Teaching about Auschwitz Using Art

Introduction

Educators often approach Holocaust study from a historical point of view, deepening their students’ knowledge and understanding through the use of survivor testimonies, classroom discussions, films, books, and other disciplines.
However, teachers may find that the world of art offers their students another path to processing this difficult and complex subject matter.

Teaching about Auschwitz using Art presents a way to use art from and about Auschwitz in teaching the subject to your students. In order to use art as a tool to teach about Auschwitz, the teacher does not have to be an expert in the field. Nevertheless, contrary to the analysis of most kinds of art, where greater emphasis is put on the artwork itself and less on the artist's bio, art from the Holocaust requires careful contextualization. It is essential to address the artist's personal story and background and the events that surrounded the creation of every specific work of art. Therefore it is important to seek answers for questions such as: Who created the art? With what purpose? Under which circumstances?

Exploring each painting from Auschwitz, looking in detail at what's represented in it and appreciating its artistic elements, together with the study of the context in which it was created and the questions each artwork raises, deepen our understanding of the Holocaust in general, and enable us to view Auschwitz as the human experience that that it was. Art should be used as a tool on top of the historical knowledge. The artwork itself also constitutes a historical source; it is inevitably impacted by circumstance at least to some degree it also tells us about the reality in which it was made.

Art can be an excellent tool for teachers to use as a way of supporting the study of a subject like Auschwitz, within the study of the Holocaust as a whole as a whole. Art lends itself to conversations where each participating individual can share his/her opinions and thoughts, where there are no right or wrong answers. Being interpretative by nature, it encourages interpretation and conversation. Art also invites students to ask new questions, seldom asked when dealing with a historical subject and to look for answers to these questions, thus enriching and broadening their knowledge about a specific subject, in this case Auschwitz. Because the student is relating, because the student is looking, feeling, thinking and giving feedback, art and the conversation around it can take their understanding of the subject to a different level.

Points to Take Into Consideration When Using Art to Teach about Auschwitz

There are several points to take into consideration before a teacher uses a piece of art. First of all the artworks to be used with the students should be chosen in keeping with our educational philosophy, in an age-appropriate manner.

The context of where that art was created is another very important point. The artwork presented here was created either in Auschwitz, or just after liberation but representing what the artists went through in this particular place. It was made by people whom in most cases had lost their entire families, who were in constant threat of death, who were starving, people who had no strength, people who didn't have paper and pencils, people who didn't have access to art supplies. And yet, their need to create was so strong that artwork was created. We have to bear in mind that one piece of art can't represent the whole picture of the Holocaust or of Auschwitz, but it does show us fragments of it.

It's important to note that it was absolutely forbidden to create any kind of art or to poses any kind of materials to do so, unless the Germans had commanded it.

Artists use different means and media to express themselves. Sometimes, an artist would use a portrait as a way of remembering a human being where taking a photograph was not an option. A portrait was a way of saying "this person lived, this person left some kind of imprint on the planet." Sometimes, art was a way for the artist to express his inner world, a world that was trapped inside, and not a world of his reality at that moment. And sometimes art came as a way of documenting the horrors that were happening around them. So it's important to understand the motivation in the artist creating the piece. Usually we can only guess, we can only infer what the artist meant, unless the artist left a clear manifesto of what his ideas were, we are just left with open-ended questions.

Preparatory Materials

In preparation to using art as an educational tool in learning about Auschwitz, teachers and students should familiarize themselves with the subject of the Holocaust in general and with Auschwitz in particular. This is done in order to place the artwork in its historical context in the Classroom and to deepen the student’s knowledge. The paintings should be printed for the students to see, or projected on a screen in front of the class.

In the classroom

To appreciate and understand a piece of art, the first thing we have to do is invite our students to observe it thoroughly for a prolonged period of time, from different angles and distances as the idea in a painting is often layered and multifaceted.

Teachers may wish to conduct an open discussion with their students focusing on the list of questions below. As mentioned before, there are no right or wrong answers. Over the course of the discussion, teachers will also give extra information, supplied in this learning environment, which will help create a deeper understanding of each artist's artwork and their own symbolic language.

Some of the first questions that one may want to ask when approaching a specific work of art, and when trying to enter inside of it are: what is happening in the picture? What do we see in it? What is the subject? Is the artist showing an individual? Is the artist showing an event? Is the artist showing a space or a place? What was his purpose for making the artwork? Is he bearing witness? Is he showing a feeling or an emotion? Is he trying to capture a scene? Is he escaping through his artwork from the world that is surrounding him?

In normal circumstances, colors are also a very important part in the artist's visual language and the color choice by the artist is very deliberate. In the artwork presented here, we have to take into consideration that artists didn't have access to material and they would use whatever they could get hold of. In Thomas Geve's artwork, for example, from the seven colors he gets, he can choose the ones he uses in each drawing he makes. If color is present in a specific artwork then we can ask if the colors are solemn, dark, agonizing? Or, if they are they light, happy, vibrant? *

Students must pay attention to the fact that unlike an artist in normal circumstances who can choose the material with which he will work, in the camps, the prisoners painted on whatever they could get hold of, even pieces of bags of cement.

Also, artists don't just place a piece of work on a page; they purposely put it in different parts of the page to create a feeling or create a message; another thing the viewer wants to think about is the composition. Where did the artist put the main element? Is it in the middle, is it on the side? How much space from the paper or canvas does it occupy? How does one's eye move from place to place in the picture? What are the artist's feelings about his subject? How is he representing that subject on his medium? How does the artist choose to create that drawing? Is he using agitated lines and strokes? Is it expressive? Or does he choose a more classical, precise way of showing his subject?

All of these are questions that can lead to a very meaningful discussion in the classroom with your students, along with all the questions that each particular artwork will raise for the students. You might not find the answer to some of them, that's why the more information we have about the artist the more we can know about the artwork as well. Art occupies a space where words don’t suffice; it is often a form of expression compelled by a combination of circumstances and of the artist him- or herself.

We can only try and build some answers from the knowledge we have about him/her and the time and moment that is being represented by them. We have to remember as well, that with all the different sources and tools of knowledge about the Holocaust, we can get an idea and try to understand what the people that lived it went through, but we can never really live what they lived or feel what they felt.

Questions

Questions about the content:

• What do you see?
• What is happening in the picture?
• What is the subject?
• Is it an individual or an event?
• What is in it? What is absent from it?

Questions in relation to the composition:

• Where's the main element of the picture located?
• How much space from the paper/canvas does it occupy?
• How are the pencil or brushstrokes? Are they agitated?
• Are they expressive?

Questions about the artist:

• What do you think the artist wanted to transmit to us?
• What is he telling us?

For whom is the work done?

• What was the artist's purpose when making it? Was she/he baring witness? Was it a means to escape from the real world? Was he/she expressing emotion?
• Did the process of making art serve as a way of coping with the situation or an act of defiance?
• What was his/her motivation for creating the art?

More Questions:

• Is there a difference between depicting an event through art rather than through photography? Is there (a) symbolism in a title?
• Does the title add to our understanding of the painting?
• What can we learn from the works of art?
• Are there limits in art? If yes, what are its limits?
• When was it made?
• What can we learn from that period? From that date? From that place?
• Let's see that date in another perspective, what was happening, had happened in that period?
• What's important for them as artists?
• What's the difference between Halina Olomucki's art works and Thomas Geve's?
• Both recount events in the same place nevertheless they are very different in the way each artist decides to make them and what they choose to represent.
• In what are they different?
• Do they both express an event?
• Do they both express feelings?
• Do both transmit the same feelings, the same information?
• Do they add to your knowledge of the Holocaust?
• In which way?
• Do they give you a deeper, more personal, more intimate aspect of the Holocaust?
• Are they private, intimate?
• Do they take you to a more humane level?
• Do they help you understand the individual event in more depth?
• Can these drawings be used as testimony?
• Do you think they both could have been used in the Eichmann trial as proof of the reality that pervaded in Auschwitz?

We can also examine different types of work made by the same artist under different circumstances and motives. Such is the case of Dina Gottliebova's art produced in Auschwitz. She created art of two different kinds, both commissioned but by different people and for different purposes.

The first one was done at the request of Freddy Hirsh to decorate the children's barrack. There she painted a scene of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with the aim of giving children a happy place to be in, to restore their stolen childhood and to give them, at least for a few hours, a place where they could be normal children and escape their surrounding reality. This creation was done from her own will and was directed to fellow inmates.

On the other hand we have the portraits of the Sinti and Roma, which she was forced to paint upon the command of Josef Mengele. Mengele wasn't happy with the result photographs gave and he wanted her to capture their real color.

These are portraits made as work, the wish and requirements of somebody else, not a fellow inmate but an SS member. This artwork was the price she had to pay for her and her mother's lives.

Through her pictures we can learn much about her and from the Holocaust. 

Is there a difference between paintings made voluntarily and those created under duress?