Using the Study Unit "Everyday Life in the Warsaw Ghetto - 1941" in the Classroom

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 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Historical Background
• Part 3: Overcrowding
• Part 4: Everyday Life and Survival
• Part 5: Welfare and Mutual Aid
• Part 6: The "Badge of Shame" and Cultural Life
• Part 7: Conclusion

Pedagogical objectives

• Teach the Holocaust as a human story, in accordance with the educational philosophy of the International School for Holocaust Studies.
• Implement multiple sources to create a fuller context to the Warsaw ghetto, as depicted at one point in time (1941).
• Consider deeper aspects of photography-as-documentation: what the photo reveals, what it hides.

Teaching aids