.....the holocaust to my baby cousin? She is only six but stumbled across one of my WW2 textbooks from school, it had a section about the death camps and lots of graphic pictures of emaciated prisoners huddled around the fences and piles of bodies being bulldozed in to mass graves.
She has asked me what it was all about a couple of times and I've managed to skirt around the issue but for some reason she hasn't forgotten about it as she normally does!
What would you say? She already knows a little about the war as our Grand father is a veteran but I don't think anyone (for obvious reasons) has revealed this side of the conflict to her.
Any advice? Thanks!
2006-06-12 03:46:22 · 24 answers · asked by DaveyMcB 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
That is a good question. The fact she is so curious shows that she's pretty smart. I would sit her down and talk to her like a grown up. Explain what happened.
2006-06-12 03:51:04 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Children are remarkable creatures. She probably has a capacity to understand far more than you would like to accept. Try to keep it fairly simple, in other words, use language she can understand. Once you figure out that aspect of explanation, just try telling the truth. You may want to sugarcoat some of your explanation but keep it to a minimum. This isn't storks delivering babies or the Easter bunny bringing hard boiled chicken eggs. This is a reality and she should be told the truth or nothing at all.
I applaud you for your concern. Most people would try to avoid the issue entirely. Your baby cousin is a very lucky young lady. Best wishes and good luck to you.
2006-06-12 11:04:58 · answer #2 · answered by gimpalomg 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You should ask her parents, obviously it is up to them how much detail she finds out at such a young age.
Hypothetically though, to explain anything with young kids it normally pays to answer EXACTLY the questions they ask and no more. If you go into too much detail it may be more than they can handle and could confuse them.
If she asks you why the bodies are in piles (for example) explain specifically that those people all died at the same time, and as it was a long time ago, they were all buried at once. (This kind of depends on what she knows about death and burials already, but hopefully you see what I mean). You don't need to go into detail unless she asks more.
But as I said, ASK HER PARENTS! You don't want to get in trouble!
2006-06-12 16:45:51 · answer #3 · answered by guest 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well you may feel she is to young at the moment, and leave God, and Satan out of it, because it has nothing to with either of them, other than wars being started in the name of God.
At six she will understand some of it, so ask her what she understands, some people treat kids as stupid, and I'm sure your agree their not. see how much she understands then add more detail to it, only given her enough so you can leave out the bad bit's that could wait until she is older, however she may speak to someone else who tells her something different, she may then think your lying to her. What i would do is tell her as much truth as you think she can handle, don't put it off, because she will only ask someone else, yo don't have to go into all the gory bits, in fact tell her that some it is not very nice, and you prefer not to discuss in full, and see what see says, if she starts to get upset stop and leave it for the day, but don't put it off, remember what I've said she will only find out else where
2006-06-12 11:22:05 · answer #4 · answered by ringo711 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
wow 6 is a very young age to explain something this terrible to. i would tell her the basics in very simple words and in short. But I would not explain to her all the details. im not suggesting lying to her, but give her information she can process and deal with. If you tell her all she may get nightmares or get scared as she is too young to fully grasp all of it (if anyone can ever do it..). Follow her questions, answer those. Maybe after 3 questions she is on to a different subject (as kids do) Don't make it anything big or secret for her for that will only draw her attention to it even more and may scare her a lot more in the end...Good luck!
2006-06-12 10:52:12 · answer #5 · answered by Kathy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are different groups of people in the world, and sometimes one group of people have their minds poisoned by bad people into hating another group, and then they do bad things to that group. They think that if they don't do bad things, then the bad people will hurt them instead.
That is what happened in World War 2. One group took all the other group and put them in to prison, and hurt them. But what happened in World War 2 was so bad, that everyone else was sad, and they all got together to stop it, and now the people in charge want to make everyone into one big group of people so they are all the same and no-one can hate each other, and it will never happen again.
2006-06-12 10:58:17 · answer #6 · answered by Sidge 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Tell her that you'll tell her more about it when she's older. You don't want to worry her pretty little head about it now. Then talk about fun things.
I don't think a child needs to be worrying about this. I wouldn't tell her. Eventually she'll forget and stop bringing it up.
Worst case senario tell her you don't know what she's talking about.
Good Luck!
(Hide those sort of books from her until she's older, you don't want to give her nightmares or cause her to undertake concerns that she cannot handle)
If you must, tell her some people had hate in their hearts so they killed many innocent people. The innocent people died a horrible death due to their beliefs and the color of their skin. It's not right and it's not fair but this happened many years ago. Grandpa stepped in to protect the people that were being killed. We just have to learn from these things and try to prevent them from happening again.
2006-06-12 10:54:55 · answer #7 · answered by Corn_Flake 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Uh, don't. Let her parents tell her when they feel she is old enough. It's not you place to tell her. The Holocaust was a big deal, and still affects people in different ways.
If she still asks you, tell her that it was a big war because some mean people didn't like other people, so the mean people killed the other people. No need for details.
2006-06-12 10:54:01 · answer #8 · answered by Haley 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What a clever child. I suggest you go at her pace. Let her ask the questions, than you can answer accordingly. Don't overwhelm her with too much.
Options:
One:
Get her to write down a list of questions. (Make a game of it.) that way you can go to the library with her and go to the children's section, where they should have age specific books on the topic, and help her do the research. Make a little project of it.
Two:
If your grandfather is willing, he can bring her to the library, and then after she gets the information (At her level), she can then ask him questions about his experiences.
Three:
DO NOT fob her off.
2006-06-12 10:57:17 · answer #9 · answered by Balaboo 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would keep it simple, explain what war is (conflict between two nations) and the type of things that happen during one (include killing people). When you have finished give her time to digest the information but not dwell on it. I would leave it at that, consult her parents and tell them what she asked and what you have told her.
2006-06-12 13:44:09 · answer #10 · answered by intelligentbutdizzy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would sit her down and tell her a very evil man tried to eliminate an entire race of people but was stopped and that if we don't learn about it then we take the chance of repeating it..shes only 6 she doesn't need to know details
2006-06-12 11:18:08 · answer #11 · answered by Jax 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋