Holocaust Unit
Audience: This unit is for use in an American history class for students who are juniors in
high school. The course must cover our country's history in one school year. This unit
will be part of a unit on World War II.
Time: The time allotted for this unit will be nine days.
The Rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis
Objectives: Students will be able to
• identify the problems facing Germany after World War I
• describe the structure of the German government before World War II
• identify events in Hitler's life which influenced him
• analyze group and institutional influences on the German people
• explain why so many people followed the Nazis
• identify the dangers in following a group without using an individual's judgement
Procedures:
Day One
Divide class into three groups. Have each group research one of the following topics:
Germany's economy after World War I, Germany's political system after World War I
and Hider's life. Focused research materials for each group will be provided.
Day Two
Have each group present the information they discovered on their assigned topics. List on
board items from the presentations, which played a role in Hitler's and the Nazis rise to
power. Discuss the list with the class.
Day Three
Show the video Heil Hitler! Confessions of a Hitler Youth (HBO, 1991) 30 min. Discuss
how the Nazis gained support of the general public. Relate to youth gangs and other
organizations.
Evaluation: The groups project on Day One and Two will be given a group participation
grade based on their research, time on task and quality of information. Information from
the group work and the video will be included on an end of the unit test.
Analysis of Procedures:
The reason I choose to spend these three days on the raise of Hitler and the Nazis
is that I feel it is important to provide students an answer to the question of how could
people do such a thing. This part of the unit should show students how easily it was for
someone to get wrapped up in the Nazi movement. This provides important lessons for
today on why gangs and cults can be so appealing to people. Students should be aware of
such dangers and recognize the dangers of blaming others for problems and blindly
following a group. I chose the group activity for day one in order to cover a lot of
different things in a short period of time. I hope to help students by having materials for
their research already prepared to further save time of avoid problems with keeping
groups focused on their topics. I have found group work to be valuable in getting students
more involved in what they are studying. In order to combat the problem of not everyone
pulling their own weight each individual will be given a grade for their group work. I
know there will still be some who don't do as much as others but at least I can reflect that
in this part of their grade.
I decided to use the video, Heil Hitler! Confessions of a Hitler Youth, as a way of
demonstrating how the Nazis could appeal to the common German. I feel the students
could identify with this more than focusing on adults. I have not seen this video and I am
basing my decision to use it on descriptions I have read. I am in the process of ordering it.
Therefore one problem I may face is the video may not be what I am expecting or I may
not be able to get it. If this happens I will have to make adjustments by possibly finding
written "confessions" of a Hitler Youth.
Persecution to Genocide
Objectives: Students will be able to
• describe the history of anti-Semitism
• identify examples of discrimination and prejudices
• explain how the Holocaust was institutionalized
• describe the progression of persecution
• explain what it was like for Jews in Nazi territories during WWII
• identify the scale of the Holocaust
• identify other examples of genocide
• describe early warning signs of genocide
Day Four
Have students identify examples of discrimination and prejudices. List their examples on
the board. Discuss how such thoughts can be used by groups, like the Nazis, to
institutionalize discrimination against certain people. Give a brief overview of the long
history of antisemitisrn. Have students read the Nuremberg Laws. Discuss.
Day Five and Six
Give a Powerpoint presentation, containing selected photos of each stage of the
progression of Nazi antisemitism, from Kristallnacht to the Final Solution. Have students
read the Wannsee Protocols discussion of the final solution before showing the segment
on the Final Solution. Discuss.
Day Seven
Divide the class into six groups. Give each group a copy of a different Holocaust survivor
story and interview questions. Stories may be obtained at (http://holocaustsurvivors.org).
Have each group read their story and choose someone to be that person. The rest of the
group will be interviewers who should pick questions they are going to ask from the list
given to them. Have each group share the story with the rest of the class by having
interviewers interview the person playing the survivor in front of the class. Discuss what
was learned.
Day Eight
Show the untitled video by Seth Kramer counting rice to demonstrate the scale of the
Holocaust. Discuss the video. Identify groups in addition to the Jews who were in
concentration camps. Have students identify other examples of genocide. Discuss other
cases and what the early warning signs are of genocide.
Day Nine
ID and essay test over the unit
Evaluation: Students will be given an overall semester grade for their participation in
class discussions and all discussions for this unit will be a part of that grade. Students will
be given a grade for the group work on Day Six based on their time on task and the
quality of their interview presentation. On Day Eight an ID and essay test over the entire
unit will be given.
Analysis of Procedures:
The purpose of days four to seven will be to show how the movement studied in
the first three days progressively led to the Holocaust. I plan to start by focusing on how
long standing discrimination and prejudices were used by the Nazis to vilify Jews and
other groups. As a way of gaining student interest and making an important connection I
plan to have discussion of discrimination and prejudices today. I am including the
Nuremberg Laws and the Wannsee Protocals as primary source documents and as
examples of how institutionalized the Holocaust was.
The Powerpoint presentation I will create using photos from books and video
clips that I have. I decided to use a Powerpoint presentation so I could cover the
progression of the Holocaust from Kristallnacht to the Final Solution. This will also allow
me to select photos that I feel portray what was happening and photos that are appropriate
for the class. The self created Powerpoint presentation will help me to keep the unit from
taking too much time from the class. I can focus on key points and be selective in what I
feel will be most meaningful to the class. I could spend many more days easily on the
Holocaust but I must cover all of American history in this class in one year. The use of a
Powerpoint presentation with photos, video and text can help generate student interest.
By using survivor stories on day seven I hope to personalize the Holocaust more
for the students and let them see how people were affected in different ways. The group
work will also work to generate student involvement in their learning. I plan on
addressing problems of students not fully participating by giving a group grade for this
project based on their participation and quality of work.
I decided to use the video by Seth Kramer as a way of showing the scale of the
Holocaust. It is difficult to comprehend how large six million is. The video will help
students to understand the scale of the killing committed by the Nazis. I plan to use the
video and the discussion of it to get students to think about whether something like this
could happen today. This will allow me to show the variety of Genocide going on today
and throughout history. I may run short on time for such discussion and I may extend this
by another day if the students are showing interest. I will end the unit by giving the
students a test over what has been covered. I plan on creating an ID and essay test.
Students will also be evaluated on their participation in group projects and their
participation in discussion. I feel this will provide them a variety of ways to demonstrate
their knowledge.