These exercises were extracted from workshop lesson plans by TAG Theatre Company based in Glasgow, Scotland. They have been modified to fit a shorter workshop period. Prime Stage Theatre also changed some content and lesson procedures in the drama exercises to fit the theatre’s needs.
Learning Objectives
During this workshop, students will start thinking about their own identity and deal with the consequences when it is stripped from them. Through various dramatic exercises and improvisations, they will put themselves in the shoes of a child entering Terezin Concentration Camp and mirror the experiences of a real Terezin survivor, Helga Weissova-Hoskova. Forced to lose their identity, their friends/family, and their possessions by an oppressor while working/living in conditions unfit for living, the students will learn the importance of tolerance and gain respect for human differences. They will manifest mental images and memories to help them survive a terrible situation and hear first person accounts of Terezin life through real children’s poetry in I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1945.
Rationale Study of the Holocaust assists students in developing an understanding of the ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping in any society. It helps students develop an awareness of the value of pluralism and encourages tolerance of diversity in a pluralistic society (teaching rationale from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). This Holocaust lesson touches upon the importance of memory, using images and other art forms to keep loved ones and ‘home’ alive. According to Belarie Zatzman in Teaching and Studying the Holocaust, drama exercises used in Holocaust education can help students “make symbolic links between historical events and dramatic contexts as a way of creating significant meaning…Traces of lives, real or imagined, help us become intimately involved in characters’ actions, choices, bravery, and suffering; in so doing, drama links us to our own histories and provides a means for understanding ourselves” (pub. Allyn and Bacon, 2001). Lessons learned from effective dramatic exercises based on Holocaust issues might help a student generation prevent intolerance and racial discrimination from occurring in the future.
Grade Level / Class Size Sixth and Seventh Grade, 5–30 students
Materials and numbers provided for 28 students in this lesson plan.
Lesson Time Approximately 60-75 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
*Colored index cards (an identification card and number card for each student)
*Clothing indicators for the Helga and the SS Officer characters
*Whistle
*Cardboard Box
Student Materials:
*Copies of I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1945
*Pencils
LESSON PROCEDURE
Lesson Introduction: Who are you?
Time: 5 minutes
Students and the teacher stand in a circle that spans the classroom. The teacher asks the students questions about themselves in a lightening round around the circle, getting students comfortable with sharing their interests and personal stats with the rest of the class. The teacher keeps a quickened pace to keep students alert and ready to participate. The following are possible questions you may ask the class:
*What is your name?
*What is your favorite hobby?
*How old are you?
*What is your favorite musical group or singer? movie? actor/actress?
*What is your favorite class at school?
*What is your favorite color?
Creative Drama Exercises
Time: 10 minutes
Helga Introduces Herself – The teacher takes on the role of Helga Weissova-Hoskova, a teenager who1 survived the Terezin camp, and introduces herself to the students. She tells them five things about herself that will be written on a card:
*I AM a Jew.
*I AM good at drawing and want to be an artist.
*I AM a sister, a daughter and a best friend.
*I AM from Czechoslovakia, and I live in a town called Prague.
*I LOVE making snowmen.
Identity Cards – The students each receive an identity card (an index card) and write five things about themselves. After they finish writing, the class will shout out one of the things from their card five times. A loud whistle will interrupt their identity proclamations.
Time: 10 minutes
Teacher as Helga – Helga describes her life before going to Terezin.
She explains how small Anti-Semitic remarks spoken at school were the beginning
of a bigger problem. Here is a list of events that followed:
*She was not allowed in the cinema anymore
*She was not allowed to go ice-skating on the lake
*She had to wear a yellow Star of David badge that made people cross the street
to avoid her and her family.
*Her dad lost his job, a job that he had for 15 years.
*A boy at school pointed at her and told other children not to play with her.
Time: 25 minutes
Teacher as Helga – Helga tells the students about being taken away from her family and entering the Terezin camp. Upon entering Terezin, officers took away her possessions, including her most precious possession – her paint box.
*Teacher reads the poem, In Terezin, and the class discusses the what it must
feel like to be new in the camp.
*Teacher asks the students what possession they would miss most.
*Students visualize the object and imagine holding it in their hands.
*Students find space in the classroom and use mime to bring the object to life.
Teacher as SS Officer – Officer blows a whistle, orders the students to stand
in a circle, and places a box in the middle of the circle. The officer tells
the students that they have been taken away from their homes to a place called
Terezin. This will be their new home, and they will only see their parents one
day a month. They no longer have the right to their names, and they will now
be numbers. They no longer have the right to answer back and must carry out
any duties given to them.
*One by one, the students hold their objects, approach the box, and state
what their favorite possession is before putting it in the box. They no longer
have the right to their possessions.
*Students hand in their ID cards and receive another index card with a 3-digit
number inscribed on the back. A number now replaces their individual identity
*The number cards are one of four colors. Each color indicates what they do
in the Terezin camp. Once the students hear their new roles/duties from the
officer, they mime the action to carry out the task.
Yellow cards: Sick with whooping cough in an ill-kept infirmary
Pink cards: Must scrub the floors in the entire camp.
Green cards: March under SS officer’s commands.
Orange cards: Must cook and serve dinner to everyone.
(Menu: watered down soup with potatoes and moldy bread)
*As the students carry our their roles, the officer starts calling out individual numbers listed on the student cards and tells each student called to slowly walk to a chosen corner of the classroom and stand/sit still.
Once a student enters that corner, they may not move or speak. The officer calls out the following numbers at random:
738 901 631 836
313 107 477 500
275 368 699 602
979 927 791 296
412 808 567 180
*Now only 811, 119, 124, 733, 406, 547, 283, and 345 REMAIN.
*Teacher stops the activity and informs the students that the people chosen
to leave the camp are getting on a train and leaving for an unknown destination
in a crowded train car. They will never be seen again. How does that make both
the remaining and leaving groups feel?
Closing Discussion and Questions
*What was it like to have your identity cards and favorite possessions taken away by someone who chooses not to like you because you are different?
*How did it feel to no longer have a name and only be called a number?
*Is it fair that children were treated this way? Can you think of a time when you were treated unfairly?
Closing Exercise – Bringing HOME Alive
Time: 10 minutes
*The teacher reads the poem Homesick aloud to the class and talks about how the Terezin children secretly created artwork and wrote poetry that helped them get through the long days at the concentration camp. They 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.
*The students close their eyes and picture something about home that would cheer them up if they had a bad day. They should attempt to capture this mental image using all five senses: What can you smell? Who are you with? Are you alone? What are you doing? Where are you? Can you see colors? Can you hear sounds? Does this image make you smile or laugh?
*Ask a couple volunteers to share their home image with the class and talk about whether this activity. As an extension activity for another class period, the students can recreate their home images with found object collage materials or by writing their own descriptive poetry.
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