Introduction to the Holocaust

Lesson objectives

Students will:

• Analyze the German National Socialism (Nazi) extermination campaign against European Jews and other targeted groups within the context of World War II history.
• Identify responses to the Holocaust by governments and individuals
• Reflect on racism and stereotyping.
• Consider contemporary responsibility and remembrance.

Note: The Holocaust is a specific event in history. Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators pursued a program to systematically persecute and destroy European Jewry. Six million Jews were killed. Nazi ideology identified other enemies; they were targeted for racial, ethnic or political reasons. The murder of Poles, Gypsies, Soviet prisoners of war, handicapped people, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, sympathetic Christian church leaders, and political dissidents resulted in approximately five million more deaths.

The Holocaust is an event of vast and brutal cruelty and horror. Educators are reminded that its content can be disturbing to many students; graphic material should be used with forethought. The lessons to be learned are equally vast. It is important to partner the facts of the Holocaust with these other teachings.

*Caution: Please note that the content in this lesson can be disturbing to students; graphic material should be used with forethought. We recommend that you preview all content before showing your class in order to determine whether it is appropriate.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Lesson Procedure

This lesson is composed of four parts: introduction, group research, class share, and individual reflection. Using narratives from the video segment: “The Holocaust” as springboards for research. Groups will examine key topics surrounding The Holocaust. Groups will discuss their research and share their findings with the class. A closing session encourages student reflection about the systematic extermination of millions of people and promotes a conversation about fundamental moral connections.

Part 1: Introduction

Prepare students for their research on Holocaust history. Encourage a discussion about the segment that addresses the campaign to exterminate European Jews and other “undesirable” groups. Some students may already have familiarity with the topic. There may also be student misinformation. Use student knowledge and student reaction to the segments to generate a list of questions or a K-W-L chart.

Students can be encouraged to keep a Holocaust/World War II journal to help them process the content and their reactions. The initial entry should be a response to the questions raised by the video segment and class discussion.

Additional entries can include student reactions to Holocaust research or address classroom discussion topics.

Part 2: Research

Students break into small groups. Explain that groups will investigate different aspects of the Holocaust and develop answers to earlier student questions. Narrative comments from the video segment will be entry points into their research. Encourage students to critically evaluate the various factors that contributed to the Holocaust events they encounter.

Direct groups to begin their research by exploring the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Students may subsequently research other websites. Some research topics are suggested for each group.

If research is assigned as homework, be sure to provide classroom time for groups to collaboratively prepare their oral presentations and display boards. Display boards should include maps, timelines, key terminology, explanatory texts, other appropriate elements (letters, memoirs, photographs), and an annotated bibliography. Alternatively, students can design blogs, wikis or Web sites to display their findings.

Group A: The Jews Of Europe: 1933-1945

Narrator: In 1933, there were nine million Jews in Europe. By 1945, two out of three of them were dead. Thousands of Jewish communities were wiped from the face of the earth.

Suggested topics: Jewish culture before the war, ghetto life, anti-Semitism, Kristallnacht, Nuremberg Laws, Wannsee Conference, the “Final Solution.”

Group B: Other Nazi Targets

Narrator: Hitler’s regime also slaughtered nearly two million non-Jewish Poles. They murdered more than four million Soviet prisoners of war, as well as hundreds of thousands of handicapped people and political opponents, homosexuals and gypsies and Jehovah’s Witnesses and slave laborers from all the countries they’d conquered.

Suggested topics: Roma and Sinti (Gypsy) history and culture, stereotypes, race, propaganda, intolerance, pluralism, AB-Aktion, “Night and Fog” Policy, Einsatzgruppen, “Extermination Through Work.”

Group C: Nazi Ideology and Racial Science

Ray Leopold: We noticed that up on the hill there was a “building that the Burgomeister described as an insane asylum. We went up there and found that, true they did have an insane “asylum there, at least initially. But it was a place where there was medical experimentation going on humans. And I really can’t tell you what I saw there. It affected me profoundly, and I think all the men who were with me at that time were equally affected…I felt that this was the most horrible human experience that had ever been visited on the face of the earth.

Suggested topics: nationalism, biological superiority, eugenics, Aryan master race, race hygiene, T-4 Euthanasia Program, Karl Brandt, Josef Mengele.

Group D: Apathy, Silence, Response, Rescue

Burnett Miller: We lived in Mauthausen, which was an idyllic little Austrian town on the river but you could smell the camp in town. And all the villagers of course said they didn’t know anything about the camp and the local priest said he didn’t know anything about the camp. And I knew that was a lie because you could smell the camp.

Suggested topics: bystanders, Danish rescue of Jews, Voyage of the St. Louis, “Righteous Among the Nations,” Raoul Wallenberg, Oskar Schindler, Varian Fry, Chiune Sugihara.

Part 3: Oral Presentations

After completing their research, groups present their findings to the rest of the class. Presentations are supported by group poster displays that build from visual and textual information students have compiled. Presentations follow in order, beginning with Group A. Each student in the group should present research.

Part 4: Reflection and Closure

Following oral presentations, students will have a range of questions and comments. Invite students to share what they regard as the most compelling lessons that come from learning about the Holocaust. Reflect on moral ramifications of the Holocaust, and discuss concepts such as injustice, indifference, and obedience. Include the questions raised in Group I. A final journal entry can be assigned.

Extended Discussions:

Students often wonder why Jews didn’t simply leave Europe as hardship and danger increased. Discuss the conflicting decisions faced by Jews as they decided whether, when, and how to leave their homelands. Include a discussion of emigration policy.

Extended Activities:

• As a class or individually, create a visual “memorial” that draws from student response to lessons about the Holocaust. Alternatively, create a nmemorial that draws from student reflection on genocide, intolerance, nresponsibility, and remembering. Teachers may wish to partner the nactivity with a viewing of the film Paper Clips. The 2004 film documents how middle school students in Tennessee responded to lessons about the Holocaust.
• Perform a reading of the play, I Never Saw Another Butterfly. The play is adapted from the book of the same name (see below). The book is a collection of the pictures and poetry of children who were brought to the Terezin Concentration Camp. Approximately 15,000 children under the age of fifteen were brought here; less than 100 survived.
• As a class, read the young children’s picture book, Brundibar (written by Tony Kushner, illustrated by Maurice Sendak). The book is based on a 1938 Czech opera and was performed by children at Terezin. Study the book for its connections to the Holocaust.
• Have students form literature circles and read, journal about and discuss one of the following novels:
  • Night, Elie Wiesel
  • The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank
  • All But My Life, Gerda Weissman Klein

Books:

• I Never Saw Another Butterfly, Hana Volavkova, editor
• The Complete Maus, Art Spiegelman Mendel’s Daughter, Martin
• Lemelman Milkweed, Jerry Spinelli
• Night, Elie Wiesel

Films:

• Daring to Resist: Three Women Face the Holocaust (1999) Hiding and Seeking:
• Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust (2004) Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (2000) Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
• The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971)
• Paper Clips (2004)
• Schindler’s List (1993)

National Standards

The National Standards for History are from The National Center for History in the Schools

Standard 4
The causes and global consequences of World War II.

Standard 4A
The student understands the causes of World War II.

Standard 4B
The student understands the global scope, outcome, and human costs of the war.

Standard 5
Major global trends from 1900 to the end of World War II.

Standard 5A
The student understands major global trends from 1900 to the end of World War II.

Social Studies
Thematic strands and standards for Social Studies come from the National Council for the  English Language Arts Standards for the English Language Arts come from the National Council of Teachers of English.

NL-ENG.K-12 Understanding the Human Experience Students read a wide
range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding
of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human
experience.

NL-ENG.K-12.7 Evaluating Data
Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

NL-ENG.K-12.8 Developing Research Skills
Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.

Civics

The National Standards for Civics and Government come from the Center for Civic Education NSS-C.9-12.4 Other Nations and World Affairs What is the Relationship of the United States to Other Nations and to World Affairs?

• How is the world organized politically?
• How do the domestic politics and constitutional principles of the United States affect its relations with the world?
• How has the United States influenced other nations, and how have other nations influenced American politics and society?