Kiddie Kristallnacht
Marjorie Ingall has a great discussion of what makes a good first-Shoah book over at Tablet.
As a mother raising a little boy whose great-grandfather hid in the real-life equivalent of the KitKat Club on Kristallnacht, and was an active member of the street kid resistance, I was fairly apalled at her description of "Benno and the Night of Broken Glass." You can be sure that our son will hear a different story, one in which people actually had and made tough choices to do the right thing.
I'd like to think my son is years away from this sort of thing, but the truth is that it's woven so intricately into my husband's family history, and he's already so well acquainted with tragedy and losing people we love, that the Shoah will no doubt come up earlier than I want. I'm glad to have such a great guide to meaningful, child-appropriate ways of discussing it.
hat-tip to Vicki Boykis for directing me to Ingalls' writing.
As a mother raising a little boy whose great-grandfather hid in the real-life equivalent of the KitKat Club on Kristallnacht, and was an active member of the street kid resistance, I was fairly apalled at her description of "Benno and the Night of Broken Glass." You can be sure that our son will hear a different story, one in which people actually had and made tough choices to do the right thing.
I'd like to think my son is years away from this sort of thing, but the truth is that it's woven so intricately into my husband's family history, and he's already so well acquainted with tragedy and losing people we love, that the Shoah will no doubt come up earlier than I want. I'm glad to have such a great guide to meaningful, child-appropriate ways of discussing it.
hat-tip to Vicki Boykis for directing me to Ingalls' writing.
posted by Tzipporah at 1:22 PM
2 Comments:
Street kid resistance? What's that?
He was originally part of the Baum group, but as one of a number of teens who stayed behind in Berlin when their parents left the country or were arrested, helped expedite the kinder transport.
They also ran around the day before Kristallnacht knocking on doors and warning people not to sleep at home that night. He was one of the youngest of the group, and the only one to escape, running across the border the next year.
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