Visual History in the classroom part I'

1
A Digital Video ArchiveEducating Youth,
Reaching the Public, and Preserving the Memory of
the HolocaustExperiences so far
Shoah Foundation Institute University of
Southern California 2008 http//college.usc.edu/
vhi/
2
Why use visual history?

• Interview as a unique source of data
• Structure similar to a spontaneous testimony
• USC SFI Quantity and scope brings new quality

Kurt Thomas (Ticho) Born Apr 11, 1914 in
Brno Theresienstadt Piaski Trawniki Sobibor
3
Why use visual history?

• Could be combined with existing data sources
• Current state of the world and reflection of
  history
• Holocaust and Jewish themes overload, atrocity
  obsession
• In schools
• Pupils today
• Teachers today
• Technology today
• The effect
• Face, emotions
• Individualization of big history breaks
  stereotypes
• Next best thing to having an eye witness in the
  classroom
• Local language, locations, situations
• Potential for controlled interactivity
• It is not only the Holocaust that could be taught

4
Why use visual history?

• With proper context and mediation, a video
  testimony can
• Exemplify the human story
• Tell what happened to individuals, families,
  communities
• Help localize history
• Provide information that is often not found in
  other sources
• Can be an effective way to help students see
  others like themselves
• Enable students to connect with history
• Raise issues that adolescents confront in their
  daily lives fairness, justice, individual
  responsibility, etc.
• Inspire students dialogue about their own role
  in the society

5
Why use visual history?
6
Visual History as an educational raw resource

• General issues
• The main advantage of witness testimony is also
  its biggest disadvantage
• - personal narrative, full of purely personal
  opinions, personal event recollections,
• and personal emotions
• - history of those who survived, those who
  decided to speak, those who
• were reachable, geography and language
  limitations
• Need to verify data and facts
• Need to evaluate the content and its usability
  for our purpose -
• there may be statements in the interview that
  could actually backfire

7
Visual History as an educational raw resource

• Classroom issues
• Taped testimony is not a living human being
• Horrors
• No student should feel guilty about what
  happened 60 years ago
• We learn history to take responsibility for the
  future (and see what was wrong)
• Manage the time, allow time for processing, do
  not end abruptly
• Allow for a range of reactions
• Do not leave questions unanswered

8
Visual History as an educational raw resource

• Location specific issues
• Local Stereotypes, image of the Jews
• Role of the Jews, real or imagined, in local
  history
• Local history of the Holocaust, differences from
  the usual media image
• Actions of the local population during the
  Holocaust, and approaches to talking about it -
  from total silence thru denial to full admission
• Need to address the issues, not silence the
  questions
• Pick the appropriate education approach
  (Topical, Thematic)

9
Visual History as an educational raw resource
A topic is historical, geographic, or
experiential in nature
A theme, or a concept is a basic, general idea
which lends itself to discussion in multiple
contexts

• Kristallnacht (The November Pogrom)
• Deportation from X
• Sobibor uprising
• The Olympics of 1936
• Persecution of Sinti and Roma in the Czech-run
  camp of Lety

• Responsibility
• Belief
• Tolerance
• Identity
• Resistance
• Totalitarian regimes and propaganda

10
Visual History as an educational raw resource
Edith Frank Born Oct 23, 1925 in Vienna Refugee
(Munich, Germany Paris, France New York, US)
Irmgard Breyer Born Jul 25, 1929 in
Insterburg Ghetto Theresienstadt
11
Visual History as an educational raw resource

• Who is the audience?
• What is the best way to reach the audience? What
  stereotypes may exist and affect our work?
• How much time does the teacher have?
• Will the teacher build upon a lesson/program
  that already exists?
• What is the theme/topic? How much localized it
  shall be?
• How can the teacher connect it to the
  contemporary events?
• What relevant practical skill do we want to
  teach?

12
Experiences so far

• The Visual History Pilot Program a grass roots
  based initiative to return the testimonies where
  they were collected, probe local potential and
  resources, and encourage the creation of local
  educational products
• Currently active in Croatia, Lithuania,
  Slovakia, Czech republic, Hungary, Italy, Russia
  and Belarus
• Partnerships in Poland and Ukraine
• Tolerance education, Human rights issues x
  historical documentation
• Dealing with local stereotypes and local
  sensitivities seems to be the key

13
The Stereotype

• Everybody has certain stereotypes, and judges
  the world according to them
• It is mostly impossible to delete these
  stereotypes from a human mind,
• but one should be made aware of them
• Tolerance and judgment of individuals as such is
  an acquired skill, human
• nature favors grouping, stereotyping and
  constant struggle with others
• Stereotypes may be both negative and positive,
  towards the others but also
• regarding us
• To teach about stereotypes we must be aware of
  the stereotypes prevailing
• among the audience

14
The Stereotype
Jan Karski (Kozielewski) Born June 24, 1914 in
Lodz Rescue and Aid
15
The Jewish Stereotype
This answer is not completely correct
This answer is not completely correct
What is a Jew?
This answer is not completely correct
This answer is not completely correct
This answer is not completely correct
16
Lisa De Curtis Born Sep 17, 1920 in
Vienna Refugee to Ljubljana, arrested,
Ravensbrueck
17
The anti-Jewish stereotypying

• The Church
• Jews as evil capitalists, moneylenders,
  monopolists and oligarchs
• Jews as Communists
• Jews as a race
• Jews as a Nationality, visiting foreigners
• Zionism, Israel, Palestine
• Stereotypes about the Holocaust and Holocaust
  education
• Holocaust denial

and the potential of Visual History to shatter it

• Who are the real Jews, what are the stories of
  their lives
• Pre-war life, religion, social status, politics,
  integration
• Context
• People are individuals, not fitting the
  stereotypical vision

18
Jewish history as an integral part of European
history
Morris Venezia Born Feb 25, 1921 in
Salonika Haidari Birkenau Mauthausen
Ebensee
19
Stereotypes about the Holocaust

• Enough of that, we know it all.
• So many people died, why are the Jews special?
• It happened in Poland, or in Ukraine, but not
  here.
• The Germans did it, we only tried to help and
  save the Jews.
• This is a Jewish thing for the Jews, why should
  we care?
• They did not fight, we did.
• They brought it upon themselves, by not being
  like us.
• The role of the Church
• Missing context, media manipulation, propaganda

20
Stereotypes about the Holocaust

• Enough of that, we know it all.
• bypass the usual icons, different,
  interesting
• So many people died, why are the Jews special?
• scope, level, legal status and definition,
  almost succeeded
• It happened in Poland, or in Ukraine, but not
  here.
• local testimony about local places
• The Germans did it, we only tried to help and
  save the Jews.
• range of reactions, and their rationale
• This is a Jewish thing for the Jews, why should
  we care?
• part of local history, we were next, defined by
  law, not self
• They did not fight, we did.
• resistance and its context
• They brought it upon themselves, by not being
  like us.
• pre war. levels of integration, or not
  integration. assimilation.
• The role of the Church
• scope of reactions. humans are individuals.
• Missing context, media manipulation, propaganda
• survivors as individuals.

21
Central and Eastern Europe urgent need to battle
the residues of both Nazi and Cold War (both
Communist and anti-Communist) propaganda.
Interviews in local languages
22
End of the war is not the end of the story
David Landau - Jan Cigelski Born Mar 15, 1920 in
Warsaw Warsaw ghetto - Zydowski Zwiazek
Wojskowy Warsaw uprising of 1944
23
Holocaust denial
Secrecy and denial as an integral part of the
Final Solution
Morris Venezia Sonderkommando
24
(No Transcript)