As in Lessons 2 and 3, GIVE OUT post-it notes of one colour to pairs. Within a set time limit ask pupils to write statements which summarise how Germans viewed Sikh soldiers in 1914 from the evidence that they have seen so far.

SELECT pairs to come up and stick their post-it notes to the image of the Sikh soldier reading out statements as they do so.

From the link below DOWNLOAD AND ENLARGE copies of the portraits showing Sikh prisoners of war painted by German artists during the war (these are images 1- 5 of the ‘Portraits' gallery slideshow):  

http://www.sikhmuseum.com/artofwar/portraits/index.html

PLACE these portraits at child eye-level around the room and ask children to rotate slowly around the portraits in silence jotting down what impression they get of the soldiers (do not reveal at this stage that the portraits were completed by German artists).

After a set time ASK pairs to discuss their impressions of each painting and take suggestions for suitable words to describe soldiers.

DISPLAY Resource M: Slide 2 and lead a discussion about which terms would best describe the paintings of Sikh soldiers.

THEN reveal that the paintings were painted by German artists of Sikh prisoners of war.

DISPLAY Resource M: Slide 6 and explain that the Germans captured thousands of Allied non-white colonial soldiers from Africa and Asia and set up a special prison camp called the Halfmoon Camp in the town of Wunsdorf in Germany. Explain that around one hundred Sikhs were held prisoner in the camp.

DIVIDE the class into small groups and give out copies of sources (Resources O1 to O5) which give evidence of how the German authorities treated the prisoners and what other Germans said about Sikh (and other Indian) soldiers during and just after the First World War.

ASK groups to read the sources carefully and once again display Resource M: Slide 2. Within a set time limit ask groups to annotate the sources for evidence of German attitudes towards Sikh soldiers and discuss the extent to which these appear to have changed since the outbreak of the war.

GIVE OUT a new set of post-it notes (of a different colour to those used at the start of the lesson) and ask pupils to write down statements which summarise German attitudes towards Sikh (and other Indian) soldiers after 1914.

ASK them to bring these to the front of the class and stick them to the image of the Sikh corporal.

LEAD a final discussion about:  

• how much German attitudes had shifted (Indian
  soldiers were respected and admired); 
• why they had shifted (because of greater first-hand
  knowledge of Indian soldiers); 
• how similar yet different German attitudes were compared to British ones (both the British and Germans in general retained the belief that Europeans were superior to non-whites, both admired Indians of the "martial races", but British attitudes were underpinned by the fear that they might lose control of their colonial subjects in India). 

For a summary of the historic background as to how the Germans treated Sikh (and other Indian) prisoners of war, see Resource P.