Of Butterflies and Boots: What

Do Children Understand of the

Holocaust?Daniel Feldman

English

danielb.feldman@gmail.com

• When can we reasonably expect children to

confront the horrors of the Holocaust?

• What do we expect children to understand of

atrocity?

Question(s)

1. Children’s Literature about the Holocaust

2. Holocaust Education

3. Memoirs of Holocaust Child Survivors

Sources

Yolen, Devil’s Arithmetic

Lowry, Number the Stars

• He said that there were too many

references in the book to the

shiny boots. And I listened. I

listened with respect. But I looked

at the photographs again, and I

tried to place myself within the

visual awareness of a child.

Sometimes we forget that their

vantage point is lower than ours.

They don't look into adult faces.

Certainly a frightened child would

not look into the faces of enemy

soldiers. The child would see —

and notice, more than an adult —

those terrifying boots.

Polacco, The Butterfly

• The tall boots would march by

her front gate, reminding her

how hopeless it seemed.

• Their heels clicked like

gunshots along the

cobblestone path.

• They watched the Nazis kick

him hard in the ribs with those

tall black boots.

כמטוניםמגפים ,פגיסהמסדר ,פגיס עדות ,פגיס

–Aharon Appelfeld

“What does a child of eight and a half

remember?”

Hanus Hochenburg, "Terezin"

I was once a little child

Three years ago.

That child who longed for

other worlds.

But now I am a child no more

For I have learned to hate.

I am a grown-up now,

I have known fear.

Orlev, The

Sandgame

Korczak, When I am Little Again

To the adult reader:

You say: Dealings with children are tiresome.

You’re right.

You say: Because we have to lower ourselves to their intellect. Lower,

stoop, bend, crouch down.

You are mistaken.

It isn’t that which is so tiring. But because we have to reach up to their

feelings. Reach up, stretch, stand on our tip-toes.