An Estate of Memory Reading Response Prompt Questions

Reading responses are due Thursday 1 April in class or by 5 PM in Avery 475. Choose one of the questions below and answer in an essay of 2-3 pages.

1. S. Lillian Kremer has argued that An Estate of Memory fails to capture the attention of American audiences because "Karmel's tough, unsentimental treatment of victims was at variance with the pathos and redemptive mode many American readers crave in Holocaust writing and film" (35). Do you agree with Kremer that Karmel's narrative structure and focus is difficult for American readers who are used to sentimental portrayals of Oskar Schindler and Anne Frank?

2. An Estate of Memory is a psychological novel that uses interrupted chronology (through the use of extended flashbacks) to recreate the psychological chaos of the concentration camp universe. What other narrative techniques or recurring motifs does Karmel employ to probe the depths of the psychological in the novel?

3. Tola, Barbara, Alinka, and Aurelia develop a bond that transforms over time. How does their relationship change, and what events of the novel illustrate the transformation of their relation to one another?

An Estate of Memory Discussion Questions for Tuesday 30 March

1. On page 234, Tola comes across a group of "old-timers" who were among the original prisoners of the camp, and they relate a legend of a pregnant woman who was not punished when she gave birth in the camp. Tola is conflicted by the legend's possibility, and she fears "what soon might be demanded of her" (235). How do you interpret Tola's apprehension? What moral dilemma does Aurelia Katz's pregnancy indicate to Tola and the others?

2. Flashbacks and interrupted narrative progression are important throughout the novel. In the afterword, Ruth Angress notes that these characteristics are central to the psychological focus of the novel. How do flashbacks and interruptions in chronology and perception relate the characters' psychological progression? How do they reveal the moral dilemmas and importance of human relationships to the four womens' survival?

3. How does the family network the women create develop and change over time through the end of the novel? How does it help the women cope and comfort themselves in the face of extreme degradation?

4. Finally, how is this fiction representation different from and similar to the representations we have read and viewed this semester? Lawrence Langer claimed that representing the Holocaust carries with a burden to which writers of other historically-based fiction are not usually subject. How does Ilona Karmel's novel illustrate this point?

Resources available

For those who emailed me asking about Holocaust multimedia resources, I have a couple that are immediately available to you:

The Holocaust Cantata CD

Voices of the Shoah

If you are interested in one of the above titles (check out the Amazon links for full descriptions), let me know via email and we can set up a time for you to stop by my office.

Have a great weekend.

Online education resources for Option B

Here are a few links to educational resources available online, for those of you currently at work on Option B.

A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust, courtesy of Florida Center for Instructional Technology: http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/activity/activity.htm

Teresa Moretta's Holocaust lesson plans, courtesy of Remember.org:
http://remember.org/educate/moretta.html

CANDLES Holocaust Museum Education Lesson Plans:
http://www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org/index.php?sid=41

USHMM's excellent teaching resources page:
http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/

Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute:
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1980/6/80.06.01.x.html

"We Remember the Holocaust" lesson plan from U of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign:
http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/ylp/96-97/96-97_curriculum_units/Holocaust_KO_Malley/table_contents.html

Shoah Reading Response Prompt Questions

2-3 page reading responses to Shoah will be due Tuesday 9 March in class or in Avery 475 by 5 PM. For all responses, you must use specific examples from the film in your essays, although exact names of interviewed subjects are not required.

Note: Please see the assignment handout distributed in class or download a copy from elearning for proper heading and requirement procedures. Keep in mind that failure to adhere to set guidelines lowers the content grade of your essay.


1. How does Lanzmann utilize silence in Shoah, and what role does it play in representing the experiences of the interviewed subjects featured in the film? How does silence affect your viewing of the film?


2. Lanzmann adamantly denied that Shoah is a documentary, and rather claimed the film is a "fiction of the real." How do you view the film's relationship to documentary as well as to art? How do you interpret Lanzmann's claim that the film is a fiction based in reality?