To overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry—and the suffering they cause— through the educational use of the Institute’s visual history testimonies

Seven Multimedia Lessons for the Classroom

For Grades 9-12

Designed for educators, Living Histories: Seven Voices from the Holocaust is a series of seven downloadable 30-minute testimonies with classroom lessons highlighting a range of eyewitness experiences related to the Holocaust from the Institute’s Visual History Archive. This series provides educators with the opportunity to broaden students' understanding of the complexity of eyewitness experiences.

This series:

• Includes downloadable multimedia: Video can be streamed or downloaded to your classroom computer for offline viewing.
• Contains modular lessons: Can be used in whole or in part depending on curricular goals and available class time.
• Supports national standards: Addresses McRel standards across a variety of subject areas.
• Highlights unique eyewitness experiences: Features a wide range of rare eyewitness accounts.
• Features student-centered activities: Each lesson contains a student-centered activity that relates to the testimony as well as the lesson’s theme.
• Explores inter-disciplinary themes: Connects to universal concepts such as resistance, responsibility, justice, survival amid loss, courage, and faith, as well as contemporary global issues.

Lessons are enhanced with supporting resources including maps, glossaries, photographs, and poetry. Lessons also support a broad range of content standards including social studies, English/language arts, behavioral studies, and life skills. Abridged to 30 minutes each and designed for educators of students in grades 9-12, the testimonies in the Living Histories series include Howard Cwick, liberator; Vera Laska, political prisoner; Julia Lentini, Sinti and Roma survivor; Nechama Shneorson, Jewish survivor; Alfred Steer, war crimes trials participant; Johtje Vos, rescue and aid provider; and Franz Wohlfahrt, Jehovah’s Witness survivor.