Survivor Testimony and the Legacy of Memory

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." 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

Essential Question

How can learning about the choices people made during past episodes of injustice, mass violence, or genocide help guide our choices today?

Guiding Questions

• What is the relationship between memory and identity?
• How are stories of survivors of genocides and mass atrocities and their descendants relevant in the world today? How do these stories personalize and humanize the history of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust?

Learning Objectives

• Students will deepen their thinking about the relationship between memory and identity by reflecting on the stories of Holocaust and Armenian Genocide survivors and their descendants.
• Students will consider how these stories can educate us about our responsibilities in the world today.

Activities

Activity 1: Reflect on the Relationship between Memory and Identity

To prepare students for this lesson’s opening journal response, take a moment to have them review the identity charts they created earlier in the unit (Lesson 2: Exploring Identity). Ask the class if anyone included “memories” as part of their identities and, if so, if they would like to explain how memory is part of their individual identity.

Then project the following passage by Jonathan Sacks, a British rabbi and philosopher, and read it out loud. Ask students to respond in their journals to the questions below.

“History is information. Memory, by contrast, is part of identity. . . . Memory is the past as present, as it lives on in me. Survivors, witnesses, the descendants of those who lived this history [of the Holocaust], and all those who learn about it today[,] face the question of how to remember the past and how that memory might shape our understanding of ourselves and our present world.”

• What do you think Rabbi Sacks means when he observes that “memory . . . is part of identity”?
• Over 100 years after the Armenian Genocide and 70 years after the end of the Holocaust, the generations of survivors and witnesses are aging and passing away. What are some ways that we can keep the memory of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide alive today? What is at stake if we don’t remember?

Activity 2 Learn the Stories of Survivors and Their Descendants

Divide the class into groups of four or five students for a Jigsaw activity and explain that they will be reading the testimony of a survivor or the descendant of a survivor of the Holocaust or Armenian Genocide. During this activity, groups should think about the relationship between memory and identity and who bears the responsibility of preserving the memory of these genocides.

Pass out the Survivors and Memory Jigsaw material so that each “expert” group has reading A, B, C, or D. After reading the directions on the handout out loud as a class, have groups read together and then respond individually to the testimony in their journals.

When it looks as if students have finished writing, instruct them to have each person share the sentence they underlined and why it stood out for them before discussing the question at the bottom of their handouts together. Encourage students to take notes because they will be sharing these ideas in new “teaching” groups.

Next, have the students move to “teaching” groups. Once they have settled, instruct them to have each person briefly summarize their testimony by explaining whose story is represented, what stood out for them, and how their group answered the discussion question.

Instruct students to find the teaching group discussion questions on their handouts. They should try to include examples from their readings, this unit, and their own lives to support their thinking.

After groups have had time to discuss the questions, bring everyone together so they can share their ideas with the class.

Activity 3 Create a Memory Poem Together

Close the lesson by giving the final word to the survivors and their descendants. Explain to students that they will be creating a Lifted Line Poem using a short phrase from the sentences they underlined in their Jigsaw reading. Unless you teach on a block schedule or are extending this lesson over two class periods, you may not have time for the strategy’s discussion, but it can still be powerful for students to hear phrases from the testimonies stitched together to create a singular voice of memory.

To prepare for the poem, have each student circle a short phrase of one to five words from their underlined sentences, or another phrase in the reading that strikes them. Then have the class stand in a circle, and have each student read their phrase in succession.

Close the lesson with a few moments of silence to honor the survivors and descendants from this lesson’s readings, as well as the countless others whose stories go untold.