By Alex Potter
Alex Potter is an MA student at the University of Southampton specialising in Gender and the Holocaust and is one of the BIAHS postgraduate representatives 2023/24.
As Holocaust Memorial Day approaches, the National Literacy Trust has organised its annual event with the help of children’s author Tom Palmer. A week-long teaching and learning programme has been organised based on a series of 5-part videos entitled ‘This is not a story’. This will culminate in an event held with Tom Palmer and Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich on the 26th of January which can be accessed by signing up online. The webpage online is easily accessible and open to all and encourages teachers to utilise its resources to help commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.
The main body of the teaching is centered around the videos of the author Tom Palmer reading each chapter of ‘This is not a Story’. This online narration is based on the testimony of siblings Mala Tribich and Ben Helfgott. Both Mala and Ben were born in Poland and both were of school age at the beginning of the Holocaust. Using videos and narration Palmer traces their lives as the Holocaust progresses. He follows their story from before the war, to ghettoisation, life during camps, liberation and postwar relocation. Through this overview of their lives, Palmer gives the audience an emotive story that a young audience can relate to on some level. This significantly aids the purpose of Holocaust Memorial Day to engage audiences with the commemoration of the Holocaust and to educate young people on the experiences of Jewish victims. Palmer makes sure during his videos to introduce the audience (intended to be 9 to 14-year-olds) to basic principles of historical study. For example, he emphasises the importance of primary sources. He gives a brief but comprehensive overview of primary sources indicating their importance in historical study and how this is the basis of his books.
The videos engage classes with a conversational style, set in what appears to be Palmer’s living room with the only prop being a cup of tea. This works to the video’s advantage by engaging the audience, Palmer appears to speak naturally and does not make the videos feel too constructed and official. The language used in videos is clear and easy to understand for the age range targeted making this piece accessible to all abilities in a classroom.
Throughout ‘This is not a Story’, the audience engages with difficult topics of the Holocaust that will be sensitive to children of this age. This is done carefully and is noted that details can be omitted at a teacher’s discretion based on individual classes. There are mentions during the videos of deportations and murder of Jews in the Holocaust with direct references to the deportation of several members of the Helfgott family. Whilst this is difficult to describe to children in this age range it is important to include to acknowledge the horrors and reality of the Holocaust and to introduce the meaning of genocide. The author does this sensitively by ensuring not too much detail is given and acknowledging that stories of concentration camps are too graphic and disturbing for this age range.
A great strength of the videos is that at the end of each Palmer asks children to contemplate the content of ‘This is not a Story’. Questions include:
- In what ways have Mala and Ben’s lives changed after the invasion of Poland?
- What decisions were Jewish people forced to make?
- What human rights were taken away from Jewish people during the Holocaust?
- What was life like for them after liberation?
- Why do you think Mala and Ben have told their stories?
- Why do you think the author has told this story?
These probing questions allow the children to start to think about the impact of the Holocaust on the lives of children and their families. These questions can help foster group discussions within classrooms about the Holocaust and the impact it had on Jewish life. Particularly interesting are the questions on the commemoration of the Holocaust which are aimed to be asked at the end of this week of teaching. This allows children to reflect on the week as Holocaust Memorial Day approaches and to think about why the story of victims like Mala and Ben must be told. Palmer
emphasises both Mala and Ben’s commitment to Holocaust commemoration and their accolades for these services to Britain. This brings together the purpose of the week and allows a good conclusion to the learning the children will have done by this point and prepares them for the online event.
Overall this project is very promising and hopefully will foster a conversation in schools about the Holocaust and the reason for its continued commemoration. The event at the end of the week will allow the children a great opportunity to watch an interview with a Holocaust survivor online and will hopefully engage them further in this topic.
The National Literacy Trust has released multiple resources not only on this specific story but with general teaching on the Holocaust in mind in conjunction with UCL’s Centre for Holocaust Education. Tom Palmer has participated in this event as a wider part of his writing and research as an author of historical children’s books which are very popular and can be found online and in bookstores. Palmer’s latest book ‘After the War’ also includes the testimony of Ben Helfgott.
This book has extensive teaching resources which can be found on his website and paired with a reading of the book in a classroom.
Below are links to relevant websites:
https://literacytrust.org.uk/resources/holocaust-memorial-day/
https://www.hmd.org.uk/what-is-holocaust-memorial-day/
https://tompalmer.co.uk/
https://holocausteducation.org.uk/
The British and Irish Association for Holocaust Studies 