Talk: The Eighth-Grade History Class Visits the Hebrew Home for the Aging

On the surface of it I'd guess it's about kids meeting Holocaust survivors. Of course HT's going to have a twist. Maybe it's an AH where the Holocaust went very differently, and hints are dropped in the course of the interviews? Maybe an ethereal dream sequence/time travel story similar to the one about the captain from the 47th North Carolina? I'm leaning more toward the former; the latter isn't really HT's style anymore. Turtle Fan (talk) 02:22, November 18, 2013 (UTC)

Why, it's almost like his writing style has changed. Well, it kinda has; compare Worldwar and TWTCE. Zhukov15 (talk) 02:48, November 18, 2013 (UTC)

In some ways yes. In some ways no; the combat scenes written in 2013 are pretty much indistinguishable from those written in 1993, which is largely why I'm finding TWTPE so tedious these days. The once-infamous proclivity toward sex scenes of the seedier variety made a welcome departure in the early 00s and now gives occasional signs of coming back in, though in much more manageable concentrations. I guess it could be a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same. Turtle Fan (talk) 03:09, November 18, 2013 (UTC)

I'm betting AH involving Anne Frank living to a ripe old age. TR (talk) 03:55, November 18, 2013 (UTC)

And of course if she's still alive today, she will no doubt be a Belieber. Turtle Fan (talk) 17:52, November 18, 2013 (UTC)

I hope that if I am right (and naturally I'm convinced I am), and that if this is about Anne Frank, that HT does do a quick swipe at that bit of stupidity. "Who's Justin Keebler?" the old woman asked. TR (talk) 21:30, November 19, 2013 (UTC)

You know, I could even see said bit of stupidity inspiring HT to write a story just to take a swipe at it. Not entirely unlike him. Turtle Fan (talk) 00:06, November 20, 2013 (UTC)

Good call TR. I can't say I'm surprised. I just gave a plausible alternative to be a contrarian. ML4E (talk) 21:38, January 8, 2014 (UTC)

My guess is that the kids meet Methuselah or one of the other long lived patriarchs of Jewish scripture. Or the Wandering Jew sick in bed. ML4E (talk) 00:29, November 19, 2013 (UTC)

Hmm, that's an interesting thought. Turtle Fan (talk) 02:57, November 19, 2013 (UTC)

What are the odds of King David himself appearing? Zhukov15 (talk) 03:20, November 20, 2013 (UTC)

Hopefully he'll be more direct than he was in his last HT appearance.

Of course, David appears much too late in the Scriptures to benefit from the incredibly long lifespans of early Genesis. If I remember correctly offhand, the last multi-centenarian in the Bible is Melchizedek? All the others I can think of were literally antediluvian. (Well I guess Elijah's lifespan would have to be counted as infinite, but he wasn't part of that crowd.) Turtle Fan (talk) 20:09, November 20, 2013 (UTC)

Hell of a name, though. TEGHCVtHHftA is a very...unique acronym, rivalled only by SiStTRotG. Zhukov15 (talk) 22:17, December 18, 2013 (UTC)

We generally call that one "Throne rooms" rather than use our normal shorthand system, for obvious reasons. As you point out, it's even more obvious that said system just won't work for this story, but nothing's really jumping out from the title as an alternative. Turtle Fan (talk) 18:01, December 19, 2013 (UTC)

I imagine this will be "8thGrade" or something like that. TR (talk) 04:43, December 20, 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, that works. Turtle Fan (talk) 02:03, December 21, 2013 (UTC)

Link

I assume this is up for free on Tor.com? I'll read it if it is; I can't say I'm interested enough to spend a dollar. Turtle Fan (talk) 19:02, January 8, 2014 (UTC)

Free as per usual. TR (talk) 19:45, January 8, 2014 (UTC)

Clicking on the link in the article brings me to Amazon...Zhukov15 (talk) 20:50, January 8, 2014 (UTC)

I got to the story myself. Pretty good too. ML4E (talk) 21:38, January 8, 2014 (UTC)

Anne Frank's betrayer

A new investigation has revealed that Anne Frank and the others in the Secret Annex may have been betrayed by Arnold van den Bergh, who was a member of Amsterdam's Jewish Council, in order to save his own family. GusF (talk)

Interesting and depressing. TR (talk) 17:25, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Yep. Turtle Fan (talk) 15:24, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

The Nazis were fiendish. As if we had somehow forgot.Matthew Babe Stevenson (talk) 05:41, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

We hadn't forgot. What is a bit easier to forget is how their fiendishness demanded corruption from decent people just trying to decide. I read Joseph Kanon's The Good German last summer. Though fictional, it gets that point across quite effectively. The courtroom scene left me gobsmacked. Actually, it sounds like this van den Bergh was a real world Hannelore. Turtle Fan (talk) 15:33, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

The Dutch publisher Ambo Anthos has apologised for printing the book identifying Arnold van den Bergh as the betrayer. The Anne Frank Fund described the book as being full of errors. It's also been rubbished by Dutch Holocaust historians as van den Bergh was in hiding himself in 1944. GusF (talk) 23:40, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

It's good to know that's been cleared up. It's bad enough what the Nazis did, without implicating the wrong names.Matthew Babe Stevenson (talk) 03:17, 1 February 2022 (UTC)