1. Advanced English. NSW Year 12 Higher School Certificate. Module C.
Representation and Text. History and Memory. Prescribed text. The Fiftieth Gate
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Advanced English NSW Year 12 Higher School Certificate Module C Representation and Text History and Memory Prescribed text The Fiftieth Gate by Mark Raphael Baker Related Texts ‘I Too Had a Face’ by Avner Shalev ‘To Forget’ by Ayre Palgi The Sydney Jewish Museum ‘Hall of Names’ Yad Vashem website ‘The Perils of Indifference’ by Elie Wiesel
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Study Guide - Year 12 Advanced English Related Materials for the study of English for the NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC) Module 3 – Representation and Text - History and Memory Overview Purpose of this Study Guide •
Course Requirements
The Board of Studies Syllabus (page 22)
This module requires students to explore various representations of events, personalities or situations. Students will evaluate how medium of production, textual form, perspective and choice of language influence meaning. The study develops their understanding of the relationships between representation and meaning. Each elective in this module requires the study of one prescribed text offering a representation of an event, personality or situation (eg. The Fiftieth Gate – the Holocaust) Students are also required to supplement this study with texts of their own choosing which provide a variety of representations of that event, personality or situation. These texts are to be drawn from a variety of sources, in a range of genres and media. Students will explore the ways in which different media present information and ideas to understand how various textual forms and their media of production offer different versions and perspectives for a range of audiences and purposes. In their responding and composing, students must consider The Fiftieth Gate (prescribed text) and other texts which explore the relationships between individual memory and documented events. Students will analyse and evaluate the interplay of personal experience, memory and documented evidence to broaden their understanding of how history and personal history are shaped and represented.
Read through this overview. Teachers and students of this module should have some knowledge of the event/personality/situation being studied. There are links to some related texts which are useful in this unit.
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The Event – The Holocaust What was The Holocaust?
The Holocaust was the murder by Nazi Germany of six million Jews. While the Nazi persecution of the Jews began in 1933, the mass murder was committed during World War II. It took the Germans and their accomplices four and a half years to murder six million Jews. They were at their most efficient from April to November 1942 – 250 days in which they murdered some two and a half million Jews. They never showed any restraint, they slowed down only when they began to run out of Jews to kill, and they only stopped when the Allies defeated them. (Source:Yad Vashem)
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Guidelines to Teaching about the Holocaust
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum recommends several issues and concerns that every educator needs to be aware of when teaching about the Holocaust. Click on the link below to learn more. http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/guideline/ •
Animated Map – showing different stages of the Holocaust
This is useful as an introduction to the Holocaust in showing where some stages of the Holocaust occurred. Students will find this brief guide helpful. Click on the link below to view an animated map of the Holocaust. It was created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_nm.php?ModuleId=10005143&MediaId=3372 •
Jewish Life in Europe Before the Holocaust
In any study of the Holocaust, it is important for educators and students to understand that European Jews lived full and ‘normal’ lives before Nazi persecution began with the ascension to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany in 1933. Follow the links below to learn more about Jewish life before the Holocaust.
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Population Distribution of Jewish people http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005161 “What Came Before”: Teaching about Jewish Life Before the Holocaust by Yael G. Weinstock http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/newsletter/16/main_article.asp http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007689
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The Final Solution
The ‘Final Solution’ devised by the Nazis at the Wannsee Conference in 1942 gave the go-ahead for the mass murder of Jews in specially designed camps – extermination camps. Up until this time, Jews had been imprisoned in labour camps and concentration camps. What exactly were the extermination camps? Extermination camps were killing centers designed to carry out genocide. Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis established six extermination camps in former Polish territory--Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau (part of the Auschwitz complex), and Majdanek. Chelmno and Auschwitz were established in areas annexed to Germany in 1939. The other camps (Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Majdanek) were established in the Generalgouvernement (General Government) of Poland. Both Auschwitz and Majdanek functioned as concentration and forced-labor camps as well as killing centers. The overwhelming majority of the victims of the extermination camps were Jews. An estimated 3.5 million Jews were killed in these six extermination camps as part of the Final Solution. Other victims included Roma (Gypsies) and Soviet prisoners of war. (Source:Jewish Virtual Library)
• Structuring your module Begin with the introductory PowerPoint Presentation on the Holocaust. Use this as a springboard into a close textual study of The Fiftieth Gate. Follow up with analysis of related materials. Links are provided below and in the PowerPoint Presentation
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Part 1 The Prescribed Text - The Fiftieth Gate
There are several resources available for teachers and students to consult. The Harper Collins website (publishers of The Fiftieth Gate) has a study guide and interview with Mark Baker (www.harpercollins.com.au). Some sections from the study guide are included in the PowerPoint Introductory presentation. Advanced English resource books are available from major educational book sellers.
Part 2 Questions and Analysis of some Related Materials Different sources could include – memoirs, films, poetry, fiction, documentaries, TV shows, songs, articles, museums, websites, artwork Related Materials Appendix 1- Non-Fiction, Magazine Article ‘I Too Had a Face” by Avner Shalev, Yad Vashem Magazine http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_yad/magazine/magazine_new/mag_31/index_museum_31.html
Appendix 2 - Poetry Arye Palgi ‘To Forget’ Appendix 3 - Museum The Sydney Jewish Museum www.sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au Appendix 4 - Websites ‘The New Museum: The Hall of Names’ Yad Vashem:The Israeli Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority www.yadvashem.org.il 5
Appendix 5 - Speeches Eli Wiesel – • The Perils of Indifference • http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/wiesel.htm Other useful speeches by Wiesel • On receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1986/presentation-speech.html •
On visiting Buchenwald
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/eliewieselbuchenwaldspeech.htm
Bridget Punch
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