time very exciting to us kids. “Let’s go in and smash some stuff,” urged my buddy Helmut. With shining eyes, he bent down, picked up a rock and fired it toward one of the windows. I don’t know if I would have done the same thing seconds later, but
that moment my Uncle Franz grabbed both of us by the neck, turned us around and kicked us in the seat of the pants. “Get home, you two Schweinhunde,” he yelled. “What do you think this is, some sort of circus?” Indeed, it was like a beastly, bizarre circus of evil. All across Germany the scene was the same. Terror rained down upon the Jews as Nazis took to the streets with axes, hammers, grenades, and guns. According to reports from high Nazi officials, some 20,000 Jews were arrested, 36 killed, and another 36 seriously injured. Thousands of Jews were hauled to concentration camps during Kristallnacht. There many died or were beaten severely by Nazi guards who used this chance to take revenge on a hated people. ****************************************************************************************** Across Europe, Jews panicked as news of the horrors of Kristallnacht reached them. In Amsterdam, Helen and Siegfried got their first reports in a phone call from Helen’s family. My hometown of Frankfurt, with its 35,000 Jews, had four synagogues. The pogrom started with the burning of the synagogues and all their sacred contents. Jewish stores were destroyed and the windows shattered. Nearly every house was searched for Jewish men. The SA, in plain clothes, came to my parents’ apartment to arrest my father and eighteen-year-old brother. A “helpful” neighbor had shown them where in the roomy attic Jews might be hiding. My brother was deported to Buchenwald—a concentration camp near Weimar in eastern Germany—as was Siegfried’s brother, Hans.
It was not enough for the Jews to suffer destruction of their homes and businesses, beatings and arrests by the SS, and deportation to concentration camps. The Nazis now ordered that the victims must pay for the loss of their own property. The bill for broken glass alone was five million marks. Any insurance money that the Jews might have claimed was taken by the government. And because many of the buildings where Jews had their shops were actually owned by Aryans, the Jews as a group had to pay an additional fine “for their abominable crimes, etc.” So declared Hermann Goring, a high-ranking Nazi who was in charge of the German economy. He set their fine at one billion marks. For the Jews still left in Germany, the future looked very grim. Many had fled, like Helen and Siegfried, after the first ominous rumblings from Hitler’s government. But thousands still remained. These people simply refused to believe that conditions would get any worse. They thought the plight of the Jews would improve, if only they were patient. Helen’s father was among them. Although he had lost his business, he was still stubbornly optimistic about the future of the Jews in Germany. Earlier in the summer of 1938 he had been arrested, for no particular reason, and sent to Buchenwald. At that time it was still possible to get people out of a camp if they had a visa to another country. Siegfried and I got permission from the Dutch government for him to come to Holland, but he did not want to leave Germany without his wife and son. Since they had no visas, he stayed with them and waited—until it was almost too late.
THANK YOU!