Wall of Resistance - Class Project

Wall of Resistance

Created by students in John Boselman's Humanities class at High Tech High School, in Chula Vista, California. Mr. Bosselman was one of more than 50 teachers participating in the Holocaust Center's pilot project for the "Everyday Objects: Artifacts from Washington State Holocaust Survivors" poster series and curriculum. These materials helped to inform his students.

What is the cost of war to humanity and to the human body?
This project was exhibited at Festival del Sol on March 25, 2010

In 1961 the Soviet Union, in Eastern Germany, constructed a wall that would divide the world into two. In the east, communism and the Soviet Union, while the west “democracy” and the United States battled throughout this Cold War. This wall became the symbol of the division between these two countries and their ideology that ultimately brought the world the closest it has ever been to annihilation.

We asked our students to create their own Wall, focusing on the conflicts of the 20th and 21st century. Each panel of the wall is an answer to their own essential questions and their own perspective on the cost of the war, both to society and to us biologically as humans. It is our hope that this Wall of Resistance is a symbol of how close humanity has come to its annihilation, whether that be of the human race as a whole, the individual human body, or even the individual human cell.

One of the student art pieces, entitled "Work Sets You Free," focuses on World War II and the Holocaust. Mr. Bosselman describes it:
On the left side of the project is a creative representation of World War II the Home Front in America and the use of propaganda, especially by Walt Disney. The right side of the project is the students' depiction of the Holocaust. You can see the contrast between the two sides, Donald Duck on one side, and the silhouette of a human on the other.

To see this piece and others, please see the Wall of Resistance.

Special thanks to John Bosselman for sharing his project and students' work.