The introduction
How to understand and how to use the handout?
There are three temporal levels distinguishable in the exhibits.
The presence
As for the level of the present day, the different circumstances under which the project came to being are discernible - the personal stories of the participants, the differences in their method and sources of information etc.
The Holocaust
On the level of the Holocaust the individual tragic destinies of the people concerned by the Nuremberg Laws and affected by their application (up to 2 000 bans) are being traced on the background of the history of WWII.
The deep history
On this level the moving history of the Central European Jewry is reflected (the full isolation in the ghettos in the middle ages, the expulsions, the issuance of the Translocation Edict in 1726, the emancipation, the opening of the ghettos in 1848 etc.)
Below you will find a set of questions related to the first twelve panels of the exhibition.
For each panel there are 2-3 easier questions (in blue) designed for younger children and 2-3 more difficult questions (in black) for older children, students and young adults.
You can answer them when going through the exhibition or later at home or at school.
Write your answers in the handout or on a separate sheet if necessary.
The questions for young participants: (pupils, students) |
1. Stribro
A. What happened to the girl in the light dress in the center of the picture?
B. Why did Eva and her friend go for walks at night ?
C. Why did the grandmother of Zuzana (the author of the project) name her daughter Eva?
A. Why were the Jews from the Protectorate deported to Terezin?
B. What did the Jews in Terezin fear most?
2. Usti nad Labem
A. What kind of authentic sources did the children work with?
B. How did the grandmother of Veronika save her granddaughter's life?
A.Which ethnic minority besides the Jews did the Nuremberg Laws concern?
B. How could a marriage with a Non-Jew protect a Jewish person from persecution?
3. Prague 10
A. Which country did the grandparents of Zuzana (one of the authors of the project) come
from?
B. Did Zuzana know about her Jewish heritage when starting working on the project?
C. When and how did Zuzana learn that she had Jewish background?
A. Why was the grandmother of Zuzana afraid of the past?
B. Why do Jewish families sometimes prefer not to speak of their Jewish origin?
4. Velhartice
A. Is there anything special about the Velhartice team?
B. What did you learn about Lily?
A. This school photograph from Velhartice was the last one to show pupils of Jewish origin. Why?
B. Which year was it most likely taken?
C. What was Lily not allowed to eat ?
5. Lostice
A. Is there a synagogue in the town of Lostice today?
B. Why do you think the Morgenstern family changed their surname
after the war?
A. Are there any significant buildings distinguishable on the plan of the town?
B. When and why were plans like this one made?
C. Why do some Czech people today not want to speak about the Holocaust?
6. Mastov
A. Which of the five children of Julie and Heinrich Fantl survived?
B. What is the story of Anna Fantl (shown on the wedding photograph)?
A. What happened to the cemetery in Mastov during the war?
B. Mrs Fantlova came from a Czech-German family. How come her nationality was German?
7. Prague 8 (Martin Fencl)
A. Why especially did Martin (the author) enjoy working on the project?
B. Which sites did he explore?
A. Which of the three time levels has been suppressed in this work?
B. In what sense is Martin's work different from the projects of the others?
8. Ostrava
A.What is the character of the events depicted on the photograph?
B. When was the independent Jewish community in Ostrava founded?
A.Why was there no Jewish settlement in Ostrava before 1848?
B. Why did so many Jews settle in Ostrava after 1848?
9. Sumperk
A. Which movie inspired the authors of this project?
B. What year of the reign of Emperor Rudolf II were the Jews compelled to leave Sumperk?
A. What do you think: Why do Holocaust survivors very often not want to speak
about what they have been through?
B. What were the most usual reasons of expelling Jews?
10. Lipnik
A. Which concentration and extermination camps did Mr Steiner go through?
B. Which important event of Mr Steiner's life took place in the
Sumperk synagogue in 1938?
C. How many of the Sumperk Jews survived the Holocaust?
A. Why did emigration within Europe often not help to save one's life?
B. Where was the extermination camp of Auschwitz situated?
11. Sokolov
A. How long did Michal work on the project?
B. What was the main object of his interest?
A. What are the important results of this work apart from achieving knowledge about the Holocaust?
B. Are all the three time levels distinguishable in this work?
C. Why were all the records of the Jewish Community in Sokolov damaged during WWII?
The answers: (for teachers) |
1. Stribro
A. Eva (the girl in the light dress) perished in the Holocaust.
B. The Nuremberg Laws defined who could be considered a citizen of the German Reich. These were neither the Jews nor the Gypsies, just the people of German or German-related blood. The rest were denied their rights. Non-Jewish children were eg. not allowed to be in contact with Jewish children.
C. As a memory of her Jewish friend the grandmother of Zuzana named her child Eva.
A. In the beginning of the war the Nazis just intended to clean Europe from Jews. This resulted in the forced emigration of 26 000 Jews from the Protectorate. But in 1941, after the political situation changed (the war against the Soviet Union, the mass killing of Jewish citizens), the Nazis adopted the plan to kill all the Jews in Central Europe. Firstly the Jews were to be gathered in concentration camps and ghettos. The Jews from the Protectorate were deported to Terezin before moving on to extermination camps.
B. What the Jews in Terezin feared above all was deportation, despite the fact that - in the beginning - they did not know extermination camps existed.
2. Usti nad Labem
A. The children made use of the following sources of information:
· the journal of Zuzana's great-grandfather,
· email correspondence with Mrs Rachel Isserow
· they met a survivor of Auschwitz, Mrs. V. Sliadilova
· they spoke with the grandmothers of two of their schoolmates
B. Veronika's grandmother was saved by a strange woman, who simply took her away along with her own children.
A. The Nuremberg Laws concerned the Gypsies as well.
B. In the first years of WWII Jews from mixed marriages were mostly sent to work camps only. In the very end of the war they were even sent to extermination camps as well.
3. Praha 10
A. The grandparents of Zuzana came from Hungary.
B. No, Zuzana did not know about her Jewish heritage when starting to work on the project.
C. Zuzana was told about her Jewish heritage first when talking to her parents about the project.
A. To many Jews the Holocaust experience was so massive that they cannot possibly describe it without feeling the horror anew.
B. Until today many parents prefer not to speak about their being Jewish in order to protect their children from antisemitism.
4. Velhartice
A. The Velhartice team consisted of children of various age.
B. Lily was Jewish. Her mother died shortly after Lily was born. Due to the Nuremberg Laws she was excluded from compulsory education and subsequently perished in the Holocaust, in the extermination camp of Auschwitz.
A. The children were excluded from compulsory education. They were banned from Czech schools in June 1940.
B. Jews could not eat fresh and dried fruits and vegetables, sweets, marmalade, fish, cheese, nuts etc., as these and many other items were not allowed to be sold or donated to any Jew according to the Nuremberg Laws.
5. Lostice
A. Yes, there is still a synagogue in Lostice.
B. After the war ended the Jews wanted to start a new life. Often they adopted new names.
A On the plan there is a church with a cemetery, the municipal brewery, the plaque column, a bridge and a block of Jewish houses.
B. Such plans had to be elaborated due to the Translocation Edict issued by Emperor Charles the 6th (the father of Maria Theresa) in 1726. According to this edict the Jews had to move away from the vicinity of churches and relocate into separate neighborhoods. This edict affected the lives of 30 000 people in Bohemia and 20 000 people in Moravia.
C. The reasons may be different.
Maybe they feel remorse.
Maybe they know they could have helped someone, but they did not.
Maybe they even profited from the emigration and/or extermination of the Jews.
6. Mastov
A. Richard Fantl was the only Jew who survived and returned to Mastov.
B. Anna was a German. German citizens from Sudetenland (the part of the country which was annexed by the Nazis due to the Munich Agreement in fall 1938) were obliged to leave Czechoslovakia after WWII, but Richard Fantl married Anna and saved her thus from being expelled.
A. The cemetery in Mastov was destroyed by the Nazis.
B. In the census sheet Annas parents registred Anna as German.
7. Prague 8
A. What Martin especially enjoyed was that he got a unique opportunity to create an original work without having to use second-hand information.
B. Martin explored several places in Bohemia: Liten, Morina and Beroun.
A. The time of the Holocaust is only briefly mentioned here, as the temporal level of WWII is suppressed in this work in general.
B. This is a serious historical work mapping the development of the Jewish settlement.
8. Ostrava
A. The photograph depicts the Macabi Club sports' parade of 1931.
B. The independent Jewish community in Ostrava was founded in 1875.
A. Jews were not allowed to settle in Ostrava until 1848.
B. The Jews settled in Ostrava as soon as they were allowed to because of the flourishing industry that provided many jobs.
9. Sumperk
A. Steven Spielberg's movie Schindler's List was a source of inspiration to the authors of the project in Sumperk.
B. The Jews were expelled from Sumperk in 1585.
A. Survivors of the Holocaust very often want to bury the Holocaust experience deep in their unconscious for good.
B. With the Protestant Movement the Catholic Church lost its power. The Christians could then for the first time deal with money trading. The Jews, who had been the only money traders until then, were thus forced to start business in other fields as well, and so became undesirable competition to the Christians.
10. Lipnik
A. Mr Steiner went through the concentration camps of Terezin, Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
B. In 1938 Mr Steiner had his Bar Mitzva (one of the most important religious events in a Jewish boy's life) in the Sumperk synagogue.
C. Seven out of the thirty five Jews from Lipnik survived the Holocaust.
A. Jews were persecuted in any European country invaded by the Nazis.
B. The extermination camp of Auschwitz was near Krakow, Poland.
11. Sokolov
A. It took Michal one year to complete the project.
B. He focused on collecting relevant historical material.
A. This work traces the rests of the Jewish settlement in Sokolov. It is an important contribution to the history writing of the region.
B. Yes, all the three temporal levels are distinguishable in this work. According to the author they are all equally important.
C. Sokolov is a part of the former Sudetenland. All the Jewish objects in this region were damaged during the "Cristal night" pogrom in November 1938.
