How Should We Remember?

About This Lesson

The previous lesson began the “Judgment, Memory, and Legacy” stage of the Facing History scope and sequence by helping students wrestle with dilemmas of justice after the Holocaust. This lesson continues that stage of the scope and sequence by helping students think deeply about the impact of memory and history on the present day. In particular, this lesson engages students in the processes of both responding to and creating memorials to the Holocaust. By doing so, they are forced to grapple with key questions about why history is important and how our memory of history is shaped and influenced. Students will begin by learning about several Holocaust memorials around the world and analyzing the choices that artists and communities made when creating them. Then they will design, plan, and create their own memorial to represent an idea, event, or person they believe is important to remember from the history of the Holocaust.

Essential Questions

Unit Essential Question: What does learning about the choices people made during the Weimar Republic, the rise of the Nazi Party, and the Holocaust teach us about the power and impact of our choices today?

Guiding Questions

• How should we remember the past? What impact do memorials and monuments have on the way we think about history?
• What parts of the history of the Holocaust are most important for us to remember today? How can we ensure that this history is not forgotten?

Learning Objectives

• Students will analyze several examples of Holocaust memorials to see how the communities and individuals that designed them sought to shape future generations’ understanding of this history.
• By designing their own memorials, students will become familiar with the many choices artists and communities make in their commemorations about what aspects of a particular history are worth remembering and what parts are intentionally left out.

Lesson Plan

Activity 1: Define the Purpose of Memorials and Monuments

Begin by asking students to take a few moments to describe in their journals one or more monuments or memorials that they are familiar with. Perhaps it is one in their neighborhood that they pass every day, or one they have seen elsewhere in the city, country, or world that they found memorable. Have them describe both what it looks like and what they think its purpose is. What do they think the designer of the monument wanted people to think, remember, or feel?

After writing, give students a few moments to share their examples with one or more classmates, and then lead a short whole-group discussion in response to the question: Why do people build monuments and memorials? What purposes do they serve? Record students’ ideas on the board.

Activity 2: Introduce Choices Reflected in Holocaust Memorials and Monuments

Continue the whole-group discussion about memorials and monuments by reading the following paragraph to students:

Across Europe, and even around the globe, people have built memorials to commemorate the Holocaust. Each tries to preserve the collective memory of the generation that built the memorial and to shape the memories of generations to come. Memorials raise complex questions about which history we choose to remember. If a memorial cannot tell the whole story, then what part of the story, or whose story, does it tell? Whose memories, whose point of view, and whose values and perspectives will be represented?

Ask students to write down their thoughts in their journals in response to the following question: What do you think the author means when she says that memorials “cannot tell the whole story”?

Ask a few students to share their thoughts in a brief, informal whole-group discussion. You might ask students to think again about the memorial or monument they wrote about at the beginning of class. What parts of the story might it leave out?

Activity 3: Analyze Examples of Holocaust Memorials and Monuments

The class will now use the Jigsaw teaching strategy to analyze a variety of Holocaust memorials. Divide the class into six groups and assign each group one of the following images:

1. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Memorial
2. Aschrott Fountain
3. Stolpersteine
4. Memorial to Roma and Sinti Victims of National Socialism
5. Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach
6. Shoes on the Danube Bank Memorial

Students can analyze these Holocaust memorials and monuments using the Jigsaw strategy. First, divide the class into “expert” groups of three to four students; each group will analyze one handout that shows one memorial or monument. Depending on the size of your class, you may have more than one group working with a particular memorial. In their journals, have each group answer the following questions, using what they observe in the image and the information in the caption, if necessary:

1. Who is the intended audience for the memorial?
2. What, specifically, is the memorial representing or commemorating?
3. What story or message do you think the artist was trying to convey to the intended audience? What might the memorial be leaving out?
4. How does the memorial convey its intended story or message? What materials did the artist use? What might the audience’s experience be like when they visit the memorial?

Once the “expert” groups have completed their work, students will reorganize themselves into “teaching” groups, with three students in each group. The members of each “teaching” group should have analyzed a different voice in their “expert” groups. Each “teaching” group also has two tasks:

1. Share their “expert” group’s work (the answers to the above questions).
2. Discuss the following questions with the group: What similarities and differences do you notice between the memorials/monuments? What do you think accounts for these similarities and/or differences?

Complete the activity by asking members of each “teaching” group to report to the whole class the takeaways from their discussions.

Activity 4: Plan Your Own Holocaust Memorial

Conclude the lesson by asking students to submit a written plan for their own Holocaust memorial (see the Extensions section for an activity that involves creating a visual representation). Pass out the handout Creating a Memorial. Ask students to complete the questions individually and then follow the instructions at the end of the handout to create a simple sketch of their memorial, give it a title, and write an artist’s statement.