A Lesson for Using Memoir and Art

“Sanctuary”

To Study the Holocaust

By Bob Smith

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Teacher Fellow

Rationale: This lesson will examine an excerpt from the diary of Yitskhok Rudashevski in Salvaged Pages, an excerpt from artist Samuel Bak’s memoir Painted in Words, a painting by Bak entitled “Sanctuary,” an iconic photo from the Warsaw Ghetto, and a poem by Peter Fischl. The object of the lesson is to introduce students to memoir as a tool to examine Holocaust history, and to define the term “memoir” in broader than typical terms to include paintings, photos, poetry and other writing. Background about the Vilna Ghetto and conditions there will be examined. Students will also listen to an interview with Samuel Bak, learn vocabulary terms related to the written excerpt as well as to the topic of the Vilna ghetto where Bak was forced to live, and discuss questions which require them to think critically about each work being examined.

Grade Levels: (8-12)

Time Required: About three or four hours of class time.

Materials Needed:

Selection from Painted in Words by Samuel Bak (pages 352-361)
Selection from Salvaged Pages Chapter 7, Yitskhok Rudashevski’s diary (pages 190-225)
Vocabulary/Glossary for selected excerpts
Access to photograph commonly known as “The Little Boy With His Hands Raised in the Warsaw Ghetto ( Image Gallery, The Stroop Report Photo #5 )
“To the Little Polish Boy Standing with His Arms Up” by Peter Fischl
“Sanctuary”—a painting by Samuel Bak

/ Samuel Bak Painting: Sanctuary | Facing History and Ourselves
analysis and interpretation of this painting. Click on the painting itself to view a larger version (the larger version will open in a separate window). Samuel Bak...

samuel-bak-painting-sanctuary

Map locating Vilna 1942 ( History, Holocaust Encyclopedia,Search Maps, “German Administration of Eastern Europe 1942”)
Background information on Vilna, Vilna Ghetto ( “History---Holocaust Encyclopedia---Search Vilna”
Brief video of Liberation of Vilna by the Soviets: Holocaust Encyclopedia | Historical Film Footage | Liberation of Vilna

Part One: Understanding the Background (Have students do these steps before they arrive in class, or allow time in the first class session)

What types of ghettos were created by the Germans during the Holocaust? (

Where is Vilna located? Between 1939 and 1945, which countries controlled the city of Vilna? ( “Vilna” in Holocaust Encyclopedia; “German Administration of Eastern Europe 1942” in Maps section)

Look at the map of the ghettos to understand their size. What do you notice about streets and the ghettos? How would this affect inhabitants?

4. Read a summary of Samuel Bak’s biography. ( Locate “Exhibits, About the Artist: Samuel Bak:

Hearing the Author Speak:

Have students listen to the brief interview with Bak located at

2. Discuss first impression of the artist and the paintings shown briefly in the video.

Reading from Painted in Words

Have students read the selection from Bak’s memoir. Use the handout “Reading Bak’s Words” (found below) to guide discussion of the reading.

Reading Bak’s Words: A Discussion Guide

(Students may either discuss these questions in small groups, later returning to full class discussion, or teachers may opt to have them write short responses to the questions before discussion)

What event had caused their sudden departure from where they were living to where the excerpt opens?

What is “ghetto liquidation?”

Comment on “Whisper, please whisper…”now that you know the denizens of the convent were hidden among books.

Describe the hiding place and the routines the people there went through each day.

Tell something about each member of the hidden group. Why was social and economic status still important, even at this point in these dire conditions?

Discuss what kind of books lay beneath the various families in hiding. Why were these choices symbolic or significant?

Ultimately, what happens to the hiding place?

Reading from Rudashevski Diary: A Different Perspective.

Have students read Chapter 7 of Salvaged Pages
What period of time is covered by the entries? What period of time does the Bak excerpt deal with?
How does the experience Rudashevski has as a writer compare to Bak’s experience?
Both Bak and Rudashevski were recognized by Avram Sutzkever and encouraged to pursue their artistic goals. Who was Sutszkever? What does his encouragement say about life in the Vilna Ghetto?
Consider and discuss the following quotations from the diary :

“Here is the ghetto gate. I feel I have been robbed, my freedom is being robbed from me, my home, and the familiar Vilna streets that I love so much. I have been cut off from all that is dear and precious to me…” (Salvaged Pages p.200)
“Whoever can do so hides. The word ‘maline’ (hiding place) has become relevant…” (p.202)
“Ponar is passive death, the word contains the tragedy of our helplessness. No! We shall not go to Ponar…” (p204)
“The reading of books in the ghetto is the greatest pleasure for me…” (p.218)
“I walk in the street…Winter is beginning to take leave of the little ghetto streets. The air is warm and sunny. The ice upon the streets melts and oozes and our hearts are filled with spring. The snow within us melts, too, and such a sunny feeling envelopes us. Liberation is near. I feel its proximity with all my blood….” (p.221)
“We are, however, prepared for everything, because Monday proved that we must not trust nor believe anything. We may be fated for the worst…” (p.225)

Examining the Painting:

Have students examine the painting “Sanctuary” by Bak.

Ask them to write three initial impressions of the piece.

Ask students to consider the following:

Why is the title appropriate in terms of what you read in the excerpt from the memoir,YitskhokRudashevski’s diary entries, and in terms of what you know about Vilna Ghetto, and the experiences of Jews in ghettos generally? What definitions for the word “sanctuary” seem appropriate here?
What materials are the objects in the painting made of?
Which object seems to be the focus of your attention when you look at the piece?
Do the figures of the boy remind you of anything?
Why is the face of the boy missing?
What do you notice about the hands? What comes to mind when you see hands in that condition?
Where do you think these objects might exist? In other words, what is the context of the objects in the painting?

Now look at the photograph. ( Stroop Gallery Photo #5 )

Compare objects in the painting to figures in the photograph
What might Bak be telling us by using the image of the boy in his painting? (Think about the memoir excerpt and how it ends. Think about what Bak might have felt like at that moment. Think about Rudshevki’s search for sanctuary, both mentally and physically.)
What themes are similar in the painting and the photograph? (Despair, fear, loss, helplessness, etc.)

Read the poem by Peter L. Fischl, “To the Little Polish Boy Standing with His Arms Up.” (See below.)

I would like to be an artist
So I could make a Painting of you
Little Polish Boy
Standing with your Little hat
on your head
The Star of David
on your coat
Standing in the ghetto
with your arms up
as many Nazi machine guns pointing at you
I would make a monument of you and the world who said nothing
I would like to be a composer
so I could write a concerto of you Little Polish Boy
Standing with your Little hat
on your head
The Star of David
on your coat
Standing in the ghetto
with your arms up
as many Nazi machine guns pointing at you
I would write a concerto of you and the world who said nothing / I am not an artist
But my mind had painted
a painting of you
Ten Million Miles High is the Painting
so the whole universe can see you Now
Little Polish Boy
Standing with your Little hat
on your head
The Star of David
on your coat
Standing in the ghetto
with your arms up
as many Nazi machine guns
pointing at you
And the World who said nothing
I'll make this painting so bright
that it will blind the eyes
of the world who saw nothing
Ten billion miles high will be the monument
so the whole universe can remember of you
Little Polish Boy
Standing with your Little hat
on your head
The Star of David
on your coat / Standing in the ghetto
with your arms up
as many Nazi machine guns pointing at you
And the monument will tremble so the blind world
Now
will know
What fear is in the darkness
The world
Who said nothing
I am not a composer
but I will write a composition
for five trillion trumpets
so it will blast the ear drums
of this world
The world
Who heard nothing
I
am
Sorry
that
It was you
and
Not me

Do you think the poet was looking at the photo when he wrote this? Why or why not?
How can you explain the inaccuracies of the poet’s words? (Think about the difficulty of remembering things long ago.)
Are there aspects of the narrator’s wishes which Samuel Bak’s painting has somehow satisfied?
Does the creation of the poem itself satisfy the narrator’s desires?
Read the following passage about Peter L. Fischl:

A traumatic experience that marked Peter's life before the Holocaust came at age eight when he was taken to the offices of the slaughterhouse in Budapest, Hungary, on a business trip with Tibor Fischl, his father. Peter heard the screams of the animals being slaughtered, and he wandered through the open door, straight to the slaughterhouse area, and stood on the fence watching the carnage as several hundred animals were killed. Butchers gave each animal an electric shock in the ear, and when the animal fell on its side, the butchers moved in with huge knives and saws, cutting the animal in half, cleaning out the innards, and hanging the halves on hooks. The young child stood in horror and disbelief as butchers slopped around in the animals' blood, going from one to another in brief minutes.
The last animal alive was a small calf that fought valiantly for his life. The first two butchers chased the spirited calf and slipped and fell into the pool of blood on the floor as the calf bolted to freedom. Other butchers joined forces, becoming covered with splattering blood as the calf dashed and circled, trying to escape. Peter screamed a "bravo" for the little calf that seemed to look at him, his sad eyes saying, "I've done my best. Farewell!!" The small boy watched in horror as seven butchers descended on the defenseless calf, finishing him in seconds. The arena was empty now. Only Peter stood at the fence crying. Little did he know that in a matter of a few years, he and his family would stand in the middle of their own "arena of death."
In March 1944, Peter was walking along a street in Budapest when the Nazi troops, the true butchers of the world, occupied his city. Knowing what had happened in Poland in 1939, Peter ran home and asked his father if they, too, could be butchered. His father answered, "Yes."
Peter became a "hidden child" by hiding in a Catholic school with 60 other Jewish children, and on November 27, 1944, his father called him from his hiding place. With the shouting and shooting by the Germans in the background, Peter was almost speechless as his father said "farewell" for the last time. That young boy has struggled his entire life with dreams of seeing his father coming home.
He first saw the photograph of the "Little Polish Boy" in the late 1960s in a Life Magazine, November 28, 1960 issue, on page 106, as it was taken by the Jurgen Stroop photographers for Hitler's birthday as a gift, by publishing the photo in the "Stroop Report" Newsletter in 1943. Shaken, he immediately identified with the "Little Polish Boy." For four or five years he struggled with the boy in the photo, often talking to him. Early one morning, Peter went to his typewriter and wrote the poem so that millions could not remain indifferent and silent in the face of the senseless, outrageous carnage of the Holocaust. Judy Luhme Junecko lesson “To be or Not to Be”

Does this help explain why the poem may contain inconsistencies or inaccuracies? How?

Bringing it Together: After discussions are conducted, these might be suitable ways to assess students’ understanding:

Write a diary entry for the boy in the photo written by him at the end of the day the photo was taken. Where might he be? What might he be seeing?

Write an “action report” from the point of view of the soldier holding the machine gun in the photo. What will he tell his superiors about his “day’s work?”

Create a comprehensive definition of “memoir” which might now include more things than the written word. Can paintings be memoirs? Photographs? Poems? Try to develop your definition with those questions in mind.

Choose another painting by Bak. Create a guide for other students to use while examining it. Be sure the guide includes some information about Bak and his life in the Vilna Ghetto and questions which will help other students understand what Bak might have been telling us through the painting you have chosen.

Create a poem written from the viewpoint of the person discovering the objects in Bak’s painting “Sanctuary.” Imagine coming across those objects somewhere in the mountains or jungles depicted in the piece.

Discuss several ways to interpret the word “sanctuary,” based on your readings and the Bak painting. Compare how Bak sought and found sanctuary, while Rudashevski and the Boy in the Warsaw Ghetto photo lost their sanctuary.

(There are certainly many more ways to assess student understanding after these activities. Teachers know their students best. Create something that will be authentic for your particular class.)