Holocaust Educational Trust

We are delighted that you have chosen to explore Holocaust survivor Ivor Perl BEM’s testimony, Chicken Soup Under the Tree. To augment your students’ understanding of this book and to support your teaching of the Holocaust in the classroom, the Holocaust Educational Trust would like to direct you to the following free resources, relevant to this book. Please note this book and the resources below are suitable for students in year 9/S3 and above.

• Pre-war Jewish Life
• Antisemitism
• Ghettos
• The ‘Final Solution’
• Dilemmas, Choices, Responses
• Liberation
• British Responses to Nazism and the Holocaust

Information about the Trust’s different educational programmes, including the Outreach Programme, our Lessons from Auschwitz Project and Teacher Training opportunities can be found on the Trust’s website.

Download page as PDF

 

Video Interview 

 

Class/Reading Group Discussion Questions

In order to enhance learning, you can explore the themes within Ivor’s testimony by discussing the following questions with your class or reading group.

1. Ivor describes the prominent role religion played in his life before the Holocaust, and the strength that people took from their beliefs during their experiences in the ghettos and camps of Nazi-occupied Europe. This can be seen as a form of spiritual resistance. What other forms of spiritual resistance have you read about in this book?
2. ‘You are not a person. You do not have a name. each will be given a number that you must never forget. Forget that number and you don’t exist.’ Pg 38. This is an example of dehumanisation. What other examples of dehumanisation during the Holocaust have you found in this book?
3. When we study this period of history, we often talk about the different roles ordinary people found themselves in. What examples of perpetrators, bystanders and victims are there in this book?
4. It is now over 75 years since Ivor was liberated. What other Holocaust survivor testimonies have you read or come across before? Why is it still important for us to hear from these eyewitnesses?
5. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once said, ‘when you hear from a witness, you become a witness.’ What will you do to tell others about Ivor’s story? Who can you tell?