House of the Wannsee Conference

STUDY DAYS FOR PUPILS AGED 11 TO 13

When working with pupils aged 11 to 13 the pedagogical aim is to offer an initial orientation in and emotional preparation for the subject matter. Their interest should be stimulated for the future study of the history of National Socialism and the persecution of the Jews. Our aim is to give them a chance to develop empathy with the victims. Therefore they approach the theme by getting to know individual biographies of persecuted children.
At the same time, they learn about the process during which the victims were deprived of their individuality and turned into an anonymous mass. The focus is an the phase of deprivation of rights and social isolation. In addition, the range of possible responses and action available to the non-Jewish population is described. Thereby, the pupils learn that the so-called “Jewish Policy“ was a crime which could only be committed because of active and passive support on the part of many contemporary citizens. The pupils also learn what high degree of injustice had already been committed against the Jews when they were socially isolated and deprived of their rights. Thus, the pupils’ sense of justice can be enhanced. In the House of the Wannsee Conference, pupils aged 11 to 13 do not focus on the policy of extermination by the National Socialists. 

A study day for pupils aged 11 to 13 contains the following phases:

• a discussion based on a series of posters in order to identify the information which the children already have, and also to determine jointly with them the process of social isolation.

• a visit to those rooms of the permanent exhibition where the social isolation of the Jews and their discrimination are the central topic.

• a film on an individual victim’s fate

• independent creative work.
  
   

Study days are designed according to the knowledge and needs of the individual pupils, in terms of their general content such as the study of an individual victim’s fate, and in terms of the time devoted to the various topics.