Daniel's Story

Carol Matas wrote Daniel’s Story in conjunction with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibit called Remember the Children: Daniel’s Story. The museum made a video of the exhibit. Watch the video and discuss the similarities and differences between the book and the exhibit.

Pick a less central character—Uncle Peter, Friedrich, or even Daniel’s mom, Ruth—and, using Daniel’s information, try to imagine what they had to confront. Think about how Uncle Peter felt in Dachau, how Friedrich felt hiding in Lodz, or how Ruth felt in Auschwitz.

The story features many critical events, including the Evian Conference and Kristallnacht. Research one of the events and explain how it contributed to Holocaust and how it could’ve stopped it.

Daniel’s biblical name refers to the Hebrew prophet and his time in the lions’ den. Expand on the significance of Daniel’s name and detail the connection between the lions’ den and Nazi-occupied Europe and discuss the importance of survival and resistance in both stories.

The story contains many symbols, from the pictures to the violin to the radio. Pick one symbol and argue that this symbol is the most critical to the narrative.

Daniel continually mentions trials. He talks about them as if they’re a sure thing. Research the Nuremberg Trials—the main trial for Nazi war crimes overseen by the Allies—and explain how the event does and does not align with Daniel’s ideas of justice.

Images are central to Daniel’s narrative and a key part of many people’s worlds today. Due to smartphones and social media, people post a combined total of around 1.8 billion images a day (Eveleth, Rose. “How Many Photographs of You Are Out There In the World?” The Atlantic, 2015). Consider how the large quantity of pictures in circulation helps or hurts the potential to create the kind of change that Daniel presumes will come from his images.

Erika says, “We are alive. We are human, with good and bad in us. That’s all we know for sure. We can’t create a new species or a new world. That’s been done. Now we have to live within boundaries” (70). Focus on Erika’s beliefs and explain how they collapse the binary between good and evil and reveal the limitations of human beings.