Yom Hashoah

Over the last few weeks, I've been reading Maus with my war-themed Composition II class.  We've read a number of provocative pieces this semester, but none has engendered more conversation than this.  The students love the comic form (in fact, I'm assigning them a comic personal narrative as their final project), but more importantly, they are interested in the concepts of ownership of stories and oral histories. 

I didn't plan my semester in such a way as to have our reading of Maus coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Week, but I'm grateful it did.  Our library has put together a list of links that have helped my students with their understanding of what they are reading, as has the in-class discussion from descendants of work camp survivors.

The wound of the Holocaust is still fresh in our world.  One of my favorite singers writes about it eloquently.  My dear friend Linda Jean Fisher has undertaken a volume project that seeks to commemmorate the millions of lives lost.  You can read an earlier post of mine about the project here.

And here are the most recent statistics from LJO's project from her last e-mail to me: