Embedded Files
Rena Finder (above) is a Holocaust survivor who has been visiting Wayland Middle School for over 25 years.
She is holding an honorary Wayland Middle School diploma. Standing with her is Ms. Mills, Mr. McCormack, and Mr. Montwieler.
Here is Rena Finder speaking to the United Nations in 2014
Unit three is called "Justice Denied." Students investigate the complex issues surrounding the Holocaust. Identity is a crucial theme of this unit, as students explore how perceptions of identity can influence people’s choices.
INTRODUCTION TO UNIT 3
Something to consider are President Obama's remarks from a speech he made at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in April 2012:
"We must tell our children. But more than that, we must teach them. Because remembrance without resolve is a hollow gesture. Awareness without action changes nothing. In this sense, "never again" is a challenge to us all -- to pause and to look within. For the Holocaust may have reached its barbaric climax at Treblinka and Auschwitz and Belzec, but it started in the hearts of ordinary men and women. And we have seen it again -- madness that can sweep through peoples, sweep through nations, embed itself. The killings in Cambodia, the killings in Rwanda, the killings in Bosnia, the killings in Darfur -- they shock our conscience, but they are the awful extreme of a spectrum of ignorance and intolerance that we see every day; the bigotry that says another person is less than my equal, less than human. These are the seeds of hate that we cannot let take root in our heart."
Here are two recent articles about why it is important to "tell our children" what happened in the Holocaust. According to Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, author of "Night," and the person who introduced Obama at USHMM, there are people and governments who try to rewrite the history of that time period:
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/pageviews/2012/06/elie-wiesel-to-hungary-keep-your-award
Here is a really important and powerful video about the kinds of things USHMM does. It is a good reminder of why we have museums like this: "Yes, that's my father."
38 minute video created by USHMM as an overview of the rise of Hitler and the Nazis: http://www.ushmm.org/learn/introduction-to-the-holocaust/path-to-nazi-genocide?utm_medium=email&utm_source=ushmm&utm_content=3&utm_campaign=20140127NesseFull&source=20140127NesseFull
The papers of Lt. Col. Joyce - an incredible story about the real man who was the American appointed commanding officer of Dachau Concentration Camp a few days after its liberation. His papers were found in the book room of the social studies department of Wayland High School. Visit the site created by Mr. Delaney's students over the past two years. They digitized the entire collection for this site. The actual documents have been given to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
ONLINE ASSIGNMENTS
Click here for the homework form "5 Key Events"
Click here for the homework form "Hitler Basics and Weimar Republic"
CURRENT EVENTS
Interview with Benjamin Ferencz, the last surviving prosecuting attorney from the Nuremburg Trials. These were the trials held after WWII in which many Germans were accused and then convicted of war crimes. Ferencz's advice to change the world? "Law, not war."
NPR story about eugenics in America. Many people were sterilized in this program in North Carolina.
NPR story about the Patriot Act expiring on 6/1/15, one way the government limits freedoms in the name of group safety: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/05/31/410569671/all-eyes-on-senate-as-patriot-act-provisions-set-to-expire
Article from September 4, 2013 NPR about the political party Golden Dawn is blaming Jews and immigrants for the country's problems, just like the Nazis. Check out people's comments below the article: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/09/04/214462131/we-are-next-greek-jews-fear-rise-of-far-right-party
Story about documentary filmmaker Matthew Nash who created his film based upon 16 photographs his grandfather took when he encountered the Ohrdruf concentration camp in Germany when he was a US soldier in WWII: http://artery.wbur.org/2013/04/12/holocaust-photos-documentary
Article from May 2013 Boston Globe about Neo-Nazi group in Hungary blaming Jews and Roma for problems in Hungary: Posted below under ATTACHMENTS: "EUROPEAN FASCISM..."
Article about a Holocaust survivor from Newton who recently visited Auschwitz: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/06/02/one-last-journey-into-night/2npq0cGy1ni9mCQVBsFNXJ/story.html
Here is the site of the documentary about "The Third Wave" called "Lesson Plan" http://www.lessonplanmovie.com/
Article about a new online database to search for people in the Holocaust: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/29/142596681/holocaust-database-helps-families-complete-stories
Here is that new online database: http://www.worldmemoryproject.org/
Article about Congress debating whether to give President Obama more power to fight Al Qaida around the world: (When is it OK to give the government more power to fight "our enemies"?)
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/23/136500471/making-it-official-hunting-al-qaida-worldwide
President Obama speaks in April 2012 about how to combat genocide. Here is a key part of what he said:
Here is a copy of President Obama's whole speech: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/23/remarks-president-united-states-holocaust-memorial-museum
This is the video of President Obama's whole speech, with an introduction by Elie Wiesel: http://youtu.be/_xTGJxYp76w
Resources for learning about antisemitism
Bedford video: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/03/13/bedford-schools-dealing-with-several-anti-semitic-incidents/
"You've got to be taught": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si4K2j4QsyU
"THE BOY WHO DARED"
Here is the official movie trailer for the book we are reading, The Boy Who Dared
An interview with the author of The Boy Who Dared: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VunoYLVBon0
If you missed watching "The Lunch Date" in class (or just want to watch it again), here it is:
OTHER RESOURCES
Amazing animated video about WWII military and civilian casualties of various countries.
Click here to listen to a podcast which summarizes how Hitler was able to gain power and change the government in Germany. This podcast has (small) pictures to help you too!
Facing History and Ourselves: http://www.facing.org
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: http://www.ushmm.org/
This part of the USHMM site has lots of good information to help you with your 1935 diary entry: http://www.ushmm.org/education/forstudents/
MassMoments article about the stock market crash and Great Depression: http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=312
Information about the economy in Germany in 1930s: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/nazis_and_the_german_economy.htm
Unemployment statistics: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/tch_wjec/germany19291947/1hitlerchancellor3.shtml
Election statistics (scroll down): http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/tch_wjec/germany19291947/1riseofnazis2.shtml
Interactive map showing territorial changes in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s: http://www.stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/cgi-bin/site/pub.php?id=51&project_id=
Information about 5 Key Events:
More information about the Night of the Long Knives: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007885
A tremendous amount (more than you need!) about the many political changes happening in Germany throughout 1932: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/collapse.htm
Information about Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005394
Information about Hitler Youth: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/hitler_youth.htm
More detailed information about Hitler Youth: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/hitleryouth/hj-prelude.htm
Labeling Jews with badges starting in 1939: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/badges.html
Information about the Gestapo: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Gestapo.html
Great pictures and information about pre-1933 Nazi propaganda: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters1.htm
Information about how Jews escaped Nazi Germany and fled to Shanghai: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007091
Al Gore and The Frog (Watch this short clip that comes from Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7_3Wmet9IQ
Real experiment showing a frog adjusting to the rising temperature around it. Don't worry, the frog doesn't actually die!
Here is the documentary we watched in class from the BBC: "The Nazis: A Warning from History"
• we watched from about 24 minutes to 40 minutes
Here is US government propaganda explaining Japanese Internment:
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