Governor Phil Murphy • Lt. Governor Tahesha Way

NJ Holocaust Grades 5-8 Curriculum: Unit 5

Unit Topic: Resistance and Resilience
Grade(s): 5-8

Unit Goal: Students will demonstrate an understanding and recognition of the many forms of resistance that occur and the courage it takes to exercise any of these forms of resistance in situations of great repression and persecution.

Objectives:

  1. Define and describe different types of resistance that may occur at different times and in different situations, such as physical, passive, economic, moral, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, etc. 
  2. Analyze the nature of resistance. 
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of making good moral choices. 
  4. Demonstrate knowledge of the role that children and young people played in the resistance movements.
  5. Analyze why some people would risk their own lives to help  protect and fight for  themselves and others and what that says about humanity as a whole.

  1. What factors influence decision-making in the face of injustice? 
  2. What factors make it so challenging for the victims to resist during times of crisis, upheaval and war?
  3. How do people find the strength to fight back when there seems to be little hope?
  4. What makes some people resist and others obey authority?
  5. What lessons can we learn from  resisters during the Holocaust? 
  6. What does resistance teach us about the will to live?

  1. We see the very best and the very worst of humanity during genocide
  2. Resistance is seen through a variety of lenses and all have a tremendous impact on the individual, targeted group and society as a whole.
  3. Resistance during the Holocaust gives a window into human behavior and ethical responsibility as a human being.
  4. Humans find strength to fight back even in the most horrific circumstances.
  5. Although there was enormous risk, thousands of individuals risked their lives to help others.
  6. Acts of resistance, both large and small, are ways to preserve the human spirit and human dignity.

Non-fiction:

  1. The Light of Days - Judy Batalion  (Young Reader’s Edition) - 2021 Educator's Guide to The Light of Days
  2. Flowers in the Gutter - The True Story of the Edelweiss Pirates, Teenagers who Resisted the Nazis  - K. R. Gaddy - 2020
  3. The Champion of Children - Janusz Korszak (picture book)  - 2009
  4. Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust - Doreen Rappaport - 2012
  5. Resistance: Teen Partisans and Resisters who Fought Nazi Tyranny - Charles Anflick - 1998
  6. Children’s Letters To A Holocaust Survivor: Dear Esther - Richard Rashke - 2016

Fiction:

  1. The Red Ribbon - Lucy Adlington - 2017 - Teacher’s  Resources
  2. White Rose - Kip Wilson  - 2019
  3. Resistance - Jennifer A. Nielsen - 2018 - Teacher's Discussion Guide
  4. Girl in the Blue Coat - Monica Hesse - 2016 - Teacher’s  Resources
  5. 28 Days - A Novel of Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto - David Safier - 2020 -  Discussion Guide

  1. Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust - Students examine the many forms of resistance that Jews took against the Nazis during World War II, including armed resistance, spiritual resistance, and nonviolent resistance using primary source photographs. (Museum of Jewish Resistance)
  2. Resistance is.......  -  Students will read and analyze a poem regarding the term “resistance” and the many different ways that Jews resisted during the Holocaust. (Facing History)
  3. Jewish Partisans in the Resistance - Students will focus on resistance as seen through the lens of the firsthand experiences of Jewish partisans. Excellent lesson to jigsaw or use group work.  (Facing History)
  4. Cultural and Spiritual Resistance  - Students will explore primary sources of various means of resistance in the ghettos of Easter Europe. (Echoes and Reflection)
  5. Jewish Resistance Testimonies - Students will examine multiple types of resistance through firsthand video testimony. An opportunity is provided for students to learn about the risks of resisting Nazi domination and the means, scope, and intensity of resistance efforts. 
    1. Roman Kent - spiritual/cultural
    2. Helen Fagin - spiritual/cultural
    3. Ruth Brand - spiritual/cultural
    4. Mira Shelub - physical
    5. Sol Lieber  - physical
  6. Pronouncement by Abba Kovner -  Students will use a primary source poem from Lithuania to encourage resistance.  (Echoes and Reflections)
  7. Personal Testimonies - Students will focus on primary sources to learn the first hand experiences of Jews who resisted.    (Echoes and Reflections) 
  8. Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust - Students will explore the choices  of resistance people made during the Holocuast and the power and  impact of those choices and all choices we are faced with. (Facing History)
  9. Women in the Resistance - Students will be introduced to four women who fought bravely in the resistance movement. (USHMM)
  10. Podcast - Bielski Partisans - Amazing story of three brothers in Belarus who lived in the forest and organized an incredible resistance movement saving 1200 Jews. (USHMM)

  1. Compare resistance from the Holocaust to resistance by enslaved African Americans in the 17th and 18th century. 
    1. Gilder Lehrman - Slave resistance
    2. Select and appropriate segments from Unchained Memories documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjjb-7R02Rw
  2.  Listen to and discuss music as a tool for resistance:
    1. Music of the Holocaust
    2. Music and the Holocaust
    3. Surviving the Holocaust Through Music
  3. Evaluate music of the Holocaust to the music of enslaved African Americans:
    1. Roots of African American music
    2. African American Spirituals
    3. Songs of Slave Resistance 
  4. Investigate artifacts through use of the United States Holocaust Museum Curators Corner video series
    1. Risk and Resistance: The Elise Kann Jaeger Collection (Curator's Collection #18)
    2. George Mandel-Mantello and his Mission to Rescue Europe's Jews  (Curator's Corner #7)

  1. Echoes and Reflections - Jewish Resistance
  2. Echoes and Reflections - Rescuers and Non Jewish Resistance
  3. Yad Vashem - Spiritual Resistance
  4. Yad Vashem - To Live with Honor and Die with Honor - Online Exhibition
  5. Yad Vashem - Photos of the Warsaw Ghetto
  6. Resistance during the Holocaust - US Memorial Holocaust Museum

Correlating New Jersey Student Learning Standards:

  • English Language Arts
  • Social Studies
  • Comprehensive Health & Physical Education
  • Career Readiness, Life Literacies and Key Skills

Supporting Legislative Mandates:

English Language Arts

RH.6-8.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources. 

RH.6-8.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

RH.6-8.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies. 

RH.6-8.5. Describe how a text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, causally). 

RH.6-8.6. Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author's point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).

RH.6-8.7. Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts. 

RH.6-8.8. Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text. 

RH.6-8.9. Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic.

RH.6-8.10. By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Social Studies

6.1.5.CivicsDP.2: Compare and contrast responses of individuals and groups, past and present, to violations of fundamental rights (e.g., fairness, civil rights, human rights).

6.1.5.CivicsPD.3: Explain how and why it is important that people from diverse cultures collaborate to find solutions to community, state, national, and global challenges.

6.1.5.HistoryUP.6: Evaluate the impact of different interpretations of experiences and events by people with different cultural or individual perspectives.

6.1.5.HistoryUP.7: Describe why it is important to understand the perspectives of other cultures in an interconnected world.

6.1.5.CivicsHR.4: Identify actions that are unfair or discriminatory, such as bullying, and propose solutions to address such actions.

6.3.8.CivicsHR.1: Construct an argument as to the source of human rights and how they are best protected. 

6.1.12.HistoryUP.11.b*: Compare the varying perspectives of victims, survivors, bystanders, rescuers, and perpetrators during the Holocaust.

6.2.12.CivicsPI.4.b*: Assess government responses to incidents of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

6.2.12.CivicsHR.4.a*: Analyze the motivations, causes, and consequences of the genocides of Armenians, Ukrainians, Jews in the Holocaust and assess the responses by individuals, groups, and governments and analyze large-scale atrocities including 20th century massacres in China.

6.2.12.HistoryCC.4.g*: Use a variety of resources from different perspectives to analyze the role of racial bias, nationalism, and propaganda in mobilizing civilian populations in support of “total war.”

6.2.12.HistoryUP.4.c*: Compare and contrast the actions of individuals as perpetrators, bystanders, and rescuers during events of persecution or genocide, and describe the long-term consequences of genocide for all involved.

*By the end of grade 12 performance expectations may be taught in the middle grades.

Comprehensive Health and Physical Education

2.3.5.PS.6: Identify strategies a person could use to call attention to or leave an uncomfortable or dangerous situation, including bullying, teasing, teen dating violence, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and sexual abuse.

2.3.5.PS.5: Communicate personal boundaries and demonstrate ways to respect other people’s personal boundaries.

2.1.5.SSH.7: Define teasing, harassment and bullying and provide examples of inappropriate behaviors that are harmful to others.

2.1.5.SSH.3: Demonstrate ways to promote dignity and respect for all people (e.g. sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, differing ability, immigration status, family configuration).

Career Readiness, Life Literacies and Key Skills

9.4.5.GCA.1: Analyze how culture shapes individual and community

perspectives and points of view.