Explain to students that as persecution for Jewish people in Nazi occupied territories worsened, more and more people were seeking refuge in other countries. Many countries, including the United States, had a long waiting list to obtain visas.

Pull up this checklist from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Americans and the Holocaust virtual exhibition. Examine one or two of the steps in greater detail.
Up until August 1939, no visas were required to enter Shanghai.

Read the following excerpt from a diary entry about entrance to Shanghai:

“We have to go to Shanghai. Terrible letters come from there. One runs again to see if our names are on the list to leave. Before, when one saw his name on the list, one was happy. Today…one cries.”
-Rose Shoshana Kahan diary entry, 1941

Ask students why they think people continued to seek refuge in Shanghai despite hearing such terrible things from there? What does that say about the desperation people had to leave Europe?

In partners or individually, have students read through this article by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum about Polish Jewish Refugees in the Shanghai Ghetto and answers the questions below.

1. What were conditions like for the refugees that ended up in Shanghai?
2. How did things change after the attack on Pearl Harbor?
3. How did the Jewish refugees maintain a sense or ordinary life?

Come together as a class to go over their answers.

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.

Write down the word, “Deportation” on the board. Ask students what comes to mind when they think of it.
You might expect students to say things such as: separation, returning to their home country, people being sent away unwillingly.
Re-introduce the term scapegoat, noting that deportations are often the result of scapegoating.
→ scapegoat: a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency.

Ask students if they have ever thought about why someone might get deported and what this might do to them and their family.

Show the class Part 1 (the first 3:34 minutes) of the Yad Vashem video, The Development of the ‘Final Solution’.
Then, ask the class whether they lean toward the perspective of the Intentionalists or the Functionalists and why.

Then, watch Bert Flemming’s testimony from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The testimony is quite long, the part that will be used in this lesson is starting at 5:45 and ending at 9:33. Before playing the testimony, read through the overview featured at the top of the page to introduce Bert Flemming and provide some background information.

It may be beneficial for students to read the testimony as the video goes along. The transcript for this video can be found here and the portion of video you will watch begins on page 2 right after 1:06:01.

After you watch the video, take a few minutes to ask the students what they thought of Bert Flemming’s testimony. Allow the students to ask some questions, to provide comments about what they heard. If you are having some trouble getting the conversation started, try asking the following questions:

1. What do you think was going through Bert Flemming’s mind when he saw the men with bayonets on both sides?
2. Did it seem like either side, Germany or Poland, had a plan as for what to do with the Jews?
3. How did Bert Flemming help organize once they arrived in Zbasyn?

Finally, return to the question of the scapegoat.
Ask students why they thought Nazi Germany was trying to push the Jews into Poland. Then, dig a little deeper: what is the end game for the Nazis? Would mass expulsion ever really work to meet the interests of the Nazi party?

Finally, prompt them to consider in writing the following question:
Does scapegoating naturally lead to the worst possible outcomes for the targeted group in a given situation?

Ask students how they define the term citizenship.
Then, ask them how they would define the term refugee. What is the difference between someone who is a citizen, and someone who is a refugee? Is the distinction meaningful in terms of their status as a human being? If not, why are they treated so differently?

Read through the resource, The Expulsion of Polish Jews From Germany by holocaust.cz as a class. Ask students to write down any questions they have about the text.

Divide the class into groups of three and provide them with the following instructions:

1. Go through all members’ questions about the text and help one another understand the document.
2. Address the discussion questions below. Have group members take notes on their responses.
3. Lastly, come up with an additional question that comes out of your reflections. This question should attempt to generate conversation between you and your classmates.

Discussion Questions:

1. What was the significance of what Herschel did?
2. Germany first tried to expel the Jews from Germany. A devastating amount of countries closed their borders to Jewish refugees, forcing them to fall victim to Nazi Germany’s next move: The Final Solution. Do you think the Holocaust could have been avoided if countries opened their borders to allow for Jewish refuge?
3. Should nations have an obligation to take in refugees fleeing violence?
4. What message did closing their borders send to the Jews?
5. Does the refugee crisis the Jews faced make you think of connections that resonate in today’s world?

Prepare students what they will be reading the work of a victim.

Elie Wiesel famously speaks of the importance of memory and writing down one’s story. Offer the following quote from Wiesel to your students:

“History is a bridge. We are naturally afraid of our memories. We try to forget, and in truth, some things we must forget a little bit, simply in order to function. And yet…if we truly allow ourselves to forget, history may well return to us.”

Give students a few minutes to consider the quote before asking them what it means to them. Specifically pursue the question of how history is a bridge?

Read through the poem The Memoirs of Cantor Joseph Cysner edited and published by Key Documents of German-Jewish History.

Before moving on to the Output section, ask students what they think is happening during the poem, what is the context?

Have students pick a line or two from this poem that resonates the most with them. Tell students to write down the answers to the questions below on a piece of paper as they focus on their selection.

1. Why did you choose the line that you did?
2. Describe the image you see when you read through it.
3. What do you think is going through the author’s mind during this time?

Give students 1o minutes to create their answers; then ask for volunteers to share what they wrote down.

Finally, return to the quote by Elie Wiesel about memory.

How does the existence of this poem bridge the reader to history?