Motivations for using this teaching program:
"If you don´t know history, you are bound to repeat it. This is what led Julie Lindahl to write her book and to create the on-line program for schools. Julie tells her history in order to show coming generations the consequences of hatred. This is a very important curriculum that will make youngsters aware of evil and help them develop a moral compass and a sense of responsibility. It is a warning against obeying orders without criticism, and a call to follow one’s own heart.”
- Hédi Fried, psychologist, author and Holocaust survivor
I have just finished The Pendulum by Julie Lindahl. It is a deeply moving and mind-spinning autobiographical novel by one of the most righteous and bravest women today… It has taken a rare combination of personal relentless thirst for the truth and high moral and professional integrity as a historian-novelist for her to painstakingly unearth the terrible Nazi past of her grandfather in Second World War Poland.
- Piroska Nagy-Mohacsi, Programme Director, Institute of Global Affairs, The London School of Economics
Julie Lindahl has an important and difficult story to share. It witnesses painful times and events that must never be forgotten and that should serve as a strong motivation for taking questions about the value of each human being and democracy very seriously. Through her material and presentation style, Julie succeeds in uniting a strong personal point of departure with a factual historical description of time, place and happenings. Her presentation both stirs feelings and provides knowledge. This definitely makes her worth listening to and learning from!
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- Eskil Franck, Associate professor Uppsala University, Former Director The Living History Forum
"I opened The Pendulum, and immediately found myself drawn into it. As a historian, I often wondered how academics could profit from the determined pursuit of haunted family stories by descendents of individual perpetrators – which already forms a branch of its own of WWII and Holocaust literature. Here’s the breathtaking answer."
- Jochen Böhler, Historian of the German Occupation of Poland (1939-45) and the Perpetrators of the Holocaust, Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena
I cannot remember a book in which a family member relates her experiences concerning the story of her family during that period of history so perceptively, intuitively and courageously. I have devoted a considerable part of my life to shedding light on the regional history of my home. So far I have not met anyone from your generation who has described the reverberations of that terrible Darwinism, this “Herrenmensch” orientation, and its overwhelming consequences so intensively. I thank you with all my heart.
- Gerhard Hoch, Distinguished Historian of National Socialism in Schleswig-Holstein and Theologian (1923-2015)
"As a young adolescent, I recall asking why I was studying the subject of history and what relevance it had to my young teenage life. It seemed so far outdated and removed from modern day-to-day existence- laden with facts, dates, and names with cliched themes. As a middle school educator of humanities in my adult life, I strive to create relevance for students by answering the following essential questions in my classroom: Why do we study history? How can history be studied objectively through best practices? What role does history play in the future of our global world? In order to answer these questions, students cannot truly understand the “we” of society without first looking different first-hand experiences on a personal level. Julie Lindahl’s book explores the answers to these lofty questions through a very thought-provoking account of her own personal journey as a historian, granddaughter, daughter, mother, wife, and human being. By peeling back the layers of her own family history, Lindahl searches for truth, processes her emotions, and provides a refreshingly honest, didactic journey for her readers that can be applied to the study of history."
- Amy Stern, Curriculum Rational for Julie Lindahl's The Pendulum, 9th Grade Teacher, History and Writing Workshop, Curriculum Facilitator grades 5-9, Humanities, Rippowam Cisqua School, New York, USA
- Hédi Fried, psychologist, author and Holocaust survivor
I have just finished The Pendulum by Julie Lindahl. It is a deeply moving and mind-spinning autobiographical novel by one of the most righteous and bravest women today… It has taken a rare combination of personal relentless thirst for the truth and high moral and professional integrity as a historian-novelist for her to painstakingly unearth the terrible Nazi past of her grandfather in Second World War Poland.
- Piroska Nagy-Mohacsi, Programme Director, Institute of Global Affairs, The London School of Economics
Julie Lindahl has an important and difficult story to share. It witnesses painful times and events that must never be forgotten and that should serve as a strong motivation for taking questions about the value of each human being and democracy very seriously. Through her material and presentation style, Julie succeeds in uniting a strong personal point of departure with a factual historical description of time, place and happenings. Her presentation both stirs feelings and provides knowledge. This definitely makes her worth listening to and learning from!
-
- Eskil Franck, Associate professor Uppsala University, Former Director The Living History Forum
"I opened The Pendulum, and immediately found myself drawn into it. As a historian, I often wondered how academics could profit from the determined pursuit of haunted family stories by descendents of individual perpetrators – which already forms a branch of its own of WWII and Holocaust literature. Here’s the breathtaking answer."
- Jochen Böhler, Historian of the German Occupation of Poland (1939-45) and the Perpetrators of the Holocaust, Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena
I cannot remember a book in which a family member relates her experiences concerning the story of her family during that period of history so perceptively, intuitively and courageously. I have devoted a considerable part of my life to shedding light on the regional history of my home. So far I have not met anyone from your generation who has described the reverberations of that terrible Darwinism, this “Herrenmensch” orientation, and its overwhelming consequences so intensively. I thank you with all my heart.
- Gerhard Hoch, Distinguished Historian of National Socialism in Schleswig-Holstein and Theologian (1923-2015)
"As a young adolescent, I recall asking why I was studying the subject of history and what relevance it had to my young teenage life. It seemed so far outdated and removed from modern day-to-day existence- laden with facts, dates, and names with cliched themes. As a middle school educator of humanities in my adult life, I strive to create relevance for students by answering the following essential questions in my classroom: Why do we study history? How can history be studied objectively through best practices? What role does history play in the future of our global world? In order to answer these questions, students cannot truly understand the “we” of society without first looking different first-hand experiences on a personal level. Julie Lindahl’s book explores the answers to these lofty questions through a very thought-provoking account of her own personal journey as a historian, granddaughter, daughter, mother, wife, and human being. By peeling back the layers of her own family history, Lindahl searches for truth, processes her emotions, and provides a refreshingly honest, didactic journey for her readers that can be applied to the study of history."
- Amy Stern, Curriculum Rational for Julie Lindahl's The Pendulum, 9th Grade Teacher, History and Writing Workshop, Curriculum Facilitator grades 5-9, Humanities, Rippowam Cisqua School, New York, USA