

At a Glance
Language
English — USSubject
- Civics & Citizenship
- History
- Social Studies
Grade
6–12Duration
One 50-min class period- The Holocaust
- Human & Civil Rights
Overview
About This Lesson
In the last lesson, students explored some of the causes and consequences of denying the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust and then considered how public art can serve as a form of remembrance and civic participation. In this lesson, students will continue their examination of how we confront and acknowledge mass atrocities by considering the important role that the stories of survivors and their descendants play in how we understand the events of the past and their enduring legacies. Students will start the lesson by revisiting their own identity charts and reflecting on the connection between memory and identity. Then they will work together to read and discuss stories of survivors and their descendants, paying close attention to the tension between survivors’ need to tell their stories and the difficulty of talking about experiences that are, in Holocaust survivor Sonia Weitz’s words, “unspeakable." 1 They will explore the deep sense of responsibility, borne by survivors and their descendants, to serve as witnesses and pass on their stories to the outside world and to future generations. Through this exploration, students will reflect on their own responsibility to keep this history alive, making connections between these stories and their role in the world today
- 1Sonia Schreiber Weitz, I Promised I Would Tell (Brookline, MA: Facing History and Ourselves, Inc., 2012), x.
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Tell us MoreSurvivor Testimony and the Legacy of Memory
Confronting Genocide Denial
Choosing to Participate
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