Read through a testimony provided by one of the people saved by Oskar Schindler. Understand what it was like for a Jewish person to trust a German during this time.
During the Holocaust we can see numerous accounts of non-Jews, or gentiles going out of their way to rescue Jews from being taken, harmed or deported.
Discuss the following quote by Suzy Kassem: “Stand up for what is right against the wrong.”
Ask the students what they think this means. Do they know what it means to be an upstander?
You may want to provide students with the definition of an upstander: a person who speaks or acts in support of an individual or cause, particularly someone who intervenes on behalf of a person being attacked or bullied.
Next, introduce Oskar Schindler. Tell your students that Oskar Schindler was one of the most famous rescuers during the Holocaust. His status as a factory owner allowed him to hire Jews and protect them from deportations. He had been arrested several times for his apparent favoritism towards Jews but this did not deter him. Schindler and his wife are responsible for the rescue of 1,200 persecuted Jews.
Direct students to the Testimony of Yitzhak Stern from Yad Vashem. Explain that they will be reading the testimony of someone saved by Oskar Schindler. Ask students to read the testimony to themselves. Open up a discussion with the class asking the following questions:
Divide the class into groups of three or five. After reviewing the quote and Yitzhak’s testimony, create a brief presentation on what it means to be an upstander. Presentations can be made with Prezi, PowerPoint, or done verbally depending on what time permits. Students may want to use this additional resource by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to help them with their presentations.
Here are some questions to help focus the presentation:
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 the stories from women rescuers during the Holocaust. Students will have the opportunity to learn the stories of courageous female upstanders and what they risked in order to save the lives of Jews.
This lesson is generously sponsored by Godfrey & Kahn.
During the Holocaust we can see numerous accounts of people going out of their way to rescue Jews from being harmed or deported.
Start by asking students, “What is an upstander?”
After students have had a chance to answer, you can provide them with the official definition. An Upstander is “a person who speaks or acts in support of an individual or cause, particularly someone who intervenes on behalf of a person being attacked or bullied.”
Next, discuss the following quote by Samantha Power- “If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.”
Direct students to the “Women of Valor” section from Yad Vashem. Show them where to find the women’s stories; take some time to click on one or two of the women’s stories to demonstrate how to find the information they will need.
Divide students into groups of three to five. Assign each group one of the heroines’ stories to look into. Ask students to prepare a presentation telling this person’s story. Presentations can be made with Prezi or PowerPoint, if your class does not have access to computers, presentations may be done with poster boards or large pieces of paper.
Once students have been assigned their group and heroine, provide them with the following questions to help structure their presentation.
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 definition of being a bystander to the Holocaust. They will have the opportunity to think critically about what it really means to be a bystander, the different levels of inactivity and passivity, and whether or not calling oneself a bystander deflects responsibility.
After the war, light was cast on the dark reality that had taken place. While fingers were being pointed, many Germans and Europeans claimed that they were “not involved” and that they had merely been “bystanders” to the events of the Holocaust.
Write the term “bystander” on the board and ask students how they would define it. Ask for examples of when someone could be a bystander.
Direct students to the resource ‘Bystanders‘ by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Read through the information as a class and allow students a chance to ask questions before moving on.
Have students think about the different degrees of bystanders, and what each of their roles were.
Divide the class into groups of three or five. Ask groups to sit together to discuss the questions below. Tell students that they don’t have to come to an agreement with the members of their group, that they should be actively trying to see both sides of the argument. If time permits, reconvene as a class and ask groups to share what they were able to come with.
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 explore just how complex the Nazi effort was to destroy European Jews, as well as the vague or subtle language used to describe how to implement a systematic genocide within Europe.
The genocide of 6 million Jews stemmed from gradually escalating violence beginning in the 1930s. It required the cooperation of numerous facets of German government and society, and took its final organized form from a 90 minute meeting. Using data gathered from previous experiments, the meeting discussed how to best approach mass murder with the lowest monetary and psychological cost.
Ask the students how extensive they believe the planning and execution of the Holocaust may have been – i.e, what kind of organization and resources they believe Nazi authorities used to make the Holocaust a reality.
Walk the students through the resource, Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Have each student take notes on the different examples of government departments they may or may not have expected to have attended the meeting, the goals of the attendees, as well as euphemisms (words used as a less problematic substitute for terms such as “evacuation to the east” instead of “extermination”, etc), aspects or details that were discussed within the meeting that they may or may not have expected to come up.
Lead the class in a discussion about the different actors at play during the Wannsee conference. Depending on how much time you have for this discussion, answer some (or all) of 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.
Watch a video by author Deborah Lipstadt as she answers questions about the significance of the Eichmann Trial.
Allowing victims to testify at trial and confront their perpetrator can be part of the healing process.
Ask the class if they know who Adolf Eichmann is.
Explain to students that Eichmann was named chief executioner of the Final Solution. In this role he was responsible for organizing the identification, assembly, and transportation of Jews from all over Europe to Auschwitz and other extermination camps.
Play the video The Eichmann Trial by Emory University (3 min) then ask the questions below in an open discussion. (Note: Some of the comments on the video on YouTube may be inappropriate.)
Direct students to the resource ‘Eichmann Trial‘ by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Have students pair up to read through the resource and answer the critical thinking questions.
Eichmann, as well as other Nazi perpetrators put on trial, gave a similar defense. What do you think of Eichmann’s defense that he was “merely a little cog in the machinery” of destruction? Do you think there is any case where this defense could be valid?
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 process for and the outcomes of the Nuremberg Trials.
The Nuremberg Trials were the first international war crimes trials to take place. The extenuating circumstances and the volume of people being prosecuted meant that the international courts were in unfamiliar territory. Years would go by with thousands of cases in order to bring justice to the victims of Nazi terror.
Ask students if they have heard of the Nuremberg Trials. If so, what do they know about them?
Direct students to the resource, War Crimes Trials by Echoes & Reflections. If not all students have access to a computer, print copies of the resource for your students so they can fill in the Discussion Questions worksheet on the last page.
Read through the resource as a class before having the students answer the questions on their own.
Go over the questions as a class. Did everyone come up with the same answers?
Did anything stand out to them when they read through the charges against the perpetrators?
*Hint* The term “genocide” was coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1943-44 but the crime against genocide was not put into effect until 1948.
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.
Acquaint students with eugenics, a movement that distorted science in order to justify negative ideas about minorities and people with disabilities.
Eugenics was an idea that captured the interest of governments all over the world in the early 20th century and had horrific consequences for minority groups.
The lesson focuses on Eugenics in America, since the primary source materials are all in English already. However, it is important to set the stage for a tie back to Germany as well.
Begin the lesson by reading these two quotes and asking your students to summarize their meaning and how they are affected by them. In short, what is being said and how do they feel about the statements?
Note at the end that these are quotes from Adolf Hitler.
Divide the class into four and distribute one image to each group:
Fair Exhibit
Eugenics Tree
Promotion for Native Sterilization
Popular Science
Use the See, Think, Wonder strategy for analyzing these images in each group (see below)
Bring all the groups together and ask each to present their image to the larger group. As they share what they see, think and wonder, encourage broader discussion from the whole group. Also, fill in context as you feel comfortable so as to keep stretching the conversation toward greater clarification.
Finally, ask the group to Wonder again about what remains unknown about the Eugenics movement in America or the relationship between this and Hitler’s Germany. These could prompt additional opportunities for exploration with some of the resources below or through the video or reading in this topic.
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.
Critically watch a film that promotes to a broad audience the sterilization and so-called mercy killing of non-Aryans by the Nazi regime.
To pursue what the Nazis considered a “pure race of Aryans”, the Third Reich used medical techniques to sterilize and kill those they deemed undesirable.
Review the concepts of euthanasia and propaganda and allude to the fact that mercy killings had to be sold to the public in order for there not to be widespread resistance. Before initiating conversation about the video, be sure to clarify relevant terms. Other concepts that are important here include Darwinism and heredity.
Watch the first 13 minutes of the video, The Killing Films of the Third Reich. Prepare to stop at various sections to discuss and contemplate the content.
Now, ask students to generate their own responses to the video. Ask them to write about:
Then, bring the discussion back to a large group and use student answers to have a large discussion/review sections of the video.
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.
Learn about the infamous T4 program, the Nazi regime’s first foray into organized mass murder, whose victims were identified by their failure to fit into the concept of an ideal Aryan.
Euthanasia was the term the Nazis gave to their practice of killing individuals that they deemed ‘unworthy of life’ and was carried out by the Nazi regime as a precursor to larger policies of mass murder.
Ask students if they have ever heard of the term euthanasia. If so, ask them to explain their understanding.
Define it for them by providing them with the text–on screen, a chalkboard or other shared space: ‘the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.’
Then ask them what ‘mercy’ means and under what conditions must mercy be shown?
Have students read the whole document Unworthy to Live by Facing History and Ourselves. Give 10-15 minutes for this task, prompting students to take note of questions they have about the text.
Then, divide the class into five groups, assigning each group to one of the discussion questions. As they split into groups, give the following instructions:
Lastly, bring it back to the basics. Return to the defnition of Euthanasia. How could the murder of millions of people be couched as ‘merciful’ by the Nazi regime? What does this say about how they feel about what they’re doing?
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 read through resources by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on the different types of camp systems established by the Nazi regime.
The term ‘concentration camp’ tends to be used incorrectly, becoming an all-inclusive name for the Nazi camps during the Holocaust.
Read through the resource, The Nazi Camp System: Terminology by USHMM with the class. Start at the top of the page with the overview and the three Key Facts before moving on.
After you go through the reading, ask students what is the importance is of using the correct terminology when talking about the Nazi camp system?
Then divide the class into groups of three or five and direct them to the resource, Killing Centers: In Depth by USHMM. Have groups read through it amongst themselves. They can all read silently or they can switch off reading out loud to their group. Once they finish reading, have the groups discuss and record their answers to the Critical Thinking Questions located at the bottom of the page.
Go over the Critical Thinking Questions with the class, giving students an opportunity to ask questions and clear up any confusion.
Finally, ask students why they feel it is important to differentiate and use the appropriate terminology when discussing the Nazi camp system. It may be worth pointing out that the term ‘concentration camp’ is used by some people in the U.S. to describe the Japanese American camps established during World War II, although the term used by the U.S. government was ‘Internment Camps’.
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.
