Objectives
Students will recall a pleasant memory, which revolves around spending time with a loved one, and reproduce that memory by making a collage. By allowing students to artistically recreate a comforting memory involving someone special in their lives, this Holocaust lesson touches upon the importance of memory, using images and other art forms to keep loved ones and ‘home’ alive. This activity also demonstrates how art can be a powerful survival tool when one is confronted with a terrible ordeal.
Rationale
Students can explore the idea of spiritual resistance manifest in clandestine writings, poetry, and artwork, which are emblematic of irrepressible human dignity and defiance, even in the face of evil. Also, they can examine art created by Holocaust survivors and in this case, explore how it documents life prior to the Holocaust and experiences within the concentration camp system (*see below).
Creating similar artwork by tapping into parallel, more abstract emotions, the students will empathize with the Terezin children they encounter in the Prime Stage production of I Never Saw Another Butterfly and through the collection of works these children produced in the camps. Hopefully, they will understand the value of the Terezin children’s artwork and poetry and grasp why their work was so important to save before SS officers found and destroyed it. When students look at the work created by children in Terezin, they help keep the memory of those children alive. Someone can now know the children’s stories and what really happened in the Terezin camp because of the saved artwork and poetry.
*Teaching rationale listed in “Teaching about the Holocaust: a Resource Book for Educators” published by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. (2001).
Grade Level / Class Size Sixth and Seventh Grade, 5–30 students
Lesson Time Approximately 60 minutes
State Academic Standards
Students will be able to:
1.3.5.F. Read and respond to nonfiction and fiction including poetry and drama
1.6.5.B. Listen to a selection of literature (fiction and/or nonfiction).
8.4.6.B. Identify and explain important documents, material artifacts and historic sites in world history.
9.1.5.E. Know and demonstrate how arts can communicate experiences, stories or emotions through the production of works in the arts.
9.2.5.J. Identify, explain and analyze historical and cultural differences as they relate to works in the arts.
PLANNING FOR TEACHING
Teacher Materials:
*I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1945
*Personal pictures of family and friends that you wish you see more often
*Example of a memory collage
Student Materials:
*Copies of I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1945
*Pencils
*COLLAGE MATERIAL SUGGESTIONS (Be Creative!)
glue
cardboard
cereal boxes
cotton balls
bottle caps
yarn/string
fabric swatches
crayons
toothpicks
drinking straws
egg crates
newspaper
old worksheets
popsicle sticks
Supplies should be divided so that each group of four/five students gets the same limited material packet, avoiding classroom chaos around the supply table and getting students to think creatively about developing a picture with found objects.
LESSON PROCEDURE
Lesson Introduction Time: 15- 20 minutes
*The teacher asks students if they have ever had a really bad day. How do you get through a bad day? What makes you feel better? After students respond, she/he asks students to close their eyes and recall a memory with someone special that would cheer them up if they had a bad day. This person can be a family member, a teacher, or a friend. They should attempt to capture this mental image using all five senses: Who is with you? Is it someone you miss spending time with? What can you smell? What are you doing? Where are you? What colors do you see? What sounds can you hear? Does this image make you smile, laugh, or give you comfort? The teacher tells them to keep this happy memory with them because they will do something special with it later.
*The teacher reads the poem In Terezin aloud to the class and tells the students about how the Terezin children secretly created artwork and wrote poetry that helped them get through the long days at the concentration camp. Based on this poem’s descriptions, does Terezin sound like a place you want to live? How would you feel if you were separated from your family and told that Terezin was your new home?
*Children at Terezin recreated images of their homes, family, and friends with art materials and sometimes described pleasant images in poems to help them survive hard times and keep their memories alive. They miss their friends and family and want to remember spending time with them. The teacher shows students several relative child-made artworks from the collection in I Never Saw Another Butterfly.
*Today, most people take photographs of special times with loved ones. The teacher shows selected pictures of a family member/friend that she/he does not see often. Share with the students the breadth of memories those pictures release (example: my grandmother’s raspy voice, how she took me school shopping ever August, the smell of her French toast cooking, afternoons by the pool, the beautiful things she sewed, etc.) One picture can remind a person of so many pleasant memories, bring loved ones to life although they are far away, and give much comfort. The children living in Terezin had no photographs and used what materials they could find to make drawings and collages that produced the same effects.
*The teacher shows a collage that he/she made about spending time with the special person she talked about while showing personal photographs. Now the students will make their own collages about the memory they developed at the lesson’s introduction. I love this idea. As you float around the room, if you see students are finished, you can probe them to add more details (i.e. write a short poem to accompany their collage).
Making a Memory Collage
Time: 35 minutes (includes 5 minutes for clean-up)
The classroom is arranged for students to sit in groups of four or five. Each student gets a flat cereal box panel for their collage foundation, and each group receives a materials packet from the workshop instructor. Because the Terezin children could only create artwork with whatever few supplies they could find in the camp, they had to be creative in using unconventional things to make a picture. Going along with this idea, the teacher explains that students may only use what limited materials their group is given. They should really think about their memory picture and choose only the supplies they need to complete their collage.
Closing Discussion and Questions
Time: 5 - 10 minutes
*Students can share their memory collage with the class. Ask for three volunteers to come up, for the sake of time. Then, so all have an audience, let them share with a friend.
*What pleasant memories do your collages give you? Would you be upset if someone stole and destroyed your memory collage? Or photographs from home?
*The teacher tells the students that the Terezin children had to hide their artwork and poetry from SS officers who would burn them, if discovered. Even though they faced many dangers, these children searched for and saved as many poems and drawings they could find so that those memories and the children who created the work would never be forgotten.
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