Michael.Polgar
@michael-polgar ddActive 1 year, 9 months ago-
Michael.Polgar posted an update 3 years, 3 months ago
After our Zoom with screening of ‘Who Will Write Our History:’
Little boxes in the basement, little boxes filled with documents
Little boxes in the basement, history is underground.
There’s a mother and a grandma, and a father and a bunch of kids,
Getting hungry, angry, fearful, in the ghetto, brutalized.
Jewish people, half a million, p…[Read more] -
Michael.Polgar posted an update 3 years, 7 months ago
I am presenting to ASA (Sociological Association) today, using Zoom for remote conference participation. My topic is the effect of Holocaust on professionals and professions. Lengyel, like many others, had her professional life disrupted by destruction and persecution. The conference themes is power and inequalities in the workplace. Can we…[Read more]
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Michael.Polgar replied to the topic Publishing Holocaust Memoirs in the 1940s. in the forum Five Chimneys – 2018 Summer Seminar Responses – Optional 5 years, 8 months ago
As we know, survivor narrative ‘recountings,’ through writings & videos are excellent educational assignments. And Primo Levi’s famous “Survival in Auschwitz’ took years to find a publisher and more to find an audience. I’ve found insight into survivor writings and accounts (especially by women) through Zoe V. Waxman’s “Writing the Holocaust:…[Read more]
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Michael.Polgar started the topic Voices of the oppressed in the forum Five Chimneys – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses – Optional 6 years, 9 months ago
Here is a PBS TV story on rediscovered songs sung during and about the Holocaust. It is based on wire recordings made just after the war. It gives original voice (in song) to a few of those oppressed by the Shoah.
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Michael.Polgar replied to the topic Poem Lengyel’s Holocaust Memoir (Ch. 12) in the forum Five Chimneys – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses – Optional 6 years, 9 months ago
Selected (Chapter 8)
Her two left shoes are not so bad.
When others must drink poison air.
When being picked can make us mad
And wielding sticks can help us dare.To life? In Auschwitz folks die.
To stay alive. To see the sky.
To eat potatoes: Such a gift
When all else pushes us to die.When men-with-food demand our pride
And eating less…[Read more] -
Michael.Polgar replied to the topic Poem Lengyel’s Holocaust Memoir (Ch. 12) in the forum Five Chimneys – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses – Optional 6 years, 9 months ago
Roll Call and “Selections” (Chapter 5)
Break morale and then select:
Chosen for the deadly gas.
Humiliate humanity.
Watch the chosen as they pass.Original Poem by Michael Polgar (6/2017)
Holocaust Testimony by Olga Lengel: Five Chimneys Academy Chicago Publishers,1947)
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Michael.Polgar replied to the topic Poem Lengyel’s Holocaust Memoir (Ch. 12) in the forum Five Chimneys – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses – Optional 6 years, 9 months ago
First Impressions (Chapter 4)
When hope is dashed and harsh truth told
A fear consumes the bravely bold.
Then running out into the fray,
She finds again: there is no way.
To freedom? Just a maze of pain.
So she retreats to hide again.Original Poem by Michael Polgar (6/2017)
Holocaust Testimony by Olga Lengel: Five Chimneys Academy Chicago…[Read more]
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Michael.Polgar started the topic Poem Lengyel’s Holocaust Memoir (Ch. 12) in the forum Five Chimneys – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses – Optional 6 years, 9 months ago
The Morgue
Clean cadavers. That’s our job.
Wash the corpses, not the living.
Water supply: limited.
Washing hands is not forgiven.We two work; the Germans watch.
Then we carry dead to morgue.
‘Natural” inhumanity.
Our forced work at BirkenauSoon our job gets even worse.
Trampling the rotting dead.
Many faint; we must go on.
Words canno…[Read more] -
Michael.Polgar started the topic Holocaust with Poetry in the forum Five Chimneys – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses – Optional 6 years, 9 months ago
I completed an excellent webinar on use of Poetry to teach Holocaust education sponsored by Yad Vashem. We focused on established poets, including Dan Pagis. It’s very concise (as asked by our human rights in 4 sources assignment). So I will raise poetry as a members of the ‘voices of the oppressed’ work group. This topic also inspired me to…[Read more]
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Michael.Polgar replied to the topic Writing with a purpose! in the forum Five Chimneys – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses – Optional 6 years, 9 months ago
Thanks for reflecting on this account and its publication date. I understand that there was a long and involved process of collecting Holocaust survivor testimonies that was started soon after the Holocaust. This work became one part of the basis of subsequent Holocaust history and ‘memorialization’ through Yad Vashem (in Israel). I will try to…[Read more]
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Michael.Polgar replied to the topic Humility in the forum On Austrian Soil – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses 6 years, 10 months ago
Perl, along with other Jewish people and people of all faith groups, may be truly obligated (sometimes by the faith tradition itself) to struggle with our own faiths and our identities. This obligation is not just an edict from tradition, it is a frequent by-product of the social injustices (like the Holocaust and other injustices) which…[Read more]
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Michael.Polgar replied to the topic Welcome and hello to the 2017 cohort in the forum 2017 Summer Seminar Participant Introductions 6 years, 10 months ago
Penn State News recently announced my participation in the summer seminar. Thanks to TOLI leaders, staff, and participants!
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Michael.Polgar replied to the topic Do Jewish people have an innate sense to tell who is Jewish? in the forum On Austrian Soil – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses 6 years, 10 months ago
Our identities (cultural, ethnic, and/or religious) may be shared, but I think this ‘cultural representation’ should be something we choose to do, rather than something that is forced upon us by others (and especially not forced upon us by oppressive laws or policies). Just because we are (cultural group memberships/s) does not mean we are…[Read more]
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Michael.Polgar replied to the topic New insights in the forum Five Chimneys – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses – Optional 6 years, 10 months ago
I find most people (especially young ones) are resilient and often considerate, as best as possible, even in difficult circumstances. The good will of people under duress (noted in “Chimneys”) was indeed amazing. I think we have all heard lots of ‘character despite adversity’ stories from survivors of different types of difficulties. These…[Read more]
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Michael.Polgar replied to the topic New insights in the forum Five Chimneys – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses – Optional 6 years, 10 months ago
I find most people (especially young ones) are resilient and often considerate, as best as possible, even in difficult circumstances. The good will of people under duress (noted in “Chimneys”) was indeed amazing. I think we have all heard lots of this ‘character despite adversity’ stories from survivors of different types of difficulties. These…[Read more]
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Michael.Polgar replied to the topic The amount of planning required in the forum Five Chimneys – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses – Optional 6 years, 10 months ago
10m video on Vimeo.com “Being there.” Video from a TOLI teacher trip to and tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Credited. What is current status of production?
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Michael.Polgar started the topic in the forum On Austrian Soil – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses 6 years, 10 months ago
The Innsbruckers*
Tonja treads toward tolerance
Andres is quite angry.
Ingrid struggles onward and then
Margaret befriends me.Thomas is in turmoil.
Gert is guarded now.
Our adult student writing class
Has histories. But now....can we dig up their stories?
Their families so proud?
The past, so quiet, drifting far,
Was once both mean and…[Read more] -
Michael.Polgar replied to the topic Puzzled by putting all people in one category in the forum On Austrian Soil – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses 6 years, 10 months ago
I am Jewish (based on parents, culture, and some beliefs). Jewish attitudes vary tremendously (and there is data on this topic from surveys). No one person represents a cultural group. But Jews have experienced antisemitism for centuries. The Holocaust was (and is) a worst and most recent example of antisemitism (and perhaps genocide) in…[Read more]
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Michael.Polgar replied to the topic Denying Identity in the forum On Austrian Soil – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses 6 years, 10 months ago
Thanks for your reflection. For me, being Jewish is both an identity and involves belonging to a religious group (and sometimes a congregation or a stream of Judaism). We are a cultural group, an ethnicity perhaps.
Once upon a time…a form of bad biological reductionism, now commonly known as racism, classified many humans into narrow…[Read more] -
Michael.Polgar replied to the topic Reflections and Ramblings in the forum On Austrian Soil – 2017 Summer Seminar Responses 6 years, 10 months ago
Thanks for reflection, Marna Lucio, I can relate to your experience. I also grew up Jewish but without much education in the Holocaust. I also am one-of-few Jewish people in my classes and workplace. At one point a few years ago, as a teacher searching for good texts in social sciences for a course in race and ethnic relations, I found a W.W.…[Read more]
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