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?

Lead a class discussion, asking students what they think of when they think of the word “home.” What does home mean to them?

Read the resource, Displaced Persons by Echoes & Reflections with the class, taking time to answer questions and clarify if necessary.

Take time to look at the statistics of Jewish DP’s in camps by 1946, pointing out that these were the majority of the survivors remaining in continental Europe from the population of about 10 million in 1933. Point out that many were forced to live in Displaced Person (DP) camps, often built within Nazi camp structures scattered across Europe.

Have students take 10-15 minutes to fill in their answers at the bottom of the resource they read  by Echoes & Reflections. Once they finish, return as a class to go over their answers.

Lastly, return to the question of home. Has their idea of what home means changed from the start of the lesson?

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.

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.

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:

1. Why did Mrs David insist that they could not return to Vilnius?
2. Why do you think Mrs David’s family thought getting married and starting a family was one of the most important things that she should do once they arrived in their new home in America?
3. Besides starting a family, what were some other important things that she focused on as she settled into her new life, such as the education of her husband David?
4. What is the reason that Mrs David says she does not hate the Germans/Nazis, and what does she say about the difference between forgiveness and hatred?
5. How did Mrs David cope with her experiences, and how has it shaped her outlook on how she wants to/has lived her life?

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?