Victory from Within: The American Prisoner of War Curriculum

Curriculum cover

NPS/Andersonville National Historic Site

The Victory From Within (VFW) Curriculum is a companion middle/high school curriculum for the traveling exhibit "Victory From Within: The American Prisoner of War Experience."

Educating young people about the sacrifices made by American prisoners of war (POWs) is a shared goal of the Friends of Andersonville, the American Ex-Prisoners of War, the Korean War Ex-POW Association, Nam-POW, and the National Parks Service. The Curriculum is designed to accompany the traveling exhibit, but it can also be utilized with a visit to the National Prisoner of War Museum at Andersonville National Historic Site or as a standalone curriculum.

The VFW Curriculum is designed to provide a meaningful and powerful learning experience for young people across the U.S. to understand and appreciate the sacrifices made by American prisoners of war.

In an April 2011 American Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Survey (http://tiny.cc/ypvomw), it was found that:

• Only 1 in 5 American youth are familiar with the Geneva Conventions.
• Youth are inclined to support illegal actions in times of war.
• Only 1 in 5 American youth know that the U.S. first adopted rules limiting how wars should be conducted during the American Civil War.

The National Park Service and the POW organizations mentioned above hope to address these sobering statistics and bring the heroic and courageous stories of POWs to citizens across the country. The VFW Curriculum utilizes historical documents, political cartoons, artworks, interviews, articles, and other primary sources to provide a dynamic and active learning experience. By providing opportunities for young people to work with these historical artifacts, they learn to view information with a critical eye and to ask probing questions that lead to understanding. The hope is for lessons learned over time to come alive and be more meaningful for our next generation of historians and history-makers.