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How/when to discuss Holocaust?



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amother
Chartreuse


 

Post Thu, Apr 16 2015, 10:35 am
At what age and how do you bring up the Holocaust with children? I have one grandparent who is a survivor, and as far as I can remember, I just knew she had a story, and I knew most of it. She published a book about it when I was 7 (which I read a few years later, maybe at 11 or 12) and has always been travelling on speaking engagements, so she is very public about her experience. I not only knew the story, I knew exactly how much of the family was murdered and how they were related to my grandmother. I can't remember NOT knowing these things, but I can't imagine that I knew when I was 3! Now my oldest is 4, my grandmother is still here k'h, and DH's remaining grandparent is also a survivor. They should live to 120, but being realistic, who knows how long our kids have to get to know them. Also, I don't remember anyone sitting me down and telling me stuff, it just sort of came out over time. So at what age do you tell kids, and how do you do it?
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lovingmother




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Apr 16 2015, 10:43 am
I would love to hear the answer from some kind of psychologist or parenting expert. I didn't really learn about the holocaust until fifth or sixth grade, and not some details until even older
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Mrs Bissli




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Apr 16 2015, 11:03 am
Personally I don't think there is a fixed age to start teaching about Holocaust. It depends on maturity and personality of a child. Rather than going straight into deportation and concentration camps, there are books focusing on Kindertransport. DS's primary school has Yom HaShoa assembly (I think it's for students above 7yrs old or so).

There are good books on the topics for the children. "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit " is an excellent book, based on the author (the same author as The Tiger Who Came to Tea)'s experience. My DD read it when she was about 10. The Book Thief is another excellent one, though slightly more complex and more for older children (DD read it when she was 11 or 12). For younger audience, there is a story book called One Candle on how inmates celebrated chanuka.
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Miri7




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Apr 16 2015, 1:28 pm
Our kids have just grown up knowing about it organically. Our family is scattered around the globe, and the kids know that our family ran away from a bad man during a bad war, and that's how we ended up all over - France, Israel, Canada, and the USA.

We don't give the horrific details when they are very young, but by the time they are 6 or 7 they have basic knowledge that Hitler wanted to kill all the Jews, that many people were murdered, and that there was a big war. (They know more than I am comfortable with for their age, but DH and his survivor parents are pretty open about it all.)

Our oldest are not yet bar mitzvah age and don't yet know the gory and terrifying details about gas chambers, the camps, etc. They haven't seen many pictures. I think that they have the idea that it was really bad and that they are missing details, but they seem to have a sense that they're not yet ready to get the full picture. I know that my oldest son, who is very sensitive, would not sleep at night if he knew the full story.
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