Share the definition of antisemitism with your students. You may choose to print out this page from Echoes & Reflections for students to have with them during the lesson.

Read through the definition together, breaking it down sentence by sentence if necessary. If you printed out the sheet for students, you could have them write notes or underline as you go through the definition.

Ask students if they have ever heard or seen antisemitism in their lives, whether it be online or in person. Ask if there are any volunteers willing to share their experiences.

Play this video (4-minutes) from CBS Morning News, taken from a lesson from Echoes & Reflections about Jewish teens talking about antisemitism.

Next, open up the class into a discussion with the following questions:

1. Did anything surprise you about what the teens said in the video?
2. Have any of you seen or heard anything similar to what is described in the video? What happened? How did you respond?
3. At the end of the video, the students talk about why other people should care about antisemitism. What did you think about what they said?

How might you respond if you see antisemitism or someone you know is being harassed? As a group, come up with some ideas of how to respond safely. Some examples could include:

• Say “that wasn’t funny” if someone makes a joke at their expense.
• Tell a trusted adult.
• Care for those that were targeted.

How might you encourage others to stand up to antisemitism? Draft a letter, a poster, or a slogan to encourage people to stand up to antisemitism and hate.

Ask the class to think of different ways someone could resist a dictatorship. Write all of the answers people come up with on the board or a shared work space.

Provide a brief overview of the Rosenstrasse Protest with the students. Use the resource, Rosenstrasse Protest by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum as a resource for this. Please have the students read through it individually and have them take notes. Take time to answer any questions students have as best you can.

Divide the class into groups to discuss the following questions:

1. What do you think could have happened if Germans had protested the mistreatment of German Jews during and right after Kristallnacht?
2. How do you think the German public would have responded had the protesters been met with violence?

Explain to students that after Kristallnacht, the violent outbreak against Jews, it was becoming increasingly difficult for Jewish people to leave Germany. Seeing this threat, Great Britain led a series of rescue efforts allowing thousands of refugee Jewish children temporary visas so they could leave Nazi Germany.

Pull up the resource, Kindertransport, by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and read through it as a class. Watch the videos and look at the historical artifacts included on the website.

Then play this short clip by Gerard Friedenfeld, local Wisconsin Holocaust survivor.

Open up into a class discussion with the questions below.

• How does Gerard explain his treatment by the SS?
• How did Gerard end up on the Kindertransport?

Share Jack Hellman’s teddy bear from the reading. Explain that many children brought very few personal items from home.

• Memory Box Activity: Have students journal about what memories or stories from their childhood they’d want to make sure they preserved and why.
• Consider having students sketch a drawing of their memory or write down their memory and anonymously display them on the classroom wall.

3-2-1 Exit Ticket

On a half sheet of paper, have students respond to the following based on today’s lessons:

• List three specific things you learned about the Kindertransport.
• Write two questions that are still on your mind.
• Write one personal reaction or reflection from today’s lesson.

Explain to students that the War Refugee Board was one of the initiatives that the United States worked on to provide aid during the Holocaust. Explain that they will be learning about one of the individuals that worked through these efforts to save Jews in Hungary.

Talking points provided by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Holocaust Encyclopedia.

• In January 1944, the War Refugee Board (WRB) was established. Bu this time, the United States government was aware of the mass murder of European Jews and established the WRB to provide aid.
• President Franklin D. Roosevelt tasked this organization with conducting an official American policy of rescue and relief.
• Staff from the WRB worked with Jewish organizations, diplomats from neutral countries, and resistance groups in Europe to rescue Jews from occupied territories and provide relief to Jews in hiding and in concentration camps.
• The War Rescue Board was vital in the rescue of tens of thousands of Jews.

Play the Yad Vashem video (6 minutes) for the class. If necessary, play the video again.

While they watch, ask students to write down answers to the following questions:

1. Who was Raoul Wallenberg?
2. How did Wallenberg provide aid to Jews?
3. What happened to Wallenberg?
4. How have his rescue efforts been honored?

As a class, discuss the responses to the video.

Lastly, show students a clip from Holocaust survivor, Tom Lantos through USC Shoah Foundation iWitness. Please note, that this link may take you to a search result. Click on the video for Tom.

After watching the clip, open into a class discussion on the impact that Raoul Wallenberg had on Tom Lantos. Remind them that Tom is just one of tens of thousands of Jews whose rescue is credited to Wallenberg.

Begin by asking your students what words come to mind when they think of the word ‘Genocide.’ Write down their responses on the whiteboard. If they are having trouble coming up with words, have them think of the Holocaust and the words they might use to describe that.

Next, provide students with the United Nations definition for genocide:

Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group as such:

• Killing members of the group;
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
• Imposing measurers intended to prevent births within the group;
• Forcibly transferring children of the groups to another group.

Ask your students if they have any questions after seeing the legal definition. If they do, have them write these down. Explain that the following resources will aim to expand their understanding of genocide. They will have the opportunity to return to these questions if they have not answered through the upcoming resources.

Play the video, What is Genocide? by the USC Shoah Foundation. As they watch, have them take notes about the different experiences mentioned and major themes to explore.

When the video is over, ask students to share that they wrote down.

Next, bring up Ben Ferencz through Dimensions in Testimony. Explain that Ben Ferencz was an American lawyer known for his work as an investigator of Nazi war crimes. You now have the opportunity to ask Ben some questions. Below are examples of questions that you may want to ask as a class, but you can ask other questions as they come up.

• What is genocide?
• Describe to me the scene you saw when you arrived at the concentration camp.
• How do you respond to the criticism that there was no need for the Nuremberg Trials?
• Are trials important?
• What is the role of international law in preventing genocide?

Ask students if their questions from the beginning have been answered. If not, have them read their questions to the class and try to answer them as a group. If you need additional resources, try the Holocaust Encyclopedia from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

As a group, go through some of the things they learned. If necessary, return to the list from the beginning and have them add to it with what they know.