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Why do people hate?
Why do people hate?
Success Criteria:
•Understand the terms stereotype, prejudice, discrimination, racism, antisemitism, genocide, and their significance
•Identify literal and symbolic features of sources and explain their purpose and inferences
•Organise and rank impact of the words in the escalation of hatred
•Understandthe damaging impact of racism (including antisemitism) and its escalation to genocide
Divide students into groups of 4. Provide each group with the key vocabulary definitions for the words -Stereotype, Prejudice, Discrimination, Racism, Genocide and Assault. Ask students to brainstorm examples for each word from History or in contemporary times. Share these examples as a class or quiz students.
2. Ask students to read The Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 or‘White Australia Policy’ (as this can then be linked to changes to the Australia and migration, post-WWII). Which of the above terms would they use to describe this Act.
3. Staying in their groups of 4, ask students to place the definitions in order of the ‘least’ to ‘most’ harmful. Ask students to justify their chosen order.
4. Show students the Pyramid of Hate. Compare their placement of words to that in the pyramid.
5. Introduce the terms Holocaust and Antisemitism.
6. Ask students to research Antisemitism in Australia and compile a short report/infographic. Students would need to collect data/statistics and site credible sources. What makes a source credible? (ask students to develop a criteria)
2. Pre-war Jewish life
2. Pre-war Jewish life
At the end of this lesson students will be able to:
•Use photographic evidence to identify and draw conclusions about the diversity of pre-War Jewish life.
•Infer from the evidence the inconsistencies with Jewish stereotypes
1.Discuss the difference between photographs today vs in 1930s
•Why do we take photographs?
•How might taking photographs be different now to the 1930s?
•Why are photographs from the past useful to the historian?
2.Linking activity to previous lesson. Revisit the terms stereotypes and antisemitism form Lesson 1.
-Ask students to work in pairs. Hand out 3 photographs of pre-war Jewish life to each pairs.
-Ask students to use the table provided to answer what they can observe from these photographs about Jewish life in Europe before the war?
Prompt questions:
•Are the photographs formal/informal? •Who was the audience?
•How important was the family? •Where are people living?
•What clothes are they wearing? •Are they religious?
•What activities did they participate in? •Do the people look the same?
•What was the photographer trying to purchase? •What was the purpose of taking the photograph?
3. Ask each group to share one thing they have learnt from the photographs. How would these photographs compare to images of their own relatives in the 1930s?
4.Examine the map showing the distribution of Jewish population in pre-war Europe. Ask students to draw conclusions about what they notice about the distribution of Jewish people and the sizes of the communities. Taking note of the small Jewish population in Germany (less than 1%).
5.Discuss or write a reflection task. What are three new things I have learnt from these photographs? In two sentences can you explain the value of these photographs in understanding the diversity and contribution of Jewish people to society before the war? What is one question you still have?
3. Rise of the Nazi party?
3. Rise of the Nazi party?
At the end of this lesson students will be able to:
•Identify the intended and unintended reasons and the significance of long and short-term events that led to the Nazi rise to power
•Understand the key ideas in Nazi ideology and how these ideas appealed in the context of the economic, social and political instability in the Weimar Republic
Begin the lesson by watching The Weimar Republic -Germany’s government from 1919-1933(Yad Vashem) to provide contextual background.
2 .Ask students to fill in the graphic organiser –they are to jot down key words that explain the political/economic/social reasons why Hitler and the Nazi party came to power in 1933 and any questions that arise.
3. After the film, students can share their grid with a partner. As a pair, ask them to read the article –Hitler Comes to Power and then add any new information to their graphic organiser. Share responses as a class.
4. Nazi ideology: Watch the video Hitler’s Ideology: Race, Land and Conquest (6 mins). While watching the video ask students to think about the following three questions.
a)What is an ideology?
b)When is ideology beneficial?
c)When does it become dangerous?
5. After the film share answers. And then ask students to write responses to the following two questions in three to four sentences. Explain Nazi ideology. What aspects of Nazi ideology might have been appealing to Germans in the 1930s?
4. Nazi propaganda & Anti-Jewish laws
4. Nazi propaganda & Anti-Jewish laws
By the end of this lesson students will be able to:
•Distinguish between the terms propaganda, discrimination and deception
•Understand the various strategies the Nazis used to get ordinary people to subscribe to their racist ideology
•Understand that there is only one race, the human race
•Identify literal and symbolic features in Nazi propaganda and explain their purpose and inference
As a class explore the definitions of propaganda, racial/discriminatory laws and deception.
Hand out the Propaganda, discrimination and deception handout. Ask students to note which sentences align to each of the corresponding definitions.
Ask students to examine the Nazi Propaganda visuals and respond to the Propaganda graphic organiser
Ask students to construct a 1-page written argument that responds to how does propaganda (in general) influence seemingly ‘good’ and well-educated people? What needs or ways of thinking does it appeal to? Does propaganda exist in today’s world? And substantiate with evidence e.g. quotes, data, images.
Plenary/Homework: Ask students to write about what it means to be an Australian – do you need to be born here? behave or look a certain way? Who decides? How does one ‘become’ Australian? What would make someone feel more or less ‘Australian’? How ‘Australian’ do you feel?
Create a T chart comparing the characteristics of a totalitarian and of a democratic government.
5.Phases of the Holocaust & World War II
5.Phases of the Holocaust & World War II
By the end of this lesson students will be able to
•Describe the six stages of the Holocaust
•Establish the significance of historical events within the period of the Holocaust
•Sequence key events of the Holocaust relative to WWI and WWII
1.Read: Ask students to read the Six phases of the Holocaust document (Facing History). These include: Definition, isolation, emigration, ghettoization, deportation, Mass murder
2.Research: Students work in groups of 2/3 to research different information (Source, type of source e.g. article, testimony, diary etc., what, when, who and historical significance?)
A. Nazi laws during the Holocaust
B. Nazi’s definition of a Jew
C. Economic discrimination
D. Kristallnacht
E. Warsaw ghetto
F. Deportations
G. Jewish emigration (1933- )
H. The Wannsee conference
I. Killing squads (Einsatzgruppen)
K. Distinction between death & concentration camps
3. Present/take notes/sequence: Teacher provides students with a template of the six phases of the Holocaust. Students present back to the class on the following questions (2-3 minutes each) – What, when, who was involved, the impact on victims? Ask the students not presenting to write this new information in the six phases template. They would have to make their own judgment on where it is best fits based on their understanding of the phases.
4. Research/sequence: Ask students to individually research and add the following key historical dates to the phases: When was Hitler elected? When did Germany invade Poland (start of WWII)? When were the camps liberated? When did German surrender to the allies?
5. Discuss – Hold a class discussion to confirm the correct order with students.
Extension/ Homework: Students to list the factors (political, economic, social/human etc.) that enabled the escalation of events of the Holocaust? Students would need to think about the ideology/behaviours of the Totalitarian Nazi party, the role of ordinary people, the World’s response, the impact of WWI and WW2, the communication modes in the 30s/40s e.g.papers/radio, and the state of the world economy during that period.
6. Life in the ghettos
6. Life in the ghettos
By the end of this lesson students will be able to
•Corroborate a range of historical sources identifying similarities, differences and inconsistencies
•Use a range of sources to identify different perspectives and construct an argument about the experiences of people at the time
1.Introducing ghettos and ghettoisation - Ghetto - sections of towns and cities that the German occupation authorities and their allies used to concentrate, exploit, and starve regional Jewish populations.
Key points to emphasise is that the creation of ghettos has historical roots in Europe and was a response to German territorial conquest, not designed to support life. It was designed to separate Jews from non-Jewish population. (Teacher background to explanation based on Development of the Ghettos video - presentation might include an excerpt from children’s diaries in Voices from Lodz Ghetto (USHMM)
2.Understanding the human experience - Explain to students that in today’s lesson the focus will be on the human experience of life in the ghettos, comparing the Lodz and Warsaw ghettos in Poland.
-Put students into pair groupings.
Student A: One student will use the Yad Vashem video resource on Warsaw ghetto,
Student B: the other will make use of MHM’s Strength of Hope resources.
-Students will be reviewing the material to research and prepare ‘background notes’ for the other. Provide question sheet for scaffolding if needed. Important areas: a) Creation of ghettos (dates), b) Living conditions - cramped, not enough food, forced labour, medicine/disease, disruption of ‘normal’, c) How did people respond?
•Student A: - Everyday Life in the Warsaw Ghetto. Yad Vashem (series of videos)
•Student B: Lodz: Strength of Hope for advanced students
•or use Understanding through testimony and listen to the 9 extracts from Melbourne Holocaust survivors lasting 7.38 minutes that describes conditions in the Warsaw, Lodz and Vilna ghettos.
Extension/Homework: 1.Moral dilemmas are taught for empathy, not simulation. The ghettos provide a distorted version of normal – where people were forced to make decisions. Consider examples such as the difficulties mother’s faced feeding a family with limited food. Reflection question - What can we conclude about the challenges people faced in the ghettos?
7.How was the Holocaust humanly possible
7.How was the Holocaust humanly possible
At the end of this lesson students will be able to:
•Understand the terms perpetrator/collaborator and bystander and apply these terms to actions of people in the Holocaust using historical sources as evidence.
•Analyse and corroborate sources and evaluate their accuracy and usefulness.
•Analyse different perspectives of people in the past and how these perspectives are influenced by significant events, ideas, beliefs and values.
Introduce the topic of lesson – How was the Holocaust humanly possible and explain to students that in today’s lesson we are going to explore how ordinary people were either actively or passively involved. Make sure students understand glossary terms perpetrator/collaborator/bystander
2. Using the exhibition ‘Some Were Neighbours’ ask students to analyse the ‘screams and shattered glass’ photograph from the exhibition as a class, before reading the caption.Use the questions below to guide the analysis.
a) What can you observe?
b) Who do you think took the photo and what was the purpose behind the photograph?
3. After reading the caption, ask students whether this changes the meaning of the photograph? If yes, ask then ask students to explain how? If not, what does this help us to understand about the perpetrators of the Holocaust?
4. Ask students to explore the next 4 photographs in pairs and to analyse the photographs using the same technique.
5. Bring students together and discuss what they have learnt from the photographs about how ordinary people were involved in the process.
6. Ask students to place the different photographs against the pyramid of hate, introduced in the first lesson. Where would they place them and why?
7. Watch two of the films (Walter’s in section 1 and Manfred in Section 3). Ask students to jot down key words that they hear or read in the film that explains who collaborated or who were the bystanders.
Extension/ Homework: Ask students to explore other elements of the exhibition. Warning, some of the testimony is confronting. Divide students into groups of three. Students choose one of the following groups to investigate and then report back to the group 1 -2 examples where this group of people collaborated in the Holocaust.
•Some were teenagers:https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/some-were-neighbors/teenagers
•Some were teachers: https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/some-were-neighbors/teachers
•Some were policemen: https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/some-were-neighbors/police
8. Courage and resistance
8. Courage and resistance
By the end of this lesson students will be able to
•Understand the different forms of resistance
•Understand the diversity of those who helped
•Understand the risks people were taking when they resisted
•Describe the acts of courage demonstrated by resistance, and their significance
Courage & attempts to rescue:
The Righteous Among the Nations, honored by Yad Vashem, are non-Jews who took great risks to save Jews during the Holocaust. Rescue took many forms and the Righteous came from different nations, religions and walks of life. What they had in common was that they protected their Jewish neighbors at a time when hostility and indifference prevailed.
Rescuers took on different forms e.g.priests, diplomats, neighbours, etc. some were recognised others remained in the hearts and minds of survivors. Explain to students what is meant by righteous among the nation
Ask the students to individually examine case studies of rescuers/acts of courage
•William Cooper –an Aboriginal activist
•Sofka Skipwith from Women of valor
•Student choice from stories of the righteous
For each rescuer/act of courage the students will need to describe the rescuer, their motivations and dilemmas and their circumstances. Select students to share their act of courage example with the class.
3. As a class,compare and contrast -who were these people? (often not what you expect), What did you learn about the rescuers? Were they all successful/define success? What were their motivation? etc.
Resistance:
Ask students to read the handout on resistance. Point out that armed resistance in general was small and that those who helped were a small minority.
Guided group research activity–Present students with three different historical sources to illustrate diverse types of resistance and circumstances, e.g.armed –Abba Kovner, maintaining rituals –Irma Hannerand documentation –Emanuel Ringelblum . Drawing evidence from two primary sources: Ask students to describe a) What did resistance look like? e.g.cultural, spiritual, physical etc. b) What was their circumstances ? c) What were their motivations/dilemmas?
Indifference
Ask students to read Martin Niemoller’s“First they came…”(Poem)& biography and explain what the writer infers ((VCHHC123) in his poem as in relation to the topic of courage and resistance.
9. How did people survive the Holocaust?
9. How did people survive the Holocaust?
At the end of this lesson students will be able to:
•Understand the survival story of one of Melbourne’s survivors and develop empathy for the victims of the Holocaust.
•Analyse different perspectives of Holocaust survivors and evaluate how these perspectives are influenced by significant events, ideas, location, beliefs and values.
•Evaluate the historical significance of the Holocaust on individual’s lives.
•Understand the strengths and weaknesses of survivor testimony as a historical source
Individual task: Use the MHM resource ask a survivor. Students choose to listen to one of the survivors in ‘Meet a survivor’ (Tuvia/Paul/ Sarah/ Fryda) and fill in a fact file e.g. Name of survivor, Year of birth, Country of birth? Where were they in the Holocaust?
Students can then brainstorm what questions they would like to ask this survivor.
Students can then explore the 18 most commonly asked questions and see if there is a question that relates to their question.
They can ask this question of their survivor. If they want, they can compare and contrast or move onto another question.Students can record their answers on the Venn diagram sheet.
Ask to students in a couple of sentences to answer the following questions.
•From listening to their chosen survivor, what was the survivor’s experience of the Holocaust.
•What do they include and what do they exclude from their testimony or answers.
•How does your chosen survivor explain their survival?
OR use the Eyewitness project
Ask each student is to listen to a different testimony. They are to fill in a fact file fill in a fact file; Name of survivor, Year of birth, Country of birth, Where were they in the Holocaust?, How and why did this survivor manage to survive the Holocaust? Were they the only members of their family to survive? What is their message? What does your chosen survivor exclude to talk about in their testimony? Why do you think they have chosen not to discuss this?
Divide students into groups of 5 and ask them to present their survivor to the students in their group, sharing the information above and choosing a key quote from the testimony that resonates with the student. Students need to explain the significance of this quote to the others in the group.
. Ask students to create a T chart collectively record similarities and differences between the 5 survivor accounts of the Holocaust.
10. Liberation & rebuilding lives
10. Liberation & rebuilding lives
By the end of this lesson students will be able to:
By the end of this lesson students will be able to:
•Understand that people’s experiences of liberation were different
•Understand that people’s experiences of liberation were different
•Understand how people tried to retain/regain their humanity
•Understand how people tried to retain/regain their humanity
•Define liberation and connections to place (home) by drawing illustrations from historical sources
•Define liberation and connections to place (home) by drawing illustrations from historical sources
•Recognise that the Holocaust did not end with liberation, survivors had to ‘fight to live’ and rebuild lives.
•Recognise that the Holocaust did not end with liberation, survivors had to ‘fight to live’ and rebuild lives.
Whole class discussion–Ask students about their understanding of the word ‘liberation’ in an Australian context? Which words, images, emotions, activities, objects do they associated with the word liberation? e.g.happy, no rules, fresh air, etc.
Watch the Return to life- Part 1 video (7:28 min) from Yad Vashem. Explaining to students the irony that often the saddest part of survivors’ life was liberation. Students should use the Life after liberation graphic organiser provided taking notes as they watch the film.
Exploring primary sources/write a reflection: Ask students to explore some of the testimonies in the ‘Ask a survivor’ resource ’Life after the Holocaust’ (3 questions) and to construct an argument in the form of a reflection with the following questions as prompts: what were the different experiences of survivors after liberation? What did they have in common? what did the gain or lose? Are they truly liberated? (include at least 3 quotes to substantiate your statements)
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