Remembering the Fallen

"It is ... always like this in a field hospital. Just ambulances rolling in, and dirty, dying men...." — American nurse Ellen la Motte, The Backwash of War,1934

This year, I decided to focus on the voices of the conflicts to commemorate Remembrance Day  — the nurses, the soldiers, the commanders, the politicians, the survivors, and the relatives of the deceased. I wanted students and staff to connect with those voices; see them as people and not just names in a book. We often gloss over details and descriptions when we don't connect the words with the wars; the letters with the legacies; the paragraphs with the people.

"Certainly, humanity has gone mad! It must be mad to do what it's doing. Such slaughter! Such scenes of horror and carnage!" — Lieutenant Alfred Joubaire, Diary Entry at Verdun, May 22, 1916

So in this year's Remembrance Day blog, I have peppered my post with Voices from War, gathered from several books we have at Twelve Mile Coulee, many of which are among those highlighted in my Learning Commons Display. 

"A column of smoke is rising fast. It has a fiery red core. A bubbling mass, with purple-grey in colour, with that red core. It's all turbulent. Fires are springing up everywhere. One, two, three, four, five, six ... 14, 15. It's impossible. There are too many to count. Here it comes, the mushroom shape. It's coming this way. The mushroom is spreading out. It's maybe a mile or two wide and half a mile high. It's growing up and up and up. It's nearly level with us and climbing. The base of the mushroom looks like a heavy undercoat that is shot through with flowers. The city must be below that. The flames and smoke are billowing out, whirling out into the foothills. the hills are disappearing under the smoke." — Sergeant Robert Carson, tail gunner of the Enola Cay, recorded what he could see from the aircraft immediately after the Hiroshima atomic bomb explosion on Aug. 6, 1945, World War II: The Events and Their Impact on Real People by Reg Grant

The poppy was first adopted as a symbol of Remembrance Day on July 6, 1921, following the First World War. Their symbolic use was inspired by In Flanders Fields poem by John McCrae, a lieutenant-colonel from Guelph, Ont., who served as a medical officer during the First World War. He wrote the poem in May 1915, following the death of a fellow soldier. 

Poppy Facts:

• Poppies grew on battlefields because of the rubble. Bombardments of artillery during the First World War left debris on the fields and the lime in the rubble acted as fertilizer for the poppies, allowing them to grow. This is why they grow so abundantly in Europe, particularly in countries such as France and Belgium.
• Poppies have also a long history as a symbol for sleep and death. In fact, according to Greek and Roman mythology, poppies were often placed on tombstones to represent eternal sleep. Some people even thought the vibrant red colour guaranteed the deceased's resurrection after death. In Ancient Egypt, the poppy was a symbol of Osiris, the god of the dead, so many Egyptians were buried with the bright red flower, including King Tutankhamun, whose tomb contained the flower when he was buried about 1324 BC.
• Not all poppies are red. Poppies come in a variety of colours, including blue, pink, white, yellow and orange.
• Poppies are worn on the left. The tradition of wearing a poppy on the lapel to signify Remembrance Day also includes the act of placing it on the left side, as close to the heart as possible. 
• Year-round Pinning. While many prefer to only wear a poppy around Remembrance Day, according to Veterans Affairs Canada, they can be worn anytime. As such, you will often see them at veteran funerals, memorial services, battle anniversaries, and any time the wearer wants to draw attention to the war-time commemorative symbol. 
  
• French Poppy Connection. How poppies came to be a Remembrance Day symbol all began with a French woman named Madame Anna Guerin, who persuaded the Great War Veterans Association to adopt the poppy after years of being known as The French Poppy Lady, who made fabric poppies and sold them to raise money for veterans' needs. She started her own charity to help rebuild parts of France destroyed by the First World War. 

"When the transport (train) with people who were destined to be gassed arrived at the railway ramp, the SS officers selected from among the new arrivals persons fit for work, while the rest — old people, all children, women with children in their arms, and other people not deemed fit to work — were loaded onto trucks and driven to the gas chambers. I used to follow behind till we reached the bunker. These people were first driven into the barrack huts where the victims undressed and then went naked to the gas chambers. After driving all of them into the gas chambers, the door was closed and an SS man in a gas mask threw a Zyklon (gas) tin through an opening in the side wall. The shouting and screaming of the victims could be heard through that opening, and it was clear that they were fighting for their lives. These shouts were heard for a very short while." — Dr. Johann Kremer, German SS doctor at Auschwitz, witnessed these gassings on Sept. 2, 1942, as stated in his testimony given under interrogation after the war, World War II: The Events and Their Impact on Real People by Reg Grant

100 Books Commemorating the Poppy's 100th Anniversary

Learning about the details and impacts of war begins with the simple act of choosing to educate yourself, and that all begins with the checking out of books. 

To order any of our books, and have them delivered to your classroom, just click on the book-order form link, and I'll process them for you. 

TMC has an abundance of titles pertaining to world conflict, whether they are non-fiction or real-fiction in genre, including those listed in TMC's 100 Books for the Poppy's 100th Anniversary.

DIGITAL RESOURCES

Veterans Affairs Canada is a great resource for information on Remembrance Day, and it is no wonder that the day falls in Veterans Week (Nov. 4-11).  You can watch the 2021 Veterans Week promotional video, Unforgettable Day, to honour all those who served in Canada during times of war, military conflict and peace.

Veterans Affairs Canada, in fact, has a number of educational videos for Remembrance Day on its website, including numerous educational videos. Click here to watch any of those listed below:

1. Legacy: New Altars of the Memorial Chamber (7 Min. 47 Sec) To Mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War, six wooden altars within Parliament Hill's Memorial Chamber were replaced by ones made of stone. The video below shows the new altars and shares the story of the sacred place. 
2. First World War: A Voyage of Discovery—85th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge (30 Min. 25 Sec.) Watch the transformation of 13 young Canadians from all across the country, as they travel through the cemeteries, battlefield sites and commemorative battlefield parks of France and Belgium as they begin to understand Canada's role in the war. The present-day footage is mixed with archival historic film, narration and reflections of the youth tell of the discoveries they made during their time overseas. 
3. Innocence Lost: A Nation Found—Canada Remembers: The First World War, 1914-1918 (19 Min. 24 Sec.) Twelve Canadian teenagers travel to France on a veteran's pilgrimage to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Along the way, they develop a new respect for veterans and what they endured during the capturing of the ridge from its German defenders in April 1917.
4. Canada and the Great War, 1914-1918: A Nation Born (19 Min. 49 Sec.) Canada's role in the First World War is told through the eyes of a young student researching a school project. From mobilization to the 1915 gas attack at Ypres, the Newfoundland Regiment and the Battle of the Somme to the victory at Vimy Ridge, the tragedy of Passchendaele and the final days of the war, the video gives an overview of trench warfare and the allied advance over enemy lines to victory.
5. The Second World War: Canada Remembers: Holland (22 Min. 14 Sec) Follow 10 young Canadians as they travel to the Netherlands with Canadian veterans, who are revered and respected by the Dutch for the liberation of their country from German occupation during the final days of the Second World War.
6. Sacrifice, Achievement and Legacy: Canadians and the Second World War, 1939-1945 (22 Min. 09 Sec.) This comprehensive video showcases how Canadians rallied at home and overseas in the face of the largest threat the country has ever faced. Through archival footage and veteran interviews, the video highlights the contributions Canadians made in Hong Kong, Dieppe, Italy, Normandy, Holland and in the Far East, as well as in the skies and seas around the globe. 
7. Canada Remembers the Far East (24 Min. 24 Sec.) While working on a school project, three French-Canadian teenagers discover the important role Canadians played in the Far East during the Second World War. With the use of archival footage, veteran testimony and historical narration, the teens learn about our country's participation in the defence of Hong Kong, the harsh treatment of the Hong Kong prisoners of war by the Japanese, the air force's role in delivering supplies to the troops on the ground in Burma and the Saviour of Cylon.

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Erika's Story author Ruth Vander Zee tells the true story of one woman's account during the Holocaust in the Second World War. Erika is a survivor who recalls the difficult decisions her parents had to make and how those decision affected her life. Erika's Story has been awarded Best Foreign Picture Book in Japan, Best Children's Illustrated Books of 2004 in Great Britain, the 2004 Award of Excellence for Book-Communication Arts, and was voted the most successful non-fiction title in the UKLA Children's Book Awards in 2006, which focuses on literacy, as well as content, as a means of expression.

In the below video, Ruth Zander Zee talks about her book, why she wrote it and reads the award-winning publication.

OTHER RESOURCES

The Canadian Encyclopedia  provides access to hundreds of Canadian documents related to Remembrance Day, and the wars in which Canadian soldiers have fought. The Memory Project contains photographs and interviews from Canadian soldiers of the three wars (Korea, First World War, and Second World War), as well as documents related to Canada's peacekeeping efforts. In addition, there is also a section highlighting the Cree code talkers, who much like the Navajo code talkers in the U.S., were an elite unit tasked with disguising military intelligence using their native language during the Second World War. 

TeachingBooks.net is a database of supportive materials for war-related books written by Canadian authors that can be used in English and language arts novel studies, but they are titles that everyone can access. One of my favourites highlighted is Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. While Three Day Road is not available at Twelve Mile Coulee, due to his adult-suggested reading rating, I would highly recommend it for students Grade 10 and up, as well as adults. Boyden, a Canadian author born in Toronto, won numerous awards and was nominated for a Governor General's Award for the debut novel. His second novel, Through Black Spruce, won the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize and he was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2015. 

Canada in Context is a database with a wealth of information related to Remembrance Day in Canada, including how one community commemorated the sacrifices of Canadian soldiers and a biography of John McCrae, author of the famous In Flanders Fields poem.