Posted on June 6, 2015 at 9:42 am
Letter from a fighting father
Dear Carolyn,
Since learning of you a few years ago I have learned a great deal.
Your work has been very instrumental in helping me to work on getting “Night” removed from the Freshman reading list in A.P. [advanced placement] English and Literature courses taught at the private high school where 3 of my 5 children are enrolled.
It has been a tough battle because in the midst of all that I was doing there was an administrative shake up due in part to one of the girls on the volleyball team being bullied.
Anyway, I have not let up in my pursuit of this mission. The original excuse given to me was that the teacher wanted a story about someone interned in a prison camp.* With so many great books why pick NIGHT? She could never give me a satisfactory answer. Not to cause a person to dig their heels in due to pride, I very delicately approached this issue from many avenues. BUT what has helped the MOST is your well documented articles on Elie Wiesel’s fraud. Of all the means available this has had the best response!!
There will be a meeting sometime this Summer. Do you have suggestions as to an alternate [book]? This is a Catholic school. I thought Alexander Solzhenitsyn would be good.
Anyway I’ve been very busy as of late and with some time today wanted to write and update you.
Best wishes always
Dr F.J. M____
* Strange the subject for a regular English and Literature course should be limited to a story line of a prison camp. That’s the first thing I would question with this teacher. But this is not unusual – it’s placed into the education objectives in so many districts because complete lesson plans have been pre-prepared by Jewish agencies for the book Night. The teacher is not required to know anything or even to read it. For this reason Night is the choice of almost all teachers. It’s a closed circle.
Alright readers, put some thought into this and send in your suggestions for an appropriate book for this father to suggest to his children’s school board.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1962), called a novella, is advanced but not too difficult for top high school students.
Crossing the Line by Paul Rassinier (1949), not as easy to get in English, is an account of the author’s experience in Buchenwald.
Do you know of a better one? Please send it in, and thanks.
Categories Featured | Tags: Night in classroom
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8 Comments to Letter from a fighting father
by aj
On June 6, 2015 at 1:20 pm
David Irving’s Banged Up is very educational.
Malcolm Muggeridge’s Moscow in Winter would be excellent and needs to be reprinted. A worthy Catholic writer and book.
by Carolyn
On June 6, 2015 at 6:45 pm
I don’t think these books are about someone in a prison camp, which is what the teacher said she wanted. But what she really wants is the detailed lesson plans and prepared activities that come with Night. Maybe our father should bring that up?
by Carolyn
On June 13, 2015 at 9:13 pm
Well, we’re not getting any more suggestions for a better choice than Elie Wiesel’s Night as a story set in a prison camp. The school will probably argue that Eliezer in Night is just the right age for Freshman students to relate to him. That’s a plus. Sad to say, but it will be very hard to dislodge this classic.
Is there anything from Asia? Or how about a story featuring a Palestinian boy in an Israeli camp? Anyone?
by Mister Barister
On June 14, 2015 at 5:32 pm
The problem is so many books about the Holocaust have a similar issue as night. Unless each author is vetted for credibility, you have to worry ‘am I replacing once fiction for another?’ It is a similar problem with all prisoner camp accounts: how much is perceived reality and how much is objective? It really depends on how creative you want to get, a quick search brings:
“Boer Boy”: About the British internment of Boers during the 2nd Anglo-Boar War.
“Looking Like the Enemy” a memoir about the Japanese American internment in WWII.
“Dancing Along the Deadline” a POW’s experience at Andersonville during the Civil War.
“Boy 30529” A Holocaust account by physicist, Felix Weinberg, Ph.D., who expressed criticism at what he described as “fraudulent” holocaust accounts. Dr. Weinberg, to his credit, did not seek any personal goin from his memoir, which was published after his death.
by Carolyn
On June 15, 2015 at 6:01 pm
Thanks so much for this list, you’re a hero! I’ll make sure that our father sees it.
You’re right about the question of truthfulness, but at least these show there are other choices to be had. They look far more realistic than Night.
by Colleen
On June 17, 2015 at 6:38 am
How about Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust(2007)by Immaculee Ilibagiza? It was on my neighbor’s son’s summer reading list. He loved it, and he is going into 10th grade.
by Chris
On June 23, 2015 at 1:36 pm
Three Came Home – by Agnes Keith (1947)
An excellent, truthful and thoughtful
autobiography of Keith’s internment in
Japanese Army prison camps located in Borneo, 1942 – 1945.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Newton_Keith
by Stephen
On July 2, 2015 at 11:06 am
Perhaps a more appropriate reading for those students would be any of the several accounts written by American servicemen held in the “Hanoi Hilton” during the Vietnam War. I doubt that anyone is challenging the authenticity of their experiences. The “Holocaust”, however, is fraught with lies, exaggerations and outright fiction amidst some very telling truth. As they say in some circles, “There’s no business like Shoah business…”