Holocaust Memorial Museum: Parallel Journeys

Parallel Journeys was a book that I bought several years ago while attending the Belfer II Conference at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. At the time, I was in the process of trying to develop a syllabus for a Holocaust Literature elective course at my high school; and, after speaking with many Mandel Fellows, I decided to purchase certain books (at their recommendations) to review as possible inclusions for my course. As we know, time tends to be something precious and fleeting, and this particular book remained on my shelf as a "want to read." Eventually, I read Parallel Journeys, reviewed the book for the Mandel Fellowship Program, and now offer my perspective as a rural North Carolina high school teacher.

Parallel Journeys has been a wonderful addition to my Holocaust Literature course. The novel allows
Like Heck, they too live in a very rural environment. Often they do not always understand why they believe in a certain idea. They just accept what parents and teachers say because they are told to. Heck says in the first words of Chapter One that he never thought of questioning what his teachers taught him. He was simply indoctrinated by SS teachers and Nazi Party members who ran the classrooms. In small town life, even in the 21st century, sometimes students are raised with prejudices they cannot explain. As a teacher, I attempt to explain how each individual must analyze his/her own beliefs for the presence of certain prejudices. But in Parallel Journeys, it is as if Heck shows students what I am trying to teach them: he simply falls in line with the majority. Heck's own words reflect the peril of actions such as when he says of himself and other German youth who were indoctrinated by Nazism: ". . .we are the other part of the Holocaust, the generation burdened with the responsibility of Auschwitz. That is our life sentence for having been the enthusiastic followers of Hitler"