On Writing

"The war and the Nazi period are like a relative to me," a German friend born in 1960 tells me. "For me, it's very alive. We were the first generation to read Anne Frank. We cannot think of German history without thinking about the Jews. "But our parents couldn't talk about the past. When we bring up the subject, many said, 'Stop talking about it. It's over. We have a ...

The German Office for the notification of next of kin of casualties of the German Wehrmacht in Berlin When visiting Germany, I have discovered that Germans speak openly about their country's dark past — but most don't talk about their personal involvement. Children have little information about their parents' contributions to Nazi Germany. When I asked my German friends why they don't know about their parents' role in the past, ...

2/1/10 Chapman, Fern Schumer IS IT NIGHT OR DAY? Most Holocaust stories for children focus on the inhumanity that took place in European countries; fewer deal with the severe hardships experienced by children sent to America and their struggles to assimilate into a foreign culture. Based on the experiences of the author’s mother as part of the One Thousand Children project, this empathetic historical novel rings with authenticity. Edith Westerfeld ...

Is It Night or Day? Chapman, Fern Schumer (author). Mar. 2010. 192p. Farrar, hardcover, $16.99 (9780374177447). Grades 6-10. REVIEW. First published February 1, 2010 (Booklist). Chapman based this spare historical novel on her mother’s experience of coming to America to escape Nazi persecution. At age 12, Edith is sent by her German Jewish parents to relatives on Chicago’s South Side in 1937. Oppressed by her aunt, who makes Edith work ...

German commemorative stamps of some of the Berlin synagogues destroyed on Krystallnacht. On November 9, 1963, East Germany issued this stamp of a burning synagogue and the yellow star all Jews were required to wear under Nazi rule to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Krstallnacht.

'A warning to the living!' A Jewish community was established in 1738 in Gross-Gerau, a town south of Frankfurt, and the synagogue was built in 1892. The number of Jews in 1885 was 141 (4% of the total population) and 161 in 1925 (3% of the total population). Nearly all the Jews left after 1933, and on November 4, 1940, the town was declared Judenrein (free of Jews). The synagogue ...

"Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere." Writer Jean Rhys, a mid-20th century Dominican novelist best known for her novel Wide Sarasso Sea, a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

Living with trauma is like living with a smoker. You don't have to be the smoker to get sick. How can that be? Dr. Paul Valent, a psychotherapist for 35 years who founded the Child Survivors of the Holocaust group in Melbourne, Australia offers this explanation: "Children of traumatized parents especially young ones, experience their parent-gods as not recognizing them as the children that they are and only inconstantly tending ...

Haitian children I worry about the Haitian child immigrants. In addition to adjusting to terrible losses and a new life in a new land, they run great risks of psychological disturbances. I wrote in Is It Night or Day?: "Stories of other immigrant children often aren't featured in history books either. For many reasons -- war, famine, political persecution, economic hardship, natural disasters -- children have been painfully separated from ...

Haitian orphans arrive at Pittsburgh airport on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010. Once again, we are witnessing the painful realities of child immigration. The Haitian earthquake has torn apart families and threatened children. Throughout history, war, natural disasters, political situations, and poverty have forced children to relocate by themselves without the protection of their parents. No matter what the reason, child immigration reminds us of the daunting task necessary to rebuild ...