Balchowsky. Click on his name and open a new window providing
additional information and a video clip.
Al Tanz
Jewish Spanish Civil War Veterans during World War II
. Read this
page, and locate the link for Tanz. Click to open a window providing
background info for Tanz. Additional information can be found in
The
Volunteer Vol. XXIII, No. 5 (Winter 2001)
Yekhiel Shulevitch
Internationalism & the Spanish Civil War
.
R
ead this
page for background, and click on the link for Shulevitch, to open a new
window providing about his life, and a separate link to an interview &
transcripts.
7. Provide student groups with ample time to examine the available information
about their assigned individual.
8. Introduce the idea of a "life map" to students by asking them to consider how
the paths of their own lives can be described graphically as a map or journey.
Invite a student to volunteer to sketch his or her own life map for the whole
class, or construct one for yourself and present it to students.
9. As a concluding activity, students will create a life map for one of the individuals
explored in this lesson. Students could either collaborate on the person they
studied, or be divided up into pairs to explore the lives of individuals studied by
other student groups. Alternatively, individual students could construct life maps
for individuals referenced elsewhere in the ALBA site.
10. Students, using paper and markers, draw out the journey of their selected person,
starting with birth showing the significant people, events, experiences, etc. of
their life. Have students revisit the questions they used in step #5.
11. As a group, pair or individuals, students will present their completed life maps,
projecting images, text and video resources from the ALBA site. The focus of
these presentations should be to revisit the initial questions examined in step #1
regarding motivations people have for volunteering.
Suggestions for follow-up activities
This lesson can be followed by a variety of activities to deepen student understanding both
the historical context of the Spanish Civil War and the individual motivations people have
for participating situations similar to the International Brigades.
1. Students could explore other sections of the ALBA site and/or the archived editions of
The Volunteer
2. Students could brainstorm for other historical or contemporary events where people
took extraordinary risks at times of great danger. Students could search for
commonalities and/or differences among these situations.
3.
Suggestions for assessment of student learning.
