I Never Even Lived, A Teaching Unit Women in Holocaust Literature

(reposted to this site on 1/8/2002)

"I Never Even Lived"
A Teaching Unit - Women in Holocaust Literature

Permission to publish excerpts from this document given by:
Yad Vashem
The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
The International School for Holocaust Studies

The Israeli Ministry of Education

This unit is available in Hebrew and in English. It is recommended for high school students.

Written by: Inbar Raveh, Rotem Wagner

Educational Consultant: Mina Hochberg, Educational Materials Division
Research Consultant: Malka Shaked
Translated from Hebrew by: Lisa Katz
English Language Editor: Felice Kahn Zisken
Administration: Revital Katz
Production: Ariela Shani
Design: Portnov-Mishan

This unit was produced with the generous support of the
National Yad Vashem Charitable Trust, United Kingdom
and the assistance of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture

You may order these documents by Email from Yad Vashem by selecting ORDER. Complete the Email by stating the items(s) you want to order. Yad Vashem will reply with the costs and mailing instructions.

Table of Contents


Introduction {click here}	3
Crossing the Red Sea by Zofia Romanowiczowa
The Title	5
Confession and the Religious Context	8
Women and Womanhood: Friendship as Apprenticeship	9
The Narrator's Self-Image	12
Relationships among Women in the Camp	13
The Power of Friendship: Survival and Destruction	14
Time and Memory	16

*"Eugenia"* by Ida Fink
Literary Pictures	20
The Poetics of Reconstructing Time	22
Ripe Cherries	23

*Tzili* by Aharon Appelfeld
A Woman Comes of Age {click here}	25
Women in the Novel: Role Models {click here}	27
The Biblical Story of Joseph: Mythic Framework {click here}	29

*Katerina* by Aharon Appelfeld
Encounters with Women	32
Motherhood	34
Roots	37

Summary: The Apprenticeship of Women	39

Questions for Further Study/Additional Reading	42