Divide the class into small groups. Let them choose one of the pictures listed below and examine it.
- Pre-War Jewish Life: Pre-war women on beach
- Resistance: Placing bomb on railroad tracks
- Evacuation: People with belongings on wagon
- Operation Barbarossa: Photo of Stalin & Ribbentrop shaking hands
- Liberation: Russian soldier sweeping Nazi party medals out of the Reich Chancellery.
Have students reflect on their photo: What do you see? What do you is happening in the moment the photo was taken? Who do you think was present? Why do you think the photographer chose to take this picture?
Ask the students to read the summary in the appropriate section in the online exhibition. Ask students if providing that contextual knowledge changes their perceptions of the photograph and explain why or why not.
Ask students to consider what may be happening that we can’t see in the photograph. Have students draw an extension of the photograph and what they think may be happening outside the frame of the photo.
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