Family Stories workshops (All ages) The purpose of this session is to help children learn about their parents’ histories. I work with families in groups as children learn how to ask questions about their parent’s early life experiences and parents share some of their stories. Great opportunity for families to bond.

Parent Book Clubs (Adults or Parent/Child groups) My books have been popular with adult and parent child book clubs. I give presentations to these groups.

Writers Workshop (Grades 3 and up) I teach the craft of writing, inspiring parents and children to develop their own sense of identity through story.

WGTD's Greg Berg

Greg Berg interviews author Fern Schumer Chapman on Monday, July 12th, ‘The Morning Show,” 91.5 WGTD.

Here is the link:

http://media.gtc.edu/morningshow/871210.mp3

JLG selected Is It Night or Day? as its June book for Advanced Readers. Here are some comments from the JLG reviewers about the book:

* World War II and Holocaust stories like Edith’s are scarce in children’s literature; unlike many European Jews, she manages to flee her homeland and become an American immigrant. Readers will be intrigued by Edith’s unique perspective.

* A powerful and moving story. It is easy to relate to Edith and her emotional struggles, such as her devastation when a friend from her passage to America later rejects her because he now considers himself an American and denounces any associations with “the old country.”

* The time period is clearly rendered, with evocative descriptions and telling details about topics including race relations, popular music, fashions and the cost of living.

1938- my grandmother, my mother, my grandfather. This is the last picture of my mother’s family, taken just before she was sent to America.

Neurobiologist Eric Kandel wrote in his work, In Search of Memory, that people have the desire to destroy people outside the group to which they belong. “There may be an innate response,” he writes, “that is capable of being aroused in almost any cohesive group.”

In my mother’s town, Stockstadt am Rhein, a village of 2,000 people and two Jewish families, that phenomenon was evident in 1938.

My grandfather was a respected civic leader in town, which his family had helped settle in 1721. No farmer in the area could bring his crops to market without the services of my grandfather, Siegmund Westerfeld. In addition, my grandfather introduced the cucumber as a cash crop. His family had the first telephone and the first car in the area. The family was assimilated into the town and he served as a trusted lender to many members of the community. In fact, most families in the town had borrowed money from my grandfather; that way, they could stay solvent and keep their farms afloat.

When Hitler came to power, as Kandel puts it, “the successes of the Jewish community generated envy and a desire for revenge among non-Jews.” The townspeople of Stockstadt did nothing to defend or protect Westerfeld and his family. After all, how convenient it would be if the town lender would simply disappear and the loans would be eradicated.

A member of a family who had borrowed money from my grandfather came to me about ten years ago and cried. “My father  owed your grandfather a great deal of money,” she said. “I feel that his blood is on my family’s hands.”

Note: For a larger discussion on this subject, please visit www.shadowsoftheholocaust.com.

The Chicago Tribune ran an interesting article today about the growing number of adult viewers who watch tween TV. Nielsen recently reported that a special of the Nickelodeon series, “iCarly,” (“iSaved Your Life”) attracted an audience of 12.4 million views, 2.7 of whom were adults between the ages of 18 and 49. The show is designed for kids between the ages of 8 and 13.

Other TV shows have taken advantage of the trend. They include “Good Luck Charlie,” “Phineas and Ferb,” “Hannah Montana,” among others.

The same crossover phenomenon is evident in books. Consider the Harry Potter series, the Twilight series, and other YA/Adult books like The Book Thief and even, Is It Night or Day?. They draw readers from both audiences. A quick glance at the profiles of the readers of these books at Goodreads.com confirms this point.

“We want parents to see themselves in those characters,” says Adam Bonnet, senior vice president of orignial programming for the Disney Channel, “or even to see what they were like as a teen and appreciate what the younger characters are going through.”

Yes, exactly, that is the goal of authors of crossover books, too. “It’s a move back to the all-family type programming that the (broadcast) networks, for some reason, abandoned,” says Dana Ewing, senior strategic planner for the Geppetto Group, a New York-based youth marketing firm.

“These kinds of shows [and books] come with themes that are relatable and relevant to more than just the kids.”

Note: A reader sent me the following article about another rescue effort.

The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. It is a German product – precise, minimalist, and utterly efficient. Behind its worldwide acceptance as a creative tool was a family-owned, socially oriented firm that, during the Nazi era, acted with uncommon grace, generosity and modesty. E. Leitz Inc., designer and manufacturer of Germany ’s most famous photographic product, saved its Jews.

And Ernst Leitz II, the steely-eyed Protestant patriarch who headed the closely held firm as the Holocaust loomed across Europe, acted in such a way as to earn the title, “the photography industry’s Schindler.” As soon as Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, Ernst Leitz II began receiving frantic calls from Jewish associates, asking for his help in getting them and their families out of the country. As Christians, Leitz and his family were immune to Nazi Germany’s Nuremberg laws, which restricted the movement of Jews and limited their professional activities.

To help his Jewish workers and colleagues, Leitz quietly established what has become known among historians of the Holocaust as “the Leica Freedom Train,”
a covert means of allowing Jews to leave Germany in the guise of Leitz employees being assigned overseas. Employees, retailers, family members, even friends of family members were “assigned” to Leitz sales offices in France, Britain, Hong Kong and the United States.

Leitz’s activities intensified after the Kristallnacht of November 1938, during which synagogues and Jewish shops were burned across Germany. Before long, German “employees” were disembarking from the ocean liner Bremen at a New York pier and making their way to the Manhattan office of Leitz Inc., where executives quickly found them jobs in the photographic industry.

Each new arrival had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom — a new Leica. The refugees were paid a stipend until they could find work. Out of this migration came designers, repair technicians, salespeople, marketers and writers for the photographic press.

The “Leica Freedom Train” was at its height in 1938 and early 1939, delivering groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany closed its borders. By that time, hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America, thanks to the Leitzes’ efforts. How did Ernst Leitz II and his staff get away with it?

Leitz, Inc. was an internationally recognized brand that reflected credit on the newly resurgent Reich. The company produced range-finders and other optical systems for the German military. Also, the Nazi government desperately needed hard currency from abroad, and Leitz’s single biggest market for optical goods was the United States.

Even so, members of the Leitz family and firm suffered for their good works. A top executive, Alfred Turk, was jailed for working to help Jews and freed only after the payment of a large bribe. Leitz’s daughter, Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, was imprisoned by the Gestapo after she was caught at the border, helping Jewish women cross into Switzerland . She eventually was freed but endured rough treatment in the course of questioning. She also fell under suspicion when she attempted to improve the living conditions of 700 to 800 Ukrainian slave laborers, all of them women, who had been assigned to work in the plant during the 1940s.

Why has no one told this story until now? According to the late Norman Lipton, a freelance writer and editor, the Leitz family wanted no publicity for its heroic efforts. Only after the last member of the Leitz family was dead did the “Leica Freedom Train” finally come to light. It is now the subject of a book, The Greatest Invention of the Leitz Family: The Leica Freedom Train, by Frank Dabba Smith.

Call for published or aspiring authors searching for guidance and encouragement? Several writers are organizing a group to critique and nurture works-in-progress in a fun, supportive atmosphere. I will lead the group.

Writers with varying pubication experiences will meet at the Warren-Newport Public Library in Gurnee, Illinois on a monthly basis. If you might like to join us, please email me at fernschumer@aim.com.

Author school visits

I am beginning to schedule school visits for 2010-2011. Here are my offerings:

A Child’s Immigration Story (Grades 4-12) What if your parents told you they are sending you all by yourself to live in a foreign country? I take students on her mother’s frightening immigration journey from Nazi Germany to America. (powerpoint)

The Legacy of the Holocaust (Grades 4-12) I explain how trauma is transmitted in families, fulfilling state requirements to teach the Holocaust.

Writers Workshop: (Grades 3-12) I teach the craft of writing, inspiring students to develop their own sense of identity through story.

Please email me at fernschumer@aim.com to make arrangements for presentations.

Since the 1940s, one of the few ways American Jews protested the Nazi regime was to refuse to buy certain German products. High on the list was the Mercedes. (Volkswagon and German wine were other targets.)

In 1998, things got complicated when Chrysler Corporation bought a majority share of Mercedes manufacturer Daimler-Benz. Then, some newspapers and magazines asked Jews if they now would begin to boycott Chrysler. Jewish writer Cynthia Ozick said that, as a “private memorial” to the Nazis’ victims she would boycott Chrysler.

Some survivors and refugees continue to boycott German products even today. But in the global economy, it is increasingly difficult to know who owns a product.

It’s debatable whether the boycott was effective. But it’s clear that the boycott didn’t make a dent in the financial portfolio of the man who brought the world the Mercedes.

Frederich Flick was one of Germany’s biggest tycoons of the 20th Century. In addition, the Allies listed him third of 42 industrialists most responsible for Nazi crimes.