Critical Thinking/Discussion Questions - Lea Slomovic Naft

1. Please watch the historical film clip “Sudetenland, 1938” and read the description of the film, using the link below:

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_fi.php?MediaId=175

(n.d.). Retrieved April 29, 2017, from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_fi.php?MediaId=175

After viewing, discuss the following:

A. Lea lives in Czechoslovakia when the Nazis annex her country into the Third Reich. Czechoslovakia is an independent nation. Why does the international community allow Hitler to first take the Sudetenland (the part of Czechoslovakia that bordered Germany), and eventually the rest of the country?

B. What was Hitler’s rationale for taking the Sudetenland?

 

2. It is a myth to place sole blame for the Holocaust only on Germans. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s online exhibition, Some Were Neighbors: Collaboration and Complicity in the Holocaust addresses this topic in depth. Please explore the online exhibition before completing the activities, using the link:

http://somewereneighbors.ushmm.org/#/exhibitions

(n.d.). Retrieved April 29, 2017, from http://somewereneighbors.ushmm.org/#/exhibitions

Lea notes in her testimony that it is not Czechs or Germans that begin harassing her and her family after occupation, but Hungarians and people from the Ukraine.  After reading the short article “Collaboration” by using the link below, discuss the questions.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005466

(n.d.). Retrieved April 29, 2017, from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005466

A. What is a collaborator?

B. What role did collaborators play in the Holocaust?

C. Lea lives in a predominately Christian town in Czechoslovakia, and a Christian neighbor volunteers to hide her mother in her home so she can recover from illness. How would the local authorities regard the Christian neighbor’s actions?
3. One of the most famous rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust is from the Sudetenland. Read about Oskar Schindler using the link below.

Oskar and Emilie Schindler Biography

(n.d.). Retrieved April 29, 2017, from http://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories/schindler

What was this Czech’s motivation to help persecuted Jews?
4. Leah and her sister Sara created an online memorial page for their parents, Josef and Golda, and for their sister Gitel Slomovic, who all perished in the Holocausts. View the memorial page at this link:

http://nashvilleholocaustmemorial.org/index_files/Page2740.htm

(n.d.). Retrieved April 29, 2017, from http://nashvilleholocaustmemorial.org/index_files/Page2740.htm

How does creating a memorial help survivors like Lea and Sara? What is the purpose of creating a memorial to sufferers and victims. How does a memorial help the living?