If These Shoes Could Talk, published in the November 2017 SchoolArts Magazine.
Rachel Wintemberg
When allied forces liberated
Auschwitz in 1945, towering masses of worn out shoes were one of the first
things they saw, all that was left of millions of victims of Hitler's “final
solution.” 1.5 million children perished in the Holocaust; Jews, Jehovah Witnesses,
Gypsies and the disabled were labeled as degenerate and exterminated.
In the 1930’s, Germany’s economy was
in shambles. Many believed that Jews were to blame and that exterminating them
would solve their problems. My students and I discussed how even in modern day
America, people unfairly blame and stereotype groups of people. Most of my
students have experienced such prejudice first hand and could readily identify
with the bullying of minorities in Nazi Germany. The following lesson
coordinated with the study of the Holocaust in Language Arts classes at my
school where students read books ranging from Number The Stars to Night.
I shared photographs from Auschwitz
with my students and we discussed how, upon arrival, Jews were directed to
remove their clothing so that they could wash. Once they entered the showers
the doors were locked. Instead of water, poisonous gas spewed forth. The bodies
were shoved into crematoriums. Hair was used to stuff mattresses and pillows
and discarded clothing was salvaged for rags but the worn shoes piled up.
I shared the story of my father, a
Holocaust survivor, showing his childhood photographs and reading excerpts of
my grandfather’s memoirs. This helped the class to identify with the plight of
children from long ago, many who never got to grow up, who once had hopes and
dreams just like their own. What could these children have done with their
lives, given the chance?
Assuming Identities
I assigned students the identity of
a boy or girl and asked them to create a sculpture of a shoe to honor them. In
the process, students developed empathy and sought to raise awareness of
discrimination. Would others be able to identify, as my students had, with
those who suffered persecution and starvation but kept walking until the last
day of their lives? If the shoes could talk, what would they tell us?
How could my students get those who viewed their sculptures to feel emotionally
connected to these children and see them as individuals? We pondered how
painful it is to be treated by society as “less than.”
Stepping in Another’s
Shoes
Each of my students received a
child’s identity card from the American Holocaust Museum website. They read the
biography and got to work building a shoe. I worked beside them designing a
shoe for my father. Knowing we would have to write an artist statement
connecting the child to our artwork, we took notes as we worked, describing our
creative choices. Since many victims died as toddlers or left little
information, students were encouraged to imagine that their assigned child was
like them. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I asked. “Make your hopes
and dreams their hopes and dreams. They cannot speak for themselves. It is your
job to speak for them.”
Engineering
The shoes were made from plaster
bandage to insure they were sturdy enough to be displayed in a pile. Some
students wrapped their bare feet in plastic wrap and then wrapped them with
plaster. A few held their foot rigidly
in an upward position as the plaster dried and then used tinfoil and plaster to
add a heel. Many brought in old shoes and wrapped them, first in plastic wrap
and then in plaster to create a cast.
Some traced the sole of their shoes
onto cardboard and then built a solid form using newspaper and masking tape
before making a cast. Others chose to build solid sculptures that merely looked
like shoes. A few built three-dimensional shoes using tag board, cardboard, and
masking tape by tracing the sides and bottom of a real shoe, assembling, and
then taping on a top and tongue. Prior to adding plaster bandages, tag board
sculptures needed to be covered with tin foil to prevent distortion and
collapse.
Inspiration and Reflection
During this lesson, I began each
class by sharing examples of shoe sculptures by contemporary artists from the
Virtual Shoe Museum. My middle schooners were inspired to see that, like them,
real artists often transform shoes into works of art.
Finally, students added design
elements with clay, before using a final layer of plaster, primer, and paint.
Writing imaginary futures for children who would never grow up, students
connected their sculptures with the person we were honoring, linked their choices
to a contemporary artist and described their process.
"I felt sad because she would never be able to see the shoe. Lisl
Winternitz never got to wear high heels because she died at such a young age. I
chose the colors pink and purple because when I imagined a girl dressing up as
a fairy princess I imagined her wearing those colors." Darleny Rodriguez, grade 8
Rachel
Wintemberg teaches visual art at Samuel E Shull Middle School in Perth Amboy,
New Jersey.
Web Links
What a powerful project. Makes me think as an art teacher, I can imagine how much it made your students think.
ReplyDelete