Living among the Dead: My Grandmother's Holocaust Survival Story of Love and Strength - Educator's Guide

By Adena Bernstein Astrowsky

An Educator’s Guide is now available to assist those teaching about the Holocaust by using the book, Living among the Dead. The Guide can be used chapter by chapter to enhance the student’s understanding of the narrative. There are multiple suggestions and lessons to take us deeper into the history of the Holocaust and this story of strength, family love, community solidarity, and Jewish history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amsterdam Publishers
• Release date: Jan 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9789493231757

Adena Bernstein Astrowsky

Adena Astrowsky ha dedicado su carrera profesional a ayudar a los más vulnerables de nuestra sociedad haciendo de fiscal en casos de abuso sexual infantil y de violencia de género en la fiscalía del condado de Maricopa. Se ha convertido en la experta del condado cuanto a la acusación de los casos de estrangulación relacionados con violencia doméstica y ha enseñado mucho sobre este tema. Adena fue profesora en la Escuela Dominical de su templo durante ocho años y los últimos dos hizo coenseñanza de desarrollo del carácter a través de los estudios del Holocausto. Una vez al mes, Adena hace de voluntaria en la biblioteca local de Scottsdale con su perro de terapia, Charlie, como parte del programa Tail Waggin' Tales (cuentos que hacen mover la cola). Adena también ha organizado eventos para recaudar dinero para el Emily Center del hospital infantil de Phoenix. Recientemente, han reconocido el trabajo profesional y filantrópico de Adena con el Amazing Woman Award (premio Mujer Asombrosa) de los Phoenix Suns y el banco nacional de Arizona. El mayor papel de Adena, sin embargo, es como madre de tres niños muy activos. Ella y su marido, Brad, están muy ocupados con sus respectivas actividades de baile, teatro, música y atletismo.

Book preview

HILARY’S INTRODUCTION

I have been a teacher for almost thirty years. I would consider myself lucky with my career. I am an educator who loves to teach. It is my passion. There have been so many changes that have happened in education throughout my career. You learn to be flexible and change directions in mid-stream.

This is why when I noticed a friend’s post on social media about a new Holocaust memoir entitled Living among the Dead: My Grandmother’s Holocaust Survival Story of Love and Strength, I purchased it.

I teach an intensive history of the Holocaust class every year for high school students. I am lucky that I have a lot of discretion in the curriculum for the class, and after reading Living among the Dead, I selected it as one of the texts. Because I was so impressed with the book, I reached out to Adena, the author, and explained how I planned on using her book in my class and asked if she would be willing to speak with my students. Because we were all online for school at the time, this was not difficult. Adena met online with my class one day and introduced the book, speaking about her grandmother and their relationship. Over the next two weeks, my class and I read the memoir together and discussed the Holocaust in sequential order using it as a guide.

Living among the Dead lends itself perfectly to the study and examination of the timeline of the Holocaust. Using this book as a guide, I could teach almost everything I would normally teach while pulling from other resources to add deeper context and historical perspective. On the last day of class, Adena once again met online with my students. This time it was for reflection about the book. The students loved the book and had many comments and questions for her. It was a very unique and rewarding experience for all of us.

Fast forward to the beginning of the summer of 2021, and I was scheduled to go on a trip to Poland and Ukraine, and at the very last minute, I had space to take someone with me. Adena volunteered to go. She was extremely excited because she knew from our continued correspondence that I had already planned on going to all of the places she had written about in Living among the Dead. What a perfect way to be able to dive deeper into such a difficult subject. Adena, her young daughter, and I visited all of the areas discussed in Living among the