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Grade Level7th-12th grade SubjectSocial StudiesLanguage Arts/Reading Time Needed1-2 class period(s) This exercise helps students identify the priorities and perspectives of individuals struggling to live in the Warsaw Ghetto at the time of the Great Aktion - 22 July to 12 September 1942. Diary excerpts used in this lesson: Abraham Lewin extract from Art from the Ashes by Lawrence Langer (pages 161-163). The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow edited by Raul Hilberg (pages 378-385). Janina Bauman excerpt from Voices and Views by Deborah Dwork (324-326). The Diary of Mary Berg edited by Susan Pentlin (pages 156-167). Scroll of Agony by Chaim…

The goal of the lesson is to help students understand--by reading excerpts from memoirs, biographies, and diaries--the resistance efforts of Jews during the Holocaust. Learners will be challenged to analyze the excerpts and identify examples of resistance within them. Grade Level: 7-12. Difficulty may be adjusted by changing the number and reading level of the excerpts selected for instruction. Eight excerpts are provided. Lexile levels of the texts are provided when available. Lesson Plan

Grade Level7th-12th grade SubjectLanguage Arts/ReadingSocial Studies Time Needed2 class periods. Preparation for this lesson could be completed as homework. IntroductionSome Holocaust survivors shared memories of their experiences to help educate future generations. They are not historians, but rather important eye-witnesses to what happened to them at a given place, in a given time, in a given set of circumstances. By reading excerpts of several memoirs or biographies on a particular topic, the reader is able to form a broader view of what was happening across a spectrum of experiences during the Holocaust. This particular lesson focuses on conditions in the…

Created by Jessica Rockhold. Revised by Laura Patton 12-2023.Midwest Center for Holocaust Education Grade Level7th-12th grade SubjectSocial StudiesLanguage Arts/Reading Time Needed1-2 class period(s) IntroductionMany students understand and internalize information more efficiently when they are able to visualize the history they are studying. The Nazis used very precise methods for processing people through or into their death camps. This exercise utilizes primary sources and maps to orient students to the process of arrival and selection at Auschwitz-Birkenau, adding location, direction and movement to the written testimony. MaterialsTeacher InstructionsMap of Auschwitz-BirkenauAuschwitz Album Photographs for StudentsAuschwitz Album Photographs - Notes for TeachersAuschwitz Album…

Submitted by Penny SelleNotre Dame de Sion Upper SchoolKansas City, Missouri Introduction to the Assignment The Auschwitz Album is concrete evidence of one system the Third Reich used in its attempt to murder Europe's Jews. It was used during the 1960's in testimonies at the Auschwitz trials in Frankfurt. The photographs in the album record the deportation of Hungarian Jews, some wearing the Stars of David on their coats, from the Berehova Ghetto to Auschwitz-Birkenau circa 26 May 1944. They depict the selection process on "the ramp" off the newly built spur which allowed trains to unload inside the camp. Previously,…

Jessica Rockhold, primary author.Revised by Laura Patton. December 2023.Midwest Center for Holocaust EducationGrade Level:9th-12th grade8th grade with discretion. Subjects:Language ArtsSocial StudiesTime Needed:Three to four (45-50 minute) class periods INTRODUCTIONThe Holocaust was not the last episode of mass atrocities, killing, or genocide in the 20th century. In fact, despite our claims of "Never Again," the United Nations Genocide Convention, and increased availability of information, genocide has carried over into the 21st century. One lesson we can take from the Holocaust is an understanding of the policy and implementation of genocides. By looking at instances since 1945 students are able to assess the…

This timeline, created by MCHE, lists events, policies, and laws that negatively affected Jews around the world from 70 CE to 1920. Secondary students often believe that antisemitism began with the Nazis. This is untrue. The Nazis built upon centuries of previously-established antisemitism.