Prime Stage Theatre Presents…

I Never Saw Another Butterfly
Readings to Guide Holocaust Discussion: Responsibility

Grades 7-12

Can the past teach lessons to us? When we become aware of the literature, letters, music, and art of the people who survived and/or observed the Holocaust, we learn about the context and fabric of the historical events through their first-hand experiences. These memories and thoughts, unlike dates and numbers, connect us in personal ways.

Objective:

Students will explore and increase their understanding of the concept of a person’s responsibility to speak up and take action rather than standing by and watching when human dignity is threatened.

The following selections can be used individually or together as a unit. A Venn diagram could be useful to summarize the likenesses and differences of the selections used.. An example is given at the end of this lesson plan.

Reading Selections:

Poem : “First they came for” by Martin Niemoller

Poem: “The Hangman” by Maurice Ogden

Picture Book : Terrible Things by Eve Bunting

Poetry and Art: I Never Saw Another Butterfly

Discuss Holocaust concepts and issues in these selections that relate to the objective.

Materials:

Copies of the poems for each student

Several copies of the books for groups to share

A Venn diagram to detail and analyze connections and ideas from the readings.

I. Read aloud to your students the following poem by Martin Niemoller that is on display in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:

"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist,

Then they came for the trade unionists, but I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist,

Then they came for the Jews,

But I did not speak out because I was not a Jew,

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me."

--By anti-Nazi pastor Martin Niemoller

Next ask the students to read the poem silently to themselves and then conduct a group discussion beginning with the following questions:

1. What is the author trying to say? Why?

2. Is it the responsibility of people in a country or place to look out for each other? Why or why not?

3. Should citizens of one country or ethnic group look out for citizens of another country or ethnic group? Why or why not?

4. What is a socialist? A trade unionist?

5. What does the word "they" refer to in each line?

Have students discuss or write about an experience they've had when they felt like they observed something that made them want to take action, but they didn't.

Talk about Niemoller's poem in the context of…

…school life. Are there times when some students are singled out by others?

What do most students do when this occurs?

…human rights crises today. What national moral obligations do we have to aid people in other countries?

Extension:

Suggest that students and their families rent and view the movie "Schindler's List" and consider how resistance is portrayed in this film. Have the class a search for reviews of the movie on the web and select one to take home along with Niemoller’s poem in order to help encourage families to watch and discuss this award winning film together.

II. Follow the same procedure with the following poem

The Hangman

by Maurice Ogden

1. Into our town the Hangman came.
Smelling of gold and blood and flame
and he paced our bricks with a diffident air
and built his frame on the courthouse square

The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door

And we wondered, whenever we had the time.
Who the criminal, what the crime.
That Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.

And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead:
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raise the gallows-tree?"

Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree."

And he stepped down. and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief

And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke.
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.

2.

The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town
And stark and black in the morning air,
The gallows-tree on the courthouse square.

And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business like.

And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday. with the alien one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."

He laughed a laugh as he looked at us: "
...Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."

Then one cried "Murder!" One cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"

And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm,
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.

That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute T
he gallows-tree had taken root;

Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.

3.

The third he took-we had all heard tell
Was a user and infidel, and
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"

And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."

The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched out comfort hard and long;
And what concern, he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed--the doomed and black?"

The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the last?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."

And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score:
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.

The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side:
And the monster cross-beam, looking down.
Cast its shadow across the town.

4.

Then through the town the Hangman came
And called in the empty streets my name-
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging." And so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree.
And I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.

He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the strand.

And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap
And it sprang down with a ready snap
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.

"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then.
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me. Hangman. foully lied!"

Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true"
The scaffold was raised for none but you.

For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others that might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?,"

"Dead," I whispered, and sadly
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the alien, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."

Beneath the beam that blocked the sky.
None had stood so alone as I
And the Hangman strapped me, and no voice there
Cried "Stay!" for me in the empty square

III. Read the book Terrible Things by Eve Bunting to the class and compare this children’s story to the adult poems.

IV. Read poems and view artwork from I Never Saw Another Butterfly : Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp 1942-1944, edited by Hana Volavkova. Discuss how the children’s poems connect to the other readings.

Extension:

Guide students to plan line-readings of the reading selections by creating a thematic structure. This will take some discussion and staging—but the creative work will connect the lessons to the students in meaningful ways.

The readings can be done as monologues, choral readings, and dialogues. Every student should take part in this production as all ability levels can be accommodated and valued.

The line readings in the class will provide practice for students who are not confident or at ease in front of a group. The next level would be to invite another class, or staff to experience the dramatic line readings.

A further extension of this activity would be to videotape the production at the beginning and then at the end. Each student will be able to see his or her own growth

Helpful Resources:

Refer to the Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site to locate more information, literature and/or first hand narratives: http://www.ushmm.org.

Student Instructions for Venn Diagram:

1. Open the drawing or word processing program

2. Use the Oval tool to draw two or three large overlapping circles.

3. Create individual text boxes to label each circle.

4. Place characteristics of item one in the left circle; place characteristics of item two in the right circle. In the center, where the circles overlap, place characteristics that both items have in common.

5. Change colors, sizes, fonts, and styles of text, if desired.  

http://www.essdack.org/tips/venn.html