Eighth Grade Social Studies

8th Grade Summer Reading AssignmentParallel Journeys by Eleanor AyerIn Parallel Journeys, Eleanor Ayer tells the true story of two very different people who livedthrough World War II. Helen Waterford was already a young woman, married with a child,when she went into hiding in Amsterdam because she was Jewish. Alfons Heck was just a boywhen the war began. By the war's end, he was a high-ranking officer in the Hitler Youth.Although Helen was able to find a safe home for her daughter during the war, Nazisdiscovered Helen and her husband in their hiding place. They were separated at aconcentration camp, and she never saw him again.Because Alfons was just a young boy, he was easily brainwashed by the power and the flashof Hitler and his promise for a new Germany. He eagerly participated in youth rallies, andwas chosen to lead groups of young boys into war. As Germany's forces were depleted, Hitlerdepended more and more on the Hitler Youth. When he was just 15, Alfons became a toprankedglider pilot. At sixteen, he became a Bannfuhrer, equivalent to the rank of a majorgeneral in the U. S., with 6,000 troops under his command. By the end of the war Alfons hadlost many friends and found his hometown reduced to rubble. He could only hope that theoccupying forces of the United States and France would not deal with him too harshly.At the same time that Alfons was rising through the ranks, Helen was suffering through themiserable conditions of concentration camps. During her two months at Auschwitz, where two million people perishedthroughout the war, the smoke from the crematoria was always in view. Helen was then shipped to Kratzau, a work camp wherethe women were given little to eat and lived in freezing barracks filled with lice. She was extremely weak and ill by the timeRussian troops finally reached Kratzau to free her and the other survivors.After a difficult journey, Helen eventually managed to return to Amsterdam, where she was reunited with her daughter. Later, shemoved to the United States to be with her parents. For Alfons, the post-war years were filled with work rebuilding hisgrandparents' farm, and with the struggle to come to terms with the horrors of the Holocaust. Alfons actually went to theNuremberg Trials to see the men he had idolized explain what happened. Later, Alfons also moved to the United States, afterliving in Canada.Book Selection/Difficulty:This book is written at an early seventh grade level which should make the text accessible for most students. The Lexile Score is1050L. The novel was selected to provide insight into the lives of two very different children coping with the Holocaust. Thetext teaches students how powerful the Nazi regime was and exposes them to some of the attrocities of the Holocaust. Thecontent of the book aligns perfectly with the integrated curriculum for eighth grade world studies and language arts.Differentiation:While this book is estimated to be appropriate for readers in 8th grade, it is understood that selecting a single text forthe entire grade will mean that it is too hard for some and too easy for others. The following are strategies forapproaching the text from a wide range of abilities:The book seems hard: There are a number of strategies to aid in the comprehension of the novel. The firststrategy would be for students to access an audio version of the text and to listen to the novel while reading along with the text.(Note: it’s important to follow along with an audio version and not just listen) Secondly, parents are encouraged to read the textalong with students to facilitate discussions on comprehension and also to have the opportunity to read difficult sections aloud.The book seems easy: Students who would like to challenge their thinking a bit more are encouraged to read more about theHolocaust and Nazi Germany. (See attached Holocaust Litterature Summary)Assignment:Students need to answer the following discussion questions. Each response should be a minimum 1/2 page typed (12 point timesnew roman, double spaced) and should include detailed support and explanation. Wherever possible, particularly in questions 3,4, and 5, students should cite specific examples from the text and include the page number as reference.

Discussion Questions8th Grade Summer Reading Assignment1. When Alfons Heck was a young teenager, he thought that Hitler was a great hero who would save Germany. Muchlater, he realized the terrible damage that Hitler caused, both to Jewish people and to the young Germans who followedhim. Do you think people who are not fully adult should be held responsible for their decisions and actions? Do youthink that you are completely responsible for the decisions you make for yourself now?2. During the speaking tours that Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck made, audience members were sometimes angry atHelen. They believed that she should be less forgiving toward a former member of the Hitler Youth. Why do you thinkthat Helen believes so strongly that we should not hate all the members of any group? Do you agree with her?3. Near the end of World War II, even after Hitler had committed suicide, many members of the Hitler Youth fought anddied for Germany and Hitler. Why do you think they were willing to die for Germany, when it was clear that Germanywould lose the war?4. After returning to Amsterdam, Helen found her daughter, Dora. While Helen was in concentration camps, Dora hadbeen safe and happy living with another couple. When Helen took Dora to live with her, Dora had a difficult timeadjusting to living with her mother. At one point, she even said, "I wish you had never come back!" Why do you thinkthat the change was so hard for Dora? How does the author make you feel sympathy for both Helen and Dora?5. The stories of Alfons Heck and Helen Waterford have been told in separate books. Why do you think that the authorchose to tell these stories together? What does one gain by reading one chapter about Alfons followed by one aboutHelen, instead of reading their stories apart?

8th Grade Summer Reading AssignmentHolocaust Literature Summaries! E=! emerging! M=! moderate! H=! hardA Picture Book of Anne Frank – David A. Adler (E/M/H)A Place to Hide – Jayne Petil (M/H)After Long Silence – Helen Freemont (H)All But My Life – Gerda Weissmann Klein (M/H)Among theRighteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaustʼs Long Reach into Arab Lands –Robert Satloff (H)Anne Frank Remembered – Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold (M/H)Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank (M/H)Anne Frankʼs Tales from the Secret Annex - Translated by Michel Mok and RalphManheim (M/H)Anthology of Holocaust Literature – Jacob Glatstein, et al. (E/M)Beyond the Yellow Star to America – Inge Huerbacher (M/H)Boy Who Dared, The – Susan Campbell Bartoletti (M/H)Briar Rose – Jane Yolen (M/H)Butterfly, The – Patricia Polacco (E/M/H)Cage, The - Ruth Minsley Sender (H)Children in the Holocaust and WWII: Their Secret Diaries – Laurel Holliday (M/H)Children of a Vanished World – Roman Vishniac (M/H)Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust – EveFogelman (H)Dawn – Elie Wiesel (M-honors/H)Day (AKA The Accident) – Elie Wiesel (M/H)Devilʼs Arithmetic, The – Jane Yolen (M)Facing the Lion: Memoirs of a Young Girl in Nazi Europe – Simone Arnold Liebster(M/H)Farewell to Manzanar – Jeanne Wakatsuki and James D. Houston (M/H)Fighting Back: Lithuanian Jewryʼs Armed Resistance to the Nazis, 1941-1945- DonLevin (H)Fireflies in the Dark – Susan Goldman Rubin (E/M/H)Forging Freedom – Hudson Talbott (E/M/H)Friedrich – Hans Peter Richter (M/H)Gazebo, The – Alexander Lebenstein and Don Levin (M/H)Genya – Genya Finkelstein (M/H)Heart Has Reasons, The: Holocaust Rescuers and their Stories of Courage –Mark Klempner (M/H)

8th Grade Summer Reading AssignmentHiding Place, The – Corrie ten Boom (M/H)Holocaust Poetry – compiled and introduced by Hilda Schiff (M/H)I Am A Star: Child of the Holocaust – Inge Huerbacher (M/H)I Have Lived a 1,000 Years - Livia Bitton-Jackson (M/H)I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Childrenʼs Drawings and Poems from Terezin ConcentrationCamp, 1942-1944 - Hana Volavkova (E/M/H)Izzy's Fire - Nancy Wright Beasley (M/H)Journey to America – Sonia Levitin (M/H)Last Seven Months of Anne Frank, The – Willy Lindwer (M/H)Lost Childhood, The: A Memoir – Yehuda Nir (H)Manʼs Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy – Victor Frankl (H)Maus I and II – Art Spiegelman (H)Music of Another World – Szymon Laks (M/H)Number the Stars – Lois Lowry (M)Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story – Ken Mochizuki (M/H)Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Stopped Death – Sharon Linnea (M/H)Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust – Gay Block and MalkaDrucker (M/H)Resistance and Survival: The Jewish Kaunas Community in 1941-1944 – SaraGinaite- Rubinson (H)Resistance During the Holocaust – USHM (M/H)Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes – Eleanor Coerr (E/M)Secret of Priestʼs Grotto, The: A Holocaust Story – Peter Lane Taylor w/ Christos Nicole(M/H)Selected Poems, Including the Verse Play, Eli – Nelly Sachs (H)Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Childrenʼs Holocaust Memorial – Peter W.Schroeder & Dagmar Schroeder-Hildebrand (E/M/H)Sunflower, The :On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness – Simon Wiesenthal (H)Survival in Auschwitz: If This Is a Man – Primo Levi (H) AutobiographySurviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps – Andrea Warren (M/H)Terrible Things, The: An Allegory of the Holocaust – Eve Bunting (E/M/H)Things We Couldnʼt Say – Diet Eman with James Schaap (M/H)To Tell the Story: Poems of the Holocaust – Yala Korwin (M/H)Underground Reporters, The – Kathy Kacer (M/H)Upon the Head of a Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-44 – Aranka Siegel (H)When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit - Judith Kerr (M)World Must Know, The - Michael Berenbaum (H)Yertle the Turtle – Dr. Seuss (E/M/H)Zookeeperʼs Wife, The: A War Story– Diane Ackerman (H)