A Different Side of Auschwitz

 If you teach Night, Maus, or other Holocaust-centric book, you know that videos can be powerful tools.  Here is a video of a different nature - the resort at Auschwitz.  Yes, you read that correctly.  There was an actual resort at Auschwitz.

The video comes from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  It is of a photo album of a Nazi officer who worked in Auschwitz during the time that Elie Wiesel was there.  It shows a resort that was on the premises where Nazi soldiers could hang out with women, lounge on a deck, and even participate in sing-alongs.  It is absolutely fascinating and horrifying at the same time to see that while unspeakable suffering was going on, these soldiers were having a grand time relaxing.

If you are teaching the term juxtaposition in your classroom, this would be a moment where you could see juxtaposition in real life.  It floors me every time I see this the complete disconnect between these men and women with what is happening within an easy walk from the premises.

Meta Maus

 I'm looking at the possibility of teaching 11th grade next year, which is American Lit here in NC, and I immediately wanted to teach Maus.  I remember liking it very much when I read it last (years and years ago - I'm old), but could not put my hands on a copy here at school.  My wife, wonderful person that she is, found vol.1 and vol. 2 and picked them up for me when we were at the beach.

I was excited and even more so when I realized that I had only ever read the first volume.  The second volume - WOW! but there is so much on that front that I will save it for another time.  Anyway, as I was reading through and trying to find some background information to add to my pool to teach from, I learned there was a quite extensive behind the scenes book done by the author on the whole project called Meta Maus.

It is a large book that has a DVD-R with recordings and stuff too.  I immediately went to try and buy it thinking if I was lucky, it might run around $50.  Boy was I wrong.  Let's try $389.99 on Amazon.com.

I did find some cheaper, but the cheapest English version I could find was around $149, which is too much for me.  I tried finding online versions, anything I could to get it affordably, but to no avail until I saw it on a textbook site for $32.  I must have gotten the last one, because I was going to put the link here for you, but it no longer exists - however, Amazon is currently selling a used one for $40 that they were not when I was looking the first time.

What is the point?  If you have not read Maus yet, DO IT.  If you teach Maus and want to get more behind the scenes from the author, then bide you time and keep looking until you find a use copy that is affordable.  It is easily worth $40.

And, just because the author mentioned it in Meta Maus, for your viewing pleasure, here is a website that showcases cats that look like Hitler.

If you teach Maus, I would love to talk to you about it.  Either reply or shoot me an email at extremeenglishteacher @ gmail.com!