Tag: holocaust

The Importance of Art as Resistance and Existence

A few weeks ago, someone told me about the work of neurologist and psychologist Viktor Frankl and his time in a concentration camp duroing World War II. After the person told me about Frankl, I sought out his memoir Man’s Search for Meaning where he lays out his ideas surrounding logotherapy. Frankl explains that logotherapy, which derives from logos, the Greek word for “meaning,” “focuses on the meaning of … Read More The Importance of Art as Resistance and Existence

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Indoctrination Through Education in Nora Krug’s “Belonging”

Nora Krug begins her graphic memoir Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home with an anecdote about one of her first encounters in New York. On the rooftop of a friend’s apartment building, an elderly woman struck up a conversation with Krug, asking her where she was from. When Krug affirmed that she was from Germany, the woman began to relate “how she had survived … Read More Indoctrination Through Education in Nora Krug’s “Belonging”

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Beauty Amongst Violence in “The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing Up in The Warsaw Ghetto”

Over the past few weeks, I’ve read Hans Massaquoi’s Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany and Mary Berg’s diary that she wrote during World War II, specifically living and growing up in the Warsaw Ghetto before her family’s escape to the United States in March 1944. Massaquoi’s memoir didn’t appear until 1999, and he wrote it looking backwards, after individuals suggested he document his … Read More Beauty Amongst Violence in “The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing Up in The Warsaw Ghetto”

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History and the American Dream in James McBride “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store”

Cover illustration by David Cooper for The Washington Post When Nana Nkweit asked James McBride how much discovering his Jewish background impacted his latest novel The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, McBride said that he discovered himself becoming “much more sensitized to the events of World War II than ever before.” He stated that his mother had cousins who died in he Holocaust, and he mentioned that … Read More History and the American Dream in James McBride “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store”

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Resistance and Survival in World War II Poland Syllabus

A couple of years ago, I proposed a study travel trip to Poland focused on the intersections between Jim Crow and the Holocaust. Unfortunately, the trip didn’t make, so we didn’t get to go. However, one student wanted to take the course, and we did a directed study which led to a co-written essay. I have thought about trying to get this trip make again, but I … Read More Resistance and Survival in World War II Poland Syllabus