5, 6 & 7 "The Work", "A Good Day", "This Side of Good and Evil"

• Engels
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• GCSE

Goals for today 

Homework feedback

You will explore the Kapo system and how it was employed 

You will consider "Our Nights" and music in the concentration camps.

You will explore the myth of Tantalus

Terminology 

Kapo: possibly from the Italian "capo" meaning “boss”.  

A prisoner who has been placed in a position of authority over a prisoner unit, a “Kommando”. This could be Jewish or non-Jewish prisoners. They would receive special benefits like proper clothing and a private room.

If they neglected their duties they would be downgraded to ordinary prisoners and be subject to other Kapos.

The Kapo system was designed to turn prisoner against prisoner, as the Kapos had to maintain the favour of their SS overseers.

After World War II, the term was reused as an insult; according to The Jewish Chronicle, it is "the worst insult a Jew can give another Jew"

https://sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/news/kapos/

Discuss 

Should "kapos" be punished for their role in the death camps?

If yes, what would an appropriate punishment? 

If no, why not? 

Find a description of a kapo in the memoir. What is Levi's opinion? 

Rate the word 1 to 4

1. I do not know the word, and I have never seen it before. 

2. I've heard or seen the word before, but I'm not sure what it means. 

3. I know the word and can recognise and understand it while reading, but I probably wouldn't feel comfortable using it in writing or speech. 

4. I know the word well and can use it correctly in writing or speech. 

Polygamist

Word of the day

Polygamist (n) - someone who is married to two or more people at the same time. 

Polygamists are difficult to prosecute because many only seek marriage licenses for their first marriage, while the other marriages are secretly conducted in private ceremonies

Music in the camps 

Unbelievably, there was much music and song on both sides of the barbed wire​. There were even official camp orchestras. Music was used as a tool by both sides:​

The prisoners used it to keep their spirits up​ and the Nazis used it as propaganda and a tool of oppression​

Read the article on the next slide 

holocaustmusic.ort.org

Music in the camps 

Music in the camps 

Consider the structure of the information

1. What is the purpose of this extract? 

2. For each paragraph write down what the focus and main topic is. (4 paragraphs)

3. How does this structure aid in the achievement of the purpose? 

3. What additional techniques do you see that aid the purpose you identified?   

pg 56

"Our Nights" 

This chapter explores the terrors and suffering of the prisoners even at night, when they might expect some respite from the suffering they endure all day​.
The prisoners dread the morning wake up call or reveille as it heralds new horrors​.

Levi has to start all over again: he is without his clothes, his spoon, and he is in a new block without friends or allies, and he does not know the personality of the Kapo​ where he is assigned. 

Alberto 

But he meets Alberto who is resourceful, cunning and well liked.​ He is 22 and Italian. Levi admires how Alberto seems untouched by the horrors of camp life:​

“Alberto entered the Lager with his head high, and lives in here unscathed and uncorrupted…He fights for his life but still remains everybody’s friend…He himself did not become corrupt…the strong yet peace-loving man against whom the weapons of night are blunted.”​

He seems to represent that it is possible to maintain your morals in this corrupt Lager. 

Comfort and survival 

Make a list of the jobs that the prisoners create or do to earn extra ration or other privileges and that bring some semblance of comfort to the block inhabitants. 

Comfort and survival 

• There is a story-teller who “chants an interminable Yiddish rhapsody”​
  
• There are those who sew and mend clothing (the tailors) and they get a warning light to allow them to put away their needle and thread​.
  
• Engineer Kardos tends “wounded feet and suppurating corns” and he helps the prisoners to solve “the problem of living”. 
  
• The Night -guard watches in the night and assigns the bucket to be emptied.  
  
• The hut-sweepers who sweep the huts in the morning. 
  
• Lice-controllers (in chapter 8)
  

"Our Nights" 

Even dreams are a torment: whether it is dreams of food or of family, sleep does not bring relief to the prisoners​

Levi’s dream of being unheard by his sister represents a common fear– we all wish to be heard and to have those we love listen to our troubles​

There is also the fear that the world will not be interested in the suffering endured in the camps, or worse, will not believe that it happened ​

Holocaust denial is still common​

The morning wake up bell becomes a daily point of pain as “the sores on [his] feet reopen at once”​

The camp is defined by its rhythms of pain and relief, danger and shelter​

The Myth of Tantalus 

What is the purpose of this extract? How has Levi achieved this purpose? 

"So our nights drag on. The dream of Tantalus and the dream of the story are woven into a texture of more indistinct images: the suffering of the day, composed of hunger, blows, cold, exhaustion, fear and promiscuity, turns at night-time into shapeless nightmares of unheard- of violence, which in free life would only occur during a fever."  

Research the Myth of Tantalus. 

Why has this myth given us the word tantalising? 

Goals for today 

We will watch part of a documentary showing Levi returning to Auschwitz 

We will consider "The Work" 

Concepts in this memoir 

Homework reading for Monday 16th Dec chpts 8 & 9 

The Work 

Describe the roles of:

1. The Kapo 

2. the civilian Meister 

3. the Vorarbeiter 

How does this system maintain control in the death camps? 

pg 73

Terminology - "The Work" 

Vorarbeiter: meaning “foreman”, a prisoner who supervised other prisoners when working outside the camp. ​

The 'vorarbeiters' could often be brutal, but some were kind or helpful.​The SS needed the system of Kapos and foremen to maintain control – as a result, far fewer guards were needed compared to normal prisons​.

Prisoners occupying positions in the camp's organisational structure were selected by the SS from among the inmates. In exchange for certain privileges, their task was to supervise other prisoners both in the blocks (block leaders and their subordinates, the room leaders) and at the workplace (kapo, vorarbeiter). The highest camp position was Lageraltester (Lageraltesterin in the women camp), or camp elder. In a broader definition, functional prisoners also included those holding minor roles, such as night guard (Nachtwache), door guard (Torwache), bunker attendant in Block 11, prisoner hospital nurses, etc.

In the initial period of the camp's existence, functionaries were typically selected German criminal and asocial prisoners who exhibited brutality and ruthlessness towards fellow inmates. Over time, as the overall number of prisoners increased and there was a shortage of German criminals, political prisoners of other nationalities, including Poles and Jews, were increasingly appointed to functional positions. If a functionary was unable to maintain rigor or was deemed too lenient towards the prisoners under their charge, they were quickly demoted and replaced by someone more ruthless.

Adapted: https://www.auschwitz.org/en/press/mini-dictionary/#Functionary%20prisoners

What concepts are
addressed in this memoir?

"A Good Day" - The purpose of life

"The conviction that life has a purpose is rooted in every fibre of man, it is a property of the human substance. Free men give many names to this purpose, and think and talk a lot about its nature, But for us the question is simpler. 

     Today, in this place, our only purpose is to reach the spring." pg 79 

"A Good Day" - Does life have a purpose? 

Many religions, scientists and philosophers have sought to answer this question. What do you think - discuss. 

• ​To reproduce to pass on our DNA?​
  
• To live well and be happy?​
  
• To worship God?​
  
• To learn everything we can about the universe?​
  
• To seek out and enjoy pleasure?​
  
• To share your gifts and talents with others?​
  
• No, not really?​
  

"A Good Day" - Does life have a purpose? 

Use of Hypothetical and Speculative Language 

Irony 

Personification of cold and hunger 

Parallellism 

Formal diction 

Causal structure - cause and effect structure

Happiness and unhappiness

Consider the purpose of this extract and the stylistic choices Levi makes to convey that message. Write a response using evidence. 

""...in free life one hears, it is said that man is never content. In fact it is not a question of a human incapacity for a state of absolute happiness, but of an ever-insufficient knowledge of the complex nature of the state of unhappiness; so that the single name of the major cause is given to all its causes, which are composite and set out in an order of urgency. And if the most immediate cause of stress comes to an end, you are grievously amazed to see that another one lies behind; and in reality a whole series of others. 

      So that as soon as the cold, which throughout the winter had seemed our only enemy, had ceased, we became aware of our hunger; and repeating the same error, we now say:"If it was not for the hunger!..."pg 82

Happiness and unhappiness

Is Levi saying that we should consider unhappiness and not happiness? He states that the main thing that is currently making us unhappy overrides all other situations or events in our life that make us unhappy. When the main cause is removed, it only makes us aware of the other causes of our unhappiness. 

1. Philosophically do you agree? 

2. Has this happened to you? Think about an event in your life where this is shown. (you don't need to share this) 

3. Should we focus on reducing our unhappiness rather than trying to attain happiness?