Birth Certificate - Jack Gardner’s Son

Suggested time: 20 minutes
Grades: 6+ 

BEFORE YOU BEGIN: read Aftermath, watch the Historical Reflections video Surviving Genocide (or read the transcript) and read Loss and Liberation.

Part A. Study the birth certificate and caption and answer these questions: 

1. What is a birth certificate?  
2. How does a birth certificate relate to our sense of identity?
3. Does this birth certificate look similar to birth certificates you have seen before? How is it similar or different?
4. What does the appearance of this birth certificate tell you about conditions in the DP camp?
5. Think about Jack Gardner’s experiences before his son was born. What do you think it meant to Jack, as a Holocaust survivor, to receive this birth certificate for his son?

Part B. Reflect on the loss and liberation felt by Holocaust survivors in the DP camps and answer these questions: 

1. What might have drawn Jack to the DP camp after trying to return to his hometown? 
2. Does it surprise you that the birthrate in the DP camps was the highest in the world? Why or why not?  
3. What feelings do you think survivors experienced after the Holocaust? 
4. How do you think survivors dealt with these feelings in the decades that followed?