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Name: __________________________________________ Date: ______________________ CORE: _______

Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust

by Eve Bunting

I. Before Reading:

1) What would you consider to be terrible things?

2) Which is more important, freedom or safety? Explain.

3) Would you be willing to turn in a friend or a relative to the police if he or she had not committed a crime, but an authority figure asked you to? Under what conditions?

4) What things in your life would you refuse to give up even if your life was threatened?

5) Would you speak up if you saw someone being treated in a manner that you felt was unfair? Why or why not?

6) Define the following:

a. allegory

II. After Reading:

1) What do the different animals represent? the clearing of the woods? the Terrible Things?

2) Why don’t they help one another? What excuses do they use to explain the fate of each group? How does this help the Terrible Things?

3) How are the Terrible Things described? What verbs are used to describe their actions? How do the descriptions affect your feelings about the Terrible Things?

4) Could anything be done to stop “the terrible things”? What choices did the animals in the forest have?

5) Why do you think the author told the story of the Holocaust in a symbolic way?

6) During the Holocaust, terrible things were done by real people, people with faces, names and life histories. Why do you think the author shows the Terrible Things as anonymous?

7) Little Rabbit hopes someone will listen to him. Why might no one listen?

8) Look at the quote to the right. Compare the quote to

The Terrible Things.

9) Explain how The Terrible Things can be applied to situations other

than the Holocaust.

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“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—

because I was not a communist;

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—

because I was not a socialist;

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—

because I was not a trade unionist;

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out

because I was not a Jew;

Then they came for me

and there was no one left toI did not speak out—

because I was not a Jew;

Then they came for me—

and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

― Martin Niemöller

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