Kristine Belfoure
"During the war he asked my mother, "Can you take a Jewish woman into your house?" and, no, he asked me, if my mother would take this Jewish woman, and I said no, never tell her that she is Jewish. This grandmother did not want to go with her Jewish children to Italy, she said I'm too old I am going to die here, I'm not going any place, I love this city, okay. And the cook was left with her, but then when she came to live with us the cook would always come to deliver food so that my mother really didn't have to do anything except make the toilet paper. But everything else was delivered. And so he was also the one who, she stayed. And I was already in Germany and she died peacefully in our house and nobody knew. Except that I had to teach her, my uncle said, you have to teach her prayers, Catholic prayers, the first thing they do they ask you about the Christian Catholic holidays, and the years of this and that."
(postwar testimony)
Other Survivor Volunteers |
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MEMORY
PROJECT
Described by Maggie Peterson
Participants Manya Friedman (left) and Erika Eckstut (center) with instructor Maggie Peterson (right) at a writing workshop session.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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When I first began working with the Holocaust Survivors in the Memory Project I was unsure that I could bring something to the table. I wondered how it would be possible for me to teach these Survivors anything. During our very first meeting I asked our workshop participants what they wanted of me, from a writing workshop and from each other. Almost without exception, they responded that they wanted to find a clearer voice in which to tell their story. They wanted to gather the tools of the writing craft and produce work that was true to their vision. When I heard this I was relieved, because although these are daunting tasks, they are the goals of all writers. It seemed like familiar ground, a good place to start.
Fritz Gluckstein at a writing workshop session.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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From that day on, I have used the premise that the best "teachers" of writing are writers. I base each class loosely on a piece of writing by a published writer of prose or poetry. We have read Holocaust Survivors Charlotte Delbo, Ida Fink, and Primo Levy, as well as poet Gerald Stern, novelist Eudora Welty and others. I began our very first class with an article by novelist and teacher Alice McDermott that begins, "I am wary of any advice to writers that smacks of 'how to.' "
I too am wary of this type of advice and use well written fiction and poetry as a guide rather than coming up with a laundry list of "do's and don'ts" for writers. In addition to the works of published writers, workshop participants, as this name suggests, read and comment on each other's work. During most classes, participants are also given a sort of prompt and asked to write on the spur of the moment. These exercises are almost always met with some type of anxiety, terror or reluctance, but usually yield beautiful and profound work.
From my very first day with the Holocaust Survivors when I strongly questioned my space at the table until now, I marvel that I am there as a teacher. I have learned more about myself as a writer, a leader and as a human than I could have ever imagined at the beginning of this project. I have seen the writing of the Survivors become clearer, more precise, more detailed, and more moving. At least once a session, I have been brought to tears by the valiant and beautiful efforts these Survivors make to tell honestly a truth which seems nearly beyond the human ability to communicate. They have tuned their voices, are bearing witness to their lives and I am honored to have any part in that process.
Maggie Peterson
Instructor
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Museum
