(Book Cover compliments of Titlewave)
Music: (Orchestra/band/choir):
Bibliography
Janeczko, Paul. Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto. Somerville, Mass: Candlewick Press, 2011. ISBN 9780763647278. Print.
Janeczko, Paul. Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto. Somerville, Mass: Candlewick Press, 2011. ISBN 9780763647278. Print.
Review
In a chilling collection of poems, Janeczko gives voices to fictional inmates, Nazi soldiers, and locals of the Czechoslovakian town of Terezin which the Nazis converted to a temporary camp while routing Jewish inmates to gas chambers. Basing the fictional writers of each poem on his research of the musicians, artists, children, and adult inmates of Terezin from 1941-1945, Janeczko captures the horror and heartbreaking conditions of the 140,000 prisoners who passed through the camp.
Accompanied by recovered black and white drawings sketched by actual inmates of Terezin, the 30 poems written in stark free-verse capture the fear, hope, misery, and despair of the inmates “The hearse/ moves /slowly/ like death itself. / We don’t look./ We cannot bear/ to see ourselves.” Though the Nazi’s permited the inmates to pursue art and music to convince the outside world of their “humanity,” fictional prisoner Anna Teller tells that while the prisoners knew they were playing in the shadow of the gallows “…we played nonetheless/played as only the heartbroken can play/ a final performance/ for it was always a final performance/ for some in the orchestra.” Brutal, violent, and disturbing, Janeczko’s important work should be paired with other books on the deaths of the 35,000 people at Terezin so that readers will never forget the atrocity of this horrific chapter in history. (Grades 8 and up).
Accompanied by recovered black and white drawings sketched by actual inmates of Terezin, the 30 poems written in stark free-verse capture the fear, hope, misery, and despair of the inmates “The hearse/ moves /slowly/ like death itself. / We don’t look./ We cannot bear/ to see ourselves.” Though the Nazi’s permited the inmates to pursue art and music to convince the outside world of their “humanity,” fictional prisoner Anna Teller tells that while the prisoners knew they were playing in the shadow of the gallows “…we played nonetheless/played as only the heartbroken can play/ a final performance/ for it was always a final performance/ for some in the orchestra.” Brutal, violent, and disturbing, Janeczko’s important work should be paired with other books on the deaths of the 35,000 people at Terezin so that readers will never forget the atrocity of this horrific chapter in history. (Grades 8 and up).
Honors
2012 Children’s Books of the Year-12 to 14
2011 Pure Poetry Picks
2012 ALA Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts
Starred Review: Library Media Connection
Reviewed in: School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, Wilson’s Junior High, Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA), Bulletin for the Center for Children’s Books, Publishers Weekly Annex
Selection from Marie Jelinek/17789
(p. 9)
Beasts of burden,
we shouldered bundles
of what pieces of the past
we were allowed to keep
as we joined the river of fear,
a current of shuffling feet, sobs, and whimpers that crept past dark mouths
of archways and windows
to Terezin.
Another selection from poem (p. 8):
I am Miklos.
The younger boys in L410
call me Professor.
Because I know many words?
Because of my large glasses?
Because I like to write
in a small notebook
that I conceal from the guards
in my shoe?
I am fragile
with fear.
Connections for 8th grade and up:
A Terezin Remembrance Evening
Create a collaborative unit with contributions from art, social studies, music, and ELAR classes to remember the victims of Terezin. Set a date for the evening event that will feature poetry readings, art exhibits, student performed music, multimedia history exhibit of Terezin, and perhaps a Holocaust survivor as the main speaker. Invite entire school community to the event.
English Language Arts :
Pair Requiem with the poetry book I Never Saw Another Butterfly (Hana Volvkova), a collection of poems written by Jewish children during their imprisonment at Terezin. While over 15,000 children below the age of 15 came through Terezin between 1942-1944, less than 100 survived. This book holds poems and artwork created by these children and describes the fate of each young person (if known), most of whom died at Auschwitz.
Volavková, Hana. I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezín Concentration Camp, 1942-1944. New York: Schocken Books, 1993. Print.
Assign each student to one of the children whose poetry and artwork is represented in I Never Saw Another Butterfly. (Do not let the student know if their child lived or died after their time at Terezin until the evening of the Terezin Remembrance event.) Have students read several of the poems aloud to create a recording of the poems.
Art:
Using Requiem and I Never Saw Another Butterfly, study some of the artwork created at Terezin. Simulate an art experience similar to that of the children at Terezin. Listen to recordings of some of the poems read aloud by students from ELAR classes if possible while students draw, sketch, paint by dim candlelight art pieces that reflect the emotions, hopes, fears represented in the poems.
Music: (Orchestra/band/choir):
Listen to pieces of music that were composed or performed at the camp such as the children’s opera “Brundibar.” Research the composers that Janeczko mentions were inmates at Terezin before their death in the gas chambers: Viktor Ullmann, Hans Krasa, Pavel Haas, and Gideon Klein. Select a few pieces for some students to prepare and perform at the Terezin Remembrance Evening while guests visit the exhibits.
Social Studies:
Have students research the history of Terezin and work to create a multimedia presentation for the Terezin Remembrance evening. Use print sources as well as some of the following sites:
Center for the Holocaust & Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota
History of the Theresienstadt Ghetto
Jewish Virtual Library
The Terezin Memorial
Additional print resources about adults and children at Terezin:
Thomson, Ruth. Terezín: Voices from the Holocaust. Somerville, Mass: Candlewick Press, 2011. Print.
Brenner-Wonschick, Hannelore. The Girls of Room 28: Friendship, Hope, and Survival in Theresienstadt. New York: Schocken Books, 2009. Print
Rubin, Susan G. Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terezin. New York: Holiday House, 2000. Print.
(Special thanks to teacher Amy Housley for letting me include some of the ideas she used in creating a 6th grade Holocaust Remembrance evening.)
