“According to the Toronto police, hate crimes are up 93% in the city over the last year. 53% of those crimes are antisemitic. According to Reuters, antisemitism incidents worldwide are up 400% in the last year. According to Statistics Canada, Jews are the religious group most likely to be targeted for hate crimes. They make up less than 1% of the population, yet were victims of 14% of hate crimes last year. One in six Canadians (16 per cent) between the ages of 18 and 24 believe the Holocaust was exaggerated” (qt. in Madsen).
We just finished a project about the Holocaust. In this project, we learned about the history of the Holocaust, read a comic book, wrote paragraphs and essays, and ultimately created a multi-modal presentation for the PLP Spring Exhibition.
⚠️ Please be advised that this blog contains detailed information on the Holocaust that could be upsetting for some audiences. Continue reading at your own discretion.
Our driving question for this project was:
How can multi-modal communication enhance our ability to humanize and understand complex issues?
In the case of our final project, Faith and I were able to create an exhibit to educate visitors about the horrors of the Holocaust, which included an interactive timeline, information from us speaking, plaques and replica artifacts. In the words of Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, the Holocaust is “a lesson for us about the consequences of leaving hatred unchecked. The consequences of living in a society where hatred is tolerated. It is the ultimate lesson about the horrors that can result.” Keep reading to see the learning we did and the process we went through to create our final project.
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To Launch this project, we did an in-class free write about why stories are an effective way to learn. In the past I’d found free writes challenging as I wasn’t too sure where to start or what ideas to write. With this one however, I actually really enjoyed it and found that my ideas flowed easily and in a more organized manner than I had anticipated. We later returned to this free write in order to substantiate it with quotes. You can read my free write drafts below:
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We then began to build knowledge on the Holocaust. We watched videos, documentaries, Schindler’s List (which despite being very saddening, was very well made), testimonies, created annotated timelines, and completed worksheets. We wrote a paragraph for one of the articles analyzing why the creator of the text chose to include so many pictures. You can read my paragraph below.
We then reflected on these various learning methods, analyzing which worked best for us and why. I found that the testimonies and The Path to Nazi Genocide documentary were most impactful to me. Click the card below to read my full analysis:
We also went to the UBC Annual Holocaust Symposium. The majority of information presented had already been covered in our class, but I did find it impactful to watch a documentary titled “Martha” about the filmmaker’s grandmother. It was well done and very impactful as it told the story of a sweet, funny grandmotherly woman who had lived through such horrible experiences and it was heartbreaking to see her learn some even darker truths about her relatives. I highly recommend you watch it by clicking here.
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We then read the comic book, Maus by Art Spiegelman, which was the first, and currently only, graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize. Maus does an incredible job at creating a personal connection with the reader and tells the Holocaust story of Vladek, Art’s Father. I enjoyed reading this book and felt that it was a very unique, but effective, way to educate readers about the Holocaust. After reading Maus, we wrote a literary criticism (analysis) essay. If you haven’t guessed already, the competency we focused on for this project was “Analyzing- I can analyze ideas and make supported conclusions.” I was actually really proud of how much of this essay I was able to write without needing too much help. This was my first time writing such a formal essay and I learned a lot about proper formatting, citation and word choice. I went through three sets of revisions, with feedback from my friends (thank you Ariane, Ava and Teva!), to create this final essay that I’m really happy with and proud of!
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Finally, it was time to create our final product. For this project we got to choose our own partners, so I got the absolute joy of working with Faith! The criteria for the final product was simply that it had to be about someone who was an Upstander (opposite of bystander, someone who stands up in the face of injustice). However since we had spent so much time learning about the Holocaust and felt it was an important topic to create a project on, we decided to create our project about Irena Sendler. Irena was an incredible woman who saved an estimated 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto. Faith and I thought up a super cool plan and were really exited to create it. Here’s where the chaos began.
Originally, our final product for this project was to presented at the PLP Spring Exhibition. However at the beginning of the two weeks leading up to the exhibition, we were told that we would actually be presenting our work for B.C. First Peoples (BCFP) instead. This was really confusing as our plan would no longer work. Thankfully, after talking to Ms. Madsen and the teaching team discussed, we were allowed to create a combination project of both Irena Sendler and BCFP.
Faith was on FIRE with ideas and we were able to write down our entire plan within a few minutes on this whiteboard:
We then spent a lot of time together in class and at each other’s houses creating our project. I had so much fun, and I’m really proud of our final product. On one side of our table, we had an interactive timeline about Inena’s life and the Holocaust, for which visitors had to try to arrange the events in the correct order.
We also had three milk bottles with old paper inside in representation of the documents Irena buried in order to reunite families after the war. In front of the milk bottles was a plaque with a short description of Irena’s life.
On the other side of the table, we had a slideshow on my iPad about the discrimination experienced by Indigenous people in the Canadian healthcare system.
We also had a hand-painted map of all the cities in B.C. with Indigenous Patient Navigators: Indigenous people who work for the hospital and ensure that Indigenous people who come into the hospital are treated fairly.
Additionally, we had a quiz and a pile of cards with a QR code to a website we put together with organizations people could send an email, donate to or volunteer for to help end Indigenous discrimination in healthcare.
Faith and I were really proud of our final product and we had a lot of engaging conversations with visitors to the PLP Spring Exhibition. One thing we were particularly proud of, was how crisp we got the paper taped onto the table: those edges were perfect! Here’s some photos of our exhibition:
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This project was really valuable as it opened my eyes to just how truly horrible the Holocaust was. I knew some basic information, but prior to this project I didn’t know all the details of how awful it was. Throughout this project, despite my efforts to not be affected, I couldn’t help but see the many adorable, innocent, faces of the young children I’ve worked with in my job as a lifeguard and swim instructor. This project and the testimonies we saw lead further made me question how anyone could possibly inflict so much harm upon other human beings, especially children, no matter how much they were “othered.”
I hope that by reading my several paragraphs and essay, the timeline and seeing our final project, you too are able to understand how terrible this event was and how crucial it is that we ensure nothing like it ever happens again.
With that the 2023/24 school year comes to an end. Thanks for reading 👋