documentED: Educational materials for trips to concentration camp memorials
Many young people know very little about Nazi persecution – despite the fact that learning about National Socialism is firmly anchored in school curricula. Studies show that even when students visit a concentration camp memorial, they often remember little about it afterwards. This is why the Arolsen Archives help educators to prepare group trips to memorial sites by providing materials that focus on the personal fates of former concentration camp inmates.
School teachers often have insufficient preparation time to deal appropriately with the complex topic of Nazi persecution. documentED provides educators with materials for effective 45-minute sessions before and after visits to memorial sites. These toolkits are based on documents from our archives.
Toolkits with documents from the Arolsen Archives
documentED has toolkits for trips to various concentration camp memorial sites in Europe. The toolkits include selected documents from the collections of the Arolsen Archives, mostly documents that were produced by the Nazis for registering prisoners in the concentration camp in question. They also contain work assignments for the students and links to digital tools that help them work with the documents.
Working with these source materials ensures that students have more prior knowledge when they visit the memorial. In addition, each toolkit contains suggestions for small-scale remembrance projects that pupils can implement independently as a follow-up to their memorial site visit.
A critical approach to sources
documentED uses individual fates to lead on to an understanding of the broader context. What reasons did the National Socialists give for imprisoning people? What function did the concentration camps have, and how were they organized within the Nazi system of terror?
To make it easier to understand the sources, the worksheets in the toolkits include links to the Arolsen Archives e-Guide. This enables pupils to find the answers to many of the questions raised by perpetrator documents of this kind. Step by step and through their own research, pupils learn how to read the documents and gain an understanding of what the documents mean in context – this teaches them how to learn independently and apply a critical approach to sources.
When schoolchildren study documents from the Nazi era and learn about the personal fates of concentration camp inmates as part of the documentED project, the horror of the Holocaust becomes more comprehensible. documentED not only encourages empathy, but also makes the memory of the Shoah more tangible. The project also helps immunize young people against antisemitism, racism, and hatred.
Dr. Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany
Follow up for trips to memorial sites: project ideas
It is just as important to encourage groups to plan a project of their own after visiting a memorial as it is to give them adequate preparation before the trip. This is why documentED also includes suggestions for getting actively involved and taking a stand. Whatever the project – a traditional poster exhibition or a social media initiative – the important thing is to make sure it is manageable and doable. There are many other options too, of course, including elaborate creative projects for after-school clubs, for example.
Developed in partnership with experts
documentED has been developed on the basis of feedback from teachers and in partnership with various concentration camp memorial sites and educational institutions outside the formal education system. The Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camp memorials are just two of the organizations that were involved in the comprehensive test phase. By working closely with memorials, we aim to ensure that the documentED project also meets the needs and expectations that exist in the professional environment of concentration camp memorials.
