This section focuses on civic engagement and the importance of humanizing refugees.
Exercise Overview
View these short videos of child refugees from WWII, from The United Stated Holocaust Memorial Museum and Facing History. Answer the questions on this Holocaust Child Refugees worksheet.
- Leo Melamed: Life As A Refugee (USHMM)
- Ruth Berkowicz Segal: Fleeing Poland (USHMM)
- Esther Bem: Finding Safety in Italy (Facing History)
- Sophie Turner-Zaretsky: Transition From Poland to London (USHMM)
- Gerda Blachmann Wilchfort: Refugee on the St Louis (USHMM)
- Alice (Eberstarkova) Masters: Kindertransport (USHMM)
View the slideshow Migration and Refugees Today to see current images.
Read the following articles about refugees today:
- Fleeing for Our Lives: Central American Migrant Crisis, Amnesty International, April 2016
- Migrants’ Stories - Why They Flee, The Conversation, April 2019
- Children on the Run - Stories, UNHCR, April 2016
Student in groups will draw anchor charts about the refugee crisis today. Charts should include information about the crisis today to compare with the experience of the refugees from the Holocaust.
- What are the similarities between the two time periods?
- What are the differences?
- How does identity help to explain the issues that refugees face today?
View this video clip from Samantha Power, UN Ambassador (2013 - 2017), Small Things We Can Do for Refugees: The Importance of Humanizing Refugees.
Design an exhibit for your school about the refugee crisis today.
- Find a photograph and three documents about a refugee today.
- Where are they from?
- Why did they leave their home?
- What aspect of their identity helps us to humanize them?
- If you were introducing them to your friends, what would you say about them?
Lessons:
herocenter@ctvoicesofhope.org | 860.470.5591
20 Waterside Drive, Suite 100, Farmington, CT 06032