Educational workshops for middle and high school students
These workshops are primarily intended for groups who have already had the opportunity to address or deepen the subject in class in different subjects. They include a visit of about 45 minutes, followed by two hours of workshop in the teaching room.
FATES IN TIMES OF WAR
NEW! Two painters facing Nazism
For 9th grade students
(beginner level in German)
Charlotte Salomon was Jewish, Ceija Stojka was gypsy. Both loved painting, poetry, and music. Through their works, the students are led to trace the journey of these two women victims of Nazism and discover two cultures then threatened.
SIMONE VEIL AND HER LOVED ONES: ITINERARIES OF THE JACOB FAMILY
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
Originally from Nice, the Jacob family is a French Jewish family, perfectly assimilated and deeply attached to republican values. With the Second World War, the life of Simone and her loved ones changes. Based on archival documents and testimonies, this workshop proposes to trace the journey of Simone Veil and her family during these years of turmoil. The anti-Jewish measures of Vichy, the repression of the German occupier, the acts of the Resistance and the world of concentration camps are addressed by drawing on several activities. A last part aims to understand how Simone Veil became a major figure of the 20th century, by addressing her multiple post-war struggles.
SIMONE VEIL, A FRENCH STORY
For students in 6th and 5th grade
Through the journey of Simone Veil, née Jacob, the children discover a French-Jewish family strongly attached to republican values, whose destiny changes during the Second World War. With the help of archival documents from the Jacob family, they address the history of the exclusion of Jews from France and then highlight the commitment of Simone Veil in the work of memory and the presence of the Righteous in the collective memory.
PAPER LIVES: TRACES OF SINGULAR ITINERARIES IN THE ARCHIVES
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
By discovering the singular itinerary of families, men, women or Jewish children in France during the Second World War, students also learn to reflect on the use of archives in writing History.
THEY WERE 13000: ROUTE OF THE VEL D'HIV
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
This workshop proposes a study of the Vel d'Hiv roundup through archival documents, the analysis of individual destinies and family paths. The exploration of letters found from the Vel d'Hiv, written or filmed testimonies, but also photographs will allow us to identify the specificity of this raid that has become emblematic of the history and memory of the Shoah in France.
A writing workshop will allow us to return to the studied paths and work on the notion of memory transmission.
NEW! Beate’s slap
For students in 1st and 12th grade with a good level in German
This workshop evokes the militant struggle of Beate and Serge Klarsfeld to bring to justice those responsible for Nazi crimes. Also following the journey of the Klarsfeld family, students approach the story of the persecution of the Jews of France. The activity is entirely conducted in German: it allows students to deepen their language skills.
RESCUE AND RESISTANCE
LIGHTS IN THE NIGHT: ITINERARIES OF RIGHTEOUS AMONG NATIONS
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
Awarded to any non-Jewish person who helped Jews during the Holocaust, this honorary title has been bestowed to date on nearly 27,921 people. Coming from nearly 50 countries, all of them have decided to oppose, at the risk of their lives and without compensation, hatred and dehumanization. This workshop proposes to discover several paths of the Righteous in Europe, emphasizing the motivations and forms of rescue, whose recognition was sometimes late in the collective memory.
By taking all the risks to come to the aid of persecuted Jews, these men and women embody the fundamental values of justice, dignity and humanity.
THE FIGHTING STAR
For students from 6th to 5th grade
The workshop traces the journey of a Jewish resistance fighter. The children observe the various forms of engagement, from rescue to armed struggle. Songs, objects and archival documents help to better understand the challenges of this plural resistance.
Joseph, Jean-Claude and the others
For the students of 6th and 5th grade
This workshop is based on the analysis of film excerpts about the lives of Jewish children in France under the Occupation.
While analyzing the choices of staging and discovering the notions of cinematic language, students learn the story of hidden children.
THE JEWISH RESISTANCES: SAVE, FIGHT, WITNESS (CNRD)
For students from 3rd to Terminale
Collecting documents, making a fake identity card, transmitting valuable information or even taking up arms attest to the diversity of acts of resistance during the war. Thanks to the study of archives and individual reconstruction, the students highlight the different forms of commitment of these Jewish women and men in the face of the Holocaust.
WOMEN IN RESISTANCE: THE FIRST COMMITTED (CNRD)
For students from 3rd to Terminale
Liaison officer, summoner of escapees or Jewish children, doctor... women played an essential role in the Resistance. Yet, in Memory and History, their actions were long neglected, as the image of the resistant-fighter was first imposed. By endeavouring to describe the itineraries and actions of five figures of resistance fighters, the students also initiate themselves into historical research, by reconstituting the journeys of heroic women, engaged in one way or another from 1940-1941.
THE GENOCIDES OF THE 20th CENTURY
COMIC FOR MEMORY
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
Through the discovery of comic strips, this workshop proposes to study the genocides of Armenians, Jews and Tutsis. Students are invited to reflect and work on several albums, The Armenian Ghost, Maus and The Fantasy of the Gods, as well as to understand the unique approach of each author. Thanks to an original narrative and a particular graphic design, they address the representation of the genocidal process and the questions raised by the transmission of memory.
JUSTICE FACING GENOCIDES
For students in the 3rd and 12th grade
Since 1945, the Justice system has strived to answer the questions raised by crimes of genocide: what are the crimes that can be qualified as genocide? Who are responsible for these crimes? How to punish those who participated in them? From sound and visual archives of 20th century trials (notably Nuremberg in 1945-1946, Eichmann in 1961, Klaus Barbie in 1987 and the Gacaca of Rwanda in the 2000s), this workshop aims to initiate a reflection on the way in which a society is recovering from a genocide and allows survivors to consider once again a common life.
GYPSY DESTINIES
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
The activities proposed in this workshop aim to deconstruct prejudices still so often present today. It is a question of better understanding the reasons for the internment of Gypsies in France and their killing in Nazi Europe through some individual journeys. Students are invited to create a sound montage that mixes their voices with the gypsy music of yesterday and today.
IMAGES of AUSCHWITZ: HISTORY AND REPRESENTATIONS (CNRD)
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
The photographs taken by the Allies during the discovery of the concentration camps largely contributed to creating a false representation of the Shoah. But the analysis of the photographs taken by the SS at Auschwitz in 1944 allows us to grasp, provided we question them, the history and the representations of this place which has become central in the history of the genocide of the Jews. During the workshop, students will be led to work on various visual and textual archives, to reflect on the relationship with images and to exercise their critical thinking.
HISTORY AND CITIZENSHIP
THE PHILOSOPHY TO COMBAT PREJUDICES
For students in 6th and 5th grade
During a philosophical awakening session, the nature and forms of prejudices are evoked, their links with discrimination, rejection and hatred of others.
US AND THE OTHERS AT THE CINEMA
For students from 6th to 5th grade
Through excerpts from classic fiction films such as E.T. by Steven Spielberg (1982) and Edward at the Silver Hand by Tim Burton (1991), which recount a first encounter with the Other, the children exchange among themselves on prejudices and the relationship to otherness.
BY THE WAY WHAT IS BEING JEWISH?
For students from the 6th grade onwards
On the eve of the Second World War, more than 300,000 Jews lived in France. With diverse origins, cultures, and languages, the Jews of France are far from forming a homogeneous group. So, what does it mean to be Jewish? Is it to share a religion, a history or a culture? A common destiny after the dispersion? So many facets that are evoked during the workshop using images, texts, objects and melodies. A walk in the Marais then allows participants to discover the Jewish life of yesterday and today by making a logbook.
PREJUDICES: IN DAILY LIFE AND IN HISTORY
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
How are prejudices formed? How do they become rooted in a society? How can they sometimes lead to institutionalized racism, or genocide? Students address these questions by analyzing the prejudices transmitted through language or propaganda images. They also try to put into perspective the role of certain racist prejudices in the history of the 20th century.
NEW! The Imaginary Jew: a story of anti-Jewish myths (FROM JANUARY 2025)
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
Although the term 'Antisemirésumé' was coined at the end of the 19th century, hatred against the Jews is based on several centuries-old myths reactivated in times of crisis. From documents of various natures conveyed from the Middle Ages to the present day, students analyze the construction of antisemitic speeches and imagery over the long term, between permanences and mutations.
Far from the imaginary Jew, reflection opens, through constant exchanges and dedicated activities, on a discovery of the diversity of the Jewish worlds.
FROM THE BERLIN OLYMPICS TO TODAY: SPORT, A MIRROR OF OUR SOCIETIES?
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
Used by the Nazi power as a real propaganda tool (cinema, press, radio, posters), the competition is put to use to make the 1936 Olympics the symbol of the greatness of the Third Reich. Sport was thus regularly instrumentalized by political regimes that provoked resistance from civil societies. This workshop gives a large place to the destinies of athletes who are victims of persecution, to solidarity between athletes and to the media coverage of their fights.
INFORMATION, INFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA
For students from 4th to 12th grade
At a time when traditional media are being questioned and social networks occupy a considerable place in the daily lives of students, unraveling truth from falsehood becomes increasingly difficult and yet indispensable. In the context of a historical perspective and the study of different media (texts, photographs, videos), students learn to stimulate their critical thinking, to identify the sources of information and to verify them. This workshop, flexible according to the school programs of each of the classes concerned, aims at the appropriation of useful tools and reflexes to better cope with a continuous flow of information.
THE CONSPIRACY FACTORY: YESTERDAY AND TODAY
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
Plot or conspiracy theory? The history of the Shoah is a revealing example of the manipulation of public opinion. Structured by anti-Semitism, the Nazi ideology is based on a conspiratorial vision of the world. By establishing relevant links between history and the very contemporary period, the workshop aims to provide tools to better analyze images and speeches that circulate on the Internet and social networks.
HISTORY OF ARTS
THE WANDERING MEMORY
For students from 6th to 5th grade
What is the point of remembering? How does memory work? Who remembers and why? Christian Boltanski, Jiro Taniguchi, Muriel Bloch and many other artists have addressed these questions. From the discovery of very varied works (installation, comic book, music, tale...), children will try to understand the main mechanisms of memory and its major functions. They will then examine the use and role of commemorative plaques.
THE STORY IS DISPLAYED
For students from 6th grade to 12th grade
What do the images tell us? How to analyze them and place them in a precise historical context? This workshop is a "laboratory of image creation": it makes a connection with History, the propaganda images of the past and those of the present (media, social networks). Students experiment with various graphic games around the concepts of robot portraits, caricature and dehumanization. These exercises allow them, then, to decrypt a propaganda poster.
WAR REPORTER
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
The students first study the constraints faced by war reporters, both German and Allied, when they were in the field. They then decipher the composition of photographs taken in Paris, Kiev, Bergen-Belsen or Auschwitz. Finally, they seek to measure the impact of these images on the perception and understanding of genocide. The workshop ends with the creation of a "notebook" containing the students' notes and sketches made from a chosen photograph.
NEW ! VISITS-WORKSHOPS ON SPECIFIC DATES
The Shoah Memorial offers workshops on specific dates starting in September.
Located at the junction of history, literature, philosophy, art history or even moral and civic education, these workshops contribute from the beginning of the school year to the construction of knowledge, learning and the development of critical thinking of students.
They were 13,000: Route of the Vel d'Hiv
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
• Thursday, September 19, 2024 from 2 PM to 5 PM
• Thursday, September 26, 2024 from 2 PM to 5 PM
Prejudices in everyday life and in history
For students from the 4th grade onwards
• Monday, September 23, 2024 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Tuesday, October 8, 2024 from 2 PM to 5 PM
Information, disinformation and propaganda
For students from 4th to 12th grade
• Tuesday, September 24, 2024 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Monday, October 14, 2024 from 2 PM to 5 PM
Images of Auschwitz: history and representations
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
• Wednesday, September 25, 2024 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Wednesday, October 16, 2024 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The imaginary Jew: a story of anti-Jewish myths
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
• Wednesday, October 9, 2024 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Jewish Resistances: Save, fight, testify
For students from 9th grade to 12th grade
• Tuesday, October 15, 2024 from 2 PM to 5 PM
CYCLE OF SPECIFIC EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE CITY OF PARIS
PARIS UNDER THE OCCUPATION
This cycle consists of three activities: The workshop Joseph, Jean, Claude and the others... at the Shoah Memorial, the visit Le Marais sous l'Occupation, as well as the workshop La vie quotidienne dans le Paris de l'Occupation at the National Archives.
THE GENOCIDES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
This cycle consists of several activities: a visit to the Shoah Memorial and three workshops:
BD for Memory, Gypsy destinies, Justice in the face of genocide.
DECONSTRUCT RACIST PREJUDICES
This cycle consists of several activities: two workshops at the Memorial Daily prejudices in history and History is displayed, then an inter-museum at the National Museum of the History of Immigration
PROPAGANDA AND HATE SPEECH IN HISTORY
This cycle consists of several activities: a thematic visit to the Memorial focusing on antisemitic discourse and propaganda, and three workshops: History on display, From the Berlin Olympics to the present day: sport, mirror of our societies? , The factory of the plot: yesterday and today.
