Begin by asking the class to write a short response answering the questions below. Assure students they will not be asked to share what they have written.

1. What is segregation? What does it mean to you?
2. Is segregation a thing of the past or does it have a place in today’s world?

You may also want to provide students with the official definition. Take this time to mention to students that segregation can be racial and religious.

Segregation: the enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or establishment.

It is equally important to note that segregation can be further identified as being de jure or de facto. De jure segregation is implemented by laws while de facto segregation is based off common understanding and personal choice.

Watch video testimonies on Kurt Baum (clips 19-23; 19:00-23:00 minutes) and Nomick Cyanmon (clip 17; 4:32-6:45) on USC IWitness.

Show testimonies one at a time, stopping to answer the questions for one before moving on to the other.

Questions for Kurt Baum:

1. What changes did Kurt Baum describe from his social circle?
2. How did Kurt’s father react to being kicked off the board from his club?
3. What were some other instances of segregation in the community that he describes?

Questions for Nomick Cynamon:

1. What did Nomick notice when he returned to the United States?
2. How did he react to segregation that he saw?
3. Why do you think he reacted the way he did?

In an open forum, ask students for examples of segregation in communities, both in times of the Holocaust and in modern times.

1. What was the purpose of segregating the Jews?
2. In what ways can a community reinforce or dismantle segregation?
3. Did your initial thoughts of segregation change over the course of this lesson?

Give students some time to add to what they wrote down at the beginning of the class.

Ask students who the initial aggressor was in WWII?

Given that it was Germany, and given that Germany was not supposed to be capable of war, how did they become the aggressor?

Tell students that they will be reading about the initial actions taken by Hitler that would ultimately drive Germany toward war. Note that they will also be exploring how these illegal actions were perceived by people at the time.

Direct students to the source, Battle for Work, which is an excerpt from Facing History and Ourselves. Have them read through the document individually first, taking note of sections, words or ideas that they didn’t understand clearly. Give students about 10 minutes to read this text.

Then, divide the class into five groups. Start them on the path toward understanding by having them attempt to answer one another’s questions about the text.

Ask the large group whether they think Hitler’s jobs program might have been attractive to Germans, amidst a depression and in the wake of the defeat of WWI. Then, ask each person to read, Rearming Germany by Facing History and Ourselves.

In the same small groups, have students discuss the questions available on the ‘Rearming Germany’ page. For the first fifteen minutes, ask each group to talk through each question and discuss what they think about each. Then, assign one question to each group and ask them to quickly prepare a short response to their question to kick off the broader, full class discussion about that question.

Ask students to define propaganda as they understand it. Explore the similarities and differences between what each individual understands and then compare the class definition to the one provided by Echoes & Reflections: “False or partly false information intended to shape people’s opinion and action that fulfills the propagandist’s intent.”

Direct students to the resource “Heil Hitler!”: Lessons of Daily Life by Facing History and Ourselves. Have students read the excerpt from Erika Mann and prep their reading with the following prompts; encourage them to highlight or underline sections of the story that help answer these questions:

1. Reflect on how the definition of propaganda is demonstrated in this story.
2. What means were used to distribute the message in Nazi Germany?
3. Why was it so effective?

Divide the class into groups of three to five. Ask the students to think about messages that they hear today.

First, as a group, they should write down as many messages as they can think of that they hear echoing in their world. These may come from advertisements, from their life in their town, from school, etc.

Then, ask them to consider whether the messages they hear or see are propaganda by answering the following questions:

1. What is the intention behind these messages that you hear regularly?
2. Do the messages you hear today fit the definition of propaganda?
3. Do the messages you hear today seem to have a similar impact on you that the messages Erika Mann heard seemed to have on her and her peers?
4. Do you think there is an opportunity for people to spread propaganda in today’s society?
5. If so, how can we prevent being influenced by these messages?

Ask students to define propaganda. Discuss ways that propaganda is used today.

Go to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s online exhibit about propaganda.

Explore the different timeline sections and look through the themes. Choose one or more to explore with your students. Read through some of the subsections under these themes and click through the attached propaganda associated with it.

For example, if you click on the ‘1918-1933: Democracy‘ section and read the introduction and the subsection, ‘Hitler and Nazi Propaganda.’ Then scroll down to the subsection titled, ‘Creating a Public Image‘ and read and look through the images connected to it.

Divide the students into groups of 3 – 4 students Provide each with a current print advertisement or political ad. They can focus on these questions to present and discuss:

1. Who is the target audience?
2. What is their message?
3. How is it conveyed through images and words?
4. How effective is this message?

Come back together as a class and ask students: How do these messages shape a person’s perspective? How does this help to explain the effectiveness of Nazi propaganda?

Ask students what they already know about propaganda. What is it? What purpose does it serve? How is it similar and different from other efforts to persuade people?

Watch the 6 minute video – The Power of Nazi Propaganda with students. Replay the video if necessary
While they watch the movie, have students answer the following questions:

1. What was the logic behind using red in so much of Nazi propaganda?
2. How were the Jews portrayed in Nazi propaganda?
3. Hitler believed that the spoken word, rather than the written word, was responsible for all the great events in history. How did his public speaking feed into this?

Divide the class into groups of three to five to discuss the questions below. Have one person in the group be responsible for taking notes and writing down their answers. Pull up the images of Nazi propaganda below for the groups to look over while in their groups. These images come from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

• “He Bears the Guilt for the War!”
• “The Poisonous Mushroom”
• “The German Student”

1. Why did the Nazis use propaganda to advance their political aims?
2. Where do you find propaganda in your life today? Consider advertising, political messaging, and other examples.
3. When does propaganda become dangerous?
4. What is the best weapon against being manipulated?
5. How do you think learning about Nazi propaganda can help us today?

If time permits, reconvene as a class to go over the answers the groups came up with. Have students add to their notes with responses from their classmates.