World War I

Sarah and I read an excellent historical novel titled After the Dancing Days by Margaret Rostkowski.

We also read about World War I in Story of the World, Volume 4 by Susan Wise Bauer and The Story of US, Book 9 by Joy Hakim.

We looked at a photo, stories, and letters about my great uncle, Clare VanEman, who was killed in France in “The Great War.”

We watched Iron Jawed Angels, which I ordered from Netflix after reading about it in Meg’s post on Women’s Suffrage in the U.S. There’s an interesting site here, too. The heroines of the movie were suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns.

The Great Depression

We read about this era in A History of US: Book 9: War, Peace, and All That Jazz 1918-1945 (History of US, 9) by Joy Hakim

We watched The Grapes of Wrath – This classic follows the lives of Oklahoma farmers (the “Okies”), displaced during the Dust Bowl, seeking work in California.

We watched Places in the Heart. A widow struggles to keep her family together, in Texas, in 1935. This movie highlights the ravages of racism as well as poverty. I’ve always liked this one.

World War II

Sarah and I delved into historical novels about Nazi occupied Europe.

We read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, a Newbery Award winning novel about the Danish resistance. I loved this book. I was blown away by the story of Denmark’s resistance to the Nazis, which was new to me. Sarah and I read more about it here.

The story of Jewish villages in Poland is also told in Elie Weisel’s Night, of course. Sarah and I read part of this book, but she chose not to finish it.

A similar story about the Ukraine is told in Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. I haven’t read it yet, but Sarah and I have seen the movie:

Back to Poland: Sarah and I just started Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli.

He also writes contemporary young adult fiction that Sarah really enjoys. Milkweed opens in Warsaw, which has just been bombed by Germany. The main character, a young gypsy orphan, watches events unfold as “Jackboots” take over the city and Jewish businesses are destroyed. So far, the story is incredibly vivid and seems very “real.”

Moving back to Western Europe, Sarah and I also read a novel about the French resistance: The Good Liar by Gregory Maguire.

We read it last summer, and it was an enjoyable read. There is also a lovely picture book about the French resistance that I’d like to read with the kids sometime: The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco. We also started The Diary of Anne Frank, which takes place during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands, but Sarah decided not to finish it at this time.

Sarah has also been doing a great deal of internet research on the Holocaust. I worry a bit about the emotional effects of her being immersed in this topic, but I don’t interfere. I am really proud of her work.

Right now, she is particularly interested in several groups of Holocaust victims who don’t seem to be discussed often: individuals with disabilities and homosexuals. She has been talking to me about Operation T4 and the persecution of people with physical, developmental, or psychiatric disabilities. She told me the handful of survivors of this mass murder have only recently been discovered. In the decades following the Holocaust, most of the focus was on finding Jewish and Polish survivors. Of course, the story of individuals with disabilities is also one that needs to be told. I wonder whether there is any accessible literature about this?

Sarah’s interest in this topic might lead to some interesting discussions about euthanasia, the Eugenics Movement, and Social Darwinism. (It is amazing how to what extent people can warp and distort sound biological theories into something ugly.) This segues with our Dystopian Literature study.

She has also been talking to me about the fate of homosexual men who were targeted in the Holocaust. They were often singled out for the harshest treatment, and they were even persecuted by fellow concentration camp victims. After the war, when Holocaust survivors were able to come forward and receive public acknowledgement and support, homosexual survivors had to remain in hiding. They were still subject to be arrested for “criminal behavior.” Sarah was shocked at the vicious negative reactions these survivors get, even now. Have we learned nothing about the consequences of hate and bigotry?

In addition to reading about the history of the German occupation of Europe, we’ve been honing our knowledge of European geography with Ten Days in Europe. We also have Ten Days in Africa, and I eventually want to own all the games in this series. Everybody in the family seems to like this game, even four-year-old Trishy, who doesn’t “get” the strategy yet.

If you want your kids to learn some basic world geography and map skills, in a non-schoolish way, these games are a good investment. I’m certainly improving my own geography skills. This is a tricky thing, especially since the map has changed so much in my lifetime!