Gallery

The Auschwitz Album Visual Essay

View a famous collection of photographs from the Holocaust of a transport arriving in Auschwitz from Hungary in early summer 1944.

Last Updated: September 14, 2017

Gallery

Language

English — US

Subject

History

The Holocaust

View a famous collection of photographs from the Holocaust of a transport arriving in Auschwitz from Hungary in early summer 1944.

Women and children arrive on the “ramp” at Birkenau, where they would be moved along toward the gates. There, physicians decided whether they were fit for slave labor or death.

Credit:

Yad Vashem

Mass scene of Jews arriving after an arduous journey. Here they would face the selection process, which ended for many in the crematorium that can be seen in the background.

Credit:

Yad Vashem

The start of the selection process, in front of the camp’s entrance. Some prisoners who had already been at the camp for a time were made to assist in sorting the new arrivals.

Credit:

Yad Vashem

A group of women and children going toward Crematoria IV and V. There they would be killed, as they were considered to be too weak to do hard labor.

Credit:

Yad Vashem

A trailer full of the clothes and luggage of new prisoners passes a group of women, who are presumably heading toward the gas chamber.

Credit:

Yad Vashem

These men were determined fit to perform hard labor. Their heads were shaved and their clothes replaced with prison uniforms.

Credit:

Yad Vashem

Unit

Explore the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism and the humanitarian refugee crisis it provoked during the 1930s and 1940s.

A crowd of American men and women hold signs protesting Nazi Germany's actions.

Lesson

Students watch video testimony from a Holocaust survivor and engage in purposeful reflection about the survivor’s important story.

Classroom sitting in a circle discussing

Unit

Designed for California 10th grade world history courses, this unit guides students through a study of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide that focuses on choices and human behavior.

Assessment

Students begin to understand and stake out a preliminary position in response to the assessment writing prompt.

Facing History and Ourselves Bullying Summit September 29th 2012 in Los Angeles CA

Assessment

After learning about the Armenian Genocide, students reflect on the writing prompt a second time by adding a historical lense.

Lesson

Students connect themes from the film to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's concept of “single stories," and then consider what it would take to tell more equitable and accurate narratives.

Assessment

Students incorporate new evidence from the history of the Weimar era into the position they are developing.

Assessment

Students consider how what they've learned about the rise of the Nazi Party influences their thinking about the essay prompt and practice making inferences.

Assessment

Students review the documents and videos from previous lessons and consider what information supports, expands, or challenges their thinking about the essay.

Lesson

Students view the film, analyze a primary source from the Oyneg Shabes archive, and consider why it matters who tells the stories of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Assessment

Students reflect on, gather evidence for, and discuss the unit writing prompt in its entirety.

Assessment

Students reflect on the unit as a whole and begin to write a strong thesis statement for their essay.

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The Auschwitz Album Visual Essay

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