It is recommended to talk with students about the Holocaust and the Permanent Exhibition prior to their Museum visit. The more prepared students are for what they will see, read, and hear, the more they may gain from their visit to the Museum. The Education Division of the Museum has developed a variety of resource materials for teachers and group leaders.
Identification Cards
Identification cards, given to visitors just before they enter the Permanent Exhibition, help to personalize the historical events described in the exhibition. Each card describes the experiences of a single person who was living during the Holocaust and was persecuted by the Nazis or their collaborators. The card is designed as a small booklet to be carried through the exhibition.
Becoming Familiar with the Permanent Exhibition, The Holocaust
Group leaders may wish to distribute to students copies of the exhibition narrative below to use as background reading, especially at the high-school level. During the visit to the Permanent Exhibition, teachers may wish to distribute copies of the narrative to students so that they can refer to it and write comments and impressions in the page margins as they walk through.
Exhibition Narrative/Outline
The following narrative outlines the history of the Holocaust as it is presented in the Museum's Permanent Exhibition. In the left column are the titles of each of the sections of the exhibition. On the right are brief summaries of each of the sections. The sections appear in the exhibition in the same order as they are outlined here.
Permanent Exhibition Narrative
Interpreting Historical Images
Using more than 900 artifacts—including original photographs, moving images, documents, and objects—the Museum utilizes a wide-range of primary source materials to present the history of the Holocaust. Giving students the basic tools for analyzing and interpreting these primary source materials is important for helping students get the most from their visit to the Museum. The following activity directs students through a series of questions designed to help them critique and analyze historical photographs.
Interpreting Historical Images
Resources
The Museum has developed a variety of resource materials for teachers and group leaders.
