Watch the testimonies of Anna Heilman and Helen K., women who were imprisoned at Auschwitz and bravely resisted Nazism, each in their own way.
Even in settings engineered to create docile victims, Jewish prisoners found the strength to fight back.
Ask students how they define resistance. What does resistance look like and what form does it take? Ask them if they would expect there to be much resistance in extermination camps. Why or why not?
Show the video of Anna Heilman from Facing History and Ourselves. Preview the video by telling students that Anna’s story describes how the plot to blow up the crematoria at Auschwitz became a reality.
After the video concludes, ask students how they feel about this act of defiance? Was it successful?
Then, show the video of Helen K. from 19:52 to 25:50
Before beginning the video, ask students to record instances of resistance, however they define it.
After the video, ask students to share their responses, both written and felt, in small groups. What forms of resistance did they notice? What did they feel as they watched this testimony?
Finally, ask students to take a moment to write short responses to the question of whether these acts of defiance were successful or not. Given that most individuals died who tried to revolt, were their efforts in vain or meaningful? Why or why not?
Time permitting, open up for a broad class discussion.
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 detailing the steps taken to isolate Jews from German life. Open up into a conversation about the precursors the world should be on the lookout for when seeing human rights violations taking place around the globe.
Isolation and dehumanization, when not countered, allows for increasingly harsh treatments and injustices to take place.
Ask students, what is segregation? Have them come up with some examples of ways in which people can be segregated from one another. Open the class into a brief conversation about segregation by asking the questions below.
Pull up the video, From Citizens to Outcasts, by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Introduce the video by reading through the context that can be found directly above the Discussion Question. Provide students with the question below prior to starting the video. While they watch, have students take notes to answer it.
How did Nazi Germany gradually isolate, segregate, impoverish, and incarcerate Jews and persecute other perceived enemies of the state between 1933 and 1939?
Reiterate to students that Nazi Germany took great measurers in order to dehumanize the Jews. Propaganda made them out to be enemies of the state. These tactics made many non-Jewish Germans take little notice or regard for the mistreatment and grave injustice that would continue against the Jews.
Divide the class into groups of five. Provide the groups with the instructions below. Give students the opportunity and time to research if necessary.
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 watch a video with testimonies from people that fought as Jewish partisans. This lesson will go over the myth that Jews did not resist, contradict it, and open up a discussion on changing the narrative.
There is a common misconception that Jews did not resist during the Holocaust.
Ask your students what words come to mind when they think of the Holocaust. If you choose to, write them on the board as you go. Does the term “resistance” come up?
Tell students that it is a common myth that Jews went like “sheep to the slaughter” during the Holocaust. Let students know that the people they will hear from in the video were part of the resistance, a group of Jewish partisans that fought against Nazi forces and saved the lives of thousands.
Define a partisan for the class, explaining that a partisan is, “a member of an organized body of fighters who attack or harass an enemy, especially behind enemy lines; a guerrilla.” A group using guerrilla tactics use irregular forms of fighting such as sabotage and hit-and-run attacks.
Play the video, Introduction to the Jewish Partisans, by Facing History and Ourselves. Open up to a class discussion about partisans with the questions below.
Continue the class discussion with the following thoughts. Read through the two statements below to direct the conversation.
What are ways in which we as individuals can help change the narrative?
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.
Listen to testimonies from survivors about their time spent in a ghetto. Students will learn the history of the term “ghetto” and think critically about the implications the history has on their understanding of the term today.
Ghettoization was both physically and mentally difficult. The harsh conditions caused many to lose their lives.
Write the word “ghetto” on the board. Have students share what they know about the word and record their responses. Follow this discussion by sharing the history of the word.
US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Holocaust Encyclopedia states that the term “ghetto” originated from the name of the Jewish quarter in Venice, Italy. In 1516, Venetian authorities compelled the city’s Jews to live in this quarter. Following Italy’s example, local authorities and even the Austrian emperor ordered the creation of Jewish ghettos in Frankfurt, Rome, Prague, and other cities.
This lesson is adapted from The Ghettos by Echoes & Reflections, the full unit can be found here.
Play the video testimonies for Joseph Morton and Ellis Lewin. While they watch, encourage your students to listen for specific examples of how ghettos during the Holocaust differ from their understanding of what is referred to as a “ghetto” today. It could be beneficial to take students to the resource, Life in the Ghettos by USHMM and scroll through the photos and watch a few of the brief videos.
Open up into a class discussion with the questions below:
Lastly, divide the class into groups of three to five to discuss the following questions:
If time permits, open into a class discussion.
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 by Yad Vashem on the ghettos that features diary entries from a child living in the Lodz ghetto.
Diary entries and testimonies help people today to understand the horrific conditions people suffered living in the Nazi ghettos.
Ask the students if any of them have ever read Diary of Anne Frank or Diary of a Wimpy Kid. What sort of things do people write in diaries?
Watch the 16 minute video, The Ghettos by Yad Vashem. Take about 5 minutes having students go around and give examples of what sort of challenges people faced. Then ask, how did people try to maintain a sense of dignity or humanity?
Ask students to reflect on what they just watched and discussed. How did hearing the testimonies and diary entries help paint a picture of what life was like in the ghettos? Provide 10 minutes for students to write and reflect.
If time permits, have students share their reflections.
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 hear the story of one survivor, Raye David, and discuss topics surrounding the concept of home, how survivors rebuilt their lives after the war, the kinds of things that they deemed most important in rebuilding their lives, and why they chose not to return to the countries where they were born.
Often, Jewish survivors made the decision to settle in countries besides their native ones after the war because their families, communities, and lives back home had been destroyed and they faced continued violence and antisemitism there.
Explain to the students that after WWII ended and liberation from the camps a very difficult period of recovery began for around 6 million refugees and displaced persons. Jewish refugees in particular faced much discrimination from authorities, and had a difficult time re-building their lives. Discuss how complex the process was for emigrating, but even though it took years, many Jewish survivors were determined to do it.
Watch the source video with the class (suggested start time at 23:30). Tell students that the woman is named Raye David, a Holocaust survivor that ended up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin after the war.
As a class, lead a discussion based around 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 the history of antisemitism and how it was transformed into Nazi racial antisemitism through the years.
Antisemitism was not invented with the rise of the Nazi party. It had deep roots that were transformed to fit the racist ideology of the time.
Begin by prompting your students to think about forms of intolerance. What kind of ‘isms’ can they think of that separate one group from another in a detrimental way?
Do they believe that certain ‘isms’ are more powerful than others? Why might this be?
This lesson can be found in an expanded form here.
Divide students into groups or pairs.
Distribute the first definition card within this three page bundle, which defines the terms ideology, racists and ethnicity.
In groups, pairs, or individually students work to define the yellow highlighted words. After the group defines the word, they use dictionaries to check their definitions.
After 5 minutes come together and have students briefly share:
Pivot toward the question of pseudoscience: Now that we have definitions of racists and race, let’s examine the pseudo science behind beliefs that human behavior is biologically determined. See if they know what pseudo means.
Distribute and read definition cards two and three which defines pseudo, science and racial antisemitism.
–> Students can repeat the definitional activity used with the first definition cards for the second and third cards as well..
Check for understanding of the concept of pseudoscience and racial antisemitism.
Answer questions or clear misconceptions before proceeding.
Watch this short clip from USHMM about racism in the Nazi party. Then ask students to respond to the following questions either in writing or small groups before opening up for a large group discussion. You may also assign certain questions to groups or individuals to reduce the time for responses.
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.
Introduce students to Martin Niemoller, a Protestant clergy member, who exemplifies the complexities of the history of the Church and its relationship to Nazism.
Religious organizations were often swept up in the pull of Nazism, even when their members might have seen the danger.
Collectively read Martin Niemoller’s famous lines, recorded as a poem “First They Came” available from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
Ask students to reflect on the meaning of the poem. What is most striking about it? What message is it sending to its audience?
Place Martin Niemoller in context by watching the video Awakening Conscience from Facing History and Ourselves. Prior to showing the seven-minute video ask your students to take notes on the things they think are most important. What strikes them about the story of Niemoller and the history that surrounds his story?
After the video, ask students to share what they discovered, prompting them to clarify why they felt this information was important.
If missed, ask students what they make of the following issues, in particular and return to these sections of the video if necessary:
Ask students to return to the poem and either ask a student to read it aloud or watch this rendering here.
Given what they now know about Niemoller’s story, ask them to reflect on the lines again in some individual writing. Who is the ‘they’ Niemoller is referring to? What does it mean to ‘speak out’? To whom would Niemoller or any other citizen of Germany ‘speak out’?
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 part of a lecture by Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, the world’s foremost scholar on Holocaust Denial, who explains the absurd proposition of denying the Holocaust.
Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
Prompt your students with the following questions to respond to with a short discussion or writing exercise: Have you heard of someone who does not believe that the Holocaust happened? What would you say to a Holocaust denier if you met one today?
The following video might give every student a few more things to say if ever they hear denial again.
Preview the video by noting that it moves quickly and lots of information is provided. Ask your students to take notes about the things they feel are most important. Then, watch Holocaust Denial, Explained from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
After the video concludes, ask the group to share what they thought were the most important points within the video. Using a collective workspace, make notes of these points for everyone’s benefit. Ask the student who shares each point why they felt it was important. Ask the students if they have any questions about the video. Note those in the collective workspace as well.
Watch the video again, prompting students before you begin to keep these points and questions in mind as they search for more pertinent information.
After viewing the video a second time, ask your students to write a response to a Holocaust denier. What arguments would they use? What would be the main message they would want to convey to someone who refuses to accept the facts of history?
Give them 10 minutes to begin crafting a letter before asking them to share their thoughts with the class.
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.
Explore an online exhibition from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum titled, “Some Were Neighbors.” Students will look into the different categories of collaborators that assisted in carrying out the Holocaust.
Collaboration during the Holocaust came from many sources. Friends, neighbors, and teachers all had a hand in turning on the Jewish people.
Read this quote by Holocaust historian, Raul Hilberg in “Destruction of the European Jews” to the class:
“An administrative process of such range cannot be carried out by a single agency, even if it is a trained and specialized body like the Gestapo or a commissariat for Jewish affairs, for when a process cuts into every phase of human life, it must ultimately feed upon the resources of an entire community…. The machinery of destruction was the organized community in one of its specialized roles.”
Ask the students to take a moment to think about what it is saying. What are some things that come to mind? Have them jot down some notes for two minutes before asking them to share. This does not need to be a lengthy discussion, just call on a few people to get class started.
Direct students to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum online exhibit, Some Were Neighbors: Collaboration and Complicity in the Holocaust. Allow students and opportunity to explore the site, become familiar with navigating around it. See what they hone in on as they do so. At the bottom of the page there are different tabs featuring different categories of collaborators. Some were: Neighbors, Workers, Teenagers, Policemen, Religious Leaders, Teachers, or Friends.
Divide the class into groups of three or five. Assign each group a category: Neighbors, Workers, Teenagers, Policemen, Religious Leaders, Teachers, or Friends.
Each group should prepare a brief presentation on their category. The presentation does not have to be a visual presentation, just ask the students to discuss their category with the class. They do not have to describe all of the pictures, just ask them to pick a few that they found the most compelling. If possible, allow students to project some of the pictures they chose to show the class.
Provide students with the following points to help structure their presentations:
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.