Begin by providing your students with background information on concentration camps. Concentration camps were created for a variety of reasons, including forced labor, detention of individuals viewed as enemies of the state, and eventually, mass murder.

Pull up the resource, Polish Victims, by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. As a class, read the first two paragraphs of this article, ending where it begins to talk about “Germanizing Poland.”

Open into a brief class discussion with the following critical thinking question:

Why did German forces eliminate or arrest not just leaders of political groups, but of religious organizations as well?

Explain to your students that they will be examining documents from a Polish victim of Nazi persecution, Rev. Stanley Dabrowski.

In groups of 2-3, have students look through and analyze the primary documents from series 1 and 2 of the Rev. Stanley Dabrowski papers from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

In groups, provide students with the following instructions below. Provide 10-15 minutes for this activity.

1. Look through the documents from series 1 and series 2.
2. What can you gather from these documents about Rev. Stanley Dabrowski’s life?
3. What was happening around this time in the greater context of the Holocaust leading up to Stanley’s arrest?

Once students have had an opportunity to research for themselves, provide this overview of Rev. Stanley Dabrowski’s life, compiled from research by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

How does Rev. Dabrowski’s story contribute to your overall understanding of the Holocaust?

Ask the students how extensive they believe the planning and execution of the Holocaust may have been – i.e, what kind of organization and resources they believe Nazi authorities used to make the Holocaust a reality.

Walk the students through the resource, Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Have each student take notes on the different examples of government departments they may or may not have expected to have attended the meeting, the goals of the attendees, as well as euphemisms (words used as a less problematic substitute for terms such as “evacuation to the east” instead of “extermination”, etc), aspects or details that were discussed within the meeting that they may or may not have expected to come up.

Lead the class in a discussion about the different actors at play during the Wannsee conference. Depending on how much time you have for this discussion, answer some (or all) of the questions below.

1. Which participants may have surprised them and why?
2. What was the range of occupations and professions required to implement the Holocaust?
3. What does it say about how broadly participation in the genocide must have been, not only by the government but also by those working for different departments and the military?
4. Did the planned size and location of the Holocaust, such as inclusion of Irish or UK Jews within their planned genocide, surprise them?
5. Did they expect that things such as distinctions for decorated WWI soldiers or Jews of “mixed descent” to come up?
6. What kind of subtle language did Heydrich use to hide their plans, and why?
7. What are some outcomes that we can see from this conference taking place, such as the implementation of Zyklon B gassing as the primary method of murdering people during the Holocaust?

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)

1. Ask the group to elect a recorder who will write notes from the group’s discussion.
2. Then, ask the group to collectively note what they SEE in the image. What details stand out? What are the most predominant features in the image. Have the recorder write down these comments so they can be shared.
3. Next, ask the group to THINK about what the image means. What do they believe the image is about and why do they think that? What is most important about this image that everyone should note? Again, the recorder should be taking notes.
4. Then, ask the group to WONDER about the image. What is left unknown about this image? What kind of ideas are provoked but unaddressed? What broader questions are left unanswered for the group. Once more, the recorder should be sure to take notes.

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.

Provide students with a blank A5 piece of paper (postcard sized) and a pencil. Give students just 2-3 minutes to sketch what they think a Nazi concentration camp looked like. Assure them that their artistic skills are not the main focus, rather this exercise seeks to visualize their prior knowledge and understanding of concentration camps.

In groups of four, ask students to create a gallery with the images they created. Ask them to talk about the similarities and differences between the sketches.

Direct students to the resource, Concentration Camps, 1939-42 by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Read through the first two sections, “Expansion of the Camp System” and “Establishment of New Camps” as a class.

Direct student attention to the list of camps: Gusen, Neuengamme, Gross-Rosen, Auschwitz, Natzweiler, Stuffhof, and Majdanek. Click on one of the camps on the list to show students what type of information can be found for each one. Scroll to the bottom of the page to show where the discussion questions will be.

In the same groups that they are already working with, assign each group one of the camps from the list. Have students prepare a brief presentation about their assigned camp answering the questions below.

Provide students with the following instructions:

1. When was the camp established?
2. How many prisoners were held there?
3. What type of people did they imprison there?
4. What work were the prisoners doing there?
5. Name one thing you found that surprised you about this particular camp.
6. Answer one of the discussion questions found at the bottom of the page.
7. Compare the sketches you made at the beginning of the lesson to what you now know about the camps.

Reconvene as a class. Ask students some new things they learned about concentration camps. Compared to their sketches and what they know now, what would they have changed in their drawing?

Tell students that (as they may now realize) that all camps were different. There is no such thing as a “typical” concentration camp. Different camps had different functions and they changed over time.