A Holocaust Gallery Walk: Visual Sources and Guided Notes
A Holocaust lesson plan by Spencer Charrington
I’m Spencer Charrington, and this is my Holocaust gallery walk. Instead of sitting through a lecture, students move around the room and work through a set of images. Some are historical photographs and some are photographs I took myself. Each station has guided notes, so students write down what they see as they go.
I use a gallery walk because it slows people down. You can’t skim a photograph the way you skim a paragraph. Students stand in front of one image for a few minutes and have to say what’s actually in it. The notes are scaffolded with the key vocabulary in bold, so students who need the support have it.
What students work through
The written work follows the escalation from discrimination to violence: ghettos, deportation, the camps and the groups targeted alongside Jewish people. Students answer in full sentences using their notes.
- What was a ghetto, and why were they created?
- Name two groups besides Jewish people who were targeted.
- Describe the conditions on the trains to the camps.
- Name one way the Nazis stripped a person of their identity.
- What was the purpose of the phrase Arbeit macht frei?
Reading the numbers
The last question asks students to work from a table of Jewish populations from 1933 to 1950 and use a number in their answer. Poland went from 3,300,000 to 45,000. Lithuania went from 160,000 to 5,000, and Latvia from 95,000 to 3,500. A figure like that is hard to take in until you’ve spent twenty minutes looking at faces, which is why the photographs come first.
Using this lesson
Any teacher is welcome to use it. Email me and I’ll send you the guided notes and worksheet.