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.

Ask students how they define resistance. What does resistance look like and what form does it take? Ask them also if they would expect there to be much resistance in concentration camps. Why or why not?

Printable background and lyrics here.
Listen to the Dachau Song via the US Holocaust Memorial Museum website. Ask them to pay attention to the tone and tenor of the song while they read along with the lyrics that pop up on the screen (full screen is best for this).

When the song is finished, prompt students to provide their initial thoughts about the song. What did they notice? Does it remind them of anything? What is the overall feeling that the song generated for them?

Then, distribute the PDF of the lyrics and the background information.
Read through the background information about the song and clarify any of the details or language that the students might have trouble with.
Then, split the class into 5 groups and assign each one to a verse or the chorus.
In groups, ask each team to analyze the lyrics that they have been given, offering that they can reference a dictionary to look up words that are more difficult.
Prompt their analysis with some questions that will help better understand what life was like in Dachau:

1. What does the author indicate about life in the camp?
2. What imagery is used and why do you think it was chosen?
3. What are the inmates supposed to be cautious of?
4. What does this song say about resistance to oppression?

Ask each group to offer their analysis of the song and, while they do, add unique answers to your ‘chalk’ board. Once each group has presented their section, ask the whole group for other observations about the song in its entirety. What else can they glean from their collective observations about life in Dachau?

Time permitting, return to the recorded version of the song once again. Ask students to pay close attention to the lyrics that they have on their page in addition to the overall feel of the tune. What else comes up in their minds as they take in the whole piece once more?

Ask students how they define resistance. What does resistance look like and what form does it take?
Ask them also if they would expect there to be much resistance in killing centers. Why or why not?
Finally, set the stage for their learning: is revolt meaningful even when it is crushed by the oppressor?

Read together the page on Resistance from the BBC which gives a brief overview of acts of rebellion against the Nazis that occurred within killing centers.
Attempt to clarify any questions that emerge from the reading before splitting the class into groups. Know that group work will also fill in many details.
Each group will be assigned one of the pop-out links which gives more context and introduces primary sources about specific stories of resistance.
Assign the following pop-out links first, reserving the other links for exceptionally large classes:

‘secret meetings’
‘resistance outside’
‘saved others’
‘defiance’
‘uprising’
‘saved others’
‘terrible consequences’

Once divided into groups, give each group the task of examining their particular word. It will be their job to report to the group what is meant by the term and summarize the example that is provided. Ask that students not only prepare to speak for 2-3 minutes on their term, but also identify points they would like to investigate more deeply.
The goal for the class is to understand the particularities or nuances to this brief summary.

Read the summary again, prompting the group assigned to the word to fill in details about what they learned from their own investigation.

At the end, ask each group to identify what more they would like to know, given the research they did for today’s exercise.

Begin by asking students, what is an anthem? What anthems do you know? Do they all encourage resistance?

Before you begin the lesson, provide some historical context about the author of the poem by reading the passage below to the class. This context, as well as other points from this lesson plan have been taken by elirab.me/study. The full version of this lesson plan can be found here.

Hirsch Glik was born in Wilno (now Vilnius) in 1922. He began to write poetry in Yiddish in his teens and was a co-founder of Yungwald (Young Forest), a group of young Jewish poets. Glik entered the Vilna ghetto after the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union. He was a participant in both the ghetto’s artistic community and the underground movement and took part in the 1942 ghetto uprising. Glik wrote the poem you will be reading right after this in early 1943. He was able to flee when the ghetto was being liquidated in October 1943 but was recaptured. He escaped once more in July 1944 and was never heard from again. It is presumed that he was captured once again and executed by the Nazis in August 1944.

Divide the class into groups of three or four. Give each member of the group a copy of the Partisan Poem. When giving them the poem, provide them the instructions below. Allow approximately 15 minutes for this initial discussion.

1. Have one member of the group read the poem aloud while the others read along.
2. Look closely at the language of the poem. What themes can you identify from it?
   *Hint* Notice the use of the present tense: “will grow” and “will come”.
3. What do you think was the author’s goal in writing this poem?

Take a few minutes for groups to share their responses.

After the students have had some time to go over the poem, tell them that the poem (albeit not the exact wording) was also used as a song, or anthem amongst the resistance. The song, Zog Nit Keynmol, translating as “Never Say” and, to this day considered the anthem of Holocaust survivors.

Listen to the song as a class. Watch the video from beginning till 2:38 (when the English ends) unless you would also like to have the class listen in its original form, Yiddish.

Have the groups discuss the questions below after listening. Allow an additional 5-10 minutes for this section.

1. What do you consider when you compare the poem to the song?
2. Can you think of any reason why the poem was translated into a song?

Come back together as a class. Open up a class discussion with the questions below:

1. This song has been adopted by others as a protest song. How relevant is this poem to the world today? Is it effective as a protest song?
2. When and how does a poem or song become an anthem? Is it considered as such at the time? What impact can an anthem have on a movement?

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:

1. In their testimonies, Ellis Lewin and Joseph Morton share some of their early feelings and experiences in the ghetto. How does Ellis say his life changed after being forced into the ghetto? What does Joseph share about his observations of life in the ghetto?
2. Based on the testimonies you just watched, how were ghettos during the Holocaust different from your understanding of what a ghetto is today?
3. How do you think Ellis, Joseph and other ghetto survivors would feel about the use of the term today?
4. What images have begun to emerge for you about ghetto life after listening to these two testimonies?
5. How do you think Ellis and Joseph felt sharing these memories? How did you feel listening to them?

Lastly, divide the class into groups of three to five to discuss the following questions:

1. Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi head of the SIPO (security police) writes, “For the time being, the first step toward the final solution is the concentration of the Jews…” What do you think Heydrich meant by “for the time being”?
2. Discuss the difference between physical and economic segregation.
3. When people describe a neighborhood today as a “ghetto,” how is it different from the Nazi ghettos? Are there any similarities?

If time permits, open into a class discussion.

Ask the students what kinds of problems they thought survivors might have faced when they were finally liberated. Lead a short discussion, based on previous knowledge of the war and the Holocaust, about the difficulties in rebuilding people’s lives.

Read the resource, Survivors and the Displaced Persons era by ‘The Holocaust Explained,’ The Wiener Holocaust Library with the class, including the accompanying images. You can stop reading at the section titled, ‘German-Jewish Communities Outside the Camps.’ Take time to answer questions to the best of your ability and clarify if necessary. Ask students to take notes on key facts that stood out to them about why survivors felt they could not return to their home countries, or the antisemitism they continued to encounter.

As a class, discuss the reasons why many people may have chosen not to move back to countries such as Poland or Hungary at the end of the war.

Lead a discussion with students about what the word “home,” “country,” or “citizenship” means to them, and how difficult it would be to have lost these things. Make sure to discuss how difficult it was to feel as if you could not go back to where you were before because you might be injured or worse, but how other countries did not want you, either.

Explain to the students that the aftermath of WWII and the liberation of people from concentration and death camps was the beginning of a difficult period of recovery for around 6 million refugees and displaced persons. Jewish refugees in particular faced much discrimination by authorities, and had a difficult time re-building their lives.

Split the class into 4 groups, assigning a section of Nate Leipciger’s post-liberation story to each group. Allow each group 15 minutes to read through their assigned text and list out events detailed, as well as specific things that stood out to them in the story, to be presented to the rest of the class.

Allow 5 minutes for each group to present each section of the story in chronological order, beginning with group 1 and ending with group 4.

Use the remaining 10 minutes to discuss with the class the reasons why Nate Leipciger and his father chose to rebuild their lives outside of Poland, as well as what aspects of the story stood out to them. If there is any time remaining, ask the students whether or not knowing the whole story made it difficult to understand what happened. Explain that often families were separated from each other at different points of the war, so that they may know one part of the story but be unaware of others. This made it very difficult to reunite with other members of the family who survived, or to figure out what happened to those who did not.

Ask students what they know about concentration camps. Do they know when they started? What kind of people were imprisoned in them?

Read through the resource, Early Camps by the BBC with the class. Then go back and demonstrate how to get to the primary sources by clicking on the red lettering in the text and then clicking on “Read Document” that comes up.

Dissect the first resource, “mass arrests” as a class. Use the following guidelines to help go through it:

1. First, identify where the source is coming from.
2. Summarize the resource.
3. What assumptions can be drawn from it?
4. Lastly, come up with a question that comes out of your reflections. The question should attempt to generate conversation between you and your classmates.

Divide the class into groups of three or five and assign each group one of the eight other primary sources. Some sources are longer than others, so you may decide you want to have larger groups analyze those. The longer resources are the ones labeled: ‘no mercy’, ‘murders’, ‘left-wing prisoners’, and ‘German Jews’.

Have them repeat what you did as a class in their groups with their assigned resource. Ask each group to present their resource to the class verbally. If possible, project each resource for the class as the group goes over it.