Governor Phil Murphy • Lt. Governor Tahesha Way

NJ Holocaust Grades 9-12 Curriculum: Unit 4

Unit Topic: From Persecution to Mass Murder: The Holocaust
Grade(s): 9-12

Unit Goal: Students will develop an understanding of how and why the Holocaust occurred and how various players responded, or didn’t, to the atrocities that took place.

Objectives:

  1. Analyze the factors contributing to a rise in authoritarian forms of government and ideologies (i.e., fascism, communism, and socialism) after World War One.
  2. Understand the course of the early years of World War II in Europe. 
  3. Assess the responses of the United States and other nations to the violation of human rights that occurred during the Holocaust and other genocides. 
  4. Compare the varying perspectives of victims, survivors, bystanders, rescuers, and perpetrators during the Holocaust. 
  5. Examine how the United States and other nations responded to the Holocaust.

  1. What political factors played a role in the development of the Holocaust?
  2. How did the course of WWII impact the extent to which the Holocaust took place?
  3. How did people, institutions, and nations respond to the Holocaust?
  4. What impact has the Holocaust had on geopolitics and our collective understanding of genocide and human rights issues?

  1. The rise of authoritarian regimes created the context from which the Holocaust could occur.
  2. Appeasement and other early WWII strategies implemented by democratic nations like the US impacted how the world saw the events of the Holocaust unfold.
  3. Bystanders, both institutions and individuals, allowed for the Holocaust to continue and grow in severity throughout the war.
  4. The Holocaust made a lasting impact on all people, nations, and institutions involved and continue to do so to this day.

While there are many, many books on the Holocaust, these are the top few we recommend for their scholarship and relationship to the lessons in this unit:

  1. War and Genocide by Doris Bergen
  2. Night by Elie Weisel
  3. Why?: Explaining the Holocaust by Peter Hayes
  4. The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  5. Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe by Dr. Rebecca Erbelding

Choices for single days on Unit IV of Holocaust Curriculum:

Choose one of the following lesson options for a single day on the Holocaust

1. Timeline Activity with personal stories 1933-1945 (USHMM) Activity 

Shows the scope and sequence of events from Nuremberg Laws to camps. Also, students can connect with personal stories of victims at the time.

Objective:  Students will examine the laws and events that impacted people over the whole period of the Nazi Era. Students should get an idea of the complexity of the Holocaust and the planning involved.

Post one card for each year between 1933 and 1945 at intervals around the 

room. (or create a Google Slideshow with one slide per year)

  1. Distribute cards with the personal stories, could be 2-3 each. Share the stories with your small group.
  2. Give time for sharing and then students take each card and post it under the date when Nazism first touched that person’s life.
  3. Use HIDE to divide the timeline into the systematic process of dehumanization and mass murder

 HUMILIATION

  1. Hitler’s rise to power, Nuremberg Laws, etc 

 ISOLATION

  1. Ghettoization 

DEPORTATION

  1. Wannsee Conference, to camps 

EXECUTION

  1. Use of camps and crematoria 
  2. Do the same for the historical events set of cards.
  3. Repeat for laws and decrees set of cards.
  4. If possible leave them up for students to do a gallery walk.
    1. (if digital, students can save the timeline slides to their drives)

2. Dilemmas

Objective: for students to ask questions about the Holocaust and understand the concept of ‘choiceless choices.’

*Disclaimer: our advice would be to NOT ask “what would you do?” as we don’t want students to put themselves in that position. Instead, this should be an intellectual activity that students ponder the complex dilemmas many faced during the Holocaust.

Possible Dilemmas: David the doctor, Scientist, the Mayor, Olympic athlete, Heidi, Shopkeeper, Anna -Nazi Wife, Helga - Christian woman. Group activity to discuss various scenarios that cover different aspects of the Holocaust events.

  1. SEL Opener: Share personal stories
    1. Reflect on a time you had a dilemma you had to overcome.
  2.  Take the dilemmas of the Scientist, Olympic athlete, Judenrat, Anna -Nazi Wife, Helga - Christian woman, and distribute one story per group.
    1. Reader’s Theater style activity OR
    2. Group activity to discuss the various scenarios and share their thoughts. 
  3. One student read the story to the class. One student summarizes their discussion. One student gives their answer to the dilemma. One student asks 2 questions that they have about the situation.
  4. The class would end with the questions they have about the Holocaust to continue the topic, individual research, or group project to answer their questions.
    1. You may choose to use a Jamboard for the reflection or Mentimeter for an anonymous Q&A.
  5. Students may follow up with an exercise on what choices Jewish people had in the 1930s. It may come out that help was needed from individuals and groups. Connect with the dilemmas and if they decided to help or not.

3. Footage from Band of Brothers and liberation of Landsberg Concentration Camp.

Objective: Students compare Hollywood to History and examine real footage to assess the part that film and photography played in witnessing the events.

  1. 3-2-1 Debrief (can be on a google form, exit ticket)
    1. 3 things you learned about the Holocaust
    2. questions you still have about the Holocaust
    3. connection you make between the events of the Holocaust and other atrocities we have seen throughout history/see today
  2. Or I page response paper giving their thoughts on what they just witnessed and asking 2 questions.
  3. Or drawing/artistic interpretation of events discussed
  4. Or flipgrid video debriefs about what they learned/how they are feeling after the conversation

Unit Assessments:  

Classwork (depends on lesson chosen):

  • Timeline slide and discussion
  • Dilemmas reader theater
  • Reflection on Band of Brother episode (depends on what the student chose)

Homework

Depends on the lesson, but may choose to have students do some research prior to class or provide them with the timeline or dilemma scenarios to review before class.

Resources provided for suggested activities:

Timeline Activity PDFs

Dilemmas Scenario PDFs

Band of Brothers Episode 9, Why We Fight - streams on HBO, can find clips here or on Youtube.

There are several excellent organizations relating to the Holocaust and Holocaust education.  Here are the educational websites for those entities:

Echoes and Reflections (Yad Vashem, USC Shoah Foundation, and the ADL): Echoes and Reflections

Facing History and Ourselves:Facing History and Ourselves

The Jewish Partisans: Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation

USC Shoah Foundation - Stories of Liberation

Guidelines for Teaching The Holocaust

Governments around the world support universal human rights to varying degrees. 

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

Historical events and developments were shaped by the unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts. 

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.HistoryCC.4.h: Compare and contrast World Wars I and II in terms of technological innovations (i.e., industrial production, scientific research, war tactics) and social impact (i.e., national mobilization, loss of life, and destruction of property).

Complex interacting factors influence people’s perspective 

6.2.12.HistoryUP.4.b: Report on the influence of war, economic depression, and genocide on the arts, cultural values, and social ideas. 

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.

21st Century Themes

  1. Act as a responsible and contributing citizen and employee. 
  2. Communicate clearly and effectively and with reason. 
  3. Consider the environmental, social, and economic impacts of decisions.
  4.  Demonstrate creativity and innovation. 
  5. Employ valid and reliable research strategies. 
  6. Utilize critical thinking to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. 
  7. Model integrity, ethical leadership, and effective management. 
  8. Use technology to enhance productivity. 
  9. Work productively in teams while using cultural global competence.