Tragedy and Memory 
Lesson plan by Zion Ozeri

Nova Concert Memorial, Kibutz Reim, October 7, 2023 © Photo by Zion Ozeri

Look closely at this photograph:

What do you see in this photograph? Who or what are the subjects? How would you describe the setting?
How does the photograph make you feel? What does the scene make you think of?
Why do you think the photographer might have chosen this perspective for his photograph? What effect does it have?
How does the physical setting of the scene affect the impact or message of the photograph?
What role does the lighting play in the mood and effect of the photograph?

Read the following poem:

"In the City of Slaughter"

Get up and walk through the city of the massacre,
And with your hand touch and lock your eyes
On the cooled brain and clots of blood
Dried on tree trunks, rocks, and fences; it is they.
Go to the ruins, to the gaping breaches,
To walls and hearths, shattered as though by thunder:
Concealing the blackness of a naked brick,
A crowbar has embedded itself deeply, like a crushing crowbar,
And those holes are like black wounds,
For which there is no healing or doctor.
Take a step, and your footstep will sink: you have placed your foot in fluff,
Into fragments of utensils, into rags, into shreds of books:
Bit by bit they were amassed through arduous labor and in a flash,
Everything is destroyed
And you will come out into the road
Acacias are blooming and pouring their aroma,
And their blooms are like fluff, and they smell as though of blood.
And their sweet fumes will enter your breast, as though deliberately,
Beckoning you to springtime, and to life, and to health;
And the dear little sun warms and, teasing your grief,
Splinters of broken glass burn with a diamond fire
God sent everything at once, everyone feasted together:
The sun, and the spring, and the red massacre!

In the City of Slaughter is a Hebrew poem written in 1904 by the Jewish poet Hayim Nahman Bialik about the 1903 Kishinev pogrom.

• Which line or lines moves you the most? Why?
• How does the poem relate to the photograph above?

The Anne Frank school, Budapest, Hungary, circa, 2001 © Zion Ozeri

Look closely at this photograph:

• What do you notice?  What stands out to you?  Make does it make you think of?  How does it make you feel?
• What do you know about Anne Frank? https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/who-was-anne-frank/
• What can you gather about her from the photograph?
• Why do you think the creators of this school wanted to name it after Anne Frank?
• How does this photograph relate to the first one you looked at?
• Why do we memorialize people who have been killed?  Why is it important to remember past suffering and tragic events like 10/7 and the Holocaust?
• What helps you to remember important events in your own past?

Here are some quotes from Anne Frank's diary:

Whoever is happy will make others happy too.
In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.
I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.
Memories mean more to me than dresses.

Which quote, or quotes, do you relate to the most? Why?

Suggested historical background: Britannica

Follow up activity

Take a photograph at home, at school, or in your neighborhood that reflects a personal memory.  Write a short paragraph explaining the significance of the photograph.