Post-Holocaust Jewish Literature

Discontent During the Holocaust and Jewish Culture

This week’s lesson plan will focus around the theme of discontent during the post- Holocaust era and relation to Jewish culture. To highlight these lessons, students must read “This Way for the Gas, Ladies, and Gentlemen” by Tadeusz Borowski and “Tourists” by Yehuda Amichai in the Norton Anthology World Literature Volume 2; 3^rd ed.. The first story by Borowski will broaden student’s perspective on how life was for a prisoner while revealing the character’s discontent for his way of life and eagerness to do more. The second story from Amichai uses metaphors to discuss the feelings of the Jewish community towards tourists. As a teacher, the point of reading these stories is to allow students to explore emotions, thoughts, and conflictions of the characters during a fragile time in history.

Lesson Plan

To fully understand the character’s discontent in Borowski’s story, have students do a close reading of 4-5 sentences of their choosing. Some key points to look for are:

• What situation is the character in?
• What change is the character wanting to make?
• What fuels the character’s discontent?
• What is the tone of the passage in which you chose?

The post-holocaust era is an important time in Jewish culture and is still a fragile subject to this day. To gauge a better understanding of the Jewish culture, students will read Amichai’s short poem and analyze it for metaphors and emotion. When students have completed both stories, have them write a short comparison of the two characters feelings, and what discontent has led them to.