Connections
Students will learn about the international community’s failed attempt to find suitable options to the refugee crisis following Germany’s annexation of Austria.
Thirty-two countries came together on July 6-16, 1938 to discuss the refugee crisis in what was known as the Evian Conference.
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.
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.
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.
Watch a video on “upstander” Sir Nicholas Winton and how he saved the lives of children during the Holocaust. Students will learn Winton’s story and be inspired by the man’s reluctance to take credit for his good deeds.
During the Holocaust we can see numerous accounts of gentiles, or non-Jewish persons, going out of their way to rescue Jews from being taken, harmed, or deported.
Write the word “upstander” on the board. Ask the students what they think it means and if they can come up with any examples of being an upstander.
Watch the video, produced by CBS 60 Minutes, Sir Nicholas Winton “Saving the Children.” While students are watching the video have them take notes answering the following questions:
After the video ends allow students to pair up and discuss the answers they put down. Allow approximately 10 minutes for this sharing.
After the video, discuss the following questions as a class:
Collect answers about being an upstander, specifically any answers about what makes people risk their own safety/well-being for the benefit of others. Bring these out in future discussions about bystanders.
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.
Go over documents used during the Nuremberg Trials. (Some of the images contain graphic content.) Students will learn how the Nuremberg Trials came to be and the lasting impact these trials had on future cases of international injustice.
The Nuremberg Trials set the precedent that individual officials could be held responsible for “crimes against humanity” and for implementing policies that violate international law — regardless of their status as government officials.
Ask the class how they would define the terms “justice” and “accountability.” Write the words or phrases they come with on the board, then ask them the following questions:
Familiarize students with the resource, Justice and Accountability by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Show students that there are three sections of images and texts followed by a quote; Documenting the Crimes, The Trials, and Lasting Legacies.
Divide the class into three groups and assign them one of the three categories: Documenting the Crimes, The Trials, and Lasting Legacies and one of the quotes. These groups can end up being quite large depending on class size. Allow groups to divide up the images to go over in subgroups, as long as they all get together to discuss.
Provide the following instructions while they get into their groups:
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.
Hear the testimony of a man forced out of his home country during the Nazi’s program of mass deportations. This lesson will also introduce students to an ongoing debate about whether or not genocide was always Hitler’s intention, or the result of a failure to expel the Jews from Europe.
Before killing centers and concentration camps Nazi Germany tried expelling the Jews to remove them from Germany.
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:
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?
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 be introduced to the act of name reading as a form of commemoration. They will be taught the importance of shining light on individual victims to preserve their memory.
Name reading is a simple, yet powerful way of commemorating those who lost their lives during the Holocaust. Even reciting a few names can have a profound effect.
One at a time, have students read three names from this list from Yad Vashem. As they go through, have them read out the person’s family name, first name, as well as where they were killed.
Watch this video on Remembrance by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM).
The answer: It would take a single person over 1,538 hours, or 64 days straight.
When else are name readings used? Do they serve the same purpose?
Writing activity: Have students write a letter to a Holocaust survivor. Share the resource, Meet Holocaust Survivors by the USHMM and provide them with the instructions below:
Ask the class, how does reading a survivor’s story commemorate their memory and the memories of those that lost their lives?
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 analyze the different types of Holocaust memorials that can be found around the world. Open up into a discussion about what purpose memorials serve, and what they signify. Allow students to create their own memorial.
Memorials and monuments commemorating the Holocaust have taken on different forms, all begging to answer the questions: “How should we remember?” and “What impact of memorials have on the way we think about history?”
Ask students, what is commemoration? Then ask, what purpose do monuments and memorials serve?
As a class, read through the Visual Essay: Holocaust Memorials and Monuments by Facing History and Ourselves and look through the pictures of the memorials featured.
After you go through the reading, go over the Connection Questions found at the bottom of the page. You may choose to do these as a class or have the students discuss them in small groups of three to five people.
Distribute the Creating a Memorial worksheet to each of your students. As this last activity asks students to reflect in depth, you may consider giving students the opportunity to work on their memorial at home. You may also want to give students the option to create their memorials in pairs, allowing them an opportunity to share ideas and concepts. Some teachers will ask students to create a physical model of the memorial they have conceptualized. If able, provide materials such as construction paper, clay, or paint to work on their memorials.
Collect memorials created by your class as a class project. These memorials can then be used as examples when carrying out this lesson for future classes. If doing physical models, you may consider taking a photo of the model to collect instead of holding onto the physical ones.
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.
Read excerpts from Elie Wiesel’s Day of Remembrance addresses. Students will have a discussion about commemoration and remembrance.
Holocaust remembrance is important to ensure that the story of those who lost their lives does not go forgotten. The hope is that by teaching the Holocaust and preserving the memory we can keep history from repeating itself.
Start off by reading this story to the class:
When Rebbe Israel Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, saw the Jewish people were threatened by tragedy, he would go to a particular place in the forest where he lit a fire, recited a particular prayer, and the miracle was accomplished, averting the tragedy.
Later, when the Baal Shem Tov’s disciple the Maggid of Mezrich had to intervene with heaven for the same reason, he went to the same place in the forest, where he told the Master of the Universe that while he did not know how to light the fire, he could still recite the prayer, and again, the miracle was accomplished.
Later still, Rebbe Leib of Sasov, in turn, a disciple of the Maggid of Mezrich, went into the forest to save his people. “I do not know how to light the fire,” he said to God, “and I do not know the prayer, but I can find the place and that must be sufficient.” Once again, the miracle was accomplished.
When it was the turn of Rebbe Israel of Rizhyn, the great-grandson of the Maggid of Mezrich who was named after the Baal Shem Tov, to avert the threat, he sat in his armchair, holding his head in his hands, and said to God: “I am unable to light the fire, I do not know the prayer, and I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is tell the story. That must be enough.” And it was enough.
Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, author, and professor, used this story to explain how someone who has little to no connection with the past, can still be a custodian of memory. Wiesel said that, “Like the Rebbe of Rizhyn, we may not know how to light the fire, we may not know the prayer, and we may not know the place in the forest. Our connection to the past is weak; it may be distant, at a remove. All we can do is tell the story, and we must. But in order to tell the story, we must first hear the story.”
Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom by Ariel Burger (Pg. 31-32)
Direct students to the resource, Elie Wiesel: Days of Remembrance Excerpts, from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Divide the class into groups of three. Assign each group an excerpt from one of the years: 2001, 2002, 2003, or 2004. It is fine that groups will have repeat excerpts.
As students get together with their groups, provide them with the instructions below. Give students 15-20 minutes for this.
Reconvene as a class and open the class to a discussion with 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.
Students will learn about the Warsaw ghetto uprising, the largest Jewish uprising in German-occupied Europe. This lesson will lead students into a discussion about resistance during the Holocaust and the many ways people resist today.
Despite the amount of energy it took to live day-to-day in the ghetto, some inhabitants formed organized resistance.
Begin by telling students that between 1941 and 1943 underground resistance movements began popping up in over 100 ghettos in Nazi-occupied countries. Triggered by the deportations and liquidation of the ghettos, many of these resistance groups staged uprisings in order to fight the Nazis or escape.
Ask students if they can list any ghetto uprisings that they have heard of before. Then explain that you will be taking a closer look at the uprising from the Warsaw ghetto.
Direct students to the resource, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Play the animated map video for the class before diving into the reading. Divide the class into groups of three or four and provide them with the instructions below.
In order to familiarize yourself, and your class with this model, please look over this guide: 3Ps: A Critical Reading Guide.
Come back together as a class and ask the groups to share what they had written down. Begin by asking groups to share what they found puzzling about the reading, is there anything that still needs to be cleared up?
Ask students to think of forms of resistance they have participated in or have seen or heard others do. Can they come up with any examples or instances where people took part in resisting, either violently or non-violently?
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.
