Warren Fellowship

This summer, from May 25-30, I will be spending a week at the Warren Fellowship at the Houston Holocaust Museum.  From their website,

“The Warren Fellowship for Future Teachers is a week-long program that introduces university students preparing for a career in teaching to the history and to the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides. The Warren Fellowship … is developing a corps of educators who want to learn how to effectively teach about genocide and the Holocaust.  Once accepted to this prestigious fellowship, participants attend a six–day, expense-paid institute designed to immerse the Fellows in historical and pedagogical issues related to the Holocaust.  Eminent Holocaust and genocide scholars provide historical and academic content and university and Fellowship faculty and Museum staff provide pedagogical context. The Warren Fellowship … is designed to bring the lessons of the Holocaust into the classroom. … During the week, Fellows have the opportunity to meet and work with survivors of the Holocaust.”

I just received my reading assignments in the mail this week, here’s what they sent me:

Salvaged Pages,  Alexandra Zapruder

“This is a stirring collection of diaries written by young people, ages 12-22, during the Holocaust.  Some of the writers were refugees, others were hiding or passing as non-Jews, some were imprisoned in ghettos, and nearly all perished before liberation.”

Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl is not the only diary written by those affected by the Holocaust, and this collection of diaries sheds light on many more stories.  I have only just begun reading, but I am very excited to hear more first hand accounts.

War & Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust, Doris L. Bergen

I have barely started this one, but I must admit, I definitely need a concise history of the Holocaust before going into this program.  I’m a little concerned that everyone else going into this program has a strong background knowledge of Word War II, which I definitely don’t.  I’m not a history buff, but I am all about challenging myself, so I at least have that going for me.  Like I said, I have barely started, so I can’t really tell you much about it, but here’s part of the Amazon description:

“In examining one of the defining events of the twentieth century, Doris L. Bergen situates the Holocaust in its historical, political, social, cultural, and military contexts. Unlike many other treatments of the Holocaust, this revised, second edition discusses not only the persecution of the Jews, but also other segments of society victimized by the Nazis: Gypsies, homosexuals, Poles, Soviet POWs, the handicapped, and other groups deemed undesirable. With clear and eloquent prose, Bergen explores the two interconnected goals that drove the Nazi German program of conquest and genocide—purification of the so-called Aryan race and expansion of its living space—and discusses how these goals affected the course of World War II. Including firsthand accounts from perpetrators, victims, and eyewitnesses, the book is immediate, human, and eminently readable.”

I’m hoping to blog about the Fellowship a lot once I’m there, seeing as how I will be learning a lot.  I’ll keep you posted!