Reclaiming Their Childhood: Fifty Holocaust Survivors Reunite

The Lost Children of Berlin is a documentary about the reunion of students from the last class of the Grosse Hamburgerstrasse School in Nazi Berlin. The former students are among the Holocaust survivors interviewed by Steven Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation.(The Shoah Foundation means The Holocaust Foundation in Hebrew.)The Shoah Foundation is devoted to creating an archive of living history about the Holocaust for future generations. The Shoah Foundation videotapes Holocaust survivors and is preserving these videotapes and those voices which can bear witness to one of humankind's greatest atrocities. By preserving these eye-witness accounts of the Holocaust, it is The Shoah Foundation's hope that future generations will be able to remember the Holocaust for what it was, a genocide that resulted in the deaths of millions of Jews, and not just statistics in a history book.

• Gestapo
• Kristallnacht
• intimidation
• legacy
• mandatory
• petrified
• propaganda
• resilient

1. Steven Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation is a foundation dedicated to preserving the recollections of Holocaust survivors. What is the importance of such an undertaking? How did The Shoah Foundation begin?

2. The Shoah Foundation is an example of preserving "living history." How is "living history" different from traditional methods of history? What is the impact of "living history" for preventing horrors such as the Holocaust in the future? How does "living history" differ in its impact than statistics in a history book?

3. One of the sayings among Holocaust survivors is "never again." Has the world learned "never again" from the Holocaust?

4. How do people learn to hate to such a degree that they will kill and torture their fellow human beings?

5. "Those who begin by burning books end by burning people." What does this quotation mean? How does book burning indicate a society's level of tolerance?

6. By the late 1930's, all German children were required to join the Hitler Youth, a type of Nazi Boy Scout and Girl Scout organization. What was the purpose of the Hitler Youth?

7. During the 1930's, in a series of laws known as the Nuremberg Laws, Germany denied civil and basic rights to its Jewish population, including segregating Jews from the society. What is the purpose of segregating people in a society? What other societies have segregated chosen groups from the larger populace?

8. One of the restrictions Germany placed on Jews was forbidding Jews to keep their pets. What was the purpose for this restriction?

9. One of the laws of Nazi Germany required Jews to change their names. Every Jewish female was renamed Sarah, and every Jewish male was renamed Israel. What was the reason for this law? How does changing someone's name eliminate their individuality, and in a way, their human identity?

10. How did Kristallnacht change the lives of the students of the Grosse Hamburgerstrasse School?

11. Erna Trocola speaks about the night the policeman came and took her father away; it was the last time Erna saw her father. In the documentary Erna asks if she can say her father's name. Why do you think it was so important for her to make his name known?

12. The policeman who took Erna Trocola's father away had tears in his eyes. Obviously he felt sad about what he was doing and knew what he was doing was wrong. Yet he still took Erna's father away. How could the policeman do this when he knew what he was doing was wrong? How could the people of Germany let the government commit the atrocities of the Holocaust? Why did so few people speak out?

13. Human history is filled with stories of leaders who were brutal and inhumane. Why would any people allow such a person to become their leader? What was it about Adolph Hitler that enabled him to become the leader of Germany?

14. What was Hitler's "Final Solution?"

15. What were some of the survival techniques used by the students during the Holocaust?

16. Unfortunately, the Holocaust was not the first, nor the last time that human beings inflicted genocide on other human beings. What other "Holocausts" have occurred? How can you compare the Holocaust with the recent events in Bosnia?

17. What precautions can the people of the world take so as to insure that there are no more genocides?

18. What is the legacy of the Holocaust and its survivors?

1. Imagine that you are an interviewer for The Shoah Foundation and are assigned to interview Holocaust survivors. What questions would you ask them? What do you think is important to learn about the Holocaust?

2. Create a timeline illustrating the restrictions Germany subjected Jews to up to and including Hitler's Final Solution.

3. Write an essay in which you explore your reactions to The Lost Children of Berlin. What did you learn from this documentary? How did it make you feel? What lessons can be applied to our lives today?

4. Hans Rosenthal survived the Holocaust by hiding in a cemetery, where he hid in graves. Imagine that you are Hans. Write a journal or diary recording your day to day experiences in your quest for survival. Think about how conditions such as the weather would affect your struggle. How would you survive despite your fear of discovery? How would you get enough food to survive?

5. Imagine that you and your classmates survive an experience similar to the students of the Grosse Hamburgerstrasse School, and you have a reunion. Using your drama skills, recreate the reunion. Remember, no one has seen each other for 50 years; no one knew who survived and who did not.

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