The Museum Case of the exhibition Tracing European Forced Labour. Southern Lower Saxony 1939-1945 combines playful elements that arouse curiosity with an active and intensive engagement with historical issues. It is especially recommended for working with young students and youth groups.
It allows young people to play the role of historical researchers who use the exhibition to track down the meaning of objects, photos and documents relating to Nazi forced labour. As the tasks are quite challenging, participants should not be too young and preferably have some previous knowledge of history.
Following a brief introduction to the content, participants are divided into small groups, each of which explores one of ten different museum cases. Each case represents a sub-theme of the exhibition, such as recruitment and captivity, deportation, day-to-day survival or forced labourers from different countries, and contains a number of objects whose meaning is to be discovered. These include photographs and documents, but also three-dimensional objects that symbolically refer to the theme, such as wooden clogs, a sack of grain or a cattle prod.
With the help of an exhibition guide in the form of a map and all the elements available in the exhibition, the young people investigate what these objects are all about. These elements include the interviews with contemporary witnesses in the multimedia stations and the interactive map, which marks places in the region associated with forced labour. Questions on action cards, which are similar to playing cards, help the young people to structure what they have discovered. Finally, each small group presents its findings. The whole process is educationally supported by the exhibition staff.
The wide variety of materials allows students to approach the topic of forced labour in a creative and original way, while learning in a way they choose. Through the exchange of ideas, they can not only deal with the content of the exhibition, but also discuss current issues such as the dangers of racism and right-wing extremism in our society.
Suitable for: people aged 15 and upwards
Prior knowledge of history is desirable
Duration: about three or four hours with breaks (the timing of the workshop can be adjusted)
Cost: € 60 per group (one exhibition catalogue per person is included)
