Art of the Holocaust

Submitted by: Ken Schwab, Leigh High School
Advanced Placement Concentration - Holocaust by Heidi Winner

Background

Heidi Winner did a concentration project for Advanced Placement Studio Art that concerned the Holocaust of WWII. Her grandfather lived through a concentration camp and these are the works she did about that. Click on the images below for full size.

Links

• Art of the Holocaust, a Teacher's Guide

• Learning About Holocaust Art

• Art and Auschwitz

• Children's Art of the Holocaust (PDF - You need a subscription to access)

• Contemporary Art of the Holocaust

• Stolen Holocaust Art at the Israel Museum

Anticipatory Set (Motivation)

There are several excellent documentaries that can be used as an introduction to any study of the Holocaust. One of the documentaries is called Paper Clips. In this documentary, principal Linda Hooper leads students and teachers in a lesson on the meaning of the Holocaust. The members of the community set out to collect six million paper clips, one for each Jew killed by the Nazis. As word spread, contributions came from all over the country and, eventually, the world. When others heard about the project, Holocaust survivors began visiting the school community.

Another documentary that is good to use is Anne Frank Remembered. This documentary includes vintage newsreels, photographs and a rare home movie. This film also won an Oscar and includes Anne Franks journey to escape capture by the Nazis. A documentary that includes actual footage and survivor accounts is Night and Fog. This is a short 33 minute movie in black and white but is powerful enough to keep the attention of a high school students. This movie can be disturbing to some, so make sure you view it before showing your students.

Books

Art from the Ashes: A Holocaust Anthology - Lawrence Langer's exceptional collection of Holocaust literature includes both fiction and nonfiction, as well as drama and poetry. Twenty works of art created in the Terezin concentration camp are reproduced here.

Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker - Goudstikker became one of the most successful art dealers and tastemakers in Amsterdam between the Wars. Tragically, Goudstikker died in flight from the Nazis in 1940, and his enormous collection of art, including more than 1,200 Old Master and nineteenth-century paintings, was confiscated by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring.

Painted in Words: A Memoir - Samuel Bak sets aside his brushes to narrate the stories of his life--as a child in Nazi- occupied Vilna, as a youth in European refugee camps, and as a maturing artist in Israel, France, Italy, Switzerland, and the United States.