Linkage Institutions
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.
This lesson focuses on the power and influence of propaganda in the Third Reich through use of a multimedia source.
When people are given messages repeatedly with no dissenting views to oppose them, they can become more receptive to those messages.
Ask students what they already know about propaganda. What is it? What purpose does it serve? How is it similar and different from other efforts to persuade people?
Watch the 6 minute video – The Power of Nazi Propaganda with students. Replay the video if necessary
While they watch the movie, have students answer the following questions:
Divide the class into groups of three to five to discuss the questions below. Have one person in the group be responsible for taking notes and writing down their answers. Pull up the images of Nazi propaganda below for the groups to look over while in their groups. These images come from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
If time permits, reconvene as a class to go over the answers the groups came up with. Have students add to their notes with responses from their classmates.
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.