[AUSCHWITZ] EVALUATION OF THE TPEs

THE WORK PERFORMED

THROUGHOUT THE YEAR:

THE T.P.E.

(FRAMED PERSONAL WORKS)

The sessions started in the month of February. In collaboration with my colleague from Lettres Modernes, Mrs. Buzin-Guérin, many topics on the Shoah were proposed to the students (see the initial project). A certain number of them (ten in total) did not wish to work on this theme, without however expressing the reasons.

Regarding personal work, we deliberately left the students facing their difficulties. Nevertheless, I provided them with important documentation and stood at their disposal, notably to make them meet witnesses, direct or indirect, of the Holocaust.

The record is, overall, mixed. These T.P.E. were not better or worse than if the trip to Auschwitz had not been made. The defects and qualities of all subjects are those found in the discipline.

- We find the difficulties they face in identifying a problem with a subject: vague titles, absence of problems or problems that are not adapted to the subject, TPE plan that does not address the stated problem. Regarding the form, there is sometimes neither an introduction, nor conclusion.

The case of the 3^th part of the T.P.E. on the dehumanization process is, in this respect, revealing. The student wished to work with a very precise comrade and not with the group that was already working on negationism, hence the "sleight of hand" to make negationism an umpteenth (this term is already an admission of incomprehension in itself!) form of dehumanization. I did not dissuade her from it: I hoped that by working on this concept of dehumanization, she would realize the impasse in which she found herself. It was nothing! It seems, moreover, that the three girls in this group worked each on their own, without worrying about what the others were doing.

The T.P.E. on the Resistance also reveals a total absence of my knowledge of the subject. In addition to the repetitions from one part to another, there are numerous off-subjects that considerably hinder the coherence of the whole: a part devoted to daily life under the Occupation, a development on the Gestapo which only concerns its implementation in Germany in the thirties

- Another defect of T.P.E. to which this class has not escaped more than the others, the drama of copy/paste and the total absence of personal reflection.

The two topics on negationism (negationism and the 3^th part of that on the process of dehumanization already mentioned) are more about the pillage of the website, certainly a reference, what is http://www.phdn.org/negation/definition.html that of a real understanding of the issue that Holocaust denial represents for memory.

Similarly, the work on the memory of the war and its evolution is just a clumsy attempt to summarize P. Ricoeur’s article, which the students clearly did not understand at all.

It is, for a certain number of subjects, impossible to determine if the students have really assimilated and understood what they have copied.

- It is also appropriate to mention the clumsiness (for which, however, my colleague and I had warned them) that one finds "traditionally" in this type of work: the references of the documents are never indicated (they are only there to "illustrate" the remarks, but their source is identifiable), the bibliographies (when they appear!) are very incomplete and unusable ("the newspaper Le Monde")

In fact, the investment varies greatly depending on the individual: students who are generally serious in class have been so for very small businesses. Those who are not or few usually, nor have they been Shoah or not, trip to Auschwitz or not Rare are those elsewhere who exploited the trip to Auschwitz in the reflection they conducted.

I had to completely re-enter all the TPEs (with the exception of one), having only received the 'paper' versions and corrected only the spelling mistakes (probably leaving a few, despite my efforts!) and the syntax when it was really too incoherent. But, I did not correct any errors, no misunderstandings although certain assertions made me shiver (cf. the figures on deportation in the TPE on the children of deportees, the confusions between extermination and concentration camps, allegations that Vichy retained full powers, including in occupied areas and so on ).

However, some works are worth noting for the students' investment. The two who worked on art and the Shoah did it with relevance and interesting personal reflection. Those who worked on the memory of the deportation in Bergerac made multiple approaches to a certain number of people. Another did not hesitate to go all the way to Bordeaux to film the remains of this memory. The work on the dehumanization process (the first part) was particularly well conducted. Similarly, the work on photography in the camps, despite some inconsistencies, is not uninteresting.

This work has been noted, but the notes (and ratings) have been manually transferred to the report cards: they therefore have no impact on the quarterly averages. Finally, we sometimes had to distinguish, within the same group, the different stakeholders with very different investments. The grade takes into account the substance, the form, but also the oral performance.

Titles	Appreciations	Notes (/20)
The transmission of the memory of deportation by deportees to their children	Superficial set. Submitted with a lot of delay.	04
The deportation to Bordeaux	An unequal investment of the group members. Certain aspects would have deserved to be developed.	13 and 08
The memory of the deportation to Bergerac	A relevant and effective investment.	16
The memory of genocide and its evolution	The relevant cultural tracks have been eliminated. The quality concern is missing in this file.	08
The German repression against the French Resistance during the Second World War	An approach that is not sufficiently analytical given the chosen issue	08
The witness photograph of the Nazi concentration camp system	Analysis to be deepened. Structure of the clumsy whole.	11
Art and the Shoah	Relevant analyses and quality presentation.	17
Negationism	Poorly researched ensemble. Lack of personal analysis.	08
The process of dehumanization in the concentration camp system	Uneven overall, both in terms of investment and analysis.	16 12 and 10

Summary