Holocaust Education Video Toolbox

During World War II, the clandestine Oneg Shabbat Archive operated in the Warsaw Ghetto, founded and overseen by historian and social-political activist, Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum. For the Holocaust Education Video Toolbox project, five videos were devoted to the voices of the archive members. The videos are based on their own writings, describing the historical and human events in the first person. The six archive members featured in these videos convey different perspectives from within Oneg Shabbat, together creating a complex picture of the archive's activity, faced as it was...

In September 1939, Nazi Germany conquered Poland. Shortly after, historian Emanuel Ringelblum began chronicling the events overtaking the Jews of Warsaw and the surrounding areas under Nazi control. Once the Jews were forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, Ringelblum decided to found the clandestine Oneg Shabbat (“Joy of the Sabbath”) Archive. He assembled a group of documenters of different backgrounds, with the intention of chronicling the events as they transpired at all levels of Jewish society. He had the archive buried under the ground of the Warsaw ghetto in metal boxes and...

In Nazi-occupied Poland, historian Emanuel Ringelblum, who headed the Jewish Self-Help Society (Jewish relief organization) in Warsaw, asked Rachel Auerbach to organize a public kitchen. Once Jews were forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, public kitchens supplied the hungry masses with a daily meal. Auerbach heeded Ringelblum's request. She also became a member of the clandestine Oneg Shabbat (“Joy of the Sabbath”) Archive. In this capacity she documented the sights she encountered in her everyday work and the starvation of the Ghetto's inhabitants (approx. 450,000 people)....

Peretz Opoczynski was a journalist, writer, and educator. During World War II Opoczynski was a member of the underground archive in the Warsaw Ghetto, the Oneg Shabbat (“Joy of the Sabbath”). Opoczynski documented the sights he saw and his experiences as a mailman in the ghetto....

With the beginning of the Great Deportation of Warsaw Jewry to the Treblinka extermination camp, members of the clandestine Oneg Shabbat (“Joy of the Sabbath”) Archive sought shelter for the Archive and decided that it was to be buried, despite the risks involved. Their hope was that it would one day be retrieved and serve as a testament to the murder of Polish Jewry. The archival collections included original research, testimonies and documents, newspapers, diaries, photographs, and artworks. Among those entrusted with the task of burying the Archive were two educators, Israel...

Abraham Lewin, an educator and a member of the clandestine Oneg Shabbat (“Joy of the Sabbath”) Archive maintained a diary depicting the wartime events in the Warsaw ghetto. It is rare in that it covers in real time the Great Deportation of the summer 1942, during which some 265,000 Jews were deported to their deaths in Treblinka, and some 10,000 were murdered within the ghetto. Abraham Lewin survived the Great Deportation and continued documenting the tragic events of the ghetto until his capture by the Nazis....

This Educator Video Toolbox is aligned to Echoes & Reflections, a comprehensive Holocaust education program that delivers professional development and a rich array of multimedia resources for middle and high school teachers. This video complements Lesson 6: Resistance. It addresses key historical context, supports your teaching, and provides a methodological and pedagogical framework to help you effectively teach the subject of spiritual and armed resistance during the Holocaust. Professional development programs for middle and high school educators are taking place around the country;...

This Educator Video Toolbox is aligned to Echoes & Reflections, a comprehensive Holocaust education program that delivers professional development and a rich array of multimedia resources for middle and high school teachers. This video complements Lesson 4: The Ghettos. It addresses key historical context, supports your teaching, and provides a methodological and pedagogical framework to help you teach this subject effectively. Professional development programs for middle and high school educators are taking place around the country; you can find one near you here.This movie,...

Dan Pagis was a Romanian-born Holocaust survivor who wrote about the Holocaust some 25 years after the events. The poem "Testimony" deals with complex ethical, philosophical and theological issues that troubled Pagis, such as man's inhumanity to man, the question of God during the Holocaust, the essence and role of testimony, and other issues pertaining to guilt and to forgiveness. The poem "Testimony" allows a glympse into these complex questions and is fertile ground for classroom discussion.Jackie Metzger is a staff member at the International School for Holocaust Studies,...

More than 150,000 Jews passed through Terezin until its liberation in 1945. Of these, over 80% were murdered, either in Terezin or after deportation to the east.One of the fascinating aspects of Terezin is that many of the Jews sent there were prominent in the fields of culture: painters, artists, musicians, educators, philosophers and others. In the video, "Artists of Terezin: Guidelines for Educators", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby presents the children's newspaper "Vedem", created in the camp by Petr Ginz and his friends, and demonstrates how we may use it teach about the...

On the eve of WWII, the interwar Jewish world was creative and complex, a rich mosaic, full of change and hope for the future. Within a decade, most of Europe would be conquered by Nazi Germany. By 1945 two out of every three of these Jews were silenced forever. The sights and sounds of this video are those of the Jews of Europe before the Holocaust. In their own words, through their diaries, letters and notebooks, and through their family films.Part 1: IntroductionPart 2: Glimpses of Jewish Life before the HolocaustSpeakersSheryl Silver-Ochayon is a staff member at the International School for...

Nazi ideology was total, in that it was a world view that claimed to explain everything about the world and how it functions.At its core, the Nazi world view was racist and biological, positing that the so-called “Aryan” race – primarily the North Europeans – was the superior race of human beings. Their superiority granted the Aryans the right and obligation to rule over other races and peoples, for the benefit of humankind. The Jews, in complete contrast, were seen as a kind of “anti-race”, dangerous inhuman beings in seemingly human form. They were viewed alternatively...

More than 150,000 Jews passed through Terezin until its liberation in 1945. Of these, over 80% were murdered, either in Terezin or after deportation to the east.One of the fascinating aspects of Terezin is that many of the Jews sent there were prominent in the fields of culture: painters, artists, musicians, educators, philosophers and others. In the video, "Artists of Terezin: Guidelines for Educators", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby presents the work "SS Dog", created in the camp by Leo Hass, and demonstrates how we may use it teach about the Holocaust.Liz Elsby is an artist,...

In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust Using Sports", ISHS staff member Sheryl Ochayon presents the story of Gretel (Margaret) Bergmann, an accomplished Jewish German athlete. Bergmann's remarkable story sheds light on the challenges and hardships Jewish athletes had to face under the Nazi regime. Being unable to pursue her athletic career in Germany, Bergmann decided to leave her country of birth in 1934. She was forced to return and represent the country in the 1936 Olympic Games, only to be excluded from the national team just weeks prior to the opening of the Games.Using sports...

This Educator Video Toolbox is aligned to Echoes & Reflections, a comprehensive Holocaust education program that delivers professional development and a rich array of multimedia resources for middle and high school teachers. This video complements Lesson 2: Antisemitism. It addresses key historical context, supports your teaching, and provides a methodological and pedagogical framework to help you teach this subject effectively. Professional development programs for middle and high school educators are taking place around the country; you can find one near you here.What is antisemitism...

In this video, “The Auschwitz Album – Guidelines for Educators”, Dr. Na’ama Shik presents a rare, important piece of visual documentation of the workings at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp - known as the “Auschwitz Album”. Depicting the arrival and selection of a transport of Hungarian Jews from Carpatho-Ruthenia in 1944, Dr. Shik provides the historical background and pedagogical analysis of the album, in order to assist the educator with teaching this subject in the classroom.Dr. Na’ama Shik is Director of the Educational Technologies...

In the video, "Survivors' Return to Life - Part 1", ISHS staff member Sheryl Ochayon presents the story of the survivors, from the moment of liberation to their experiences searching for family members and loved ones. Ms. Ochayon discusses the magnitude and complexity of liberation as a bittersweet moment for most survivors, their attempts to return home and try and locate relatives - often all gone - and the postwar anti-Jewish attacks, dilemmas, and hardships. The materials discussed in this video are available on our website and in teaching units produced by the ISHS.Sheryl Silver-Ochayon...

In the video, "Survivors' Return to Life - Part 2", ISHS staff member Sheryl Ochayon presents the story of the survivors, following the fundamental dilemma - "What Now?" - through to life and culture within the DP camps. She outlines the reality and remarkable phenomena within the DP camps, as well as their human significance in restoring a sense of personal identity and early steps towards a new beginning. The materials discussed in this video are available on our website and in teaching units produced at the ISHS.Sheryl Silver-Ochayon is a staff member at the International...

In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust using Art", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby discusses various approaches to utilizing Holocaust art in teaching the Holocaust to your students. As she stresses, a teacher does not have to be an expert in the field to broach this topic. Focusing on three individual artworks, Elsby demonstrates how exploring the artistic aspects of each painting, together with the context in which they were created and the questions they raise, combine to deepen our understanding of the Holocaust as a human event.Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad...

This Educator Video Toolbox is aligned to Echoes & Reflections, a comprehensive Holocaust education program that delivers professional development and a rich array of multimedia resources for middle and high school teachers. This video complements Lesson 5: The “Final Solution”. It addresses key historical context, supports your teaching, and provides a methodological and pedagogical framework to help you teach this subject effectively. Professional development programs for middle and high school educators are taking place around the country; you can find one near you here.This...

What is the Holocaust? Who were its victims? When did it occur? What were the ghettos, and why were they established? How did the “Final Solution” evolve? Dr. David Silberklang offers a clear and concise introductory answer to these complex questions.Dr. David Silberklang is Senior Historian and Editor of Yad Vashem Studies, International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem.Part 1: IntroductionPart 2: The Nazi Rise to Power (1933)Part 3: Separation, Exclusion, and Expulsion (1933-1939)Part 4: War and Territorial Expansion (1939-1941)Part 5: “Operation Barbarossa”...

In the video, "The Development of the 'Final Solution'", Dr. David Silberklang provides an overview of what came to be known as the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question", which ended in the murder of some six million Jews. Dr. Silberklang identifies several major steps, sometimes occuring concurrently, including the prewar separation and escalating anti-Jewish measures, exploring a territorial solution, increasing murder during the German territorial expansion, murder in other countries and of other groups, early attempts at mass-murder systems, the "Wansee Conference",...

How can a vast subject like the Holocaust be taught effectively? How can we approach this often daunting, difficult subject? How do we avoid deterring our students, or even traumatizing them? This film presents two components of the educational philosophy for teaching the Holocaust, as developed and refined at the International School for Holocaust studies at Yad Vashem.Speakers:Shulamit Imber is Pedagogical Director of the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem.
Yael Eaglstein-Benayoun, Shanie Lourie and Dr. Naama Shik are staff members at the International School for Holocaust...

How do we teach the Holocaust using interdisciplinary methods? How can poetry, art, film, and literature contribute to the study of this complex subject? In this video Jackie Metzger, of the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, presents three poems by Primo Levi, Dan Pagis, and Haim Gouri, outlining possible uses in the classroom for ages 16 and above. The ideas, imagery, dilemmas and contemplation inherent in such poems allow for a deeper study of the subject.Jackie Metzger is a staff member at the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem.Part 1: Poetry in Holocaust...

In the video, "Teaching about the Perpetrators: A Case Study", ISHS staff member Dr. Noa Mkayton broaches the difficult subject of the perpetrators in the Holocaust. Dr. Mkayton stresses the dangers in seeing perpetrators purely as other-worldy "monsters". Taking the case study of Paul Salitter, a German Police officer tasked with escorting a transport of some 1,000 Jews to their deaths, we see a fairly ordinary person, oblivious to the moral ramifications of his actions. In examining his depiction of the events, and contrasting it that of a Jewish deportee on that very transport,...

In the video, "Using Holocaust Testimony in the Classroom", ISHS staff member Sheryl Ochayon discusses how we recommend choosing and using Holocaust testimony with your students. After first discussing the aspects unique to face-to-face survivor testimony, aspects that we will invariably lose in a world without survivors, Ms. Ochayon proceeds to contrast and then balance two approaches to chosing testimony video: the historical, and the personal. Chosing a piece of testimony that is only personal or only historical can be counterproductive; it is by choosing testimony that relates, personally,...

The Warsaw ghetto was the largest ghetto under Nazi rule, housing at its peak as many as 450,000 Jews. In this film Sheryl Silver-Ochayon presents the study unit for high school ages, “Everyday Life in the Warsaw Ghetto – 1941”, designed at the International School for Holocaust Studies. By juxtaposing rare photos taken by a German soldier in the ghetto during 1941 with testimony and documentation of Jews, we get a deeper picture of the life and death within the ghetto walls.Sheryl Silver-Ochayon is a staff member at the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem.Part...

In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust Using Photographs", ISHS staff member Franziska Reiniger discusses how you can explore Holocaust photography with your students. Introducing some general points to keep in mind when teaching using any photograph from the Holocaust, Ms. Reiniger then proceeds with two examples, demonstrating the remarkable differences we find in photographs taken from different points of view. The graphical elements within a photograph sometimes hint at the external circumstances surrounding the time and place when the photograph was taken, and be studying both we...

Survivor testimony, in presenting the story of the individual, stands at the core of Holocaust education. With the passage of time, the irreplaceable experience of hearing a survivor speak first-hand – the empathy and emotional connection created, the immediacy of the interaction – will no longer be possible. In this video Sheryl Silver-Ochayon presents the film “May Your Memory Be Love”, in which Ovadia Baruch tells his own story on location where the events occurred. The experiences of Baruch, a Greek Jew born in Salonika, allow a glimpse into the oft-overlooked Holocaust...

This Educator Video Toolbox is aligned to Echoes & Reflections, a comprehensive Holocaust education program that delivers professional development and a rich array of multimedia resources for middle and high school teachers. This video complements the unit called Survivors and Liberators. It addresses key historical context, supports your teaching, and provides a methodological and pedagogical framework to help you teach this subject effectively. Professional development programs for middle and high school educators are taking place around the country; you can find one near you here.The liberation...