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♪ Music ♪
♪ Music ♪
NARRATOR: FRIEDL DICKER-BRANDEIS WAS 44 YEARS OLD
WHEN SHE FIRST SAW THE JEWISH GHETTO TEREZIN.
SHE WAS GREETED BY SOLDIERS WITH GUNS,
THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE LINING THE STREETS, AND TOTAL CONFUSION.
BETH DOTAN: There is a thirst for trying to
understand this very difficult history and I
think that our world is difficult today and people
want to know how to make it a better place.
NARRATOR: AS AN ARTIST, FRIEDL DICKER-BRANDEIS
HAD WORKED WITH CHILDREN BEFORE.
SHE KNEW TEREZIN WOULD BE A FRIGHTENING PLACE FOR THEM.
SO, IN HER LUGGAGE, FRIEDL PACKED PAINT, BRUSHES,
PAPER, AND BOOKS...NOT FOR HERSELF, BUT FOR THE CHILDREN.
SURROUNDED BY THE WALLS OF TEREZIN, FRIEDL OPENED HER
SUITCASE AND, IN SECRET, THE CHILDREN BEGAN TO CREATE.
JIM SCHANTZ: There are ways to find meaning
by looking at art and listening to music.
and I think it's important as artists to bring that to others.
ANNA ORNSTEIN: So it's not just the child in Terezin.
The Terezin child also expresses the feelings of
many children in this country now.
Let people know, this is how I feel.
This is what I want you to know about me.
NARRATOR: THESE OMAHA STUDENTS ARE JUST
BEGINNING TO LEARN ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST.
BETH: We wanted to show that children were a big part of this story...
NARRATOR: ALONG THE WAY THEY WILL MEET
FRIEDL'S STUDENTS FROM TEREZIN.
BETH: We can't teach about the Holocaust unless we
give the kids some context.
We had to think of a way to get them to connect.
I mean, you know, they don't get it.
And we chose the topic of freedom.
BETH: How about "If my freedom were taken away"...
GIRL PINK: If my freedom were taken away
I would fight for the freedom.
GIRL: We couldn't follow our dreams.
We couldn't listen to our iPod all day.
URIEL: If freedom were gone
every day would not want to be lived.
If freedom were gone every day would be lived without drive.
If freedom were gone every day would be lived without purpose.
If my freedom was taken away I would not care to go on.
BETH: He represented much more than just
that poem he read.
BETH: It's not easy, it's not easy.
Thank you for sharing that.
BETH: What has happened is their understanding that this
topic and the ramifications of what
happened in the Holocaust can be translated into
their own personal experiences.
GIRL: I wanna know how they felt when this was happening.
NARRATOR: TO FURTHER THEIR LESSONS,
THESE OMAHA STUDENTS WERE ENCOURAGED
TO DRAW, WRITE, AND FORM WITH THEIR HANDS.
DANNY & FRANCISCO:...and then they put
35 girls in each room...
BOY & GIRL: ...35 girls in a room.. Whoa - I could
not live with 35 girls in my room.
BOYS: I wrote people were separated by age and gender.
GIRL: Mine's about when they had to be punished.
GIRL: And that made them feel weak and hopeless.
♪ Music ♪
NARRATOR: THE CHILDREN OF TEREZIN
CREATED OVER 5,000 DRAWINGS AND COLLAGES.
THEY WROTE NEWSPAPERS AND POEMS.
THEIR CREATIONS WERE HIDDEN FROM THEIR NAZI OPPRESSORS.
AT THE END OF THE WAR THEY WERE FOUND,
STUFFED INTO WALLS AND SUITCASES.
ANNA: It means that up until the very last moment,
you don't give up hope for survival.
These children knew that they were meant to die.
But hope is a remarkable,
remarkable human property of the mind.
♪ Music ♪