Pairs Game

Poems, a drawing and a miniature carving made from a toothbrush handle. Part of what makes the jar smuggled out of Ravensbrück unique is that it contains works of art as well as documents. Letters reveal that the drawing and carving were not one-offs, but that other artistic testimonies were illegally brought out of the concentration camp. Art was created within Ravensbrück – this is why we also want to encourage a creative approach to its history.



Art and Human Rights


Poetry and art also form an arc to the topic of human rights. Among the 30 individual rights enshrined in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there is a right to freedom of opinion and expression, to cultural self-expression, to a life in free self-determination and self-esteem. Article 19, for example, reads: “Freedom of Expression. We all have the right to make up our own minds, to think what we like, to say what we think, and to share our ideas with other people.” (The articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in this project are quoted from a simplified version of the original wording to make it accessible to young people, see: are inviolable rights, as stressed in the final article: “No One Can Take Away Your Human Rights” (article 30).

A commitment to human rights and human dignity, and to protecting them, should not simply be expected from the state alone, nor should it be promoted in a purely egoistic way. Instead, we need to find ways and means of taking a stand for others and their rights and freedoms: “Responsibility. We have a duty to other people, and we should protect their rights and freedoms.” (Article 29).

Music and artistic testimonies have been employed in the defence of human rights in many contexts. Art is not just a means of expression for showing and communicating personal identities. History shows that artistic engagement has always been a tool in the battle for human rights. Art has performed particular service for those who have denounced human rights abuses, wanting to record, remember and thus to visualise them. The artistic testimonies left by concentration camp prisoners are as much an example of this as slave music.

Political change often comes about via art. Music and movement, language, colour and shape can be used to name, preserve and convey grievances and longings alike. In this way, art can therefore be used to transmit a creative, artistic engagement with history and human rights directly into our own living reality and contemporary society.



Aims 


The pairs cards, like the project as a whole, are intended to raise awareness of the ways art and music are (or can be) used as a means of bringing about political change, of asserting our own dignity in the face of degrading living conditions and human rights abuses, or even of first developing it. Of vital importance here is finding an I-position from which to focus on the You. When engaging with artistic testimonies, created in the concentration camp, it is also important to keep sight of the original significance that the art had for its creators. It was often a way of dissociating from those who were abusing their human rights. Artistic expressions always document the struggle for dignity, sometimes art becomes a weapon in the battle for freedom of expression, for elementary human rights. Looking at the original context is important for other examples in the pairs cards too. If expressions of music, dance, sport or art are uncoupled from their origins and made into commercial products, politics easily becomes folklore and cliché.

The pairs cards developed here are intended to create opportunities for conversation about art and the world. The young people can get to know how others have transformed the experience of outrage and powerlessness into dignified action via art and music. They are challenged to describe the pictured topics and can recognise in the process that emotions can be shaped and expressed in a way that can be shared and conveyed to others. They can also reflect on the respective role of community.

The pairs cards are designed to help in developing their own definition of human dignity as well as a job description for art as a means in the struggle for human rights.

The game is designed as a way in to learning about history and making initial connections with the subject of human rights and human dignity.
 Some of the pictures introduce material that plays a part in the building blocks. But it is also suitable for lessons that tackle the subject of human rights in an explicit and more detailed way.



Topics in the Cards


A total of 36 images with corresponding texts are available. The pictures and commentaries relate to the subject of “Memory, Art and Human Dignity”. 

The following topics are covered:

Historical aspects (e.g. slavery or concentration camp art)

Minorities and their human rights (Poles, Sinti and Roma, Kurds, disabled people), especially ensuring them decent basic living conditions.

Art forms and their significance for individual or collective self-expression and in the struggle for human dignity (music, painting and dance, also as martial arts)

Examples of violations of human dignity in and around school offer the opportunity to reflect on their own experience of life and especially the limits of the freedom of expression.

Other topics of relevance to the smuggled papers or which might come up in further discussion of contemporary human rights questions, including various means of discrimination (even today), slave labour and imprisonment, denouncing massive repression and brutal treatment, attempts to reflect on their own values and significance, demands for freedom of expression and ensuring decent basic living conditions and the many attempts at self-determination and self-expression made through art.

Educational Goals:

To get to know how others have transformed the experience of outrage and powerlessness into dignified action via art and music.

To be able to describe the pictured topics.

To recognise that emotions can be given a form and expressed in a way that can be shared with and conveyed to others.

To reflect on the respective role of community.

To develop their own definition of human dignity, which according to Wolfram Höfling et al, includes the following aspects:


1. Living in physical integrity (respect and protection for physical integrity)

2. Living in social justice (ensuring humane basic living conditions)

3. Living with equal value before the law, without degrading discrimination (guaranteeing elementary legal equality)

4. Living in free self-determination and self-esteem, being able to understand oneself as an individual (preservation of personal identity).