Develop claims to answer inquiry question
Explore the stories from women rescuers during the Holocaust. Students will have the opportunity to learn the stories of courageous female upstanders and what they risked in order to save the lives of Jews.
This lesson is generously sponsored by Godfrey & Kahn.
During the Holocaust we can see numerous accounts of people going out of their way to rescue Jews from being harmed or deported.
Start by asking students, “What is an upstander?”
After students have had a chance to answer, you can provide them with the official definition. An Upstander is “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, discuss the following quote by Samantha Power- “If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.”
Direct students to the “Women of Valor” section from Yad Vashem. Show them where to find the women’s stories; take some time to click on one or two of the women’s stories to demonstrate how to find the information they will need.
Divide students into groups of three to five. Assign each group one of the heroines’ stories to look into. Ask students to prepare a presentation telling this person’s story. Presentations can be made with Prezi or PowerPoint, if your class does not have access to computers, presentations may be done with poster boards or large pieces of paper.
Once students have been assigned their group and heroine, provide them with the following questions to help structure their 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.
Students will learn the process for and the outcomes of the Nuremberg Trials.
The Nuremberg Trials were the first international war crimes trials to take place. The extenuating circumstances and the volume of people being prosecuted meant that the international courts were in unfamiliar territory. Years would go by with thousands of cases in order to bring justice to the victims of Nazi terror.
Ask students if they have heard of the Nuremberg Trials. If so, what do they know about them?
Direct students to the resource, War Crimes Trials by Echoes & Reflections. If not all students have access to a computer, print copies of the resource for your students so they can fill in the Discussion Questions worksheet on the last page.
Read through the resource as a class before having the students answer the questions on their own.
Go over the questions as a class. Did everyone come up with the same answers?
Did anything stand out to them when they read through the charges against the perpetrators?
*Hint* The term “genocide” was coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1943-44 but the crime against genocide was not put into effect until 1948.
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.
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.
Students will learn the history of anti-Judaism and its relevance when studying the Holocaust. Open up into a discussion about prejudices in history and how rumors and hatred get carried through generations.
Stereotypes and misinformation of the Jewish people has persisted and changed through the years, with much of it still visible in present day.
Ask students how they define religion. Then, how might they define ‘religious differences’?
Furthermore, can they consider how religious differences have been handled throughout history? Is this a peaceful history or a bloody one?
Divide the class into a maximum of six groups. Have each group elect one person as their recorder. Note that everyone else must read and all members should contribute to the answers.
Direct student to the resource, Anti-Judaism before the Enlightenment by Facing History and Ourselves. Ask students to read through the resource and go over the Connection Questions found at the bottom of the page in their small group. Have groups write down their answers. Give 25 minutes for this exercise.
Come back together as a class and go over the answers to the connection questions. Ask each group to answer one question, selecting them randomly. Tell students they should be adding to their answers with thoughts discussed by the class and answers from other groups.
If time permits, ask students the questions below in an open discussion.
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.