Lesson Ideas

Inquiry Tasks

• Redefining Justice in Nuremberg, a lesson from World War II Classroom.org, asks students to analyze a student-friendly set of primary and secondary source materials in order to assess the meaning and purpose of “justice” as it functioned in the aftermath of World War II. Encourage students to extract evidence to support a clear argument regarding the way the Nuremberg Trials changed the nature of international law and the enforcement of justice in a postwar world. 

• The Shoah Foundation provides a lesson featuring eye-witness accounts of Alfred Steer, part of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which describe his unique role in both the court proceedings and in creation of the historical record. Ask students to examine his 30-minute interview to consider the fundamental concepts of responsibility and justice as they relate to the trials and accountability for perpetrators of the Holocaust. 

• Reporting on Nuremberg, a lesson from the K20 Center, challenges students to examine the results of the Holocaust and evaluate the defense of Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg Trials. Ask students to use independent research, using recommended sources (below) to create a mini-documentary for an American audience in 1946. Why would these trials be of interest to Americans at that time? What did Americans need to know and which important primary sources, including visuals and eye-witness accounts, should be included? (Students may opt to produce print storyboards displaying plans for their documentaries, in lieu of a digital product.)

Primary Sources 

Secondary Sources 

• Living Histories; Stories from the Holocaust, Shoah Foundation, videoclips, documents, audio testimonies of liberators, survivors, and war trial participants for student and teacher reference. 

• House of Representatives Resolution regarding the Holocaust, May 11, 1943 (excerpt provided by O.C.S.S.)

• Intent to Prosecute War Criminals, White House press release, President Roosevelt, 1942.

• Tell Us Who Were There, remarks of Felix L. Sparks, speech,1995.

• Liberation of Camps, selected testimonies, 1945.

• Dachau Captured, New York Times, April 30, 1945.

• Dachau Liberation, accounts from military servicemen, excerpts provided by O.C.S.S.

• The Nuremberg Trials Accounts, photographs, testimony, trial records, etc. provided by the National Archives and Library of Congress documentation.

• Report to the President, Nuremberg Trials, by Robert Jackson, June 6, 1945.

• Final Report to the President, Nuremberg Trials, by Robert Jackson, 1946.

• Nuremberg Indictments and Sentences, provided by the National Archives; edited version.

• Nuremberg Trials, Library of Congress, extensive documents of the proceedings of the Nuremberg trials. 

• Justice Jackson's Opening Statement, Nuremberg Trial, 1-minute videoclip, National Archives.

• Tribunal newsreel, 8-minute videoclip, Pathe News, United Kingdom, 1945

• Nuremberg, the Verdicts, 5-minute newsreel, British Movietone, 1945. 

• War Crimes on Trial, World War II Memorial and Museum, essay providing background information and context for student and teacher reference.

• Defendants in the Nuremberg Trials, list of significant individuals and summary of their crimes; major defendants and charges from the University of Kansas School of Law.

• Nazi Hunting: Simon Wiesenthal, brief biographical narrative,  U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, for student reference. 

• The Search for Nazi Perpetrators and Collaborators, narrative from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, for student and teacher research and reference. 

• International Tribunal, online exhibit, from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, for student reference. 

• The Lessons of Nuremberg, editorial, New York Times, 1945.

• Trial Data Reveal 6,000,000 Jews Died, New York Times, 1945. 

• Holocaust Remembrance Day, presentation provided by O.C.S.S. for school commemorations.

Supplemental Guides and Resources related to the Holocaust

• The Museum of Jewish Heritage enables Holocaust survivors to speak through recorded testimony and draws on rich collections to illuminate Jewish history and experience.

• Facing History and Ourselves offers online resources, lessons, and teaching strategies to address racism, antisemitism, and prejudice at pivotal moments in history, helping students connect choices made in the past to those they will confront in their own lives.   

• The First South Florida Holocaust Museum  and the State of Florida Department of Education have developed resource manuals on Holocaust studies, which can be downloaded for educational use.

• Centropa is a non-profit, Jewish historical institute dedicated to preserving family stories and photos from Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

• A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust from the State of Florida Department of Education, offers teaching ideas for all ages of students, as well as activities for students.

• Encyclopedia Britannica’s “Holocaust Project” offers biographies, essays, photographs, and videos as well as discussion prompts appropriate for the classroom.

• The Simon Wiesenthal Center fosters tolerance and understanding through educational outreach.

• The Holocaust Center for Humanity offers guidelines for teachers and an extensive collection of classroom-ready lesson plans and student-centered activities, using both primary sources and related literature selections, following a simple lesson format for ease of implementation.

• Murals of the Holocaust, coordinated by the state of Kentucky and PBS, provides a video collection of stories from Holocaust survivors incorporating the arts into Holocaust history lessons.