{"id":38634,"date":"2024-08-30T10:37:59","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T14:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/?p=38634"},"modified":"2024-09-17T11:25:13","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T15:25:13","slug":"graphic-novel-tells-columbia-couples-holocaust-story-some-local-schools-wont-use-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/graphic-novel-tells-columbia-couples-holocaust-story-some-local-schools-wont-use-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Graphic novel tells Columbia couple\u2019s Holocaust story. Some local schools won\u2019t use it"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDUCATION
\nGraphic novel tells Columbia couple’s<\/strong> Holocaust story. Some local schools won\u2019t use it<\/strong>
\nBY BRISTOW MARCHANT UPDATED AUGUST 30, 2024 8:21 AM
\n(The State Newspaper<\/a>, Columbia SC)
\nrepublished by SCNow<\/a>, YAHOO<\/a>, MSN<\/a>, AOL,<\/a> SmartNews,\u00a0<\/a>
\nAnother version of this story has been published and distributed by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency<\/a> ; The Jerusalem Post<\/a>\u00a0 and The Forward,<\/a> Jewish Press of Tampa Bay<\/a> (via JTA)<\/p>\n

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Frank Baker wanted to honor his friends and spread awareness of one of the 20th century\u2019s greatest tragedies when he wrote the graphic novel \u201cWe Survived the Holocaust.\u201d He hoped telling the story of Columbia Holocaust survivors Bluma and Felix Goldberg in this format \u2014 a combination of words and illustrations that resembles a longer, bound comic book \u2014 would engage young people he fears are unaware of the specifics or the scale of the Nazis\u2019 murder of 6 million Jews during World War II.<\/div>\n
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But those graphic details have led the Columbia-based author\u2019s book to be blocked from some classrooms in one Midlands school district. Baker said he was told Lexington 1 would not provide copies of the book to its middle schools, and asked the author not to fulfill any requests for the book from teachers below the high school level, something that left the author confused. \u201cThe Holocaust involved much more graphic images and photographs than what we\u2019ve illustrated in our book,\u201d Baker said.<\/div>\n
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Lexington 1 said in a statement that the book will not be used as supplemental material in fifth and sixth grade classes this school year, in line with recently passed State Board of Education guidelines for evaluating material for classroom instruction and using guidance from Holocaust educator organizations. South Carolina education standards begin teaching the Holocaust in fifth grade. The book will remain available in school libraries, the district said, and district officials would support its use in eighth grade classes.<\/p>\n

Baker got the idea years ago when Felix Goldberg gave a talk at Tree of Life synagogue on Yom HaShoah, the annual remembrance of the Holocaust, about his experiences during the war. After the emotional presentation, Goldberg walked up to Baker, who he knew had a background in education. \u201cAnd he hands me the speech and says in his Polish accent, \u2018Frankie, do something with this,\u2019\u201d Baker said. That \u201csomething\u201d became the 156-page novel published by Imagine and Wonder, which Baker has since worked to get into as many schools as he can, in South Carolina and beyond.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe evidence is clear that many young people are ignorant of the Holocaust,\u201d he said. Social studies teachers have told him they don\u2019t have time to adequately cover the event in class. Instead, he fears young people will get their information from a social media environment where antisemitism and Holocaust denial often go unchallenged \u2014 and they won\u2019t know enough about the subject to see why such misinformation is wrong. \u201cI know a university professor who wrote their own graphic novel, and they said, \u2018I think this would make a great story,\u201d Baker said. \u201cI was offered a contract, got it illustrated, and now there\u2019s a book, there\u2019s a website.\u201d<\/div>\n
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He went to the state conference of school librarians starting in 2022, offering the book for school shelves and telling educators how it could fit into their lesson plans.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0One of the school districts that reached out about Baker\u2019s book was Lexington 1. Social studies coordinator Elizabeth King contacted Baker about reviewing his books for use in the central Lexington County district. But the school district came back with some concerns about which students should be reading the Goldbergs\u2019 story. \u201cUpon review of the text, we feel the book would be appropriate for high school learners because of some of the more graphic images (i.e. firearm pointed at a person\u2019s head),\u201d King wrote in an email to Baker. \u201cIf you receive any requests from Lexington One teachers who teach grade levels that are not at the high school level, please disregard their request.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Baker said it was the first time he had received pushback from a South Carolina school about using the book at any grade level. He was particularly concerned because he knew teachers and librarians at Lexington 1 schools had gotten copies of the book previously, and worried they would no longer be allowed to make them available to students. \u201cI was shocked that she would say this book about the Holocaust has graphic images,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the themes are extremely relevant to a middle school student. … As someone said to me, they\u2019re seeing worse things in the video games they play.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u2018TEACHERS ARE NOW MORE SELECTIVE\u2019 What materials teachers use in classrooms or make available in school libraries has become a political lightning rod in recent years as some parents have objected to books about racial or sexual identity. In 2022, Lexington 1 was sued by the conservative S.C. House Freedom Caucus over allegations it was teaching \u201ccritical race theory-derived ideas\u201d in violation of a state law broadly prohibiting such concepts in public schools. The school district ultimately settled the suit after it cost local taxpayers $60,000. \u201cTeachers are now more selective about the resources they choose to use, as are school districts, that are potentially in school libraries,\u201d said Scott Auspelmyer, executive director of the nonprofit S.C. Council on the Holocaust, which provides resources to educators. \u201cAll of this is a part of a new reality compared to 10, 15, 20 years ago.\u201d Lexington 1 cited the guidance issued by the S.C. Council on the Holocaust in making its evaluation of \u201cWe Survived the Holocaust.\u201d Auspelmyer\u2019s group was founded in part because the Holocaust is a part of the state standard for South Carolina students. But he knows the material used for such a sensitive topic and the age at which students are introduced to it can produce a minefield, and there are often debates about how best to approach it, even among educators. \u201cThere are a host of factors that go into what books are appropriate for certain grade levels,\u201d Auspelmyer said. \u201cTeachers come to me and say, \u2018Is this a good book? Is it a good one for this grade level?\u2019 and then they might go to their school to get approval. And then other schools say, \u2018No, we have this whole process to evaluate books and determine whether they\u2019re a good fit.\u2019 It can vary widely by district and even between schools within a district.\u201d
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The story in Baker\u2019s book is personal for Henry Goldberg, one of three Goldberg children who grew up hearing about their parents\u2019 Holocaust experience. He said the family was always supportive of Baker\u2019s efforts, even if his parents didn\u2019t live to see the book come out, particularly because he knew they wanted future generations to remember their story. \u201cI think it\u2019s appropriate,\u201d Goldberg, of Columbia, said of the book. \u201cWe coddle our kids too much. There\u2019s too much ignorance about World War II and the Holocaust, because it\u2019s passed over too lightly and not mentioned enough. By middle school, I think they\u2019re old enough to comprehend it.\u201d When he was growing up, Goldberg didn\u2019t have the option to be shielded from the effects of the Holocaust. \u201cI heard my dad screaming at night from the nightmares,\u201d he said. \u201cI remember knowing about this when I was much younger (than middle school), and I made it without permanent scarring.\u201d He remembers his parents as always being willing to share what had happened to them, even when their children were younger. \u201cAt a young age, they answered every question we had,\u201d Goldberg said. \u201cAnd we didn\u2019t have too many. I knew my dad had a tattoo and that terrible things happened. Until (the movie) Schindler\u2019s List, then it\u2019s like it was OK to talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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CAUTION OVER BEING TOO GRAPHIC Auspelmyer, of the S.C. Council on the Holocaust, said there has been a change over the years in how graphic educators feel they should be in what they show students about the Holocaust. \u201cIn the \u201890s, after Schindler\u2019s List, it was much more common to turn out images that would shock students,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it\u2019s not appropriate to go that route, just because being so graphically disturbing may actually traumatize some students.\u201d Henry Goldberg can understand being reluctant to discuss something so painful. He remembers an aunt who was never as forthcoming about her own Holocaust experience with her own children. \u201cShe wouldn\u2019t talk about it at all,\u201d he said. \u201cShe worried her children would think she did something wrong to become a prisoner.\u201d While Baker said he wouldn\u2019t provide books to any Lexington 1 schools that the district didn\u2019t want him to, he still believes the book will be a useful tool for the teachers and students who do use it. He hears as much from the teachers at the conferences he attends with copies of the book. \u201cThey teach Anne Frank, but a lot of them are seeking something different, and this is local,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a South Carolina couple.\u201d \u201dWe Survived the Holocaust\u201d is available at both online and retail booksellers.<\/div>\n
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This story was originally published August 30, 2024, 5:00 AM. BRISTOW MARCHANT THE STATE<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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