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Review your students’ knowledge after their visit to the Permanent Exhibition The Holocaust by using some of these suggested discussion topics and activities based on the question cards received at the Museum.
Follow-up Activities for the Theme Questions
The role of bystanders: Make a mental list of the places you see bystanders or observers in photographs. What are those observers looking at and what are they doing?
Actions of the perpetrators: What policies and actions did the Nazis implement to remove Jews and other “enemies of state” from society and later to eliminate them?
Responses of the victims: In what ways did the victims of the Holocaust respond to Nazi oppression?
The role of the media: What effect did newspapers, editorial cartoons, newsreels, and radio have during the Holocaust?
U.S. and world responses: How did the United States and other countries respond to the events of the Holocaust?
- Group students according to their theme questions. Have students discuss what they observed in the Permanent Exhibition that helped them to answer their theme questions. Have each group report back to the class on its findings.
- Have each theme group analyze the corresponding photograph on their card. Possible guide questions include: define who the victims, perpetrators, and bystanders are; what each person is doing; what objects can be seen; and where the photograph was taken. Can students recall other photographs and artifacts they saw in the Permanent Exhibition that related to their themes?
- Divide theme groups into jigsaw groups; one member from each theme group will form a jigsaw group. Have students share what they learned in each of their theme groups.
- Jigsaw groups can complete a culminating project of your choice.
Which photograph or artifact had special meaning for you about the Holocaust?
- Ask students to discuss in pairs, groups, or as a class their personal responses to this question and why they made the choices they did.
- Divide students into two groups: those who chose objects and those who chose photographs. Have students discuss why they made these choices and how objects and photographs differ as primary sources of information.
- Ask students to discuss how their personal choice of object or photograph connects to the selected themes in the Permanent Exhibition and what meaning their choices had for them.
- Students can reflect in a creative way on the object or photograph they chose.
- Next: Encourage your students to chat online about their Question card topic and its relevance today by using the URL on the Question card: www.ushmm.org/student-visit/
PDF versions of the cards are also available on the Museum’s Web site, and group leaders may want to show their students examples of the cards and what they will receive at the Museum during their visit.
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