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Readability Analysis

PLEASE VIEW THE FOLLOWING SAMPLES PROVIDED FOR DOCUMENT #7

Summary/ Introduction

Sweden Offers Protection to Danish Jews
New York Times, October 3, 1943

On the Jewish New Year Rosh-ha-Shanah, the German police arrested 7,000 Danish Jews.  Sweden says they will protect any Danish Jew that can get to Sweden.  One year ago thousands of Norwegian Jews ere arrested in Norway and sent to concentration camp in Poland.  Sweden tried to help last year, but could only help a few Jews by paying money to the Nazis.  Sweden hopes their aid this year will keep Danish Jews safe from what happened last year.  Few Danish Jews have escaped in rowboats to cross the channel to reach Sweden for protection.  There are many German patrol boats in the channel.  It is very dangerous for the Danish Jews who are trying to cross in rowboats.  Plans have already been made to send all the arrested Danish Jews to Poland.  The German news press reported that the Danish Jews can no longer be a problem in Denmark.  The press wants all of Germany to know that the Jews have been “removed from public life” in Denmark.  Sweden hopes that the 7,000 Danish Jews do not suffer the same way that the Norwegian Jews suffered last week.

Vocabulary List  

Word Definition. Definition used in text.
Asylum  protection granted by a country to a political refugee from another country.  Sweden in offering protection to Danish Jews from Nazi Germany.   
Communiqué  an official news announcement by a person or a group of people.  The official news announcement was the offer for protection to the Danish Jews.   
Cynical   the attitude that shows distrust or lack of sincerity about a subject.  The German communiqué is being insincere about the Jews being “removed from public life”.  They were not just “removed” they were arrested.   
Deportation   the legal act of removing someone from a country.  Germany had removed the Jews from Norway last year, and is now trying to remove the Jews from Denmark.   
DNB 
Foreign exchange money from other countries.  Norwegian Jews paid huge amounts of Norwegian money to escape deportation.  These people went to Sweden for protection.   
Freemasons  a men’s organization, or club, that has certain secret rituals.  During this time secret clubs were dangerous to German Nazis.  The Nazis believed that anyone who was meeting secretly could be planning to fight or resist them.  Germany treated people in these secret clubs very badly and persecuted them like Jews.   
Gantlet  a line or group of armed people waiting for someone to cross in front so they can assault or shoot at him or her.  It refers to the great number of armed German boats that were patrolling the ocean between Denmark and Sweden. These boats made it very dangerous for the Jewish rowboats to sneak past them.   
Gestapo   the German military police during World War II.  The Gestapo were the German military police who arrested the Danish Jews.   
Hackneyed  unoriginal or overused.  The German press would tell the rest of Germany hackneyed, or overused, accusations that Sweden was “infested” with Jews.
German heel  German power   
Humanitarian describes the act of being compassionate or caring for life of other humans.  Sweden was being compassionate to human life by offering the Danish Jews protection from the Nazis.   
Integral   important or necessary.  It was an important step for Germany to arrest Danish Jews.  With Danish
Jews arrested, Germany would be closer to controlling all of Denmark.
   
Intercede   to get involved.  Sweden intercedes to help the Norwegian Jews enter Sweden during German occupation.   
Jewridden  a disrespectful way of saying heavily populated with Jewish people.  The German press called Sweden “Jewridden” because they were protecting so many Jews.  The press used this word “Jewridden”, so that the people of Nazi Germany would not respect Sweden.   
Orthodox   relating and practicing the conservative of traditional religion or ideology.  Most of the arrested Jews were orthodox.   
Anglo- Bolshevik  Plutocrats   wealthy politicians that influence the government very much.
Refugee    one who flees their own country in search of protection by another country.  Any Jew who could get to Sweden for protection would be a refugee.   
Repercussions  the effects or results of an event or measure.  A Swedish official warns Nazi Germany, that if Germany keeps making Danish arrests Sweden will get involved.  If Sweden gets involved and starts fighting against Germany, the repercussion may be a war between Sweden and Germany.   
Rosh-ha-Shanah  the highly celebrated Jewish New Year.  The Nazi police started arresting Danish Jews on their New Year’s Day.   
Sabotage destruction of property or limiting use of materials during a war or conflict.  The German press says Danish Jews support the destruction, or sabotage, of German property and material.  That is one reason the Germans want to arrest the Danish Jews.   
Scant   skimpy, small, or limited amount.  In the article, Sweden had little, or scant, success helping Norwegian Jews last year.  
Synagogue a place or building for Jewish worship.  The German police had forced their way into synagogues to arrest Jews during worship.   
Whipping Boy a scapegoat, or the one who is punished for the actions of others. In the article, the innocent Jews are being punished by the Nazis.   
Wilhelmstrasse-
inspired  

Figure 4 Sample Gloss for a Portion of “Sweden Offers Aid to Denmark’s Jews”

…The Stockholm communiqué on the subject, released this evening, reads: “In the last few days reports have reached Sweden that measures are being prepared against the Jews in Denmark similar to those already applied in Norway and other occupied countries.  Acting on the Government instructions the Swedish Minister to Berlin on Oct. 1 pointed out to the German authorities concerned the serious repercussions these measures might provoke in Sweden.  At the same time the minister conveyed the offer of the Swedish Government to receive in Sweden all Danish Jews”

  German Reply Awaited

    Stockholm political circles entertained tonight no illusion that the Swedish remarks in Berlin would receive a favorable answer if they received any at all.  Stockholm was reported prepared for the first outburst of abuse of Sweden from the Wilhelmstrasse-inspired German press similar to that leveled against this country following the Swedish protest at the end or August against the sinking with all hands of two Swedish fisherman by German destroyers.  The Swedes rather expect soon to read in the German press a repetition of hackneyed accusation of being Jewridden and infested with Anglo-Bolshevik plutocrats and Freemasons.  The arrest of Jews in Denmark was heralded by the arrival in that country at the beginning of last week of some 1,800 German police and Gestapo agents.  Definite news of the action reached Sweden in the early hours today.  It was understood the measures applied were similar to those used against the Norwegian Jews a year ago when during the Rosh-ha-Shanah observation the Gestapo forced its way into homes and synagogues, sending Jews into a concentration camp and subsequent deportation.  The timing and procedure was the same with the 7,000 Jews in Denmark, 6,000 of whom are orthodox, including many Germans who had sought asylum in Denmark prior to Nazi occupation.

1) A communiqué is an official announcement.  What country issued the communiqué about Denmark’s Jews? 

2) In the space below, paraphrase the Stockholm communiqué.

 

 

   

 

3) Yes or No:  According to the communiqué, the actions of the Germans against the Jews would cause no problems in Sweden. 

4) What do you think it means to “hold no illusions?”

 

5) Do you think that the German press had good or bad things to say about Sweden? 

6) How did the Jews of Denmark know that the Germans were planning to arrest them?

 

 

 

7) If the Germans were planning to treat Jews in Denmark the same way that they treated the Jews in Norway, what do you think would have happened to Denmark’s Jews?

Figure 5: Sample Reading Guide for “Sweden Offers Aid to Denmark’s Jews”

Name: __________________________

 

Directions:  This worksheet will help while you read the New York Times article “Sweden Offers Aid to Denmark’s Jews”.  Read through these questions before your read the article, then answer the questions while you are reading and when you are finished.

 

1)       Read the title.  In the space below, list three types  of aid that you think Sweden could have offered to Denmark’s Jews. 

2)       From reading the article, how do you think the Germans responded to the offer of aid made by Sweden to the Danish Jews? 

3)       How was the German press expected to respond to Sweden’s offer of aid? 

4)       How many German police and Gestapo agents were brought to Denmarl to arrest Jews? 

5)       Name six countries that were named or referred to in the article.  According to the article, in which of these countries did Germans arrest Jews? 

6)       What explanation did German officials give for “rounding up” Danish Jews? 

7)       The article mentions “countries under the German heel.”  What do you think it means to be under Germany’s “heel”? 

8)       Danish Jews were expected to be brought to Poland or German occupied Russia.  What happened to Jews that were brought to these places? 

9)       To what is the article referring when it mentions the “eliminated number”? 

10)      From what you read in the article, how could the actions taken against the Danish Jews be a “largely financial operation”?   

 

 
 Bibliography:

Fry, E. (1977).  Fry’s readability graph: Clarification, validity, and extension to level 17.  Journal of Reading, 21, 242-251.

Fry, E. (1989).  Reading formulas—Maligned but valid.  Journal of Reading, 33, 292-297.

Marshall, N. (1979).  Readability and comprehension. Journal of Reading, 22, 5420544.

Tonjes, M., Wolpow, R., and Zintz, M. (1999).  Integrated Content Literacy.  Boston: McGraw-Hill College.

Wayne, O., White, S., and Camperell, K. (1980).  Text Comprehension Research to Classroom Application.  A Progress Report.  Theoretical Paper No. 87, Wisconsin Research and Development, Center for Individualized Schooling, University of Wisconsin, Madison. October. p. 119.


Contents

Introduction
Definition of Readability
Description of Readability Tools Used
Figure 1-Fry Readability Analysis of Documents 
Figure 2-Marshall’s Readability Checklist of Documents
Importance of Triangulation
Triangulation Figure 3
Evaluation Results and Suggestions
Instructional Tools 
Sample Summary
Sample Vocabulary List
Figure 4-Sample Gloss
Figure 5-Sample Reading Guide
Bibliography

Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Ethnocide Education - Readability Analysis Contents

 

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