TPS Teacher’s Guide to
Grade 7
This teacher’s guide includes classroom lessons designed to assist teachers
in preparing their students for a visit to the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art.
Academic vocabulary, lessons, and resources are included in this guide. The
lessons engage students and teachers in observing, writing, listening and
discussing the characteristics of the museum’s art and artifacts, the history of the
Jewish people, and the people who have contributed to the promotion of
understanding between diverse cultures. The lessons address specific curriculum
objectives in language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, and visual arts/
fine arts for Grade 7. All curricular connections are based on Oklahoma C3
Standards and Common Core State Standards which can be used as
interdisciplinary teaching tools.
Please feel free to visit the web site: http://jewishmuseum.net/
Museum Manners
Before you go: Discuss museum behavior with students.
• Sherwin Miller Museum is a place for learning about the Holocaust and
viewing Jewish art and artifacts. Certain rules should be followed to keep it
a place that is suitable for everyone to visit.
 Use Inside voices
 Be respectful of others
 No running in the museum
 Do not bring food or drinks
 Leave backpacks at school or on the bus
• Following these rules will help keep the exhibits safe for everyone to enjoy.
 Do not touch anything without permission
 Listen to the docent when he/she is speaking
 Raise your hand to ask the docent a question
 Stay with your group and an adult at all times
(Chaperone Expectations)
1. Arrive at the museum with or before the students.
2. Create groups with 10 students per adult.
3. Know the names of students in your group.
4. Continually monitor and correct poor student behavior.
5. No photography or cell phone use during the tour.
Preparing for the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art
Activity 1 – Class Discussion
Tell students they will be visiting the Sherwin Miller Museum to learn about the
Holocaust. Ask them what artifacts they expect to see during the visit.
Create a bulletin board in your class about your study of the Holocaust. Include
student work, brochures, and photos from Sherwin Miller Museum.
Activity 2 – What Rights Are Most Important to Me?
Adapted from a lesson in “Echoes and Reflections,” by Anti-Defamation League
Provide each student with a copy of the student handout “What Rights are Most
Important to Me?” or display a copy on the Smartboard/Promethian. Allow a few
minutes for students to rank order the nine items listed.
Lead a class discussion or have small groups discuss how students ranked the
rights on the handout and the rationale behind their decisions.
Stress that between 1933 and 1940, Hitler and the Nazis “legally” withdrew or
abolished each one of these rights for Jewish citizens!
Activity 2 – (Extended)
After completing the discussion of “What Rights are Most Important to Me?” with
the students and using other gathered information have them write a reflection
using following questions as prompts:
 How do you think you would react to all of the restrictions if you were a
Jewish person living during 1933-1940?
 How do you think you would react to all of these polices if you were a nonJewish German person living during 1933-1940?
 What do you imagine the overall atmosphere in Germany to be during this
time?
What Rights are Most Important to Me?
Adapted from a lesson in “Echoes and Reflections,” by Anti-Defamation League
Directions: Rank the following in order of importance to you, with #1 being the
most important and #9 being the least important.
_______ Date/Marry whomever you choose?
_______ Go to a public school close to home?
_______ Live in a neighborhood of your choice?
_______ Swim and play in a public swimming pool or park?
_______ Eat what you want, according to taste, culture, and
kjkjkjkjkjkreligious custom?
_______ Be able to own a pet?
_______ Leave your house whenever you choose?
_______ Shop in stores and businesses of your choosing?
_______ Vote?
Activity 3 - Experience the HOLOCAUST Exhibit Using Visual Literacy
When a student reads a visual, he/she needs to look for clues in the parts and
whole of the picture. Below are pictures that the students will see in the
Holocaust exhibit. Have students identify the subject, plot, and setting in the
visuals. (Student may also find other primary source photos and use the same
questions to help gain a better understanding of the subject.)
 Look at the whole photo. Who are the people in the picture? What do
they look like? What are they wearing? What does their facial expression
tell you? What about their body language, posture, stance? How did they
get into the situation in the photo? What are possible relationships
between characters or settings in the photo?
 What’s the setting? Do these characters seem to belong in this setting?
What time of day is it? What is the weather?
 What artifacts do you see? Are there things you don’t recognize?
 What’s the purpose of the picture? What thoughts and emotions do the
images create in you?
 If the picture is in color, analyze the use of color – What colors do you see
first? Does this use of color have a symbolic meaning? What mood or tone
does the color scheme express to the viewer?
 Now look at parts of the picture – foreground, middle ground, background;
on left and right; top left corner, bottom right corner – do you see things
you didn’t notice at first?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Activity 4 - Investigating Pre- and Post-Holocaust Jewish Populations
The two maps (that are found in the links below) identify the population of Jews in each
European country. One map indicates the total number of Jewish population before the
Holocaust in 1933, and the other map shows the Jewish population after the Holocaust in 1950.
Have students compare the totals to see how the populations of Jews changed during the
Holocaust.
Use the maps (from the links below) to answer the following.
www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/viewer/wlc/map.php?RefId=EUR77040
www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/viewer/wlc/map.php?RefId=EUR77870
1. What ratio of the total Jewish population in 1933 lived in
A) Southern Europe?
B) Northern & Western Europe?
C) Central Europe?
D) Eastern Europe?
2. How many countries’ Jewish populations decreased? Increased? Other?
3. Complete the table.
Country
1933 Population 1950 Population
Difference
Percent
Change
Increase or
Decrease?
Poland
Denmark
Finland
Germany
4. What is the ratio of the 1950 Jewish population to the 1933 Jewish population for the
A) Soviet Union?
B) Norway?
C) Do these two ratios make a proportion? If so, what does this indicate about the
population changes? Show your work and explain your reasoning.
In 1933, the total European Jewish population was 9,500,000. If two out of every three
European Jewish persons were killed, estimate the total European Jewish population following
the Holocaust. Show your work and explain in words your reasoning.
ACTIVITY 5 - How Unique Are You and Your Traits?
Heredity is the passing of physical characteristics from the parents to the child. Genes
that come from your mom and dad determine your traits.
Find out how many students in your class have some of the following genetic traits. All
people and their traits are special. No one group is better than another. All your traits
make you uniquely you.
Hand Clasping
Have students clasp their hands together. Most students will place their left thumb on
top of their right. This is the dominant phenotype (visible trait). Have students clasp
their hands so that the opposite thumb is on top. Have students write or describe how
that feels?
Tongue Rolling
Have students try to roll the sides of their tongue upwards to form a closed tube. If a
student is able to do it he/she has the dominant phenotype for this motor skill. Those
who cannot roll their tongue have the recessive trait. Students will not be able to roll
their tongue, no matter how hard they try. (Using mirrors is a fun option for the
students.)
Facial Dimples
Have students form big smiles. Dimples should be visible on the students with the
dominant phenotype. A dimple can be only on one side of the face or on both sides.
ACTIVITY 5 – (extension)
Have students take photos of themselves recording which traits they have
(dominant) or (recessive). Use the following list or create your own –
Dominant
Recessive
Dimple
Cleft Chin
Free ear lobe
Straight thumb
Right handed
No dimple
No Cleft Chin
Attached ear lobe
Hitchhiker thumb
Left handed
ACTIVITY 6 - Literary - “Overview of the Holocaust”
Read and discuss the “Overview of the Holocaust” to gain background
information on the Sherwin Miller museum.
This large work may be divided into smaller segments and read “Jigsaw Style.” In a
Jigsaw, the material is divided into smaller segments. Form groups of six
students. Each student in a group is given a different small segment to read and
study, and then each student teaches their group the information from the part
they read. Teachers may divide the material by paragraph 1-6, 7-10, 11-15, 16-19,
20-22, and 23-28. (An asterisk * marks these divisions in the reading below.)
Overview of the Holocaust
By Ruth Ann Cooper, former Curriculum Coordinator
for English/Language Arts for Tulsa Public Schools
*When Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he had two major
goals. One was to obtain more living space for the German people, and the other
was to rid Europe of its Jewish people and others that he deemed undesirables.
He began World War II in September 1939 by attacking Poland, but his war
against the Jews began much earlier.
The Holocaust was an unparalleled event in human history. It has been said that
in the Holocaust, something went wrong with humanity. Man didn’t go mad; he
went evil. The Holocaust happened to a particular people at a particular time, but
it is not just a Jewish issue. Its human significance is universal.
The Holocaust was one of the most massive and extensive genocides ever
perpetrated. Never before had a modern, civilized state implemented a plan to
kill every last person of a particular group simply for the “crime” of being born
into that particular group. It didn’t matter that a Jew was not religious and never
worshipped in a synagogue. It didn’t matter if a Jew had converted to Christianity.
In the Nazis’ eyes, they were still Jews.
In addition to Jews, other groups and individuals were victims of the Nazi effort to
establish the myth of “Aryan supremacy.” They selected out the infirm, mentally
and physically disabled, homosexuals, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Slavic
people, and members of other religious and political groups as objects of hate.
In the Holocaust, 6 million Jews were murdered and 5 million from other groups.
It was systematically and gradually enacted with all the propaganda, legal and
technological means available to the German nation. The implementation of the
plan was so important for the Nazi state that it created all the means necessary to
carry it out. It became the national priority, gaining more importance than even
military objectives. A wide network of bureaucrats and technicians were used to
create a ruthless machinery of death which murdered millions of people in
industrialized fashion and processed their bodies in specially-built death camps.
*Although the Holocaust was to culminate in a massive industry of death camps
and slave labor camps, it did not begin with any unusual brutality.
It began with scattered individual acts against the Jews which were endorsed by
the German state, making the victims feel insecure and unwelcome. By 1935, two
years after Hitler came to power, the German government introduced systematic
legislation, defining the Jews and then setting them apart, at first gradually and
then sharply, from Aryan or pure German society. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935
defined Jews as a racial group, regardless of the religion they practiced, if any, or
the views they held. In the years between 1935 and 1939, Jews were removed
from the civil service, from courts and commerce, and from schools and
universities.
On November 9, 1938, 191 synagogues in Germany and Austria were burned,
thousands of Jewish businesses were looted and destroyed, 30,000 Jews were
arrested and sent to prison or labor camps, and close to 100 Jews were killed.
This night is called Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass.
After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the war quickened the
pace of persecution and made the killings possible. The Nazis intensified their use
of force and increased the pace of violence after each occupied country
surrendered and the people were subdued. In 1940-41, mobile killing units,
known as Einzatzgruppen, followed the invading Nazi armies eastward and killed
thousands of people by rounding them up, bringing them to a spot at the edge of
the town or village, forcing them to dig their own graves, and shooting them one
by one. More than one and a half million Jews were killed in this process as were
thousands of political leaders, intellectuals, teachers, journalists, writers and
scholars, all without a trial or even charges. It was a disciplined killing process,
and whole families and entire villages were eliminated in this way.
*The pace quickened again. Nazi officials wanted to find a better way of killing
people, one that was less damaging to the killers’ sensibilities. Concentration
camps, which had mainly been used for political prisoners, were enlarged. Others
were newly constructed, often near major railroad intersections in Poland and
Germany. There were six camps built in Poland with special apparatus specifically
designed for mass murder. They were Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno,
Majdanak, Sobibor, and Treblinka.
The Nazis first herded the Jews into special sections of the larger cities. These
ghettos were crowded, and soon disease, and lack of food and sanitation facilities
made the ghettos places of death. Those who survived the ghettos were
transported in cattle cars to concentration camps or to the death camps where
some were worked as slave laborers, some maintained as prisoners, but most
were killed immediately in gas chambers.
The Holocaust began with individual, anti-Semitic acts which made the people
feel insecure and fearful. But at the height of the terror, more than 10,000
people a day were killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz, and the numbers at
the other death camps were not far behind.
Hitler and his henchmen were not monsters; they were ordinary men who used
the power, technology, and education of an industrialized nation to destroy
millions of people, families, and a culture, in their quest for Aryan supremacy.
They could not have succeeded without all the thousands of planners,
participants, and collaborators, and the passive consent of the free world. Each
new escalation of horror developed logically, in large part because the rest of the
world refused to provide sanctuary, and chose instead to remain silent.
Albert Einstein said, “The world is too dangerous to live in – not because of the
people who do evil, but because of the people who stand by and let them.” In the
Holocaust, entire nations stood by and did nothing while people were murdered
by the thousands each day.
*The story of the SS St. Louis is a poignant example of nations who did nothing.
The SS St. Louis was one of the last large luxury liners to sail from Germany before
World War II began in September of 1939. It sailed from Hamburg on May 13
with 937 passengers aboard. Most were Jews who had bought visas to Cuba and
were looking forward to a safe haven there. Some were planning to join relatives
in the United States as soon as it could be arranged.
While the ship was in the mid-Atlantic, a power struggle took place in the Cuban
government. As a result, the refugees’ visas were not honored upon arrival in
Havana and the passengers could not disembark. The ship then sailed near the
Miami harbor, hoping the United States government would allow them to enter.
But the United States refused to give them refuge. A special appeal was made to
President Roosevelt, but he refused to amend the strict immigration quotas for
the St. Louis passengers. The ship was forced to return to Europe. Only France,
Holland, Belgium, and England permitted the passengers to enter, and only those
who went to England were relatively safe as Germany proceeded to invade the
other countries. Many of the refugees were eventually sent to concentration
camps, where they perished.
The Holocaust has every example of man’s capacity for evil, but it also contains
every example of man’s capacity for good. There were people who felt it was
their moral responsibility to help the victims, even when it meant risking their
own lives and the lives of their families. These people had a choice to make, and
they chose to help.
There were the Christian Danish people, who made the choice to save the Danish
Jews. With much danger to themselves, they ferried most of the approximately
7,000 Danish Jews in fishing boats to safety in Sweden at night. We should also
remember the welcoming attitude of the Swedes who took in these Jewish
refugees. Even those Jews who could not escape to Sweden and were carried off
to a concentration camp at Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia were given support
from Denmark and when the war ended, 425 of them survived to return home to
resume their places as Danes in a free and democratic society. This spontaneous
rescue effort involved Danes of every kind and condition. All risked their lives in
the effort and some lost them.
*Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat, was responsible for saving thousands
of Hungarian Jews when the order was given to deport all of them to camps.
Aristedes Mendes, the Portuguese consul to Bordeaux, France, in 1938, risked his
life and the lives of his family to issue transit visas to Jewish refugees, against
orders from his superiors. As a result of his actions, Mendes was removed from
his position, stripped of his pension, and died a pauper a few years later.
However, the transit visas he issued saved many Jewish lives as they were able to
flee Europe and certain death. On his death bed, Mr. Mendes was asked if he
would do the same thing again. He answered, “As a Christian, how could I act
otherwise?”
There are numerous heroic stories of individuals who faced up to their moral
responsibilities and saved Jews during this time of horror, while the majority
turned away and did nothing to save anyone.
People often think that the Jews went meekly to the gas chambers without
resisting. But there was resistance, both physical and spiritual, in the ghettos, the
camps, and in the forests. A small group of Jews revolted in the Warsaw Ghetto,
even after the ghetto had been closed. They fought for over 30 days with a few
guns, grenades, homemade Molotov cocktails, boards, nails, and their bare hands.
Resistance occurred at nearly two dozen other ghettos, and revolts took place at
three of the six death camps. The Jews formed underground units and fought,
not because they thought they could win against the Nazis, but to offer a symbol
of courage and resistance for all the Jews of Europe.
*There was also spiritual resistance. Some resisted by going into hiding or by
passing as Gentiles. In the ghettos and camps, the Jews defied Nazi attempts to
dehumanize them and strip them of their dignity. They continued to teach the
children even when it was forbidden, to write songs, poetry and plays, and to
practice their faith in the face of all that was evil. Many went to the gas chambers
wrapped in their prayer shawls. Most of all, they resisted, against all odds, by
maintaining their human dignity up to the end.
Janusz Korczak has become a symbol of spiritual resistance. Korczak was a Jewish
pediatrician in Warsaw, Poland. He was also an educator and writer of children’s
stories. Although he could have been the physician of the richest families in
Warsaw, he chose to take care of children of slum families. In 1911, he gave up
his practice to become head of a large Jewish orphanage in Warsaw.
When, in 1942, the Nazis gave the order to deport the remaining Jews in Warsaw,
Korczak led the children from the orphanage to the railway station. People who
saw them said he led a procession of singing children in their best Sabbath
clothes. Korczak was going with them, so they felt they had nothing to fear.
Korczak’s non-Jewish friends earlier had begged him to leave the orphanage and
promised to get him safely out of the country, but he remained with his children
and chose to die with them in the gas chambers at Treblinka rather than desert
them and leave them to be afraid.
When the Allied soldiers liberated the camps in May 1945, they found the
starving remnants of the people chosen by the Nazis for destruction – emaciated
skeletons suffering from malnutrition, disease, torture, and abuse. Six million
Jews, including 1½ million children, had been murdered.
The Holocaust was one of the darkest periods in the history of the world. The
Holocaust is over, but the nature of the society that carried it out still exists today.
Hatred, bigotry, and indifference did not end. There are organized hate groups –
neo-Nazis, deniers (people who deny the Holocaust ever happened), revisionists,
the KKK, and other white supremacy groups – that are very active today. These
groups patiently await the opportunity to recruit our young people. The only way
we can fight them is through education.
Note from Ruth Ann Cooper:
Vladka Meed, originator and coordinator of the Summer Seminar on the Holocaust and Jewish Resistance which is
held in Poland and Israel each summer, wrote a book about her experiences as a resistance fighter in the Warsaw
Ghetto. It is called On Both Sides of the Wall. While participating in the program in 1989, I purchased a copy of
this book and asked Vladka to sign it. In it she wrote:
“I hope that our summer seminars on Holocaust and Jewish Resistance will be not only the story of pain and
murder, but also of belief in the righteous, and of hope for a peaceful tomorrow.
You will tell the story to your students, in whose hands lies our future.”
The Holocaust can be a precedent, or it can become a warning. This is why we must teach the Holocaust.
ACTIVITY 7 - Significant Dates of the Holocaust Era
Teacher may place individual event photos on cards and distribute these to the
students. Students will place themselves in the order they believe the events on
the cards occurred. Then, as the teacher presents the timeline, students will
place themselves in the correct order of the events.
Use the power point “Significant Dates of the Holocaust Era” for the photos that
correspond to the dates.
November, 1923 – Munich Beer Hall Uprising - Adolf Hitler was sentenced to
prison for 5 years, serving only 8 months. In prison he wrote Mein Kampf (My
Struggle) in which his plans for world control and organized Jewish annihilation
were presented.
1930 – Nazis won 107 seats in Parliament.
January 30, 1933 – Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor or Prime Minister
During his first 100 days in office, there were mass arrests of trade unionists,
suppression of free speech and all political opposition, and a purging of the civil
service of all opponents.
February, 1933 – “Emergency Article” suspended civil rights for Jews.
1933 – Dachau Concentration Camp was opened – first for political prisoners.
1933 – Boycott of Jewish businesses; stores and homes ordered to be identified
with the Star of David.
May 10, 1934 – Book Burnings – to destroy books of Jewish content and any
opposing Nazi philosophy; newspapers came under Nazi control.
September 10, 1935 – Nuremberg Laws were passed, imposing extensive antiJewish racist legislation and forbidding marriage between Jews and Aryans; Jews
were stripped of German citizenship.
November 9-10, 1938 – Kristallnacht or “Night of Broken Glass” - Anti-Jewish riots
throughout Germany and Austria. More than 30,000 Jews were arrested, 191
synagogues were destroyed, 7,500 shops were burnt and looted, and nearly 100
Jews killed. All Jewish property was “registered” and Jewish businesses were
“Aryanized.”
September 1, 1939 – Invasion of Poland by Germany, beginning World War II.
September 21, 1939 – Establishment of ghettos in Poland
October, 1939 – T4 Project was begun – to kill mentally and physically disabled
German citizens, which Hitler called “useless eaters” and lives unworthy of life.
November 23, 1939 – Jewish star armband was required of all Jews in Central
Poland.
April 29, 1940 – Directive to establish a concentration camp at Auschwitz.
January 20, 1942 – Wannsee Conference was held, where a plan was detailed to
annihilate the eleven million Jews of Europe.
June 6, 1944 – Allied Invasion of Normandy.
January 17, 1945 – Prisoners from Auschwitz began “death marches” to evacuate
the camp.
April 30, 1945 – Hitler commits suicide.
May 8, 1945 – Germany surrenders, marking the end of Hitler’s “Thousand Year
Reich.”
Teacher Overview
Seventh grade students will visit the Sherwin Miller Museum which houses the
Herman and Kate Kaiser Holocaust Exhibition, containing hundreds of objects
donated by Oklahoma veterans who took part in the liberation of German
concentration camps. Students will view other artifacts brought to Oklahoma by
Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Many of the artifacts and photos are
mementos of those who died in the Holocaust; others are dedicated in memory of
them by their families. These Oklahomans have made their stories part of the
Holocaust Education Center at the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in order
to bear witness to the terrors they encountered during the Nazi regime.
Lesson Summary
This lesson will use primary source documents to create a deeper understanding
of the history and lives of the people who lived during the Holocaust. Students
will gain an understanding of the Holocaust and the history and events during
Nazi occupation. Students will also be aware of the impact of visual literacy.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
 Realize that visual media are a primary source of historical information.
 Learn the living history from museum documents.
 Analyze photographs and propaganda posters to gain a historical
perspective.
 Use visual literacy to recognize different types of propaganda.
Instruction
Begin by discussing with students the two following questions: “What is
propaganda?” and “How are people influenced by propaganda?” Have students
share any examples of propaganda they may recall from TV, print, or other visual
media. (Examples may include commercial or political ads)
With teacher guidance, have the class create a definition of propaganda. Next,
introduce and define seven of the most common techniques of propaganda used
in advertising. The seven types are name calling, glittering generalities,
euphemism, transfer, bandwagon, testimonial and fear.
Name calling - use of derogatory or negative words; it connects a person or thing with a
negative image or symbol. (e.g., pig, bum, rat)
Glittering generalities - use of virtue words, words which we believe in, live for, and are ready to
die for; it is name calling in reverse. (e.g., peace, prosperity, freedom)
Euphemism – use of bland or neutral words to cover up a more sinister meaning (e.g., relocation
center instead of prison camp, put to sleep instead of euthanized)
Transfer – transfer of the importance, power, or approval of something we respect and accept
to something else they wish us to accept. (e.g., a swastika represents the Nazis, a Star of David
represents the Jewish faith, a flag represents a nation)
Bandwagon – peer pressure to join in, “everyone’s doing it.”
Testimonial – a recommendation or endorsement of something by a person whose opinion is
valued. (e.g., words or a photo of a celebrity, a political leader, or a well-known figure seen as
giving approval)
Fear – something terrible will happen if you do not follow a certain course of action. (e.g., if you
use X then, this may happen to you)
Use the power point images from Nazi Germany and World War II for discussion
on the use of propaganda techniques in the posters.
Place students in small groups and give them a picture of one of the power point
posters or have students research other posters from WWII. (This web link has 32
poster examples - http://www.propagandaposters.us/poster1.html )
Students will then determine which type(s) of propaganda is used in the poster.
Next, students will explain to the class the purpose, message, or goal of the
poster and how it might sway a person’s thinking.
Have students create a poster using one or more of the propaganda techniques.
Students should be aware of their audience – Teachers, classmates, and parents.
Students will include in their poster the use of a main color(s), well-known
symbols, and a simple/direct message. Students will present their poster to the
class and the class will identify the propaganda technique used.
Lesson Extension – Have students research a current political situation in another
country and any posters or advertisement that are used to promote their cause.
Look at the poster carefully and answer the following questions:
(Poster Analysis Questions adapted from “Winning Over Hearts and Minds” from the National WWII Museum)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
For whom was the poster intended?
What is the poster trying to get the audience to do or believe?
What symbols, key words, or well-known images are used?
What colors are prominent? How do these colors make you feel?
What is the emotion conveyed by the poster?
What type of propaganda does the poster use?
Would the image have the same impact on a different cultural society or
people in society 50 years from now? Why or why not?
Post Sherwin Miller Museum Visit
Post Activity 1 – Remembering an Item in the Collection
1. What item do you remember the most from visiting the Holocaust exhibit?
2. Why do you think that this item was included in the exhibit?
3. What did you learn about this item from the docent?
4. Have you seen anything similar to this item before?
5. What was its purpose?
6. Did it belong to a specific individual or a group?
7. Does the memory of this item change how you feel about history? Why?
Post Activity 2 – Poetry and Visual Expression
Have the students read one or both of the poems. Use the TP-CASTT strategy to
guide students through comprehending the poem(s). Always have students refer
to the poem to provide evidence for their answers.
T = Title – Notice it because many overlook it.
P = Paraphrase – In your own words, what’s happening?
C = Connotation – What words have more than one meaning?
A = Attitude – How does the writer seem to feel about this?
S = Shift – Where does the poem’s meaning change? What’s the impact?
T = Title – Look at the title again. What new information do you have?
T = Theme – What are we supposed to learn?
The Butterfly
The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing
against a white stone. . . .
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly 'way up high.
It went away I'm sure because it wished
to
kiss the world good-bye.
For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the
court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live in here,
in the ghetto.
First They Came for the Jews
by Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pavel Friedman, June, 4, 1942.
Born in Prague on Jan. 7, 1921.
Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp
on April 26, 1942.
Died in Aushchwitz on Sept. 29, 1944.
Post Activity 2 – (Extended)
After analyzing and discussing the poetry, students will then create a visual
piece of art with their interpretation of the poetry. Students may use a
variety of art media, and processes in making a two- or three-dimensional
works of art.
Academic Vocabulary
SOCIAL STUDIES
ELA
SCIENCE
MATH
FINE ARTS
Antisemitism
Assumption
dominant
proportion
art history
Concentration Camp
bandwagon
genetics
rate
background
Cultural Resistance
description
heredity
ratio
composition
euphemism
phenotype
scale factor
content
developing nations
fear
recessive
probability
create
distribution of resources
flashback
trait
unit rate
design
diversity
foreshadowing
expression
glittering
foreground
imagery
medium
name calling
middle ground
opinion
perception
testimonial
subject matter
transfer
symbol
developed nations
Euthanasia
ethnic heritage
Genocide
Gestapo
Kristallnacht
immigration
patterns
perspective
Propaganda
policy
Racism
Swastika
(*More vocabulary and
definitions offered by the
Sherwin Miller Museum
found in the resource
section.)
viewpoint
visual literacy
Holocaust Primary Resources
1. The Holocaust Museum in Washington D. C.
http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/
Database for students containing photographs, oral histories, artifacts, maps, ID cards,
music.
2. Cultural Institute
A deep database of photographs, audios, and videos to meet the institute’s mission: “to
help preserve and promote culture online.”
http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/?hl=en#!home:page=1&hl=en
3. U. S. History in Context database
TPS website/About the District/Library Media Services/username: start; password:
library/U. S. History in Context/keyword: “holocaust”
Special Note: Images (35); Videos: “Remember Me? Holocaust Children Talk of
Survival;” “Golden Cobblestones;” Primary Source, “Reporting the Holocaust.”
4. World Book Advanced database. See #3 for access directions to World Book from
list of TPS research databases. Primary sources include legal documents, photographs,
and eyewitness accounts.
5. Safari Montage Playlist of videos: Log into Safari Montage, click Playlist tab at
top, scroll down to “Holocaust,” (public playlist). Please preview; you may feel that
some images are too disturbing for middle school students.
Tulsa Public Schools Library Resources
Other Suggested Titles from the Sherwin Miller Museum
Israel Berenbaum, My Brother’s Keeper: The Holocaust Through the Eyes of an
Artist
Michael Berenbaum, The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told
in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (reference)
Phoebe Eloise Unterman, Through Eva’s Eyes (Based on a True Story)
Ann Abramson, Who Was Anne Frank?
Claire Bishop, Twenty and Ten (fiction)
Jacob Boas, We are Witnesses
Eve Bunting, Terrible Things (allegory)
Martin Gilbert, Atlas of the Holocaust
Patricia Polacco, The Butterfly (fiction)
Gail Stewart, Life in the Ghetto
Hana Volavkova, I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Drawings and Poems
from Terezin Concentration Camp
Holocaust Vocabulary
Aktion – Anti-Jewish operations carried out against Jews under Nazi orders – commonly used
for deportation and killing operations.
Antisemitism – Prejudice or discrimination against Jews. Nazis held an erroneous belief that
Jews are a race; they viewed Jews as inferior to Aryans and destructive to the world order.
Aryan – Nazis defined Aryans as people of Northern European racial background – most
generally tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Auschwitz-Birkenau – A complex consisting of concentration, extermination and labor camps in
Poland. From 1942, more than 1,000,000 Jews were murdered there.
Babi Yar – A deep ravine outside Kiev, where Einsatzgruppen murdered and buried around
34,000 Jews over the course of two days in 1941.
Brownshirts – Storm Troopers, or Nazi militia created in 1921 that helped the Nazis come to
power.
Bystander – One who is present at an event or who knows about its occurrence without
participating in it.
Collaboration – Cooperating traitorously with an enemy who is occupying one’s country.
Concentration Camp – Camps established by the Nazis which eventually became major
instruments of terror, control, punishment, and killing performed through both deliberate
means and through hunger, disease, and over work.
Crematoria – Furnaces used to cremate dead bodies.
Cultural Resistance – Acts of opposition that are related to cultural traditions and the
preservation of human dignity, intended to undermine the oppressor and inspire hope within
the ranks of the resistors (such as creating schools in the ghettos, keeping records of
persecution, maintaining religious customs, etc.)
Death March – Forced marches of Nazi camp prisoners, usually during the harsh winter of 194445, to prevent the liberation of camp inmates.
Der Sturmer – the weekly newspaper published by Julius Streicher denouncing Jews with crude
and vicious jokes and caricatures.
Einsatzgruppen – Referring to four mobile killing squads estimated to have killed more than 1.5
million Jews by mass shootings with burial in unmarked mass graves.
Euthanasia Program – Deliberate extermination of German people institutionalized with
physical, mental, and emotional disabilities, carried out to prevent “contamination” of the
Aryan race.
Extermination Camps – Six camps where victims were killed on a mass industrialized scale:
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka
Final Solution – A Nazi code word for the systematic plan to murder every Jewish man, woman
and child in Europe.
Genocide – the destruction of an ethnic, religious, or national group of people to the extent
that they no longer exist as a defined unit.
Gestapo – Nazi Secret State Police
Ghetto – Sections of towns that the German occupation used to segregate, concentrate,
exploit, and starve regional Jewish populations.
Gypsies – A collective term for Sinti and Roma communities living in Europe.
Hitler Youth – Compulsory youth movement which emphasized physical training, Nazi ideology
and propaganda, and absolute obedience to Hitler.
Judenrat – A Jewish Council established by the Germans to implement various directives within
the ghettos.
Kindertransport – A rescue operation which saved about 10,000 German Jewish children by
sending them to Great Britain.
Kristallnacht – An organized pogrom against Jews in Germany and Austria on
November 9-10, 1938. About 1,400 synagogues and 7,000 businesses were destroyed, almost
100 Jews were killed, 30,000 were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
Magen David – the Star of David commonly associated with Judaism.
Menorah – A seven-branched candlestick used in the Temple.
Nazi – A political party that emerged after World War I and was taken over by Adolf Hitler in the
early 1920s.
Nuremberg Laws – Racial laws that became the basis for racist anti-Jewish policy. These laws
defined who was a Jew, and stripped Jews of their legal rights and citizenship.
Propaganda - False or partly false information used by the government or a political party to
sway the opinions of the population.
Racism – The practice of discrimination, segregation, persecution, and domination of a group
based on that group’s race.
Reich – Third Reich – the official name of the Nazi regime, from 1933 – 1945. The First Reich
was the medieval Holy Roman Empire which lasted until 1806. The Second Reich was the
German Empire from 1871-1918.
Resistance – A group’s action in opposition to those in power; during the Holocaust, Jews
exhibited cultural, spiritual, and armed resistance to the Nazi regime.
Righteous Among the Nations – An award given by Yad Vashem to non-Jews who risked their
lives or careers to help Jews during the Holocaust. Approximately 21,000 “Righteous Among
the Nations” have been identified so far.
Selection – A euphemism for the process carried out by German doctors to select victims for
extermination or forced labor.
Shoah – The Hebrew word for catastrophe, referring to the Holocaust.
Swastika – An ancient Eastern symbol appropriated by the Nazis as their emblem.
Wannsee Conference – A conference held on January 20, 1942 beside Lake Wannsee in Berlin,
where the apparatus was coordinated to carry out the total annihilation of Europe’s Jews.
Yad Vashem – The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem.
Yom Hashoah – Commemoration of the Holocaust
Zyklon B – Hydrogen cyanide, a poisonous gas developed as a fumigation to kill insects. It was
the gas of choice in the extermination camps.
Answer Key
Pre-activity 4 - “Investigating Pre- and Post-Holocaust Jewish Populations”
1. What ratio of the total Jewish population in 1933 lived in
329,000
329
=
» 3.5%
9,500,000 9,500
766,600
3,833
=
» 8.1%
E) Northern & Western Europe?
9,500,000 47,500
1,644, 200 8, 221
=
» 17.3%
F) Central Europe?
9,500,000 47,500
6,760,000 338
=
» 71.2%
G) Eastern Europe?
9,500,000 475
D) Southern Europe?
2. How many countries’ Jewish populations decreased? Increased? Other?
18 Decreased:
 Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union, Spain, Turkey, and
Yugoslavia
7 Increased:
 Albania, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland.
5 Other:

Remained the same: Finland; No 1950 population given on map: Danzig, Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania.
3. Complete the table.
Note: Percent Change =
1950 Population - 1933 Population
Difference
=
Original Population
Original Population
Country
1933 Population
1950 Population
Difference
Percent
Change
Increase or
Decrease?
Poland
3,000,000
45,000
2,955,000
98.5%
Decrease
Denmark
6,000
5,500
500
8.3%
Decrease
Finland
1,800
1,800
0
0%
Same
Germany
565,000
37,000
528,000
93.5%
Decrease
4. What is the ratio of the 1950 Jewish population to the 1933 Jewish population for the
H) Soviet Union?
2,000,000 80
=
2,525,000 101
I) Norway?
1, 200 4
=
1,500 5
J) Do these two ratios make a proportion? If so, what does this indicate about the
population changes? Show your work and explain your reasoning. While the ratios are
not exactly the same, they are extremely close. Students may argue either way, but the
implication is the same: Though Soviet and Norwegian population sizes were vastly different
before the Holocaust, both their populations decreased by the same percentage.
Method 1:
80 ? 4
= ; cross products ( 80 ´ 5 = 400 and 101 ´ 4 = 404 ) are very similar OR
101 5
Method 2:
80 ? 4 80
4
= ;
» 0.792... and » 0.8 : 0.792 is very similar to 0.8.
101 5 101
5
5. In 1933, the total European Jewish population was 9,500,000. If two out of every three
European Jewish persons were killed, estimate the total European Jewish population
following the Holocaust. Show your work and explain your reasoning.
Method 1: Set up the proportion
# of 1933 Jewish Population Killed # Killed
x
2
=
Þ
= ;
Total 1933 Jewish Population
Total
9,500,000 3
ì3x = 2 × 9,500,000
ï
Multiply the cross products to solve í3x = 19,000,000 (divide both sides by 3)
ï x » 6,333,333 or approx. 6.3 million were killed
î
If 6.3 million were killed, then 9.5 million – 6.3 million = 3.2 million. The Jewish population following
the Holocaust was approx. 3,200,000.
Method 2: solve the equation given by “what number is 2/3 of 9,500,00?”
2
Multiply: × 9,500,000 » 6,333,333 or 6.3 million. If 6.3 million were killed, then 9.5 million – 6.3
3
million = 3.2 million. The Jewish population following the Holocaust was approx. 3,200,000.
Method 3: If 2 out of every 3 were killed, then 1 out of every 3 lived. Set up the proportion
# of 1933 Jewish Population that Lived # Lived
x
1
=
Þ
=
Total 1933 Jewish Population
Total
9,500,000 3
ì3x = 1× 9,500,000
ï
Multiply the cross products to solve í3x = 9,500,000 (divide both sides by 3)
ï x » 3,166,667 or approx. 3.2 million lived
î
The total Jewish population following the Holocaust was approx. 3,200,000.
Method 4: If 2 out of every 3 were killed, then 1 out of every 3 lived. Solve the equation “what
number is
1
1/3 of 9,500,000?” Multiply: × 9,500,000 » 3,166,667 or 3.2 million. The total Jewish population
3
following the Holocaust was approx. 3,200,000.
Country
Population in 1933
Ireland
3,600
Norway
1,500
Sweeden
6,500
Finland
1,800
Great Britain
300,000
Netherlands
160,000
Denmark
6,000
Danzig
9,200
Estonia
5,000
Latvia
95,000
Lithuania
155,000
Poland
3,000,000
Soviet Union
2,525,000
Czechoslovakia
357,000
Austria
250,000
Hungary
445,000
Romania
980,000
Yugoslavia
70,000
Bulgaria
50,000
Turkey
56,000
Greece
100,000
Albania
200
Italy
48,000
Germany
565,000
Belgium
60,000
Luxembourg
2,200
France
225,000
Switzerland
18,000
Portugal
1,000
Spain
4,000
Totals
9,500,000
Population in 1950
Difference
Percent Change
5,400
1,800
50.0%
1,200
300
20.0%
12,500
6,000
92.3%
1,800
0.0%
450,000
150,000
50.0%
27,000
133,000
83.1%
5,500
500
8.3%
—
—
—
—
45,000
2,955,000
98.5%
2,000,000
525,000
20.8%
17,000
340,000
95.2%
18,000
232,000
92.8%
155,000
290,000
65.2%
280,000
700,000
71.4%
3,500
66,500
95.0%
6,500
43,500
87.0%
50,000
6,000
10.7%
7,000
93,000
93.0%
300
100
50.0%
35,000
13,000
27.1%
37,000
528,000
93.5%
42,000
18,000
30.0%
800
1,400
63.6%
235,000
10,000
4.4%
21,000
3,000
16.7%
4,000
3,000
300.0%
3,000
1,000
25.0%
3,463,500
6,120,100
64.4%
Standards
Language Arts (Seventh Grade)
(7.LS.1) Literacy Skills Standard 1: The student will develop and demonstrate Common Core Social
Studies reading literacy skills.
A. Key Ideas and Details
1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an
accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
B. Craft and Structure
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary
specific to domains related to history/social studies.
6. Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language,
inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).
C. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other
information in print and digital texts.
8. Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.
9. Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic.
(7.LS.2) Literacy Skills Standard 2: The student will develop and demonstrate Common Core Social
Studies writing literacy skills.
B. Production and Distribution of Writing
4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
5. With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed
by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose
and audience have been addressed.
6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the
relationships between information and ideas clearly and efficiently.
7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question),
drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for
multiple avenues of exploration.
8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively;
assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and
conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
9. Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis reflection, and research.
Math (Seventh Grade)
(7.RP.3) Ratios and Proportional Relationships
Analyze proportional relationships and use them to solve real-world
and mathematical problems.
3. Use proportional relationships to solve multistep ratio and percent
problems. Examples: simple interest, tax, markups and markdowns,
gratuities and commissions, fees, percent increase and decrease, percent
error.
Science (Seventh Grade)
Standard 3: Reproduction and Heredity – Reproduction is the process by which organisms give rise to
offspring. Heredity is the passing of traits to offspring. All organisms must be able to grown and
reproduce. The student will engage in investigations that integrate the process standards and lead to
the discovery of the following objectives:
1. Characteristics of an organism result from inheritance and from interactions with the environment
(e.g., genes, chromosomes, DNA, inherited traits, cell division).
2. Similarities among organisms are found in anatomical features, which can be used to infer the degree
of relatedness among organisms.
Social Studies (Seventh Grade)
Content Standard 1: The student will analyze data from a geographic perspective using the skills and
tools of geography.
1. Cite specific geographic information to support analysis from primary and secondary sources
located in texts, documents, newspapers, magazines, journals, political cartoons, and online news
sources.
2. Integrate visual information, draw conclusions, and make predictions from geographic data and
analyze spatial distribution and patterns by interpreting that data as displayed on globes, graphs,
charts, satellite and other forms of visual imagery including data from bar and line graphs, pie
charts, thematic maps, population pyramids, climagraphs, cartagrams, contour/relief maps, GIS
systems, and diagrams.
4. Integrate visual information and apply the skill of mental mapping of the political and physical
features of Earth’s surface and to organize information about people, places, and environments.
5. Conduct short research projects by investigating contemporary events and issues from political,
economic, social, and geographic perspectives.
Visual art (Seventh Grade)
(1) Standard - language of Visual art. The student will identify Visual Art terms (i.e.,
architecture, collage, medium, perspective, symbol, etc.).
(C) Compare works which are similar or different in expressive quality, composition, and style.
(2) Standard - Visual art history and culture. The student will recognize the development of
visual art from a historical and cultural perspective.
(A) Recognize and describe the cultural and ethnic traditions which have influenced the
visual arts including European, American, Native American, African American, Hispanic,
and Asian traditions.
(B) Identify and be familiar with a range of art works, identifying artist, culture and style
from a historical context.
(C) Identify how the visual arts are used by artists in today's world, including the popular
media of advertising, television, and film. (Illustrator, fashion designer, sculptor, display
designer, painter, graphic designer, animator, photographer).
(3) Standard - Visual art expression. The students will observe, select, and utilize a variety of
ideas and subject matter in creating original works of art.
(A) Use observation, memory and imagination in making original works of art.
(D) Depict three-dimensional qualities by overlapping planes, vertical position, size and
color intensity, in original art work.
(E) Develop and apply skills and techniques using a variety of art media, and processes in
making two- and three-dimensional works of art:
(ii) Drawing
(I) media: pencils, colored pencils, markers, chalks, crayons, oil-pastels,
(II) processes: sketching, contour line, hatching, crosshatching, stippling,
rendering shading
(iv) Mixed Media
(I) media: tissue paper, photos, found objects, foil, fiber, paint, paper, and
magazines.
(II) processes: collage, bas-relief.
(4) Standard - Visual art appreciation. The student will appreciate visual art as a vehicle of
human expression.
(A) Demonstrate appropriate behavior while attending a visual arts exhibition in a museum or art
gallery.
(B) Demonstrate respect for their work and the work of others.
(C) Demonstrate thoughtfulness and care in completion of artworks.