Oh, the Secrets We Could Tell You: Silent Witnesses to History

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Oh, the Secrets We Could Tell YouSilent
Witnesses to History
Through the Eyes of a Jewish Badge
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• Many kids think history is a real snooze
  fest. Sometimes history is boring. Textbooks
  skip over the interesting stories and leave
  nothing but dead people and dates. Teachers can
  sometimes make history as interesting as watching
  paint dry!
• History is stories about kids just like you.
  Action, adventure, horror, drama, comedy
  history has it all if only you will take time to
  listen to ALL of its participants.

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• We are silent participants to history, often
  forgotten , and rarely mentioned. However, we
  are the things that tell the real story if
  anyone will listen. With no real voice, our story
  is told in other ways. Each tatter, flaw, and
  tear has a story of its own.

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• Badges are used as a symbol of achievement
  and honor. However, I was used for a much
  different reason. Let me introduce myself. I am
  a badge that was worn by a Jewish boy during
  WWII. To identify the Jews, they were forced by
  law to wear me.

There I am!!
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My Mustache is awesome!

• Okay, I am getting ahead of myself. You see,
  there was a really bad man named Adolf Hitler.
  He was kind of like the president of Germany from
  1933-1945, but he was nothing like the American
  presidents. The German people didnt have any of
  the rights and freedoms US citizens have.

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• Whatever, Hitler wanted, Hitler got. Whatever
  Hitler didnt want, he got rid of. Hitler was
  kind of a spoiled brat, and for some strange
  reason, he didnt like the Jewish people.

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• After World War I, Germany was in an awful
  mess. People were starving and dying. The
  people needed someone to blame. The Jewish
  people were used as a scapegoat. No, it doesnt
  mean a goat trying to escape. It means that the
  Jewish people were taking all the blame for
  Germanys problems. When Hitler came into power,
  he knew he needed to give the people a common
  enemy. He did this with the Jewish people.

Im free!
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• At first, he just singled out the Jewish
  population. He created rules that each person
  had to follow called the Nuremberg (N-er-m-burg)
  Laws.

Examples of Nuremberg Laws

• 1. Each Jew will wear me (a yellow badge that
  says Jew) at all times.
• 2. True German citizens will boycott Jewish
  stores.
• 3. German citizens were not allowed to marry
  a Jew.
• 4. German business owners couldnt hire
  Jewish people.
• 5. Jews were not allowed to use public
  transportation.

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• I am the badge on a little boy named Isaac
  Goldberg. Isaac is ten years old. He loves to
  play baseball, draw, and he loves to read. I am
  honored to be pinned to such a nice boy. Isaac
  always takes great care of me. He never forgets
  to put me on each morning.

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• The Goldberg family were all born in Germany.
  Isaacs dad, Joseph, was awarded several metals
  of honor for his service during WWI . His dad
  and Eliza, his mom, own a butcher shop in Berlin.
  Isaac has three sisters Eva, Esther, and
  Elizabeth. He and his family are a good Jewish
  family. They go to the synagogue each Saturday
  and observe all Jewish laws.

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• By 1939, Hitler and his followers, called
  Nazis, took away all Jewish peoples property and
  forced them to live in run-down houses called
  ghettos. Isaacs family had to give up their
  butcher shop and move east to Poland.

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• Their house was five times smaller than their
  home in Berlin. The food, if you can call it
  that, was not enough food for one person, let
  alone six. No one dared to complain. We have
  heard stories of what happens to complainers,
  and I dont want that happening to Isaac.

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• One day, I found myself covered in hair. I
  had no idea what was happening until later that
  night when I saw all of Isaacs hair had been
  shaved off. Boy, did he look silly without his
  hair.
• Day after day, I was wet with Isaacs sweat.
  Not only that, I started to sag on his shirt
  because of all the weight he had lost.
• How much more of this can his family take?
  I thought. The next day, I got my answer.

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• The next day Isaac, his family, and I were
  told that we were moving away from the
  disgusting ghetto. The SS Guards told us that we
  were going to be sent to a nicer place and that
  we could open up another butcher shop. That
  night, we had a celebration party. I for one
  couldnt wait to leave this dump.

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• We boarded the train boxcar the next morning.
  We were packed in there like sardines. Some
  people smelled worse than animals! Not only
  that, some were sick, very sick. We had to stand
  the whole way. I was cheek to cheek with another
  badge beside me. I have never been so scared in
  my life. Isaacs mom didnt look well. Anymore
  time on this train may kill her.

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• Just when I thought I could take no more, we
  began to slow down to a stop. The SS Guards
  opened the door. My eyes hurt from the
  brightness of this new place. It took my eyes a
  few minutes to register the sign. It said,
• Auschwitz-Work Makes You Free
• Work will make us free? Isaac and his family
  are hard workers, so soon we will be back in our
  Berlin butcher shop.

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• Auschwitz looks like a nice place. There is
  even Jewish music playing.
• Then suddenly, the guards tell us to line up.
  They are shouting orders at us.
• You this way, you that way, he says.
• Isaac, his 3 sisters, his mom, and I go into
  one line and his father goes into the other line.
  I wonder why we are being split up?

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• The SS guards make Isaac and his mom write
  letters to relatives back home. Isaac doesnt
  get to decide what the letter says the guards
  tell him what to write.

Dear Aunt Sarah, We have arrived at Auschwitz.
It is beautiful here. The German guards are
treating us so nice. If you have a choice, you
should come here. Hope to see you
soon. Love, Isaac
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• Next the guards say, Shew! You Jews stink. Off
  with those clothes and into the showers at once.
  
• I am glad to be clean. Isaac was really starting
  to smell.
• I am thrown into a huge pile of clothes and
  shoes. I cant wait to be back with Isaac.

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• An hour later, I wonder what is taking Isaac so
  long to come and get me? He has never taken this
  long to take a shower before.
• Hour after hour passes, still no Isaac. I
  think maybe he has gotten some better clothes and
  has gotten rid of me. What will become of me?
  Will I ever see Isaac again?

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• An SS Guard scoops me up and puts me in a
  burlap sack. I am there for the longest time.
  Then I was sold to a thrift store. Different
  people bought and sold me throughout the years.
  Although they were nice, no one was like my
  Isaac. Finally, in 1993, I was given to the
  History of United States Holocaust Memorial
  Museum in Washington D.C. Each year, people come
  from all over the world to look at me. I guess
  they think I am special because they keep me in a
  glass case. I do not think of myself as special.
  Isaac, was the special one.

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• Isaac, his mom, and his sisters were thrown
  into the showers. Instead of water, poisonous
  gas came out. Some say that the gas chambers
  were a more humane, or less painful, way to die.
  Isaacs dad, Joseph, died in what the Nazis
  called, Destruction through work.
• Over 6 million Jews, like Isaacs family,
  were unnecessarily killed in the Holocaust. 1.5
  million were children like Isaac and his sisters.
  

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• Some may wonder how does something like this
  happen? Who was to blame? The Leader or the
  Followers? Adolf Hitler was an evil man, but he
  couldnt have done all this alone. He had many
  followers. Although this is a hard subject to
  read about, it is important not to forget the
  lessons to be learned from this time.
• Dont judge people until youve walked a mile in
  their shoes.
• Dont be afraid of standing against wrong.
• You are who you hang with.
• You control your actions.
• Dont blame others for your problems.

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• Although Isaac and his family are
  fictional, the Holocaust is sadly true. All the
  terrible things described in this book did happen
  to Jewish citizens in Europe. Jewish music was
  used to trick the prisoners into a calm state.
  Letters were sent home describing camps as a
  great place as a deception tactic for those back
  home. Jews were robbed of their dignity, pride,
  and for many their lives. It is important to
  remember the story of those like Isaac so that he
  and others will not be forgotten.