Why the Jews?
Students will learn about Adolf Hitler's past leading up to the Holocaust and how these events could have influenced his antisemitic ideology.
Wisconsin Academic Standard: PS2.a: Civil Rights and Liberties
Civil Rights and Liberties
Lesson Plan
How Public Opinion is Built
Examine opinion polls throughout the era of war and investigate key figures in American politics who helped shape the landscape of public opinion and action in this time period.
Enduring Understanding
Public opinion is shaped by multiple factors and does not guarantee that action will be taken on behalf of that opinion.
Essential Questions
- 1How do we balance and respond to the varied opinions that we accept about ourselves and the world around us?
- 2Why can we condemn actions elsewhere and accept similar actions here?
Readiness
Ask students to reflect on what they think contributes to their opinion on something? Who are the influencers in their world? Do all influences carry equal weight? How do they balance the difference of opinions that they hear and that they may agree with?
Input
Cycle through the opinion polls that run the length of the Holocaust, presented via the US Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibit on Americans and the Holocaust.
As you cycle through, prompt students to quickly jot down answers to the following questions that pair with each slide:
- What do you make of the disparity between disapproval of persecution and willingness to allow more refugees into the country in 1938?
- Why do you think Americans were uncomfortable entering a war with Germany in 1940?
- Americans were widely opposed to information they heard about Nazi concentration camps, what do you suppose puts them in favor of Japanese Internment?
- The United States and our allies won the war – in both Europe and the Far East. Why do you suppose we weren’t more welcoming to immigrants at that time? Who did we welcome?
Output
Students will explore the writings and primary sources about various influential people from the 1930s and 40s. Groups should be created, each assigned to a different person of influence. Begin at the bottom of this page from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum with the public voices and extend into the political voices if need be.
Groups should prepare a brief presentation about the person to which they are assigned. Each group should answer at least the following questions:
- What was this person’s role in US society? How influential were they, based on examples?
Did they influence policy, public opinion or both? In what ways? - What were the main actions they took during this time?
- How were they able to influence public opinion – especially the publics’ opinion on war, immigration, concentration camps, Internment camps? Why do you think their perspectives were so pertinent to this subject?
- How do you judge them in light of our current situation? What lessons can they teach us?
Wisconsin Academic Standards
This lesson meets the following Academic Standards required by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
BH2.a: Relationship of People and Groups
BH2.b: Cultural Patterns
BH3.a: Social Interactions
Econ1.a: Choices and Decision Making
Econ3.b: Money
Hist1.a: Cause
Hist1.b: Effect
Hist2.b: Patterns Change over a period of time
Hist3.b: Perspective
Hist3.c: Current Implications
Hist4.a: Historical Context
Hist4.d: Point of View
Inq5.a: Civic Engagement
PS1.a: Values & Principals of American Constitutional Democracy
PS2.a: Civil Rights and Liberties
PS2.c: Asserting and Reaffirming of Human Rights
PS3.c: Power in Government
PS3.d: Public Policy
PS4.b: Compromise, Diplomacy, and Consensus Building
Teacher Primer
Know Before You Go
Before you teach, use our teacher primer to freshen up on your content knowledge.
Lesson Plan
Always the Scapegoat
Follow the evolvement of antisemitism from its origin to its use in racial Nazi ideology. Students will break into groups to discuss questions on antisemitism, scapegoating, and the effects of hate speech.
Enduring Understanding
Nazi racial ideology fed off of pre-existing antisemitic prejudices.
Essential Questions
- 1How do prejudices take form in society?
- 2Why are we compelled to scapegoat?
Readiness
Ask your students if they know why the Nazis persecuted Jews, specifically? What is their understanding of this?
Ask your students if they think antisemitism first started during the Nazi era.
Would they consider antisemitism to be a form of racism? Why or why not?
Input
Play the video, Why the Jews: History of Antisemitism by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Output
Divide the class into groups of three or five to discuss the questions from USHMM found underneath the video. Assign each group one of the Discussion Questions to discuss amongst themselves.
Ask each group to write down some thoughts their group had and have them be prepared to share what they came up with to the class. Give groups 5-10 minutes for their discussions before reconvening as a class. Have each group present what they discussed. Encourage the students listening to share their thoughts, opinions, and questions on the other groups’ answers.
Wisconsin Academic Standards
This lesson meets the following Academic Standards required by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Teacher Primer
Know Before You Go
Before you teach, use our teacher primer to freshen up on your content knowledge.
Lesson Plan
Nationalism at the Forefront
Students will learn about the rise of the Nazi party. The resource will have them read through excerpts from the Nazi Party’s political party platform. Discussion will evolve into the danger nationalism poses in creating an “us versus them” narrative.
Enduring Understanding
Hitler sought to push his political agenda to strengthen Germany as a nation- at the cost of other cultures and races in the state.
Essential Question
- 1How can prejudice or racist ideology be construed as nationalism?
Readiness
Begin by asking students, What is the difference between patriotism and nationalism?
After giving them a few minutes to come up with their definitions, you can share the official definitions provided by Dictionary.com.
Patriotism: Devoted love, support, and defense of one’s country; national loyalty.
Nationalism: The policy of doctrine asserting the interests of one’s own nation viewed as separate from the interests of other nations or the common interests of all nations. In short, nationalism is a kind of excessive, aggressive patriotism.
Explain to students that political parties and candidates create platforms that help translate their ideas and goals into actions. Tell the class that during this lesson they will read through the National Socialist German Workers’ Party Platform to read through provisions that Hitler proposed to the party.
Input
Direct students to the Facing History and Ourselves source titled, National Socialist German Workers’ Party Platform and read through it together as a class. After you go through the platform, ask the class what their initial thoughts are. Does any one provision stick out to them?
Output
Ask students to get together in small groups of two or three. Give 10-15 minutes for groups to go over the following questions:
- Do you notice a general theme in the party platform?
- The party puts the needs of German’s above all else, belittling other cultures and languages in German society. Do you see this sort of rhetoric happening in today’s environment?
Read the quote below by a German Nationalist in 1810 to help you answer the remaining questions:
“A state without a Volk (a people who share a language and culture) is nothing, a soulless artifice; a Volk without a state is nothing, a bodiless airy phantom, like the Gypsies* and the Jews. Only state and Volk together could forma Reich (great empire), and such a Reich cannot be preserved without Volkdom.” -Taken from Facing History and Ourselves.
- Does this quote represent patriotism or nationalism? How can you tell?
- Is nationalism a dangerous concept? Does it always foster an “us versus them” narrative?
Go over the questions as a class, collect answers to the main themes to use in future discussions about nationalism and propaganda.
Wisconsin Academic Standards
This lesson meets the following Academic Standards required by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Teacher Primer
Know Before You Go
Before you teach, use our teacher primer to freshen up on your content knowledge.