Governor Phil Murphy • Lt. Governor Tahesha Way

Portraits of Resilience - Identity Chart

The book Portraits of Resilience was the inspiration of Gail Rosenthal, former Director of Stockton University’s Holocaust Resource Center, who intended to capture the essence of the experiences of Holocaust survivors who settled in South Jersey after the war. The portraits were taken by Stockton University students with the assistance and vision of Dr. Maryann McLoughlin and some are now available in a classroom set of posters. A quote at the beginning of Portraits of Resilience perfectly represents the power of this book: 

“We must do our best to understand those eldest among us, those who have ‘borne most’; to talk to them, and love them, and bear witness.” 

-Martin Goldsmith, author of The Inextinguishable Symphony: A Tale of Music and Love in Nazi Germany, and son of German Holocaust survivors. 

The concept for the posters is to emphasize that one line does not define a person, but it can encapsulate that person’s resilience. The American Psychological Association defines resilience as “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.” This trait is demonstrated by Holocaust survivors, not only during the events of the Holocaust, but in the years that followed as they rebuilt their lives and their families. 

The activity best suited to addressing the idea of identity and its fluidity is Facing History & Ourselves’ Identity Chart. This lesson can be done either at the beginning or at the end of a Holocaust unit. To make deeper connections, teachers use the exercise at both times so they can compare the differences in their understanding. 

Objectives

Students will review survivor biographies and complete identity charts for their own reflections. Key takeaways from the lesson should be that every survivor has a different story to tell that shaped them into the person they became after the war. By completing this activity, students will be able to:

  1. Understand concepts like stereotypes, identity, and the historical significance of labeling the identity of an entire group.
  2. Identify cultural and social factors that impact identity by analyzing biographies relating to a Holocaust survivor. 
  3. Make strong personal connections between themselves, the people in their lives and the people they are studying.

*Adjusted from Facing History and Ourselves 

  1. Open a discussion with your students about the elements of identity. What makes a person who they are? How does someone’s environment contribute to their identity? How does someone’s experiences contribute to their identity? Are there parts of our identity that change as we grow older? Is someone else’s perspective of you an accurate understanding of your identity? Would you feel comfortable with someone that doesn’t know you to make an identity chart for you? How can labeling people (stereotypes) sometimes be damaging to their identity? 
  2. On the board, present an identity chart or practice one of yourself for your students to understand the concept.
  3. Read your class Facing History’s “What is an Identity Chart?” This will help students understand the goal of creating an identity chart.
  4. Show the class America Ferrera’s TedTalk and instruct them to make an identity chart for her as they watch.
  5. Show the class the sample of America Ferrera’s identity chart and allow a discussion about what they wrote on their charts as they watched and why they felt certain details were important to them.
  6. Assign each of the survivors included in the classroom set of posters to the students. There are not enough people for each student to have a different name so they can either work in pairs or individually just repeating biographies. 
  7. If a teacher is doing this activity at the beginning of the Holocaust unit, the students can use solely the biography to do their identity chart. If it’s being done at the end, the student should use their knowledge of the entire Holocaust and any other information they’ve gotten since starting the unit. 
  8. Emphasize to students that during this time period, labels were assigned to entire groups of people that were dangerous and that led to the targeting of those groups. While this lesson is meant to discuss resilience and courage presented by Holocaust survivors, note that labels can be negative and harmful. 
  9. Have the students read their corresponding biography for their survivor. Encourage them to look at the faces of the survivor on the poster, and think about the person behind the story. What must this person have felt when this happened to them? How would they describe themselves? 
  10. After students create an identity chart, you can ask them to select the five items they think are most significant in shaping this person or group’s identity. As students compare their lists, this often deepens their understanding of the person being studied. (Facing History)
  11. Facing History recommends a journal entry or writing response after discussing the identity charts which can be used as a form of assessment to evaluate understanding. 

A great way to assess students’ understanding of the Holocaust survivors’ stories included in this lesson is to assign them a memorial assessment. Asking them to then take the qualities and details of these people and commemorate them with this assessment.