Introduction
Broken Threads From Aryanization to Cultural Loss: The Destruction of the Jewish Fashion Industry in Germany and Austria, is an exhibit which celebrates over forty years of fashion (1895 - 1938) created by Jewish designers and manufacturers from Germany and Austria while delineating the methodical destruction of this industry during the Holocaust. As surprising as it may be, to think of avantgarde and couturier fashions in the context of Holocaust education, this exhibit presents a unique and unexplored aspect of Holocaust history. The scarcity of these fashions today, speaks to the terrible consequences of this historical period.
Jews had been prominent in the fashion industry in Germany and Austria for over a hundred years. Nazism changed that forever. Forced from their homes and businesses, excluded from most professions, occupations and cultural life, Jews disappeared. Along with them went the fashion prominence of Berlin and Vienna. Beginning with propaganda and the boycotts of 1933 and escalating to the expropriation of businesses, emigration and deportation, Broken Threads can be seen as a microcosm, reflecting the larger devastation of the Holocaust.
About the Teacher's Guide
Broken Threads: A Teacher's Guide is design both complement the exhibit and act as a resource for teachers wishing to explore the period of time from 1933, when the Nazis first assumed power after Kristallnacht. Although the guide focuses on the earliest measures and decrees enacted by the against the Jews of Germany and Austria, it also deals with the concentration camps, and the issues of cultural and human loss.
The Teacher's Guide is divided into nine chronological sections which deal with the themes of Propaganda, Boycotts, Intimidation and Humiliation, Nationalism, Aryanization, Nuremberg Laws, Kristallnacht, Deportations, and Emigration and Loss.
Each section is document-based and makes use of primary documents, archival photographs, fashion drawings and newspaper clippings. Teachers encouraged to photocopy these primary doci and the accompanying information pages for students' use. At the end of each section, teachers will find suggestions for classroom activities and discussion.