Perguntas feitas:
Question 1: The Nazis believed that the Aryan race was superior to all others; how did they try to convince people that this was true? What effect did this have on others? |
Question 2: Can you tell us a story about when you first became aware of prejudice against Jewish people? |
Question 3: People usually talk about the persecution of the Jewish. Why did the Nazis persecute your family too? |
Question 4: Later you experienced prejudice yourself; how was experiencing it different from seeing it? |
Question 5: Why were you so determined not to give the “Heil Hitler” greeting? How was that a daily challenge? |
Question 6: When it was noticed that you would not say “Heil Hitler,” you were made to go to every classroom and get a signature from the teacher. Can you describe the events of that week and how they made you feel? |
Question 7: What happened the day your dad was arrested? How did you feel? |
Question 8: Your father was arrested, the bank account was frozen, and your mother could not get permission to work; were you anxious? How did you cope? |
Question 9: How did your mother’s example and calm demeanor when speaking to abusive officials help you as you faced increasing pressure to conform? |
Question 10: After your mother was arrested, why did they send you to a “reform school?” What did they want you to learn there? |
Question 11: Nazi propaganda, lack of sleep, hard work, isolation, and silence took a toll on your emotional state; how did you cope with day-to-day life under such difficult circumstances? |
Question 12: How did you feel when your mother came to get you at the reformatory after the war? |
Question 13: How did you feel when your father came home after the war? |
Question 14: How did your parents teach you about forgiveness and how to deal with the anger? How has this helped you in your life? |
Question 15: Many of us have never had to live through a war. After the fighting ends there are still a lot of problems. Can you explain the challenges you and your parents faced? How did your life return to normal? |
Question 16: What advice would you offer to young ones who feel pressured to ignore their values? What do you want them to learn from your story? |
Percurso até à entrevista
- Desenvolver a ideia e criar o projeto
- Contactar a fundação (envolveu troca de emails e reuniões. Contactei a fundação por meio dos contactos que encontrei no site alst.org, e estabeleci vários contactos que culminaram numa reunião final em que decidiram avançar com a entrevista que propus)
- Promover a entrevista com a Clonlara – Para esta etapa criei um texto para publicar no Sway da escola de forma a promover a entrevista. A versão final desse texto é a seguinte: “Only very few survivors of the Nazi persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses are still alive today. Meeting them is a unique educational experience that will soon no longer be possible. Clonlara students will have the privilege to learn from the survivor and eyewitness Simone Arnold-Liebster, who has faced severe trials at an early age.
Born in Alsace on 17 August 1930, Simone Arnold-Liebster belonged with her parents to a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Mulhouse, France. Attending school became a daily test of her principles since the German invasion in 1940. Her conscience had to rise up every day against the omnipresent coercion. The “Germanisation” of Alsace transformed teachers into fanatical National Socialists. Simone Arnold-Liebster was psychologically and physically abused, expelled from high school, finally snatched from her mother in April 1943 and taken to a Nazi reformatory in Constance, Germany. There she had to do forced labour and endure mental abuse. Her parents were sent to concentration camps. If she had not been liberated, she would have been transferred to a concentration camp at the age of 15.
Simone Arnold-Liebster is one of the co-founders of the Arnold Liebster Foundation, a non-political, non-profit organization, that strives to keep alive the memory of victims of dictatorships and persecution. The foundation supports historical research and educational programs for the purpose of promoting peace, tolerance, human rights, and religious freedom.
In reflecting on her life and lessons she hopes to impart, Simone says, “My survival testifies to the fact that even young people can triumph over adversity, provided that their conscience is trained and that they learn high moral and ethical values. It is my heartfelt wish that my experiences inspire others to face the ‘lions’ in their lives with hope and courage.”
At age 92, Simone continues to speak to students around the world from her home in France.
The ZOOM meeting will have a limited number of attendees. 8th grade and high-school students who are interested in attending, please fill out this form:” - Recolher inscrições e responder às dúvidas sobre o evento (Para esta etapa criei um formulário de inscrição. Analisei todos os pedidos de inscrição e respondi às dúvidas sobre o evento. Também tomei nota das perguntas que os meus colegas queriam fazer à Simone para depois poder selecionar as questões finais de acordo com o tempo combinado para a entrevista.)
- Escolher o painel de participantes e as perguntas (envolveu troca de emails e reuniões. Contactei todos os que queriam fazer perguntas e fizemos uma reunião para selecionar a lista final, para submetê-la a aprovação.)
- Fazer a entrevista – Para começar a entrevista, fiz uma pequena introdução: “Hi everyone! My name is Leonor and I’m the student that organized this interview. I want to talk a little bit about my school project and how this interview relates to it.
So, the name of my project is “Political Neutrality And Religious Freedom”. This project consists in studying about different types of governments and to observe how they have dealt with their citizens political neutrality and religious freedom. As I was studying, I saw multiple types of governments that were very oppressive, and that made me very interested to know how the people with strong convictions has handled with the situation. I already knew Simone’s story, but I decided to read her book, and that inspired me to dig deeper and study more about the holocaust and it’s survivors.
We, as the future generation, have, not only the possibility, but also the responsibility, to study about the mistakes made in the past and to learn from them, so we don’t repeat them in the future. But, we shouldn’t just focus on the bad examples. We can also learn a lot from the good examples. Simone’s story teaches us that it’s possible to stay faithful to our principles and convictions, even in tough situations.
That’s why I organized this interview, so that we all could learn about this encouraging example. Thank you all for listening!”
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