interactive lesson "Images of the Ghetto through the lens of the victims"

 

 

In this interactive lesson the students are introduced to the concept of a ghetto and distinguish between historical and contemporary conceptions of ghettos. Through primary sources students explore the goals of the Nazis in establishing ghettos during the Holocaust. The students will be working with pictures taken by the victims themselves. In most cases, the Jews did not have cameras and the photographs we have were taken by the perpetrators.

 

In this seminar we will focus on the everyday life in ghettos as seen through the photographs of a Lithuanian Jew. The collection of Holocaust survivor Hirsch Kadushin from Kaunas reveals the nuances of ghetto life and how Jewish people responded to the brutal and dehumanizing conditions that they faced in the ghettos on the daily basis. These powerful visuals serve as a case study to make a bridge to the big three ghettos across Lithuania.

 

Throughout the lesson we are going to distinguish between todays understanding of the ghetto and the different reality Jewish people had to go through in the ghetto during the Second World War. In the second half the lesson/ session we will focus on the primary source. We discuss the advantages and limits working with pictures and how photographs can be used for (historical) research such as ours.

 

The method of photo analysis is introduced. The students are getting equipped with the right set of tools to examine the next pictures on their own. These images illustrate the harsh realities of life under Nazi occupation: the deprivation, the suffering, and the coping mechanisms of the Jews in the ghetto. The students answer accompanying questions related to their chosen picture, by first analysing the image, putting the picture in its historical context, contextualising the shown content and discussing it.

 

This lesson connects the topic of the Second World War with Nazi racial policy. By analysing the ghetto, the students will understand that the ghettos were one of several steps that helped to solve the so-called “Jewish problem” of the Nazis in Lithuania.

 

Competencies: critical thinking, cultural awareness & expression, communication skills especially in a foreign language