Evaluate Sources
Listen to a podcast episode from We Share the Same Sky presented by USC Shoah Foundation. Students will hear about the host’s experience visiting Sobibor extermination camp and her connection to the victims.
The Nazi death camps were a dehumanizing place where many lost their lives. Survivors have different stories from their experiences that they pass down to relatives.
Explain to the students that they will listen to a podcast hosted by the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. The host, Rachel, tells bits of her grandmother’s story in each episode. This episode is about Rachel’s trip to Sobibor- visiting the extermination camp her family was sent to in 1942.
Warn students that the content can be unsettling.
Play the podcast episode Chapter IV: The End of The World by We Share the Same Sky. Explain to students that this podcast is hosted by the grandaughter of a Holocaust survivor. The host, Rachel, researches and retraces her family history in order to tell their story.
While they listen, ask students to write down something they found powerful.
Divide students into small groups of two or three to discuss the questions below. Come back together as a class and ask the students to share what their groups discussed.
Collect the answers to the major questions to be used in later discussions about the Holocaust and historical testimonies.
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 and examine a copy of the minutes of the Wannsee Conference, which helped to determine the fate of European Jews and remains one of the most damning pieces of evidence about the intentions of the Nazis in committing genocide.
The genocide of European Jews was meticulously planned by Nazi authorities; it required the cooperation of numerous facets of German government and society, such as the military, the railroads, immigration offices, etc.
Give a short background of events leading up to the Wannsee conference. Make sure to mention that mass killing of European Jews had already begun, but it was not as widespread or organized. Give a list of the different people attending the conference, found here, as well as their jobs, to show the variety of different governmental agencies who were brought together to cooperate in genocide.
Divide the class into groups of 4 or 5. Provide each group with a copy of the Wannsee conference minutes. Give the groups 15 minutes to read through the minutes and ask them to highlight words or phrases used in relation to the fate of Jewish populations (i.e. “evacuation to the East”). If students are unsure, a good example would be the phrase “Jewish question” itself as it is not readily apparent that the “Jewish question” means “How do we get rid of European Jews?”
Lead the class in a discussion following the words and phrases that students highlighted. Explain these terms and phrases, and what they really meant (i.e. “evacuation to the East” meaning “being sent to a concentration or death camp”). Make sure to point out phrases that may have been overlooked.
Finish the discussion with an overview of what we can learn from this document, including relevant questions; this document shows that numerous government authorities were in cooperation in an effort to carry out this genocide:
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 rise of Nazism in the early stages and see the road that allowed Adolf Hitler to climb the political ladder in Germany.
The rise of Nazism was aided by a depression that plagued Germany after the stock market crash of 1929, which left German citizens vulnerable to the rhetoric of a leader who promised to improve their lives.
Explain to students that Nazism became increasingly popular during the Great Depression and during a time of political crisis in Germany’s Weimar Republic. Ask your students to think critically about why they think this could be the case. What was it about the struggles of German life during this time that made the extremist views of the Nazis more appealing?
Print out the article by Facing History and Ourselves titled, Hitler in Power. Break people into small groups and have them read the page, underlining and making notes for each paragraph before moving on. After reading through, have students discuss the Connection Questions found at the bottom of the page.
After they go through the first resource, give them the resource, “Restoring” Germany’s Civil Service by Facing History and Ourselves. Let them do the same thing with this reading in their small groups. Have students go through the Connection Questions at the bottom of this page as well.
Devote approximately 15 minutes to each reading.
In an open discussion, ask students what they learned from going through the readings. What surprised them about the relationship between Adolf Hitler and President Paul von Hindenburg?
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.
Complete an activity having students analyze photographs from the Holocaust with and without context; the photos are from the United States Holocaust Memorial site. Students see the actions of perpetrators, bystanders, and victims in these primary sources.
The Holocaust could not have been possible without the participation of many.
Read this quote by Holocaust historian, Raul Hilberg, from “Destruction of the European Jews” to the class. “In retrospect it may be possible to view the entire design as a mosaic of small pieces, each commonplace and lusterless by itself.” (Hilberg, 1885, P. 263)
Ask students, What could have happened if one of these “mosaic pieces” were to refuse an order?
This lesson has been simplified from a lesson created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (full lesson can be found here). Distribute this worksheet and the caption-less photographs to students in groups of three. Explain to them that they will first receive a photograph without any context and that they will be asked to answer the questions as best they can.
Provide each group with a photograph without a caption and a worksheet. There are seven different photographs, depending on the size of the class some groups may be examining the same picture.
Allow students some time to look over the picture and answer the questions in Section 1 of the worksheet. When everyone is finished, hand out the same photograph this time including the caption. After looking over the photograph and caption, ask students to answer the questions in Section 2 of the worksheet.
Have each of the groups share what they learned from their photographs. If possible, project the pictures on a large screen so the entire class can see the picture the group is describing.
How does looking at the pictures after receiving the context change how you feel about the photo?
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.