Lesson Ideas 

Inquiry Learning 

• Nazi Propaganda, from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, challenges students to think critically about the messages and techniques used to deceive and instigate discrimination against groups of German citizens. Ask students to use the online exhibit of Nazi propaganda to assess the impact of propaganda, not only during the period of the Holocaust, but also its impact on our society today.

• Kristallnacht, from Facing History and Ourselves, encourages students to investigate the choices people made during the Weimar Republic, the rise of the Nazi Party, and the Holocaust. Ask students to cite evidence from a mini- documentary to explain the historical significance of Kristallnacht as a major escalation of the Nazi campaign against Jews. How can historic decisions teach us about the power and impact of our choices today? 

• The Holocaust, a lesson from the Ohio State University's Teaching History Institute, encourages students to place a human face on the Holocaust by focusing on survivor testimony, letters, and journals. Encourage students to consider the Holocaust as an event which affected individuals and families in addition to its larger societal ramifications.

• The State of Israel, a mini-lesson from the National Archives, asks students to weigh the significance of diplomatic recognition of a people and the establishment of a sovereign state. The lesson lays the foundation for understanding subsequent Israeli-Arab conflicts in the region, while reinforcing an understanding of the justifications for a Jewish homeland.

• The Holocaust: Bearing Witness, a lesson from Facing History and Ourselves, asks students to identify and describe the historical period and events known as the Holocaust and why is it important to confront the brutality of this history. Encourage students to focus on resistance efforts, the deprivation of human dignity, and how those targeted attempted to preserve or reclaim their dignity. The lesson engages students in understanding the range of Nazi methods of mass murder, the establishment of Jewish ghettos, and concentration camps, including extraordinary acts of resistance.

• Responding to a Refugee Crisis, is a lesson from Facing History and Ourselves which asks students to analyze texts describing the choices countries made in response to the European Jewish refugee crisis in the late 1930s. What are the responsibilities of governments to global refugees?  

• The lesson Justice and Judgment After the Holocaust, from Facing History and Ourselves, focuses on issues of responsibility for the crimes committed during the Holocaust and how individuals should be held accountable. Ask students to identify challenges Allies faced to bring Nazi leaders to trial. Challenge students to make connections to more contemporary dilemmas of justice faced by societies in the aftermath of mass violence and genocide.

• The Nuremberg Trials, from the Holocaust Museum of Florida, asks students to consider the use of an international tribunal to bring some degree of justice to victims of the Holocaust. Encourage students to discuss how can guilt be established for a crime as enormous, complex, and far-reaching as the Holocaust? How should issues of compensation and restitution be handled for the victims? 

Primary Sources 

Secondary Sources 

• On the Jewish State, Theodor Herzl, 1896 (excerpt).

• Balfour Declaration, 1917.

• Night, by Simon Wiesel (excerpt) .

• War Criminals, press release from Franklin Roosevelt, 1942 (excerpt).

• Resolution on the Holocaust, U.S. House of Representatives, 1943.  

• Dachau Captured, New York Times, 1945. 

• Accounts of Dachau Liberation, from soldiers' perspectives, 1945.  

• Dachau Remembered, by Glen Edward Belcher, 1985. 

• Liberation of Concentration Camps, accounts from liberators and survivors, Library of Congress.

• Tell Us Who Were There, Felix Sparks, Brigadier General, Australia, 1995 (excerpt of speech).

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations.

• Holocaust Survivor Testimonies, collection of interviews from oral history projects: Living Memory of the Jewish Community (C410) and the Holocaust Survivors' Center Interviews (C830).

• War Crimes Trial, New York Times, (excerpts from full coverage by press).

• Report to the President, from Chief Counsel Robert Jackson, Nuremberg Tribunal, 1945 (excerpt).

• Final Report of Nuremberg Trials, Robert Jackson, 1946 (excerpt). 

• Lessons on Nuremberg, New York Times, editorial, 1945.

• Proclamation of Independence for the State of Israel,1948. 

• Recognition of the State of Israel, National Archives. 

• Facts of the Holocaust, The History Channel, for student reference. 

• Introduction to the Holocaust, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, narrative and statistics for student reference. 

• The Holocaust, WWII National Museum, New Orleans; narrative for student reference. 

• The Bystanders, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, narrative for student reference. 

• From Citizens to Outcasts, 8-minute documentary and guide for teachers and students, from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (teacher's guide).

• WWII and the Holocaust, a 14-minute documentary for student reference from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; recommend teacher preview due to photographic imagery (teacher's guide).

• Auschwitz, BBC News; for student reference. 
  

• 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 and a repository of teacher’s resource materials.
• 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.