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Reading 1

Take This Giant Leap

Holocaust and Human Behavior
Chapter 9
Holocaust
Victim and Survivor Voices
Table of Contents

Holocaust and Human Behavior

About The Book
All ChaptersChapter 9 Readings
  1. Get Started
  2. Spanish Translations from Holocaust and Human Behavior
  3. The Individual and Society
  4. We and They
  5. World War: Choices and Consequences
  6. The Weimar Republic: The Fragility of Democracy
  7. The National Socialist Revolution
  8. Conformity and Consent in the National Community
  9. Open Aggression and World Responses
  10. A War for Race and Space
  11. The Holocaust
  12. Judgment and Justice
  13. Legacy and Memory
  14. Choosing to Participate
  1. Take This Giant Leap
  2. Mobile Killing Units
  3. Reserve Police Battalion 101
  4. A Matter of Obedience?
  5. "Proving Oneself" in the East
  6. The Wannsee Conference
  7. Establishing the Killing Centers
  8. The "Special Trains"
  9. Auschwitz
  10. Choiceless Choices
  11. A Commandant’s View
  12. Identity in the Camps
  13. Seizing Property
  14. What Did Jews in the Ghettos Know?
  15. Survival in Hiding
  16. Difficult Choices in Poland
  17. Speaking Out “In the Face of Murder”
  18. We May Not Have Another Chance
  19. A Basic Feeling of Human Dignity
  20. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
  21. Protests in Germany
  22. Deciding to Act
  23. Le Chambon: A Village Takes a Stand
  24. Diplomats and the Choice to Rescue
  25. Denmark: A Nation Takes Action
  26. Terezín: A Site for Deception
  27. A Transport to Bergen-Belsen
  28. What Did the World Know?
  29. The Difference between Knowing and Believing
  30. A Report on the Murder of Jews
  31. The Death Marches
  32. As the War Ended

This reading is available in two formats: original and Spanish. Please select the version you wish to read using the dropdown below.

Sonia Weitz was born in Kraków, Poland. She was 11 years old when her family and other Polish Jews were herded into ghettos by the Nazis. Of the 84 members of her extended family, she and her sister Blanca were the only survivors of years in ghettos and concentration camps during the Holocaust. At an early age, she turned to poetry to help her cope with her emotions. Years after the Holocaust, Weitz wrote the poem “For Yom Ha’Shoah.” Yom Ha’Shoah is Hebrew for “Day of Holocaust Remembrance.”

Come, take this giant leap with me
into the other world . . . the other place
where language fails and imagery defies,
denies man’s consciousness . . . and dies
upon the altar of insanity.

Come, take this giant leap with me
into the other world . . . the other place
and trace the eclipse of humanity . . .
where children burned while mankind stood by
and the universe has yet to learn why
. . . has yet to learn why.1

Citations

    Da Este Enorme Salto Conmigo

    Sonia Weitz nació en Cracovia, Polonia. Tenía 11 años cuando su familia y otros judíos polacos fueron llevados en masa a los guetos por parte de los nazis. De los 84 miembros de su familia lejana, ella y su hermana Blanca fueron las únicas sobrevivientes de los años en los guetos y campos de concentración durante el Holocausto. A temprana edad, recurrió a la poesía para lidiar con sus emociones. Años después del Holocausto, Weitz escribió el poema “Al Yom Ha’Shoah”. Yom Ha’Shoah en hebreo significa “Día del recuerdo del Holocausto”.

    Ven, da este enorme salto conmigo
    al otro mundo. . . a ese lugar
    donde el lenguaje falla y el imaginario se resiste,
    niega la consciencia del hombre. . . y muere
    en el altar de la insensatez.

    Ven, da este enorme salto conmigo
    al otro mundo. . . a ese lugar
    y sigue el eclipse de la humanidad. . .
    donde los niños son quemados mientras la humanidad se mantiene ajena
    y el universo aún no sabe por qué
    . . . aún no sabe por qué.1

    Citations

      Connection Questions

      1. What does this poem mean to you? What questions does it raise for you?
      2. Sonia Weitz has been called “a survivor with a poet’s eye.” How can poetry deepen one’s study of the Holocaust? What can we learn from poetry that more traditional historical accounts might not capture?
      3. Re-read the poem and highlight the verbs Weitz uses. How do the verbs help to intensify her description of “the other world”?
      4. Do you think that Weitz believes it is possible to understand the horrors of the Holocaust? What can we gain by studying the brutality of the Holocaust? 

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