Valuing Testimony

Visual storytelling and testimony requires collaboration between survivors, artists, and readers. Visual testimony is a powerful medium to reflect on the challenges of transmitting memory, trauma, and the magnitude of the Holocaust. Students are encouraged to reflect on the value of visual testimony, in particular, in teaching the Holocaust, as well as the possible limits we face in understanding the Holocaust and other genocides.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

  • assess both the value and the limitations of using survivor testimony to learn about the Holocaust.

Guiding Question

  • What can we learn from historical testimony?
  • Are there limitations to survivor testimony? If so, explain.

Preparation

Prepare technology to project images and video.

Cue up the three short films about the process of creating the narratives in But I Live.

Introduction

Introduce the three films on the creation of the graphic narratives.

Lesson Activities

Viewing Films

These films explore the process of creating the graphic narratives. Ask students to record, while they watch, the strengths and limitations of this process, and on the value of historical testimony more broadly.

Viewing Guide: Valuing Testimony

Small Group Discussion

Using the Viewing Guide, ask students to discuss questions in groups or pairs.

Conclusion

Come together and discuss these questions as a class. Have students write a final reflection answering the guiding questions for this lesson.

Support Materials

Viewing Guide Valuing Testimony

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

But I Live Educators' Resource Copyright © 2024 by Andrea Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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