Introduce your students to the history of Jewish pogroms and the events of Kristallnacht. This historic event was a major warning sign to the Jews in Europe, and to people around the world, that things would only get worse.
Before you teach, use our teacher primer to freshen up on your content knowledge.
Introduce your students to the history of antisemitism and the ways in which it was used in the preliminary phases of the Holocaust.
Before you teach, use our teacher primer to freshen up on your content knowledge.
Introduce your students to the history of antisemitic pogroms and how they escalated into genocidal violence.
Before you teach, use our teacher primer to freshen up on your content knowledge.
Genocide is a legal term used to describe the intentional destruction of a minorities group. It may look different across different cases, but they share many commonalities.
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:
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.
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.
This lesson meets the following Academic Standards required by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Before you teach, use our teacher primer to freshen up on your content knowledge.
Students will learn about a piece of antisemitic literature that was spread in the early 20th century. Open into a conversation about how false information spreads and how difficult it is to be taken back once shared.
Antisemitism and conspiracy theories against Jewish people did not begin, nor did it end, with Nazi Germany.
Begin by asking your students, how does false information spread? Prompt students by asking them to think of social media. How credible are the posts they see? How easily are they shared? What is the danger in being able to easily and quickly post and share information?
Pull up the resource, A Hoax of Hate: The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion by the Anti-Defamation League. Start by reading the introduction and stop after the section titled, “The Protocols and Nazi Germany.”
Divide your class into small groups of 3-5 and provide them with the instructions below. Provide 10-15 minutes for the group activity before coming back together as a class to go over their answers.
Before you teach, use our teacher primer to freshen up on your content knowledge.
Students will watch a short film showing a pro-Nazi demonstration from 1939 in New York.
American citizens were aware of Nazi ideology and some supported and embraced these values.
Explain to your students that while the Nazi party only resided in Germany, Nazi ideology and practices sprouted in areas within the United States. The German-American Bund was a pro-Nazi organization for Americans of German descent. The Bund’s leader, Fritz Kuhn, tried to portray himself as the “American fuhrer,” although the organization never received support from the Nazi party.
Explain to your students that the German-American Bund was present in multiple states. The largest Bund rally was held in 1939 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Play this 7-minute film, A Night at the Garden by filmmaker Marshall Curry. Warn students that the video contains hateful speech and that some of the clip may be difficult to watch.
While they watch, ask students to take notes on what they see. When the film is over, take 5 minutes for students to share what they wrote down.
Use the remaining time to open a discussion with the questions below:
This lesson meets the following Academic Standards required by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Before you teach, use our teacher primer to freshen up on your content knowledge.
Students will learn about the descrimination against Black Germans from 1933 to the end of the war under Nazi rule.
All groups that did not meet Nazi criteria, Aryan race were subject to violence and discrimination.
Ask students what they know about the other groups persecuted by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Can they come up with other examples of groups that were the targets of Nazi violence?
Explain to students that the Nazis’ idea of creating a superior Aryan (white, European descent) race meant that anyone who did not meet these criteria was endangered . Although there was not a specific organized pogrom to eliminate the African Germans, an unknown number were sterilized, incarcerated, or murdered.
Direct students to the resource by The Holocaust Explained from the Wiener Holocaust Library. Scroll down to the section titled, ‘Black People’ or choose it from the list on the left side of the page.
Have students read through this section, taking notes on each of the topics: Employment, Education, Sterilization and Imprisonment, and End of War. When taking notes, students should build a list of acts of social and legal discrimination as well as physical actions and violence against Black people in Germany.
Come together as a class. Ask students to look down at the notes they have written down. Ask students if they are surprised by their list. Did they expect there to be so many actions taken against Black people? What actions stood out the most?
At the end of this resource it implies that Black people could have been targeted for mass murder if Germany had not been defeated. What can you deduce from the parallels between the mistreatment of Jews and Blacks that supports this statement?
If necessary, review the Nuremberg Race Laws or the Law Against Overcrowding in Schools.
This lesson meets the following Academic Standards required by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Before you teach, use our teacher primer to freshen up on your content knowledge.
Students will learn about the War Guilt Clause added to the Treaty of Versailles.
As part of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was forced to sign the War Guilt Clause, taking full responsibility for starting World War I. Germans bitterly resented this addition to the treaty.
Explain to students that World War I was known to be the most destructive war the world had seen. It ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1918.
Share this image by Facing History and Ourselves with your students. What can you gather from this picture?
Direct students to the resource ‘Treaty of Versailles: The War Guilt Clause’ by Facing History and Ourselves.
Explain to the class that in addition to taking full responsibility for the war, Germany would have to pay heavy reparations, had considerable territory losses, and was required to dramatically reduce their military.
As a class, discuss the following questions:
This lesson meets the following Academic Standards required by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Before you teach, use our teacher primer to freshen up on your content knowledge.
Students will learn about the international community’s failed attempt to find suitable options to the refugee crisis following Germany’s annexation of Austria.
Thirty-two countries came together on July 6-16, 1938 to discuss the refugee crisis in what was known as the Evian Conference.
Bring up the painting The Refugee by Felix Nussbaum from the Echoes & Reflections website. Ask your students the following questions: Who is the man? What does the globe represent?
Explain that the painting was created by an artist who was killed at Auschwitz. How does the artist express the plight of the refugee in this painting?
Direct students to the resource, Evian Conference by Echoes & Reflections. Read it through as a class or have students read it to themselves.
· What were some reasons countries gave for not wanting to take in refugees?
Break students out into groups of 3-5 to discuss the questions below.
1. Why do you think Franklin D. Roosevelt made it clear that no country would be forced to change its immigration quotas?
2. What do you think could have happened if at least one of the bigger powers (such as the United States or France) were to volunteer to help in a greater capacity?
3. The Evian Conference is seen as an utter failure by the international community to address the refugee problem in Europe. Considering what happened to the Jews, do you think the international community has a moral obligation to help refugees?
4. Should there be an international agency that requires countries to assist refugees?
If time permits, reconvene as a class and go over what the groups discussed.
This lesson meets the following Academic Standards required by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Before you teach, use our teacher primer to freshen up on your content knowledge.
Watch a video on World War II and the Holocaust by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Students will gain an understanding over how World War II started and how the Holocaust evolved from it.
World War II was complicated, countries were constantly being occupied, counter-attacking, or joining forces with Nazi Germany. Despite this, the organization of the ‘Final Solution’ still took priority.
Explain to students that World War II involved two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The main countries making up the Allies were France, Poland, and the United Kingdom. The Axis powers consisted of Germany, Italy, and Japan. Tell students that the video they will watch will help to explain the actions taken by these countries during the war.
Give out the questions below prior to starting the video (6.5 min) by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Answers to the questions can be found in the intervals shown above.
Beginning – 1:30
What groups of people were targeted by Nazis and their allies and collaborators? What was their reasoning?
1:30 – 4:40
Which country did Germany invade first? What did they do there?
End of video
How did the war end?
In small groups, or as a class, ask students if they are able to list the roles in which major countries played in the war? Write a header for ‘Allies’ (those that fought Germany), ‘Occupied Territories’, ‘Allied with Germany’, and ‘Neutral’. You may want to provide the list of the countries. You can tell them to focus on German aggression, not the attacks done by the Soviet Union. Give students 10 minutes for this activity. If you would like, you can return to the video and have students try to correct their answers.
The answer guide can be found here.
It is okay if students can’t remember all of them from the video (most will not be able to), the exercise is meant to show how much was going on at that time. It is important to remind students that the murders of 6 million Jews and 5 million non-Jews were taking place under the cover of war.
When you explain how the Holocaust was perpetrated under the cover of World War II, you should also mention that this is not the first instance of this happening. The genocide against the Armenians took place under the cover of World War I.
Ask students, why do they think atrocities, such as genocide, take place in conjunciton with war?
This lesson meets the following Academic Standards required by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Before you teach, use our teacher primer to freshen up on your content knowledge.