55 Socks

Gr 5–8—Take away the genocide and brutality of the Holocaust and you are left with the simple desperation of hunger and poverty that is experienced by any country that has been at war for a very long time. That is the premise of this animated short based on a poem by Marie Jacobs. Set in Nazi occupied Holland during the "hunger winter" of 1945, a group of women are subsisting on turnips and tulip bulbs. In order to have something to use as barter for food, they decide to unravel an old bridal bedspread and knit 55 socks, a necessity during wartime. They sell all the socks to a farmer's wife, who decides to unravel the yarn again to create her own bedspread. Oscar winner Co Hoedeman's short film uses stop-motion done in simple black-and-white paper cutouts. The images are two dimensional and stark. The film is suitable for younger children as a quick introduction to the Holocaust period—none of the violence or hatred of the period is mentioned—and can be useful to film students. Younger children might enjoy picture books about the Holocaust instead, such as The Number on My Grandfather's Arm (UAHC Press, 1987) by David Adler and The Butterfly (Philomel, 2000) by Patricia Polacco.—Ellen Frank, Jamaica High School, NY