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?

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:

1. What do you make of the disparity between disapproval of persecution and willingness to allow more refugees into the country in 1938?
2. Why do you think Americans were uncomfortable entering a war with Germany in 1940?
3. Americans were widely opposed to information they heard about Nazi concentration camps, what do you suppose puts them in favor of Japanese Internment?
4. 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?

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:

1. 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?
2. What were the main actions they took during this time?
3. 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?
4. How do you judge them in light of our current situation? What lessons can they teach us?

Ask students whether they can identify how their opinions about the world are shaped. What are the things that influence their perception of what is going on?

Then, set the stage for what Americans would have been experiencing in 1938. Ask your students, what do they know about the US in 1938? Its economy? Sports? Life? How did people at that time get their information- newspapers, movies, radio? How might their views of the world have been shaped?

Have students watch the video American Newsreel from USHMM’s Americans and the Holocaust exhibit website. Begin by watching the first 2:15, through the Silver Shirts newspaper campaign.

Prompt students to consider the content of the first two minutes in large discussion or via pair-and-share.

1. What kind of messaging is being promoted by Senator Dies, Father Caughlin and the Silver Shirts?
2. If you believe these messages, what kind of opinion might you form about refugees, Jews, etc. ?

Continue watching the video through 4:45, with the meeting of Mussolini and Hitler and then stop to ask questions about the information being distributed in America:

1. Were Americans informed about the rise of fascism in Europe?
2. Was the American Government interested in responding to conflict or aggression around the world? Why not?
3. How do you see these two first sections interacting with one another? Given the tone of the first section and the information from the second, what kind of opinion might someone form about America’s role in the world?

Finally, watch the last two minutes of the video, which is an excerpt from March of Time which gave Americans a glimpse into life in Nazi Germany. After the video, ask students to draft short answers to these questions and either generate discussion from them or collect as an assignment:

1. What is the message of March of Time?
2. Knowing what we know about America in 1938, how might a citizen have responded to this information? Would they have been inspired to act or to stay out of it?
3. Looking back from the present day, what parts of March of Time seem like red flags for what is to come in the next 7 years?

Briefly, ask students if they believe that the US was heroic in their effort to stop the Holocaust. Why do they believe what they do? What evidence do they have to support their position? Then, review the Holocaust Timeline at Echoes & Reflections to take a look at 1941 and 1942. Note some key dates, including the deployment of the Einsatzgruppen in 1941 and the Wannsee Conference in 1942.

Then introduce the Ringer Telegram, by way of the USHMM Americans and the Holocaust online exhibit, (can be found under the section titled “Cold-Blooded Extermination”) which found its way to US officials in August 1942. Begin by showing the full image of the telegram and asking students to read it. What do they understand of the messages that is being conveyed? What is the warning in these words?

After they have investigated the primary source document, read together the description of “cold-blooded extermination” on that same page for context.

Ask students to reflect on this historical monument. What would they have done if they were in a position of power and heard of these acts of violence?

Then, introduce students to the State Department cover up. Read the first part of this section together and ask students what questions emerge in their minds. Ask them to record for themselves, what would they still like to know and what confuses them about this response.

Ask the students to pair up and read the biography of Breckenridge Long via the USHMM Americans and the Holocaust site. Before they begin, prompt them to say their questions aloud to their partner. As they read, they should be attempting to answer these questions by writing down information that pertains to them.

Finally, if time permits, groups can share what they discovered and what remains unknown about this cover-up story.

Review the timeline from Echoes & Reflections between 1933 and 1938 to get a better picture of the context in which the Evian Conference occurred. What was the Evian Conference? Where was it? Who attended?

Highlight some of the major moments of persecution that Jews already witnessed at the hands of Nazis, like the boycott of Jewish businesses, the Nuremberg Laws or the expulsion of Jews from professional services.

If need be, review the basic concept of the Evian conference. If time permits, students can read this short summary from Facing History and Ourselves. Then, divide the class into five groups, assigning each group to one of the countries represented in the reading here.

Ask the groups to read their quotes very carefully. It will seem to be accomplished easily, they should read these quotes with great acuity and attention to detail.

Ask all the groups to consider the following set of questions and record their group answers:

1. What do you know about the country you are assigned and the role that country ultimately played in WWII?
2. What is the message that your country is telling the refugees?
3. What kind of language (specific words and phrases) is being used by the country’s leaders to talk about their decision?
4. Did your country own up to the decision or did they hide behind a sense of disempowerment or ‘policy’?
5. Why do you think the leaders of your country made the decision that they did?

Each group should then present what they found in closely reading the quotations from their country. Take note of the themes that emerge–words like ‘impossible’ or ‘incapable’ will continue to come up. Ask how it is that countries like the USA are ‘incapable’ of something?

Then prompt the final question:

1. Do you think the decision of your country’s leaders is justified or defensible? Why or why not?

This could be answered immediately, or, if time permits, groups could reconvene and come up with specific arguments about why the decision was defensible or justifiable. Possibly leave the class with a question about what motivated these countries to act to participate in WWII? If it wasn’t the plight of Jews, what was the reason these countries entered the war?