Holocaust Unit Plan

HEADING
Kate Collier 20th Century Conflict, 7th grade 2 90-minute periods & 1 45-
minute period/week
Holocaust

OVERVIEW/ RATIONALE
This 7-week-long unit is designed for a 7 th grade 20th Century Conflict course.
Constructed around essential questions and enduring understandings, students will
be actively and critically engaged in materials and content from the Holocaust.
Specifically, students will learn and come to understand what exactly the Holocaust
is and how and why it happened. Through study of primary and secondary sources,
students will understand the nature of the Holocaust as a forced exodus of the Jews
from their homes, to a state of occupation and severe restrictions, to their
transportation to work and death camps, and finally, for those who survived, to their
liberation. Furthermore, students will learn and come to understand that the Jews
were not the only group targeted by the Nazis. Again, through analysis of primary
and secondary sources, students will also learn that the Nazis targeted the Roma,
the disabled and sick, and LGBTQ folk. They will look at how and why they did so.
Finally, through an in-depth study of the graphic novel, Maus, by Art Spiegelman,
students will come to understand how the Holocaust affected Jewish people,
continues to affect present day, and how to be an upstander in their day-to-day
lives. In conjunction with reading Maus, students will partake in a creative
assignment where they create their own graphic novel based on a theme from the
text.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Holocaust
1. Why and how did the Holocaust happen?
2. How can some people resist injustice and others obey authority?
3. How can an individual be upstander?
History and today
1. How can the past affect the present?
Primary/Secondary Sources
1. What is the purpose of using both primary and secondary sources?
2. Why do we need to critically evaluate what we read?
Graphic novel
1. Why might an author choose to use graphic novels over standard text?
2. How are graphic novels different from comics or cartoons?
3. How can graphic novels depict historical events?
4. How are themes utilized in graphic novels to tell a story?

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS/GOALS/OBJECTIVES
Content/Enduring Understandings:
o Holocaust
Students will learn why and how the Holocaust happened.
Students will understand the Holocaust was not an
accident in historyit occurred because individuals,
organizations, and governments made choices that not
only legalized discrimination but also allowed and

1
 promoted prejudice, hatred, and ultimately mass
murder to occur.
Students will learn what it means to be an upstander vs. a
bystander.
Students will understand silence and indifference to the
suffering of others, or to the infringement of civil rights
in any society, canhowever, unintentionally
perpetuate the problem.
Students will learn how to become upstanders in their day-to-
day lives.
o History and today
Students will come to understand that the past affects the
present on individual, familial, community, national, and global
scales.
o Graphic novels
Graphic novels allow authors another level of expression
compared to traditional books.
Graphic novels blend text with art to create a new form of
literature.
The artwork in a graphic novel is a form of text that conveys
additional information to the reader.
The art in a graphic novel allows a deeper level of expression;
this concept is a valuable tool for the reader to utilize.
Skills/Goals/Objectives:
o Students will develop skills in analysis of primary and secondary
sources.
o Students will draw explicit connections between graphic novels and
history to understand deep knowledge of the Holocaust and how it
affects today.
o Students will learn how to create their own thematic graphic novels.