Holocaust Museum - Washington, D.C. Exhibits

Beginning: (4-5 days of 40-45 minute periods)

Go to http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/index.php?content=online/

Wander through the 6 exhibitions listed here. Many have video or audio narrations.

(Teacher should choose which and how many exhibits the students are to view. – I chose:  Life Reborn,  “Do you remember, when”, Personal Histories, Life in the Shadows, Anne Frank the Writer, and Silent Witness.)

Do not go alone; take a friend with you. These are not pleasant stories, but they are true. It may take you as long as a week to go through them all, because you may wish to only look at one a day. You may also view them from home with your parents.

When you have viewed / read all 6, choose the one that you feel impacted you the most.

Follow up after virtual visits to the exhibits

Personal Histories – Life in the Shadows - Anne Frank the Writer - Silent Witness

These exhibits have impacted our class the most.

Time now for some thoughts about ourselves, those around us, our world.

Part one: Reflections (one day class discussion / personal writing) [see examples]

What makes you who your are?

(thoughts, beliefs, actions, name, family history, physical characteristics, personality, skills/talents, language, religious background, likes/dislikes – such as food, clothes, hobbies, music…)

What things that make you who you are, can you change?

Which things can you not change?

Do you ever make a conscious effort to change any of those things? When and why? How easy/hard is it?

Are you different around certain people? Are you still the same you inside if you act differently?

Do you know someone with whom you can always ‘be yourself’?

Part Two: Empathy (one day class discussion / personal writing) [see examples]

People hiding during he Holocaust had little choice about changing their identities. They had to change to survive. It could have meant learning a new language, practicing a new religion, taking a new name, or even changing the way they looked.

If you had to speak a new language, change religion, citizenship, physical appearance, would you do it voluntarily? Why or why not?

Choose one memory from the exhibit that you said most affected you. (You can even go back and get a quote if you like.) Describe why you reacted to that particular one. Did it remind you of some person or experience in your own life? Or could you imagine yourself in that person’s situation and wonder what you would do?

What did those in hiding have to give up?

How did their lives change?

How did they themselves change?

What problems and dangers did they face?

What were their hopes and fears?

After the war, were they able to go back to “normal life”?

Part three: A time capsule (homework) [see examples]

Suppose that 50 years from now someone was searching to find out who YOU were. What would you want someone in the future to know about you? What message of yourself would you want to pass on to people in the future…or even to yourself when you’re 50 years older.

Collect various things that might reveal who you are such as:

• 5 (or less) personal photos – (friends/family/pets)
• special memories – like a ticket stub, dried flower, award
• quotes from yourself in your own handwriting
• a journal
• magazine/newspaper clippings
• drawings you’ve done

For the purpose of this assignment you can photograph these objects and make a photo collage if you’d like, or just include photos of your objects along with the reasons why you chose them.

If you would seriously like to create an actual time capsule, go to www.oglethorpe.edu/itcs/ to learn how and to register your time capsule with the International Time Capsule Society.