Explain to the students that the end of the war left millions of people homeless; that liberation was difficult for many survivors because of the mental and physical problems that they had to overcome.

Lead a short discussion asking the students what they think Holocaust survivors felt, and some of the problems that they had when they learned the war was over. Take time to list individual answers.

Watch this short video by Yad Vashem with the class, with a short pause between each survivor. Ask students to list different problems and feelings that survivors discuss in their testimonies.

Lead another short discussion, asking the students if there were any problems that survivors faced that they had not thought about before, writing the answers on the board. Ask the students if there is any story/feeling in particular that stuck out to them in these survivor stories.

Discuss the following questions as a class:

1. Why did survivors feel like liberation came too late?
2. What were some of the immediate health issues that survivors had to deal with after the war?
3. How do you think it felt for a survivor to meet liberating soldiers?
4. Why do you think it is something that survivors will remember?

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 students what the words “liberation” and “freedom” mean to them. Usually people give positive answers to these concepts. Briefly explain that even though personal freedom and liberty is, objectively, good, in cases where you gain liberty and freedom after a period of trauma, fear, and violence, it can be a very difficult thing to adjust to and everyone reacts differently to it.

Give a brief presentation of images of life after liberation taken from the Yad Vashem archives. Point out the faces and body language of image subjects. Explain that people’s experiences of liberation were very different, as allied forces reclaimed territory at different times. Because there were so many people with nowhere to go and no possessions to speak of, often they would live in DP camps which were created from the remnants of the concentration camps that some were liberated from.

Divide the class into groups of 4 – 6 students.

Give each group a selection of survivor testimony provided by Yad Vashem to read and discuss. If possible, allow students to have access to, or have the presentation of images remain projected as they go through the testimonies. In these groups, the students will create a list of questions, concerns, and feelings that survivors bring up in the testimonies to present to the class.

As the groups present, collect their answers to be used in continued discussion. Were there common themes in survivor feelings, concerns, and questions of the future?

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.

1. What tactics did the partisans use in order to fight?
2. How did they stay hidden?
3. Did it surprise you that there were female fighters in the resistance? Why do you think this was more common than women fighting in an official military?

Continue the class discussion with the following thoughts. Read through the two statements below to direct the conversation.

• In the video, a woman named Sonia Orbuch states that, “People did not go like sheep to their deaths. People were fighting every which way they can.”
• Ellie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and author of Night, suggests an alternative to the question, “Why didn’t the Jews resist?” Instead, Wiesel explains, “The question is not why all the Jews did not fight, but how so many of them did. Tormented, beaten, starved, where did they find the strength -spiritual and physical- to resist?”

What are ways in which we as individuals can help change the narrative?

Start by asking your students, “What is resistance?”
Have students call out ways in which they think Jews resisted during the Holocaust and write those answers down on the board.

Define a partisan for the class, explaining that a partisan is, “a member of an armed group formed to fight against an occupying force.” Further this explanation by telling your students that these groups would typically use irregular, or guerrilla, forms of fighting such as sabotage and hit-and-run attacks.

More will be added to this list after reading through the resource, so make sure there is space available. Another aspect of this activity is to debunk the myth that there was little or no resistance. Filling the board with the different types of resistance will help students visualize how much there was.

Read through the resource, Jewish Partisans by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a class. When you are finished, ask students to give more examples of how Jews resisted and add these to the list you have started on the board.

Is this more or less than they expected? Let students know that this is one category of resistance, and that in later lessons they can look into resistance that took place in ghettos and in the camps.

Instruct students to take 5-10 minutes for a quick-write answering the following prompt:

“Resistance does not have to be with a gun or a bullet.” What do you think of when you read this quote? What comes to mind? (Prompt from lesson by Echoes & Reflections)

Reconvene as a class and ask people to share their thoughts.

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.