Blog Post Seven: This Way for Gas Ladies and Gentlemen and Deathfugue.

The Holocaust was a terrible and painful time. The idea of eugenics and killing those who didn’t fit into the mold, which was planned by those in power, is a hard thing to come to terms with now. Because the Holocaust and events like it, that are surrounded by death, pain and suffering and are a difficult subject in general, I think that I would emphasize the themes of pain, death and suffering. The students deal with these things in their lives as well, so it will be a relatable topic for them and one that is important to discuss.
The story This Way for Gas Ladies and Gentlemen and the poem Deathfugue both deal with themes of the pain, suffering and death that accompanies war and death by genocide.
I think I would have the students choose specific passages for both and compare the imagery within the stories and discuss how the imagery and tone influence the feel and read of the stories. What are the differences? What are the similarities? How do those differences make the stories different from each other and provide a different point of view?
For the popular culture aspect of the lesson, I might also have them do some outside research on the Holocaust and write a three paragraph answer the question: If you were one of the people that had lived through the Holocaust, how do you think that would have influenced your view of the world and your interaction with it? One interesting thing that might be good for an interdisciplinary history/English class would be to visit the Holocaust museum and use the questions and thought prompts located in the following link: http://www.cyberlearning-world.com/nhhs/html/holoques.htm. This would also be a popular culture application.
The Holocaust is something that affected many people and changed the course of history. This lesson, I believe, is very helpful to teach the students about some of humanity’s faults: cruelty and evil, in a way that also allows them to practice compassion and empathy.      
*This is a picture that I found of a crematorium.

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