Holocaust Strategic Lesson

Teacher: Lauren
Ziemer

Content Area: US
HIST
Grade Level:
6
th

Date: April
10, 2014
Day:
Thursday
Alabama Course of Study Standard(s): 6.) Identify causes and consequences of World War II and
reasons for the United States' entry into the war Describing human costs associated with World War
II Examples: the Holocaust, civilian and military casualties
Lesson Outcome(s): I can discuss what life was like for Jews during the Holocaust.

Resources (textbooks/page numbers, trade books, magazines, newspapers, etc.) Teacher-
prepared excerpts/summaries from Night by Elie Wiesel, The Diary of Anne Frank, and a story
from Welcome to Mollys World: 1944 (American Girl Company).

Technology Utilized: (Internet sources, United Streaming, etc.) Smart Board
Name_________________________ Date_______________ Class_______________

Before

Purpose (Why): To
activate prior
knowledge and connect
student mindset to
lesson.

Strategy (What): What
are you taking?
Suitcase activity
(Writing, Talking,
Listening)

Procedure (How):
Students will be given
an activity sheet with
an outline of a suitcase.
The teacher will
inform them that
theyve just found out
that their family will
have to leave
Birmingham forever,
and they only have two
minutes to pack.
Students will use the
activity sheet to record
the items they will take
with them.



During

Purpose (Why): To investigate what life was
like for Jews at the beginning of the
Holocaust.

Strategy (What): Reading Investigation.
(Read, Investigate, Listen, Talk)

Procedure (How):
The teacher will ask students to fold paper to
create a four-part chart, and instruct them to
label it as shown on smart board (or hand out
printed chart). Teacher will answer the Who,
What, Where, and How from a story not
given to students and fill out one section of
the chart on the smart board. Students will be
divided into 3 groups and given one of three
prepared stories about a Jewish childs life at
the beginning of the Holocaust, underlining
information they believe answers the Who,
Where, When, and How of their story. Once
they have finished reading, students will work
with their groups to discuss what they believe
the important facts are. When group time is
over, the teacher will ask students to list the
aspects they found in their respective stories,
and use the smart board to fill out the chart
with the class. When finished, the teacher
will lead discussion about what these stories
tell us about life at the beginning of the
Holocaust.


After


Purpose (Why): To assess
student learning and
reinforce the objective.



Strategy (What): Gist
Statement



Procedure (How): Students
will write what they learned
in class today using twenty
words or less. If time
permits, the teacher will call
on some students to share
their gist statements.





Assessment: Teacher
will ask students to
share some of their
items. Class will
discuss the activity
(What was it like
having to pack so
quickly? Why do you
think we did this
activity?) and connect
it to prior knowledge
of the Holocaust.
Teacher will assess
students answers to
determine prior
knowledge.
Assessment: Each student will be asked to
contribute to the discussion. Teacher will
assess answers and participation.
Assessment: Teacher will
collect activity sheets and
check gist statements to
assess learning.
Another story could be
added as homework or in
class work, to finish the I
do, we do, you do sequence
(but with the class and
material this lesson was
designed for, I felt that
having them read the story
first by themselves and then
check with group mates
worked better- otherwise we
would have never finished).

Name_________________________ Date_______________ Class_______________
Escape: Helen Neuman
One night at bedtime in 1938, Helen Neumans mother told her to Sleep in your clothes and
your shoes and socks. And take you little rag doll with you. Dont let her out of your sight.
Helen didnt understand, but she did as she was told. That night, she and her parents left
everyone they loved and everything they owned. They took only one small suitcase and Helens
rag doll.
Helen was a Jewish girl who lived in Vienna,
Austria. By 1938, Nazi soldiers were rounding up
Jews in her country. Helens father had even been
arrested. He had bribed a guard into letting him go,
but he know that escape was the only way to
survive.
Helens father sewed all of the familys money into
the lining of his jacket and, unknown to Helen, into
her doll. That money got the family to the Austrian
border by train. Then they crossed on foot the
mountains called the Alps, trying to reach Switzerland. There they were turned back because of
their passports. They were marked with a big red J for Juden, or Jew. The Nazis werent letting
Jews leave the country. A kind border guard looked the other way and let the family find
shelted, but only temporarily. They soon had to move on to France, where a ship would take
them to America. Helen would never see her aunts and uncles and grandparents again. But she
was very lucky. Her rag doll was opened and sewn up so many times that it fell apart. The doll
never made it to America, but with its help, Helen and her family did.
Name_________________________ Date_______________ Class_______________

What Are You Taking?
Your family has to leave your home very quickly, and you only have a few minutes to pack.
What will you take with you? Write your answers in the suitcase below.


Whats the Gist?
In twenty words or less, tell me something you learned today. You may use one word for each blank.

___________ ___________ ____________ _______________ ______________

___________ ___________ ____________ _______________ ______________

___________ ___________ ____________ _______________ ______________

___________ ___________ ____________ _______________ ______________
Name_________________________ Date_______________ Class_______________

Living in a Ghetto: Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928, in Sighet, a small town in Hungary. In the
spring of 1944, the Nazis took over Hungary. A series of increasingly oppressive
measures were forced on the Jewsthe community leaders were arrested, Jewish
valuables were taken away, and all Jews were forced to wear yellow stars. Eventually,
the Jews were confined to small ghettos, crowded together into narrow streets behind
barbed-wire fences.
Life in the ghettos was usually unbearable.
Overcrowding was common. One apartment
might have several families living in it.
Plumbing broke down, and human waste was
thrown in the streets along with the garbage.
Contagious diseases spread rapidly in the
cramped houses. People were always hungry.
Germans deliberately tried to starve residents
by allowing them to purchase only a small
amount of bread, potatoes, and fat. Some
residents had some money or valuables they
could trade for food smuggled into the ghetto;
others were forced to beg or steal to survive.
During the long winters, heating fuel was scarce, and many people did not have warm
clothing. Every day children became orphaned, and many had to take care of even
younger children. Orphans often lived on the streets, begging for bits of bread from
others who had little or nothing to share. Many froze to death in the winter.
The Nazis began to deport the Jews in groups, and Eliezers family was among the last
to leave Sighet. They watched as other Jews were crowded into the streets in the hot
sun, carrying only what fits in packs on their backs. Eliezers family was first herded into
another, smaller ghetto. Then they were taken to camps.

A ghetto is a part of a city, especially a slum area, occupied by a minority group.
Name_________________________ Date_______________ Class_______________

What Are You Taking?
Your family has to leave your home very quickly, and you only have a few minutes to pack.
What will you take with you? Write your answers in the suitcase below.


Whats the Gist?
In twenty words or less, tell me something you learned today. You may use one word for each blank.

___________ ___________ ____________ _______________ ______________

___________ ___________ ____________ _______________ ______________

___________ ___________ ____________ _______________ ______________

___________ ___________ ____________ _______________ ______________
Name_________________________ Date_______________ Class_______________

Living in Hiding: Anne Frank
The Franks were a Jewish family originally from Germany, where Anne was born in
1929. Annes father, Otto, had come from a wealthy background, but his familys fortune
was lost after World War I. In 1933 the Franks moved to the Netherlands to escape Nazi
persecution. The family lived in relative peace until 1940, when Germany occupied the
Netherlands and imposed strict anti-Semitic laws. These new measures prohibited Jews
from riding streetcars, forced Jews to attend separate schools, imposed boycotts of
Jewish-owned businesses, and required Jews to wear yellow stars to identify
themselves as Jewish. The Franks and
other well-connected families were able
to heed warning signs in time to make
arrangements to go into hiding. This
decision put their own lives and the lives
of those who cared for them at great
risk.
Less than one month after Annes
thirteenth birthday, Anne and her family
were suddenly forced into hiding.
Margot, Annes sixteen-year-old sister,
had been called up by the Gestapo,
Germanys brutal secret-police force. It
was common knowledge among Jews that being called up meant eventually being sent
to one of the notorious concentration camps.
The Franks were relatively prepared, since they had been sending furniture and
provisions to a secret annex in Ottos office building in anticipation of the Gestapo. The
Franks and another family, the van Daans, had arranged to share the annex while some
of Ottos non-Jewish colleagues agreed to look after the families. The Franks later
invited one more person, Mr. Dussel, to share their annex.
While they were in hiding, the Franks used a radio to keep up with news from the war,
and Anne frequently wrote in her diary about events that caught her attention. The
Gestapo finally arrested Anne and her family on August 4, 1944.
Name_________________________ Date_______________ Class_______________

What Are You Taking?
Your family has to leave your home very quickly, and you only have a few minutes to pack.
What will you take with you? Write your answers in the suitcase below.

Whats the Gist?
In twenty words or less, tell me something you learned today. You may use one word for each blank.

___________ ___________ ____________ _______________ ______________

___________ ___________ ____________ _______________ ______________

___________ ___________ ____________ _______________ ______________

___________ ___________ ____________ _______________ ______________

Name_________________________ Date_______________ Class_______________

Life in a Camp: Auschwitz (TEACHER SECTION)
Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi regime created nearly 20,000 concentration camps. These camps were
designed and constructed for hard labor and terminations. Hitler's "final solution" was a plan for the mass
destruction of all Jewish people to secure a true Aryan race. The camps were tools to achieve that goal. The
largest of all Nazi concentration camps, Auschwitz was actually comprised of three main camps, Auschwitz I,
Auschwitz II (also called Auschwitz-Birkenau) and Auschwitz III (also called Auschwitz-Monowitz).
Auschwitz is where the largest mass murder in history took place. Trains filled with Jewish prisoners entered
the camp day and night. If they survived the trip, which could take many days with no food or water, they were
unloaded holocaust from the trains and told to stand in line, men on one side, women and children on the other.
From a platform, Dr. Josef Mengele would choose who lived or died by separating those capable of hard labor
from the others. Many women, children, elderly and those unable to work were led straight to the gas chambers.
Those chosen for hard labor would first have their heads shaved. The hair was used to make fabric for the
German war effort. The prisoner would then receive a striped uniform to wear and a tattoo on their chest or
forearm. Auschwitz was the only camp to use tattoos. These Jewish prisoners were no longer known by name;
only by the number tattooed on their body. Hard labor consisted of construction of Auschwitz II and Auschwitz
III, working in coal mines, stone quarries and armament factories. Auschwitz was heavily guarded with electric
fencing, SS guard and their dogs constantly on patrol, and guard towers, which meant escape was nearly
impossible. Roll call was taken every morning and evening to confirm that every prisoner was present even
those who died in the night. When the Soviet Army liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, there were nearly
7,000 prisoners, but most were sick or dying. Between the years 1940 to 1945, 1.1 million Jews were murdered
at Auschwitz. The Jewish death toll during the Holocaust is estimated to be close to six million.
Summarized from Teaching the Holocaust with Primary Sources (http://www.eiu.edu/~eiutps/holocaust.php)

Name_________________________ Date_______________ Class_______________