Curriculum Management System
MONROE TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS
Course Name: Holocaust and Genocide in the Modern World Grade: 11 & 12
For adoption by all regular education programs Board Approved: 9.10.2014 as specified and for adoption or adaptation by all Special Education Programs in accordance with Board of Education Policy # 2220.
Table of Contents Monroe Township Schools Administration and Board of Education Members Page ….
Mission, Vision, Beliefs, and Goals Page ….
Core Curriculum Content Standards Page ….
Scope and Sequence Pages …
Goals/Essential Questions/Objectives/Instructional Tools/Activities Pages …
Quarterly Benchmark Assessment Page ….
Monroe Township Schools Administration and Board of Education Members
ADMINISTRATION Dr. Kenneth R. Hamilton, Superintendent Dr. Jeff C. Gorman, Assistant Superintendent
BOARD OF EDUCATION Ms. Kathy Kolupanowich, Board President Mr. Doug Poye, Board Vice President Ms. Amy Antelis Ms. Michele Arminio Mr. Marvin I. Braverman Mr. Ken Chiarella Mr. Lew Kaufman Mr. Tom Nothstein Mr. Anthony Prezioso
Jamesburg Representative Mr. Robert Czarneski
WRITERS NAME Mrs. Melissa Schwartz
CURRICULUM SUPERVISOR Mrs. Bonnie Burke-Casaletto, District Supervisor of Sciences and Social Studies
Mission, Vision, Beliefs, and Goals
Mission Statement
The Monroe Public Schools in collaboration with the members of the community shall ensure that all children receive an exemplary education by well-trained committed staff in a safe and orderly environment. Vision Statement
The Monroe Township Board of Education commits itself to all children by preparing them to reach their full potential and to function in a global society through a preeminent education. Beliefs
1. All decisions are made on the premise that children must come first. 2. All district decisions are made to ensure that practices and policies are developed to be inclusive, sensitive and meaningful to our diverse population. 3. We believe there is a sense of urgency about improving rigor and student achievement. 4. All members of our community are responsible for building capacity to reach excellence. 5. We are committed to a process for continuous improvement based on collecting, analyzing, and reflecting on data to guide our decisions. 6. We believe that collaboration maximizes the potential for improved outcomes. 7. We act with integrity, respect, and honesty with recognition that the schools serves as the social core of the community. 8. We believe that resources must be committed to address the population expansion in the community. 9. We believe that there are no disposable students in our community and every child means every child.
Board of Education Goals
1. Raise achievement for all students paying particular attention to disparities between subgroups. 2. Systematically collect, analyze, and evaluate available data to inform all decisions. 3. Improve business efficiencies where possible to reduce overall operating costs. 4. Provide support programs for students across the continuum of academic achievement with an emphasis on those who are in the middle. 5. Provide early interventions for all students who are at risk of not reaching their full potential. 6. To Create a 21st Century Environment of Learning that Promotes Inspiration, Motivation, Exploration, and Innovation.
Common Core State Standards (CSSS)
The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.
Links: 1. CCSS Home Page: http://www.corestandards.org 2. CCSS FAQ: http://www.corestandards.org/frequently-asked-questions 3. CCSS The Standards: http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards 4. NJDOE Link to CCSS: http://www.state.nj.us/education/sca 5. Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC): http://parcconline.org
Quarter 1-Holocaust and Genocide in the Modern World
Unit Topics(s) Study of Human Behavior, Promoting Tolerance, and the History of Anti-Semitism
I. Study of Human Behavior a. Are humans born good or evil? b. Behaviors: Obedience, conformity, courage, silence, empathy, caring, cruelty c. Societal Roles: Perpetrator, collaborator, victim, bystander, resistor, rescuer c. Positive and negative behaviors associated with silence, obedience, and conformity II. Promoting Tolerance a. Causes of prejudice, discrimination, racism, bigotry, scapegoating b. Dangers of leaving prejudice, discrimination, racism. bigotry, and scapegoating unchecked c. Stereotypes d. Recognizing acts of prejudice, discrimination, racism, bigotry e. Recognizing biased language and jokes f. Ways to combat prejudice, discrimination, bigotry, scapegoating III. History of Anti-Semitism a. Origins and history of hatred against Jews b. Discrediting common stereotypes about Jews c. Does anti-Semitism still exist?
Quarter 2-Holocaust and Genocide in the Modern World
Unit Topic(s)-Prelude to the Holocaust
I. Prelude to the Holocaust a. Economic conditions in Germany b. Political conditions in Germany c. Life for Jews before Hitler comes to power d. Hitler’s rise to power e. Eugenics f. Non-Jewish victims g. Nazi propaganda h. Hitler Youth i. Book burnings j. Changes in school curriculum k. Anti-Jewish laws L. Boycotts and Aryanization m. Berlin Olympics n. Kristallnacht o. Kindertransport p. Evian Conference and the difficulties leaving Germany
Quarter 3-Holocaust and Genocide in the Modern World
Unit Topic(s)-Ghetto Life, The Final Solution, and Resistance/Righteous Among the Nations
I. Ghetto Life a. Movement into the Ghettos b. Judenrat c. Ghetto set up and conditions d. Choiceless choices e. Wannsee Conference f. Einsatzgruppen g. Warsaw Ghetto uprising h. Movement from ghettos to camps
II. The Final Solution a. Different types of camps (concentration, labor, extermination, transit) b. Camp conditions c. Medical Experiments d. Survival and perseverance
III. Resistance/ Righteous Among the Nations a. Obstacles to resistance b. Forms of resistance c. Partisans d. Requirement to recognized as the Righteous Among the Nations e. Heroes (Oscar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg, etc.) and how they risked their life to save others
Quarter 4-Holocaust and Genocide in the Modern World
Unit Topic(s)-Liberation/Aftermath and Genocide
I. Liberation/Aftermath a. Liberating camps b. Returning home c. Displaced Person camps d. The creation of Israel e. Hidden children f. Declaration of Human Rights and definition of genocide g. Forgiveness h. Denial
III. Genocide a. Current Events b. Native American c. Armenian d. Bosnia e. Rwanda f. Cambodia g. Sudan
Quarter 1: The Study of Human Behavior, Tolerance, and History of Anti-Semitism ESTABLISHED GOALS Transfer Students will be able to independently use their learning to… 6.2.12.D.4.i-Compare and contrast the actions of • Demonstrate behaviors that are respectful of individuals regardless of differences based individuals as perpetrators, bystanders, and upon factors related to race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, gender, disability, economic rescuers during events of persecution or status, age, or sexual orientation. genocide, and describe the long-term • Take appropriate action when observing or becoming aware of injustice. consequences of genocide for all involved. Meaning UNDERSTANDINGS ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS RH.1-Cite specific textual evidence to support Students will understand that… • Are people born inherently good or evil? analysis of primary and secondary sources, • Genocide occurs when citizens of a • Why do people often act one way when connecting insights gained from specific details country remain silent, are obedient, and they are alone and another in a group to an understanding of the text as a whole. conform to group norms. setting? • Obedience is innate part of human • How does fear affect a person’s RH.2-Determine the central ideas or information nature. behavior? of a primary or secondary source; provide an • Prejudice is a learned behavior and if • Why do some people standby during accurate summary that makes clear the left unchecked could lead to genocide. times of injustice while others try to do relationships among the key details and ideas. • Stereotypes lead to unfair judgment. something to stop or prevent injustice? • Biased language perpetuates • Is a bystander guilty? RH.3-Evaluate various explanations for actions stereotypes and leads to prejudice. • Is the capacity for obedience an innate or events and determine which explanation best • Real prejudice is harder to deal with part of human nature? accords with textual evidence, acknowledging than ignorant prejudice. • What factors can influence a person or where the text leaves matters uncertain. • Misplaced blame can be extremely group to view another in a negative dangerous. way? WHST.2-Write informative/explanatory texts, • Anti-Semitism is deep rooted and is • Can prejudice, stereotyping, and including the narration of historical events, spread from one area of the world the discrimination be eliminated in the scientific procedures/experiments, or technical another future? processes. • Victims of genocide are usually targeted • How can differing beliefs lead to because of certain long-term feelings of tensions between groups? WHST.4-Produce clear and coherent writing in hatred that existed within the mind of • Why do beliefs and ideas change over which the development, organization, and style the perpetrator. times? are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. • Anti-Semitism still exists today. • How do ideas and beliefs spread? • Many Jewish stereotypes are false WHST.6-Use technology to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in Acquisition response to ongoing feedback, including new Students will know… Students will be skilled at… arguments or information. • The characteristics of human behaviors • Explaining what human behaviors need such as physical, cultural, education, to be present for genocide to take place
WHST.9-Draw evidence from informational texts age, environment, family, and race. • Explaining how accepting stereotypes to support analysis, reflection, and research. • The different types of human behaviors and using biased language can lead to such as obedience, conformity, silence, genocide. courage, integrity, empathy, caring, • Explaining how stereotypes are hurtful cruelty. and often not true. • The different societal roles humans assume such as perpetrator, victim, collaborator, bystander, resister, and rescuers. • The dangers of silence, conformity, and obedience. • Racist and stereotypical jokes can lead to prejudice. • Where prejudice derives from. • Scapegoating can lead to misplaced blame. • The history of anti-Semitism. • The origins of certain Jewish stereotypes and why they are false.
Quarter 1: The Study of Human Behavior, Tolerance, and History of Anti-Semitism Stage 2 – Evidence Evaluative Criteria Assessment Evidence Suggested Performance Rubric: Use the NOTE: The assessment models provided in this document are suggestions for the teacher. If following or similar rubric to evaluate students’ the teacher chooses to develop his/her own model, it must be of equal or better quality and at performance on lesson assessments; the same or higher cognitive levels. 4 – Innovating: Student was able to apply knowledge learned during unit, worked PERFORMANCE TASK(S): independently or collaboratively with group Hate Journal members, and showed effort. All steps of the Students will be required to keep a hate journal for two weeks. They must listen to the hateful assignment demonstrated application, comments their family; friends, peers, or strangers make and log them into a journal. They should innovation, and higher leveled thinking. also include any comments that they make. Direct quotes should be logged but all entries must be 3 – Applying: Student worked independently or anonymous. Students will then answer reflection questions. collaboratively with group members and showed effort. All steps of the assignment demonstrated student could apply new Students will chose 5 of the worst entries and answer the following reflection questions for each knowledge. entry.
2 – Developing: Student was able to work • What you believe the intent to be of the person who made the comment? individually or collaboratively most of the time, • What did you think when you heard it? and showed some effort. The steps in the • Why might this entry be hurtful? assignment demonstrated student could apply • Overall, what did you take away from this assignment? most of the knowledge learned throughout unit. Student was only able to apply 1 – Beginning: new knowledge learned during unit with From this experience students will understand a peaceful future depends on everyday acts and assistance. Student had difficulty working gestures. They will understand the roots and ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping in independently or collaboratively with others and did not work to best of ability. any society. They will understand that silence and indifference to the suffering of others, or to the infringement of civil rights in any society, can—however unintentionally—perpetuate these problems.
Suggested Monitoring Scale: Use the following OTHER EVIDENCE: or similar scale to monitor or evaluate students’ • Unit quizzes or test on Human Behavior, Promoting tolerance, and History of Anti-Semitism. daily learning and understanding of key • Essay: Define anti-Semitism, discuss three examples throughout history where Jews were concepts; persecuted and the reason why, explain three Jewish stereotypes and the history behind 4 – I fully understand my learning and can them, and discuss whether anti-Semitism still exists. explain connections. I would be able explain it to • Create a contract aimed to confront jokes, biased comments, and other actions that insult a someone else. particular group of people based on color, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. 3 – I understand my learning and can make Students should then find people who are willing to make these changes in their lives and some connections, but could use some sign the contract. mnemonics. 2 – I understand parts of my learning and need help making connections. 1 – I do not understand my learning and cannot make connections, please help.
Quarter 1: The Study of Human Behavior, Tolerance, and History of Anti-Semitism Stage 3 – Learning Plan
Summary of Key Learning Events and Instruction Listed are suggested key learning events and instruction. It is not necessary to complete all suggestions. • Pre-Assess: Students will complete a level of understanding scale at the outset of each unit of study. • Engage students in inquiry-based dialog around key events from a PowerPoint/lecture presentation. Support students as they draw on prior knowledge to make connections to current real world events. • Participate in a four corner activity on Human Nature: Opinion Survey. • Engage in a close read of the story of Kitty Genovese, The Dying Girl That No One Helped and determine the central idea of the text. Students will then discuss the actions of the bystanders citing specific textual evidence. • Watch Bystander Effect video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIvGIwLcIuw or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSsPfbup0ac and have a discussion on why some people standby during times of injustice while others do something to stop it. • View Stanley Milgram’s experiment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOYLCy5PVgM and discuss the dangers of being obedient, reaction to the experiment, and whether the experiment was immoral. • View The Wave to understand the dangers and implications of obedience, conformity, and silence. • Listen to the song Carefully Taught to understand where prejudice comes from. • Have students anonymously write down the prejudices they currently have or the stereotypes they accept as truth and read them aloud to the class. • Review the stages on the prejudice ladder/pyramid with the class. Students will write personal examples on a post-it and stick responses to the ladder/pyramid. • Engage in a close read of a text titled Ecidujerp, Prejudice by Irene Gersten and Batsy Bliss. Students will cite text evidence and provide a summary of the key details and ideas of the text. • Write a letter to a fictional teenager who has been treated as a scapegoat. Attempt to explain why he or she is being unjustly persecuted. Discern with students how this behavior can be avoided. • Evaluate a series of Ethnic Jokes. Support a Round Table discussion on the dangers of telling ethnic or stereotypical jokes. • Have students brainstorm biased language and discuss why words may be hurtful to a particular group. • Have students stereotype different groups within the school (Jocks, Band/Choir, Cheerleaders, etc) and then discuss why these stereotypes do not represent everyone and how stereotypes are hurtful. • Have students write down a time when someone made a biased judgment about them. Students will discuss how they knew they were being unfairly judged, what words or assumptions were made about them, how it made them feel, and how they thought they should have been treated in that situation. • View teacher-selected, edited version short video clips of the movie Crash. Discuss how each of the characters in the film was affected by stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. • Research statistics on anti-Semitism in America and around the world today and share findings with the class. Students will create graphs, charts, digital representations of the grow/decline of human populations, worldwide that may correlate to prejudice. • Research and print current articles on anti-Semitic acts in America and around the world within the last two years and hold a class discussion. • In small groups, students will examine Jewish stereotypes. (Jews are plotting to take over the world, shrewd businessmen, have horns, are the Chosen people, Christ killers, control Wall Street and the banks, are rich and ostentatious, and control the media and create a keynotes presentation on the origins of the stereotype and why it is false. • Watch ABC’s What Would You Do: Anti-Semitism episode and host a Socratic Seminar framed around student-generated inquiry. • View teacher-selected video clips of the movie School Ties. Draw lessons from film evidence. Students will create a new film conclusion that
provides a solution to acts of prejudice and Anti-Semitism. • Visit and/or engage students in a virtual tour of Holocaust Museums including the Museum of Tolerance in New York City.
Quarter 2: Prelude to the Holocaust Stage 1 Desired Results ESTABLISHED GOALS Transfer 6.2.12.A.4.c-Analyze the motivations, causes, and Students will be able to independently use their learning to… consequences of the genocides of Armenians, • Identify human rights issues at the beginning phase and encourage elected officials to take Roma (gypsies), and Jews, as well as the mass action when injustice is occurring in other nations. exterminations of Ukrainians and Chinese. Meaning UNDERSTANDINGS ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS 6.2.12.A.5.d-Analyze the causes and Students will understand that… • How can political, social, and economic consequences of mass killings (e.g., Cambodia, • Genocide often takes when countries problems in a nation contribute to Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia, and struggle with economic, social, and genocide? Sudan), and evaluate the responsibilities of the political conditions. • Should non-democratic parties be world community in response to such events. • Eugenics was an accepted science allowed to participate in the democratic throughout the world. process? 6.1.12.A.11.e-Assess the responses of the United • Life for Jews was normal prior to the • Why do human differences matter? States and other nations to the violation of Nazis rise to power. • What happens to a society when science human rights that occurred during the Holocaust • State-sponsored indoctrination and and education define human beings as and other genocides. discrimination are stepping-stones to superior or inferior? genocide. • What happens when ideas about RH.1-Cite specific textual evidence to support • Individuals are more vulnerable to differences and race are turned into analysis of primary and secondary sources, being discriminated against under a national policy? connecting insights gained from specific details dictatorship than a democratic • How can propaganda be dangerous? to an understanding of the text as a whole. government. • How can state-sponsored indoctrination • Kristallnacht was a major turning point and discrimination be stepping stones RH.2-Determine the central ideas or information for the Jews. towards genocide? of a primary or secondary source; provide an • The international community did • Is discrimination ever justified? accurate summary that makes clear the nothing to stop the human rights • How can we respond when our civil relationships among the key details and ideas. violations taking place in Germany in rights are being violated? the 1930s RH.3-Evaluate various explanations for actions • Does the international community have a moral obligation to step in when or events and determine which explanation best another country is violating the human accords with textual evidence, acknowledging rights of its citizens? where the text leaves matters uncertain. Acquisition WHST.2-Write informative/explanatory texts, Students will know… Students will be skilled at… including the narration of historical events, • The economic conditions in Germany • Researching what life was like for Jews scientific procedures/experiments, or technical after WWI. prior to the Holocaust. processes. • The political conditions in Germany • Making inferences as to why the Nazi
following WWI. party rose to power. WHST.4-Produce clear and coherent writing in • How Hitler rose to power and the • Analyzing propaganda and being able to which the development, organization, and style people that helped him. deduct how this affected Jews and the are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. • The history behind the Eugenics rest of the German population. movement and how Hitler used this • Explaining why it is dangerous to ban WHST.6-Use technology to produce, publish, and theory to create the master race. books, music, and other forms of media. update individual or shared writing products in • How the T-4 program turned into • Analyzing quotes like “Where they burn response to ongoing feedback, including new euthanasia. books, they will burn people” arguments or information. • What life was like for Jews prior to the • Comparing the Nuremberg laws with Holocaust. the Church laws and the Jim Crow Laws. WHST.9-Draw evidence from informational texts • Propaganda was used to create hate • Critically reading and listening to to support analysis, reflection, and research. among the Jews. primary and secondary sources on what • That certain books, artwork, and music life was like for Jews and how life were restricted. changed once the Nazis took power. • How the Nazi party indoctrinated the • Critically reading and listening to youth through the Hitler Youth. primary and secondary sources on • How the anti-Jewish laws restricted Kristallnacht. Jews from German society. • Making inferences on how the Evian • How boycotts affected Jews. Conference affected Jews • How the Berlin Olympics eased restrictions on Jews. • The changes in school curriculum once the Nazi party took over. • That Kristallnacht was a major turning point for the Jews. • The difficulties Jews encountered when trying to emigrate from Germany. • How the Evian Conference did nothing to help Jewish refugees and was the green light for Hitler to move to the next phase of persecution towards the Jews. • How the Kindertransport tried to save Jewish children and the difficulties parents faced sending their children away. • The voyage of the St. Louis and how Cuba and America refused to allow Jews to enter the country. • The non-Jewish victims that were
targeted by the Nazis and why.
Quarter 2: Prelude to the Holocaust Stage 2 – Evidence Evaluative Criteria Assessment Evidence Suggested Performance Rubric: Use the NOTE: The assessment models provided in this document are suggestions for the teacher. If following or similar rubric to evaluate students’ the teacher chooses to develop his/her own model, it must be of equal or better quality and at performance on lesson assessments; the same or higher cognitive levels. 4 – Innovating: Student was able to apply knowledge learned during unit, worked PERFORMANCE TASK(S): independently or collaboratively with group Underground Newspaper members, and showed effort. All steps of the assignment demonstrated application, In small group configuration, imagine that you are employed by a German underground innovation, and higher leveled thinking. newspaper/magazine. You are terrified by the changes that have taken place in your country since 3 – Applying: Student worked independently or Hitler became Chancellor. Your employer has charged you with the task of researching then creating collaboratively with group members and an edition of the newspaper/magazine making German citizens aware of the growing problems in showed effort. All steps of the assignment their country and encouraging them to stop the problems. Each newspaper will include three demonstrated student could apply new editorials and three political cartoons. Topics are not to be repeated. knowledge. Student was able to work 2 – Developing: o Students will choose six different topics from the list below: individually or collaboratively most of the time, 1. Eugenics and showed some effort. The steps in the 2. Propaganda assignment demonstrated student could apply most of the knowledge learned throughout unit. 3. Book burning 1 – Beginning: Student was only able to apply 4. Hitler Youth new knowledge learned during unit with 5. Changes in the school curriculum assistance. Student had difficulty working independently or collaboratively with others 6. Jewish boycotts and did not work to best of ability. 7. Nuremberg Laws 8. Aryanization 9. Kristallnacht 10. Difficulties Emigrating including Evian Conference and St. Loius 11. Kindertransport
From this experience students will understand that the Holocaust occurred because individuals, organizations, and governments made choices that not only legalized discrimination but also allowed prejudice, hatred, and ultimately mass murder to occur.
Suggested Monitoring Scale: Use the following OTHER EVIDENCE: or similar scale to monitor or evaluate students’ • Formative and summative Unit assessments on Hitler’s rise to power, eugenics, daily learning and understanding of key Kristallnacht, Evian Conference, Voyage of the St. Louis, the use of propaganda and how concepts; school curriculum changed, and Nuremberg Laws. 4 – I fully understand my learning and can • Author a research essay on Hitler’s rise to power. explain connections. I would be able explain it to someone else. 3 – I understand my learning and can make some connections, but could use some mnemonics. 2 – I understand parts of my learning and need help making connections. 1 – I do not understand my learning and cannot make connections, please help.
Quarter 2: Prelude to the Holocaust Stage 3 – Learning Plan Summary of Key Learning Events and Instruction Listed are several suggestions of key learning events and instruction for you to choose from. It is not necessary to complete all suggestions. • Pre-assess: Students will complete a level of understanding scale before the start of the unit • Analyze and lead an inquiry-based discussion around PowerPoint/lecture presentation. • Students will imagine they are a German citizen living in Germany in the late 1920s. They will create digital graphs and charts explaining the economic conditions and why they want a change in leadership. • Engage in a close read of the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles and then write a journal entry citing textual evidence explaining how this will affect the country. • Students will imagine they are one of the following political parties: NSDAP, KPD, Center or SPD. They will write persuasive speeches and simulate the 1932 Reichstag election. • View teacher-selected video clips of Hitler: The Rise of Evil. Engage students in a Jigsaw as they respond to guided questions. • Participate in a Socratic Seminar on Eugenics citing specific textual evidence, key details, and ideas regarding the topic. Students will reflect on the idea of Eugenics. • Create a photo parallel keynote presentation comparing the lives of Jews in Europe prior to the Holocaust with their own lives. • Watch primary source video clips from Echoes and Reflections of survivors explaining what life was like before Hitler and the Nazis rose to power and how their life changed once he assumed power. • Create a picture or write a series of journal entries explaining what life was like for Jews before Hitler and the Nazis rose to power and how that changed. • Engage in a close read of a text titled Education for Death: Nazi Youth Movement and determine the central ideas and key details. • Analyze propaganda used by the Nazis to gain support. • Students will view teacher-selected video clips from the film Swing Kids and answer guided questions.
• Fill in a chart comparing Nuremberg Laws to Church and Jim Crow Laws. • Ask students to imagine they are non-Jewish German citizens who have just seen the Nuremberg Laws posted for the first time. Students will create a conversation with a Jewish friend explaining how this will affect their lives. • Engage in a close read of the article titled Propaganda and Sports and cite textual evidence that summarizes the key details and ideas of the text. • Engage in a close read of a complex text on Kristallnacht and explain how it was a major turning point for Jews citing specific textual evidence. • Listen to Holocaust survivors speak about Kristallnacht from Echoes and Reflections or invite in a guest speaker. • Complete worksheet To Emigrate or Not to Emigrate and discuss the obstacles of leaving. • Watch video clip from Into Arms of Strangers and discuss the emotional crisis for children and parents leaving on the Kindertransport.
Quarter 3: Ghetto Life Stage 1 Desired Results ESTABLISHED GOALS Transfer 6.2.12.A.4.c-Analyze the motivations, causes, and Students will be able to independently use their learning to… consequences of the genocides of Armenians, • Encourage others to persevere even when it seems that all hope is lost. Roma (gypsies), and Jews, as well as the mass
6.2.12.A.5.d-Analyze the causes and Meaning consequences of mass killings (e.g., Cambodia, UNDERSTANDINGS ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia, and Students will understand that… • What does freedom mean to you? Sudan), and evaluate the responsibilities of the • Deprivation can lead people to make choices • How does the instinct of survival world community in response to such events. that they would never do under any other interfere with moral decision-making? circumstances. • How can deprivation lead to choice-less 6.1.12.A.11.e-Assess the responses of the United • The Judenrat was forced to make decisions choices? States and other nations to the violation of on who would live and who would be • What choices do people make in the face human rights that occurred during the Holocaust deported. of injustice? and other genocides. • The Wannsee Conference was where the • How can the decisions made by a few final solution was decided. change the lives of millions? RH.1-Cite specific textual evidence to support • The liquidation of ghettos was often chaotic • How did German national policy analysis of primary and secondary sources, but was sometimes organized by the concerning the Jews become genocide? connecting insights gained from specific details Judenrat. Most Jews were told they were • What is the responsibility of a moral to an understanding of the text as a whole. being resettled so they went willingly. person in an immoral world? • Jews were transported to camps like RH.2-Determine the central ideas or information animals on cattle cars. of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas. Acquisition Students will know… Students will be skilled at… RH.3-Evaluate various explanations for actions • How Jews were forced to live in ghettos • Reading and listening to primary source or events and determine which explanation best and the way in which they were brought diary entries to understand life within accords with textual evidence, acknowledging there. the ghettos. where the text leaves matters uncertain. • The living conditions within various • Analyze primary source documents ghettos and how each was unique. such as the Protocols of the Wannsee WHST.2-Write informative/explanatory texts, • How the Judenrat was established to Conference and identifying euphemisms including the narration of historical events, carry out Nazi directives and the that are used to explain the future of the scientific procedures/experiments, or technical difficult decisions they had to make. Jews. processes. • The Einsatzgruppen were mobile killing • Analyzing primary and secondary
squads of educated men who carried sources to understand the choice-less WHST.4-Produce clear and coherent writing in out massacres throughout Eastern choices Jews were forced to make which the development, organization, and style Europe. within the ghetto. are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. • The Wannsee Conference was a meeting • Summarizing the process of liquidation of middle to upper level bureaucrats from the ghettos to concentration WHST.6-Use technology to produce, publish, and who decided what the final solution to camps. update individual or shared writing products in the Jewish question would be. response to ongoing feedback, including new • How the ghettos were liquidated. arguments or information. • How people resisted within the ghettos. • How the Warsaw Ghetto uprising WHST.9-Draw evidence from informational texts unfolded. to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Quarter 3: Ghetto Life Stage 2 - Evidence Evaluative Criteria Assessment Evidence Suggested Performance Rubric: Use the NOTE: The assessment models provided in this document are suggestions for the teacher. If following or similar rubric to evaluate students’ the teacher chooses to develop his/her own model, it must be of equal or better quality and at performance on lesson assessments; the same or higher cognitive levels. 4 – Innovating: Student was able to apply knowledge learned during unit, worked PERFORMANCE TASK(S): independently or collaboratively with group Ghetto Life Reflection: members, and showed effort. All steps of the assignment demonstrated application, Students will write a reflection comparing and contrasting their lives with the lives of the diarists innovation, and higher leveled thinking. they listened to and read from Salvaged Pages and I’m Still Here: Real Diaries of Young People Who 3 – Applying: Student worked independently or Lived during the Holocaust. collaboratively with group members and showed effort. All steps of the assignment Students should discuss the following: demonstrated student could apply new knowledge. • How did the information from the diaries make you feel? 2 – Developing: Student was able to work individually or collaboratively most of the time, • What did the information make you think of? and showed some effort. The steps in the assignment demonstrated student could apply • What would you have done if you were placed in the same situation? most of the knowledge learned throughout unit. 1 – Beginning: Student was only able to apply • Which diarist’s story stood out most to you and why? new knowledge learned during unit with
assistance. Student had difficulty working • Which diarist(s) experience impacted your understanding of the theme moral complexity in independently or collaboratively with others times if crisis and why? and did not work to best of ability. From this experience students will think about the use and abuse of power as well as the roles and responsibilities of individuals, organizations, and nations when confronted with civil rights violations and/or policies of genocide.
Suggested Monitoring Scale: Use the following OTHER EVIDENCE: or similar scale to monitor or evaluate students’ • Research and create a keynote presentation on the Warsaw ghetto uprising. daily learning and understanding of key • Write a series of fictional diary entries explaining where you were brought, why the Nazis concepts; brought you there, the living conditions, choice-less choices you were forced to make, 4 – I fully understand my learning and can choice-less choices the Judenrat was forced to make, what you witnessed during liquidation, explain connections. I would be able explain it to and plans of a revolt. someone else. • Unit test of Ghetto life. 3 – I understand my learning and can make some connections, but could use some mnemonics. 2 – I understand parts of my learning and need help making connections. 1 – I do not understand my learning and cannot make connections, please help.
Quarter 3: Ghetto Life Stage 3 – Learning Plan Summary of Key Learning Events and Instruction Listed are several suggestions of key learning events and instruction for you to choose from. It is not necessary to complete all suggestions. • Pre-assess: Have students complete a level of understanding scale before the start of the unit • Take notes on a PowerPoint/lecture presentation. • Engage in a close read of the book titled Salvaged Pages. The book is a collection of diary entries of young people living in a ghetto. • Teacher should bring in the two-week ration for students to visualize how much food each person received within the ghetto. • Watch I’m Still Here: Real Diaries of Young People Who Lived during the Holocaust and fill in graphic organizer. • Engage in a close read of the text titled Protocols of the Wannsee Conference and have student cite textual evidence explaining what the future of the Jewish people is according to this document.
• Watch Conspiracy to understand the decisions made at the Wannsee Conference. Complete guided questions. • Examine a picture of the Einsatzgruppen and have students imagine they are someone in the photograph. Students will participate in a quick write creative writing assignment. Students will share stories with the class. • Engage in a close read of the story of Dina Pronicheva and provide an accurate summary of her survival from Babi Yar. • Students will imagine that they are part of the Judenrat Council. They will be given 10 family profile cards and they must decide which families will remain in the ghetto and which will have to be deported. They will then write a reflection discussing the futility and despair the Judenrat felt and the most important lesson learned from this assignment. • Watch the movie Uprising to understand how the Warsaw ghetto was liquidated and how many of the Jews revolted.
Quarter 3: The Final Solution Stage 1 Desired Results ESTABLISHED GOALS Transfer 6.2.12.A.4.c-Analyze the motivations, causes, Students will be able to independently use their learning to… and consequences of the genocides of • Recognize the beginning phases of genocide and encourage others to make sure events like Armenians, Roma (gypsies), and Jews, as well the Holocaust never happen again. as the mass exterminations of Ukrainians and Chinese.
6.2.12.A.5.d-Analyze the causes and Meaning consequences of mass killings (e.g., Cambodia, UNDERSTANDINGS ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia, and Students will understand that… • How are people able to preserve Sudan), and evaluate the responsibilities of the • The set up and conditions in labor, through the most horrific conditions? world community in response to such events. concentration, and death camps varied. • Why do people fight when all hope is • Families were separated from each other. lost? 6.1.12.A.11.e-Assess the responses of the Healthy men and women were kept alive to United States and other nations to the violation work the camps while the elderly and of human rights that occurred during the children were sent to death. Holocaust and other genocides. • 11 million people died during the Holocaust, 6 million Jews, 5 million non- RH.1-Cite specific textual evidence to support Jews. analysis of primary and secondary sources, • Labor camps were meant to work people to connecting insights gained from specific details death. to an understanding of the text as a whole. • Doctors violated the Hippocratic Oath and performed medical experiments on RH.2-Determine the central ideas or inmates mostly against their will. information of a primary or secondary source;
including the narration of historical events, that were performed on inmates and the • Listening to primary source video scientific procedures/experiments, or technical outcome of them. clips of survivors sharing their processes. • A successful revolt took place at Sobibor experience at a camp. death camp. • Debating whether data retrieved from WHST.4-Produce clear and coherent writing in • medical experiments should be used. which the development, organization, and style
assignment demonstrated student could apply • Discuss how Kristallnacht affected their lives. most of the knowledge learned throughout unit. 1 – Beginning: Student was only able to apply Phase II: Segregation in Ghettos new knowledge learned during unit with • Discuss the process of moving families from their homes into the ghetto. assistance. Student had difficulty working • Discuss the conditions that Jews had to endure while living in a ghetto. Must discuss each of independently or collaboratively with others the following in-depth: Isolation, Overcrowding, Freezing, Contagious Diseases, Daily terror and did not work to best of ability. inflicted by the Nazis, and Starvation • Discuss the brutality of liquidation from the ghetto or shtetls (Chaotic removal from the ghettos, the brutality of the Einstzagruppen, cattle cars)
Phase III: Final Solution (Concentration, Labor, or Death Camps) • Conditions in Labor and Concentration camps (must discuss each of the following in depth: arrivals/separation of families, roll call, work, living conditions, food, hygiene, medical experiments, everyday brutality by the S.S., and death marches) • Conditions in Death camps (process of killing arrivals, living and working conditions in a death camp)
iMovie Requirements: • Voice Narration of conditions/perseverance • Must include at least 5 relevant pictures for each phase of the Holocaust (15 in total) • Appropriate background music • Must include at least 4 Primary Source quotes from survivors to support the conditions discussed in your iMovie. Must be incorporated at the appropriate time.
From this experience students will understand how a modern nation can utilize its technological expertise and bureaucratic infrastructure to implement destructive policies ranging from social engineering to genocide.
Suggested Monitoring Scale: Use the OTHER EVIDENCE: following or similar scale to monitor or • Unit test and quiz on The Final Solution. evaluate students’ daily learning and • Read Night by Ellie Wiesel and write an essay explaining the conditions that he and other understanding of key concepts; prisoners had to endure while trying to survive in a concentration camp. 4 – I fully understand my learning and can explain connections. I would be able explain it to someone else. 3 – I understand my learning and can make some connections, but could use some mnemonics.
2 – I understand parts of my learning and need help making connections. 1 – I do not understand my learning and cannot make connections, please help.
Quarter 3: The Final Solution Stage 3 – Learning Plan Summary of Key Learning Events and Instruction • Students will write a poem or a letter to a survivor demonstrating their understanding of conditions in the camps and the perseverance one must have endured. • Students will go to http://www.remember.org/witness/wit.sur.lazar.html and read a primary source and interpret paintings about life in a concentration camp. Students will answer questions on a worksheet. • Students will go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/holocaust/experiintro2.html and answer a series of questions regarding whether the data retrieved from medical experiments should be used. Students will fill in a graphic organizer and participate in a Philosophical chair activity. • Watch Escape from Sobibor and answer guided questions. • Invite Holocaust survivors into the classroom to share their personal account of life during the Holocaust. • Visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. or the Jewish Heritage Museum: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in NYC.
Quarter 3: Resistance/Righteous Among the Nations Stage 1 Desired Results ESTABLISHED GOALS Transfer 6.2.12.A.4.c-Analyze the motivations, causes, and Students will be able to independently use their learning to… consequences of the genocides of Armenians, • Judge when it is necessary and/or appropriate to resist the rules and laws that have been Roma (gypsies), and Jews, as well as the mass established. exterminations of Ukrainians and Chinese.
6.2.12.A.5.d-Analyze the causes and Meaning consequences of mass killings (e.g., Cambodia, UNDERSTANDINGS ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia, and Students will understand that… • In what ways can a person resist the Sudan), and evaluate the responsibilities of the • Resistance was demonstrated in many rules and laws established by a world community in response to such events. different ways throughout the government? Holocaust. • What are the advantages and 6.1.12.A.11.e-Assess the responses of the United • Many bystanders showed empathy and disadvantages of always doing the right States and other nations to the violation of risked their lives to save Jews during the thing? human rights that occurred during the Holocaust Holocaust. • What makes someone a hero? and other genocides. • Do people do extraordinary acts of
WHST.4-Produce clear and coherent writing in
WHST.6-Use technology to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
WHST.9-Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
assistance. Student had difficulty working independently or collaboratively with others and did not work to best of ability.
Suggested Monitoring Scale: Use the following OTHER EVIDENCE: or similar scale to monitor or evaluate students’ • Unit Quiz on different forms of resistance and obstacles daily learning and understanding of key • Students will select three stories of interest from the following concepts; website: http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/index.asp and create a 4 – I fully understand my learning and can keynote presentation on the Righteous Among the Nations. explain connections. I would be able explain it to
Stage 3 – Learning Plan Summary of Key Learning Events and Instruction Listed are several suggestions of key learning events and instruction for you to choose from. It is not necessary to complete all suggestions. • Pre-assess: Have students complete a level of understanding scale before the start of the unit • Take notes on a PowerPoint/lecture presentation. • Engage in a close read of the poem titled If We Must Die by Claude McKay and explain what the poem suggests about the victims of the Holocaust citing specific textual evidence. • Watch Intro to the Partisans video clip www.jewishpartisans.org and define what a partisan was, identify what they fought for, and tactics they used. • Research the Bielski Otriad and identify how the group remained alive, what tactics they used to sabotage the Nazis, and how many people survived. • Watch Defiance and debate the response of each of the moral dilemmas that the Bielski family faced. • Engage in a close read of primary source accounts describing the type of man Oscar Schindler was before he began to rescue Jews and cite textual evidence of his behavior. • Watch Schindler’s List and hold a discussion on why Schindler decided to help the Jews, how he helped, and whether Schindler should be held accountable for his ruthless behavior prior to his transformation.
Quarter 4: Liberation/Aftermath Stage 1 Desired Results ESTABLISHED GOALS Transfer 6.2.12.A.4.c-Analyze the motivations, causes, Students will be able to independently use their learning to… and consequences of the genocides of • Take appropriate action when confronted with information intended to distort or deny Armenians, Roma (gypsies), and Jews, as well as history, such as that presented by deniers of the Holocaust. the mass exterminations of Ukrainians and Chinese.
6.2.12.A.5.d-Analyze the causes and consequences of mass killings (e.g., Cambodia, Meaning Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia, and UNDERSTANDINGS ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS Sudan), and evaluate the responsibilities of the Students will understand that… • How does one begin to live a normal life world community in response to such events. • Liberation was extremely emotional after such horrific atrocities have taken for prisoners and liberators. place? 6.1.12.A.11.e-Assess the responses of the United • Liberation did not fully end the • How can solutions to past problems create States and other nations to the violation of horrors that Jews had to endure. future world issues? human rights that occurred during the • Solutions to one problem can often • Is it important to confront Holocaust Holocaust and other genocides. create future world issues. deniers and other revisionists? • It is extremely important to confront • How can Holocaust denial change the RH.1-Cite specific textual evidence to support Holocaust deniers and other future? analysis of primary and secondary sources, revisionists. • Is it possible to forgive, but never forget? connecting insights gained from specific details
RH.2-Determine the central ideas or Acquisition information of a primary or secondary source; Students will know… Students will be skilled at… provide an accurate summary that makes clear • U.S., Russian, and British soldiers • Listening and reading primary sources to the relationships among the key details and helped liberate camps. understand what happened to Jews after ideas. • Nazis tried to kill as many prisoners as liberation. they could and destroy the camps • Debating whether Israel should become a RH.3-Evaluate various explanations for actions before they were liberated. nation. or events and determine which explanation • Many Jews were forced on death • Taking a position on quotes like: “I best accords with textual evidence, marches as the Allies closed in on the disapprove of what you say, but I will acknowledging where the text leaves matters camps. defend to the death your right to say it.” uncertain. • What happened to many Jewish • Refuting Holocaust denier’s claims. prisoners when good intentioned • Reading personal accounts of Holocaust WHST.2-Write informative/explanatory texts, soldiers gave them food and water. survivors and determining whether they
including the narration of historical events, • The conditions of Displaced Persons would have made similar choices if placed scientific procedures/experiments, or technical camps. in the same situation. processes. • What happened to many Jews when
WHST.9-Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
assignment demonstrated student could apply their lives. most of the knowledge learned throughout unit. • The emotions you felt upon reading this story. 1 – Beginning: Student was only able to apply new knowledge learned during unit with Students will then participate in a Socratic seminar discussion on the complexity of forgiveness. assistance. Student had difficulty working independently or collaboratively with others From this experience students will examine various perspectives on the topic of forgiveness. They and did not work to best of ability. will cite textual evidence from The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wisenthal and share their own opinions.
Suggested Monitoring Scale: Use the following OTHER EVIDENCE: or similar scale to monitor or evaluate students’ • Unit quiz or test on Holocaust Aftermath and Denial daily learning and understanding of key
Quarter 4: Liberation/Aftermath Stage 3 – Learning Plan Summary of Key Learning Events and Instruction Listed are several suggestions of key learning events and instruction for you to choose from. It is not necessary to complete all suggestions. • Pre-assess: Have students complete a level of understanding scale before the start of the unit • Take notes on a PowerPoint/lecture presentation. • Listen to Howard Cwick’s first hand account about liberating Buchenwald Concentration camp and hold a discussion on why Mr. Cwick still struggles with the decisions he made. Students will cite evidence from the video clip. • Engage in a close read of Earl G. Harrison’s report to President Truman regarding Displaced Persons camps and cite textual evidence of the conditions in Displaced Persons camps. • Students will then imagine they are a Jew living in a DP camp and write a letter to President Truman or British Prime Minister Clement Atlee
discussing at least five conditions in the camps and how they would like those conditions to be addressed. • Engage in a close read of a text titled What Will Become of Us and determine the central ideas of the text. • Students will role-play a hearing at the United Nations in which they will present opening statements on whether Israel should become a nation. Students will be broken into the United States, Great Britain, Palestine, and the Jews. Each group will convince a panel to support their viewpoint. • Complete a worksheet “Assessing and Defining Responsibility and hold a discussion on who should be held accountable for the crimes that were committed during the Holocaust. • Watch clips from Hidden Children to understand the fear many children had when their parents returned for them. They will also understand the measures many families and the government took to keep hidden children with their foster family. • Watch Nuremberg: Tyranny on Trial to understand who was held accountable and what crimes they were charged with. • Engage in a close read of a text titled the Survivors Dilemma and evaluate various explanations. • Use the following website http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/biglie.html to research and refute Holocaust deniers’ claims. • Participate in a Philosophical Chair activity: Is it ever too late to seek justice?
Quarter 4: Genocide Stage 1 Desired Results ESTABLISHED GOALS Transfer 6.2.12.A.4.c-Analyze the motivations, Students will be able to independently use their learning to… causes, and consequences of the genocides • Take appropriate action when observing or becoming aware of a violation of human rights. of Armenians, Roma (gypsies), and Jews, as well as the mass exterminations of
6.2.12.A.5.d-Analyze the causes and Meaning consequences of mass killings (e.g., UNDERSTANDINGS ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Students will understand that… • What are the implications for Somalia, and Sudan), and evaluate the • Genocide often takes when countries struggle Armenians, Turks, and the responsibilities of the world community in with economic, social, and political conditions. international community for allowing response to such events. • Genocide brings out the worst in humanity. denials of the Armenian genocide? • People risked their lives to save individuals of • Is conflict between religious groups 6.1.12.A.11.e-Assess the responses of the genocide. inevitable? United States and other nations to the • The international community has done very • What can responsible people do when violation of human rights that occurred little to stop genocide. confronted with powerful evidence of during the Holocaust and other
leaves matters uncertain. • How the Rwandan genocide was carried out. Sudan. • What role the international community played • Independently researching major WHST.2-Write informative/explanatory in stopping the Rwandan genocide. genocides and finding out who were texts, including the narration of historical • How the genocide in Bosnia- Herzegovina the perpetrators, victims, how the events, scientific procedures/experiments, began and was carried out. genocide was carried out, what victims or technical processes. • How the genocide in Sudan began and how it had to endure, how many people died, was carried out. etc. WHST.4-Produce clear and coherent • Any current acts of genocide or human rights • Critically read news articles that writing in which the development, violations unfolding in the world. discuss current human rights abuses. organization, and style are appropriate to
WHST.6-Use technology to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
WHST.9-Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Quarter 4: Genocide Stage 2 - Evidence Evaluative Criteria Assessment Evidence Suggested Performance Rubric: Use the NOTE: The assessment models provided in this document are suggestions for the teacher. If the following or similar rubric to evaluate teacher chooses to develop his/her own model, it must be of equal or better quality and at the same students’ performance on lesson or higher cognitive levels. assessments; 4 – Innovating: Student was able to apply PERFORMANCE TASK(S): knowledge learned during unit, worked In small groups, students will create a museum exhibit on one of the genocides listed below. Exhibits will independently or collaboratively with be displayed in the media center and other classes will be invited in to view the displays. Students will be group members, and showed effort. All responsible for teaching their peers and classmates about their assigned genocide in the classroom and in steps of the assignment demonstrated the media center. application, innovation, and higher leveled thinking. Genocides: (Each group must select a different genocide) 3 – Applying: Student worked • Native American independently or collaboratively with • Armenian
group members and showed effort. All • Cambodian steps of the assignment demonstrated • Bosnian student could apply new knowledge. • Rwandan 2 – Developing: Student was able to work • Darfur individually or collaboratively most of the time, and showed some effort. The steps in Components of the exhibit: the assignment demonstrated student could apply most of the knowledge 1. A pamphlet: The pamphlet will summarize the essential information about the genocide and learned throughout unit. where to find additional information on the subject. It will suggest 2 books and 3 websites written 1 – Beginning: Student was only able to on the topic in your pamphlet. apply new knowledge learned during unit with assistance. Student had difficulty 2. A Tri-Fold Poster Board: The poster board must include the essential information about your working independently or collaboratively genocide gathered from the guided questions, and must including at least 6 pictures of the victims, with others and did not work to best of perpetrators, and destruction caused. ability.
3. An iMovie: The iMovie must display at least 6 pictures of the perpetrators, the victims, and the destruction caused. It must include music, a narration of the essential information gathered from the guided questions, a least 2 primary source quotes about the genocide, and a brief video clip on your assigned genocide. All pictures must be labeled with text.
4. A Model Memorial to commemorate your genocide: The model may be sculpted from any material. When designing the memorial you must use symbolism. Your model will include a plaque which explains the significance of the design and which genocide it is honoring.
From this experience students will understand that it is the responsibility of citizens in any society to learn to identify danger signals and to know when to react.
Suggested Monitoring Scale: Use the OTHER EVIDENCE: following or similar scale to monitor or Unit quizzes and tests on each of the genocides. evaluate students’ daily learning and
2 – I understand parts of my learning and need help making connections. 1 – I do not understand my learning and cannot make connections, please help.
Quarter 4: Genocide Stage 3 – Learning Plan Summary of Key Learning Events and Instruction Listed are several suggestions of key learning events and instruction for you to choose from. It is not necessary to complete all suggestions. • Pre-assess: Have students complete a level of understanding scale before the start of the unit • Take notes on a PowerPoint/lecture presentation. • Complete a KWL chart on the Armenian, Cambodian, Rwandan, and Darfur genocide. • Complete A Brief History of the Armenian Genocide worksheet. • Watch the Armenian Genocide video and answer questions. • Go to http://www.20voices.com/survivors.html and select 5 survivor testimonies to listen to and complete a worksheet. • Watch Killing Fields to understand the Cambodian genocide. • Watch Rwanda: Do Scars Ever Fade? And hold a discussion on forgiveness. • Students will participate in a conflict resolution activity in which they will assume the roles as the UN, Rwandan national government, or the Rwandan victim’s organization. They will decide on whether an admission of guilt should be required, whether reparations should be awarded, what type of sentence the perpetrators should receive, and where the trials should be held. • Watch Hotel Rwanda to understand how the Rwandan genocide was carried out. • Watch The Devil Came on Horseback to understand the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
Benchmark Assessment Quarter 1
1. Students will choose from the Quarter 1 Essential Questions, and reflect upon and respond the enduring understandings pertaining to the Study of Human Behavior, Promoting Tolerance, and the History of Anti-Semitism.
Benchmark Assessment Quarter 2
1. Students will choose from the Quarter 2 Essential Questions, and reflect upon and respond the enduring understandings pertaining to the Prelude to the Holocaust.
Benchmark Assessment Quarter 3
1. Students will choose from the Quarter 3 Essential Questions, and reflect upon and respond to the enduring understandings pertaining to Ghetto Life, The Final Solution, and Resistance/Righteous Among the Nations.
Benchmark Assessment Quarter 4
1. Students will choose from the Quarter 4 Essential Questions, and reflect upon and respond to the enduring understandings pertaining to Liberation/Aftermath and modern Genocide.
G
Academic Vocabulary
Allies: During World War II, the group of nations including the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and the Free French, who joined in the war against Germany and other Axis countries.
Annihilate: kill in large numbers
Anschluss: The annexation of Austria by Germany on March 13, 1938.
Antisemitism: Opposition to and discrimination against Jews.
Aryan: A term for peoples speaking the language of Europe and India. In Nazi racial theory, a person of pure German "blood." The term "non-Aryan" was used to designate Jews, part-Jews and others of supposedly inferior racial stock.
Assimilation: The process of becoming incorporated into mainstream society. Strict observance of Jewish laws and customs pertaining to dress, food, and religious holidays tends to keep Jewish people separate and distinct from the culture of the country within which they are living. Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86), a German Jew, was one of the key people working for the assimilation of the Jews in the German cultural community.
Atrocity: an act of atrocious cruelty.
Auschwitz – Birkenau: A complex consisting of concentration, extermination, and labor camps in Upper Silesia. It was established in 1940 as a concentration camp and included a killing center in 1942. Auschwitz I: The main camp. Auschwitz II (Also known as Birkenau): The extermination center. Auschwitz III (Monowitz): The I.G. Farben labor camp, also known as Buna. In addition, there were numerous subsidiary camps.
Axis: Germany, Italy, and Japan, signatories to a pact signed in Berlin on September 27, 1940, to divide the world into their spheres of respective political interest. They were later joined by Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia.
Babi Yar: A ravine in Kiev, where tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews were systematically massacred.
Bar-Mitzvah: A term referring to a religious "coming of age" in Judaism, when a Jewish boy or girl turns thirteen. On this day, the Bar/Bat Mitzvah leads the congregation in the service and rightfully enters the congregation as an "equal" member.
Beer Hall Putsch: On November 8, 1923, Hitler, with the help of SA troops and German World War I hero General Erich Ludendorff, launched a failed coup attempt in Bavaria at a meeting of Bavarian officials in a beer hall.
Belzec: Nazi extermination camp in eastern Poland. Erected in 1942. Approximately 550,000 Jews were murdered there in 1942 and 1943. The Nazis dismantled the camp in the fall of 1943.
Bergen-Belsen: Nazi concentration camp in northwestern Germany. Erected in 1943. Thousands of Jews, political prisoners, and POWs were killed there. Liberated by British troops in April 1945, although many of the remaining prisoners died of typhus after liberation.
Blitzkrieg: Meaning "lightning war," Hitler's offensive tactic using a combination of armored attack and air assault.
Blood Libel: An allegation, recurring during the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries, that Jews were killing Christian children to use their blood for the ritual of making unleavened bread (matzah). A red mold which occasionally appeared on the bread started this myth.
Bosnia: of or relating to or characterisics of Bosnian-Serbs in the Srebrenica massacre.
B'richa: The organized and illegal mass movement of Jews throughout Europe following World War II.
British White Paper of 1939: British policy of restricting immigration of Jews to Palestine.
Brüning, Heinrich: Appointed by President von Hindenburg in 1930, he was the first chancellor under the new presidential system which ruled by emergency decree rather than laws passed by the Reichstag.
Buchenwald: Concentration camp in North Central Germany.
Bund: The Jewish Socialist Party founded in 1897. It aspired to equal rights for the Jewish population. During World War II the Bund was active in the underground resistance and some Bund members were also part of some Judenrat councils. They took part in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Bystander: One who is present at some event without participating in it.
Cabaret: Large restaurant providing food, drink, music, a dance floor, and floor show.
Cambodia: a nation in southeastern Asia; was part of Indochina under French rule until 1946.
Cantor: Leader of chanted prayers in a Jewish service; the congregational singer.
Chancellor: Chief (prime) minister of Germany.
Chamberlain, Neville (1869-1940): British Prime Minister, 1937-1940. He concluded the Munich Agreement in 1938 with Adolf Hitler, which he mistakenly believed would bring "peace in our time."
Chelmno: Nazi extermination camp in western Poland. Established in 1941. The first of the Nazi extermination camps. Approximately 150,000 Jews were murdered there between late 1941 and 1944, although not continuously. In comparison to the other extermination camps, Chelmno was technologically primitive, employing carbon monoxide gas vans as the main method of killing. The Nazis dismantled the camp in late 1944 and early 1945.
Collaboration: Cooperation between citizens of a country and its occupiers.
Communism: A concept or system of society in which the collective community shares ownership in resources and the means of production. In theory, such societies provide for equal sharing of all work, according to ability, and all benefits, according to need. In 1848, Karl Marx, in collaboration with Friedrich Engels, published the Communist Manifesto which provided the theoretical impetus for the Russian Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
Concentration camp (Konzentrationslager, KZ): Concentration camps were prisons used without regard to accepted norms of arrest and detention. They were an essential part of Nazi systematic oppression. Initially (1933-36), they were used primarily for political prisoners. Later (1936-42), concentration camps were expanded and non-political prisoners--Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and Poles--were also incarcerated. In the last period of the Nazi regime (1942-45), prisoners of concentration camps were forced to work in the armament industry, as more and more Germans were fighting in the war. Living conditions varied considerably from camp to camp and over time. The worst conditions took place from 1936-42, especially after the war broke out. Death, disease, starvation, crowded and unsanitary conditions, and torture were a daily part of concentration camps.
Contra fact: A musical technique that places new lyrics into melodies of old songs. This technique was used during the Holocaust, when lyrics were being written faster than composers could generate the music.
Dachau: Nazi concentration camp in southern Germany. Erected in 1933, this was the first Nazi concentration camp. Used mainly to incarcerate German political prisoners until late 1938, whereupon large numbers of Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and other supposed enemies of the state and anti-social elements were sent as well. Nazi doctors and scientists used many prisoners at Dachau as guinea pigs for experiments. Dachau was liberated by American troops in April 1945.
Darfur: an impoverished region of western Sudan
Death camp: Nazi extermination centers where Jews and other victims were brought to be killed as part of Hitler's Final Solution.
Death marches: Forced marches of prisoners over long distances and under intolerable conditions was another way victims of the Third Reich were killed. The prisoners, guarded heavily, were treated brutally and many died from mistreatment or were shot. Prisoners were transferred from one ghetto or concentration camp to another ghetto or concentration camp or to a death camp.
Degenerate art (Entartete Kunst): Art which did not fit the Nazi ideal.
Dehumanization: The Nazi policy of denying Jews basic civil rights such as practicing religion , education, and adequate housing.
Desecrating the Host: Jews were accused of defiling the Host, the sacred bread used in the Eucharist ritual, with blood. The red substance that can grow on bread which has a blood-like appearance is now known to be a mold. This allegation was used as the reason for a series of antisemitic attacks.
Diaspora: From the Greek word meaning dispersion, the term dates back to 556 B.C.E. when Nebuchadnezzar exiled the Judeans to Babylonia and refers to the Jewish communities outside Israel.
Discrimination: Action based on prejudice or racist beliefs that results in unfair treatment of individuals or groups; unjust conditions in areas such as
Displacement: The process, either official or unofficial, of people being involuntarily moved from their homes because of war, government policies, or other societal actions, requiring groups of people to find new places to live. Displacement is a recurring theme in the history of the Jewish people.
DP: Displaced Person. The upheavals of war left millions of soldiers and civilians far from home. Millions of DPs had been eastern European slave laborers for the Nazis. The tens of thousands of Jewish survivors of Nazi camps either could not or did not want to return to their former homes in Germany or eastern Europe, and many lived in special DP camps while awaiting migration to America or Palestine.
Displaced Persons Act of 1948: Law passed by U.S. Congress limiting the number of Jewish displaced persons who could emigrate to the United States. The law contained antisemitic elements, eventually eliminated in 1950.
Drancy: The camp at Drancy was a transit camp not far outside of Paris. In 1939 the camp was used to hold refugees from the fascist regime in Spain. In 1940 these refugees were given over to the Nazis. In 1941 the French police, under the authority of the Nazi regime, conducted raids throughout France that imprisoned French Jews. Many victims of these raids were taken to Drancy.
Eichmann, Adolph (1906 - 1962): SS Lieutenant Colonel and head of the Gestapo department dealing with Jewish affairs.
Einsatzgruppen : Mobile units of the Security Police and SS Security Service that followed the German armies to Poland in 1939 and to the Soviet Union in June, 1941. Their charge was to kill all Jews as well as communist functionaries, the handicapped, institutionalized psychiatric patients, Gypsies, and others considered undesirable by the nazi state. They were supported by units of the uniformed German Order Police and often used auxiliaries (Ukrainian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian volunteers). The victims were executed by mass shootings and buried in unmarked mass graves; later, the bodies were dug up and burned to cover evidence of what had occurred.
Eisenhower, Dwight D.: As Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, General Eisenhower commanded all Allied forces in Europe beginning in 1942.
Ethnic Cleansing: the mass expulsion and killing of one ethnic or religious group in an area by another ethnic or religios group in that area.
Euthanasia: Nazi euphemism for the deliberate killings of institutionalized physically, mentally, and emotionally handicapped people. The euthanasia program began in 1939, with German non-Jews as the first victims. The program was later extended to Jews.
Fascism: A social and political ideology with the primary guiding principle that the state or nation is the highest priority, rather than personal or individual freedoms.
Final Solution (The final solution to the Jewish question in Europe): A Nazi euphemism for the plan to exterminate the Jews of Europe.
Flossenburg: Bavarian camp established in 1938/39 mainly for political, particularly foreign, prisoners.
Frank, Hans: Governor-General of occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945. A member of the Nazi Party from its earliest days and Hitler's personal lawyer, he announced, "Poland will be treated like a colony; the Poles will become slaves of the Greater German Reich." By 1942, more than 85% of the Jews in Poland had been transported to extermination camps. Frank was tried at Nuremberg, convicted, and executed in 1946.
Führer: Leader. Adolf Hitler's title in Nazi Germany.
Gas chambers: Large chambers in which people were executed by poison gas. These were built and used in Nazi death camps.
Generalgouvernement (General Government): An administrative unit established by the Germans on October 26, 1939, consisting of those parts of Poland that had not been incorporated into the Third Reich. It included the districts of Warsaw, Krakow, Radom, Lublin, and Lvov. Hans Frank was appointed Governor-General. The Germans destroyed the Polish cultural and scientific institutions and viewed the Polish population as a potential work force.
Genocide: The deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, cultural, or religious group.
German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei): As the precursor to the Nazi Party, Hitler joined the right-wing Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP) in 1919. The party espoused national pride, militarism, a commitment to the Volk, and a racially "pure" Germany.
Gestapo: Acronym for Geheime Staatspolizei /ge haim e shtahts po li tsai/ meaning Secret State Police. Prior to the outbreak of war, the Gestapo used brutal methods to investigate and suppress resistance to Nazi rule within Germany. After 1939, the Gestapo expanded its operations into Nazi-occupied Europe.
Ghettos: The Nazis revived the medieval term ghetto to describe their device of concentration and control, the compulsory "Jewish Quarter." Ghettos were usually established in the poor sections of a city, where most of the Jews from the city and surrounding areas were subsequently forced to reside. Often surrounded by barbed wire or walls, the ghettos were sealed. Established mostly in eastern Europe (e.g., Lodz, Warsaw, Vilna, Riga, or Minsk), the ghettos were characterized by overcrowding, malnutrition, and heavy labor. All were eventually dissolved, and the Jews murdered.
Goebbels, Paul Joseph (1897-1945): Reich Propaganda Director of the NSDAP and Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
Goering, Hermann (1893-1945): Leading Nazi promoted to Reichsmarshal in 1940.
Great Depression: A deep, worldwide, economic contraction beginning in 1929 which caused particular hardship in Germany which was already reeling from huge reparation payments following World War I and hyperinflation.
Guerrilla warfare: Fighting in which small independent bands of soldiers harass an enemy through surprise raids, attacks on communications and the like.
Gypsies: A collective term for Romani and Sinti. A nomadic people believed to have come originally from northwest India. They became divided into five main groups still extant today. By the sixteenth century, they had spread to every country of Europe. Alternately welcomed and persecuted since the fifteenth century, they were considered enemies of the state by the Nazis and persecuted relentlessly. Approximately 500,000 Gypsies are believed to have perished in the gas chambers.
Hate Crime: A crime of violence, property damage or threat that is motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias based on the target’s real or perceived race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender, disability, or sexual orientation.
Hess, Rudolf :1894-1987) was the mentally unstable number three man in Hitler's Germany. He is best known for a surprise flight to Scotland in 1941. He was sentenced to life in prison at Nuremberg. He died in jail in 1987.
Heydrich, Reinhard: (1894-1987) was the mentally unstable number three man in Hitler's Germany. He is best known for a surprise flight to Scotland in 1941. He was sentenced to life in prison at Nuremberg. He died in jail in 1987.
Himmler, Heinrich (1900-1945): As head of the SS and the secret police, Himmler had control over the vast network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps, the Einsatzgruppen, and the Gestapo. Himmler committed suicide in 1945, after his arrest.
Von Hindenburg, Paul: General Field Marshal who became a German national hero during World War I and was Reich president from 1925 to 1934.
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945): Nazi party leader, 1919-1945. German Chancellor, 1933-1945. Called Führer, or supreme leader, by the Nazis.
Hitler Youth Hitler Jugend: was a Nazi youth auxiliary group established in 1926. It expanded during the Third Reich. Membership was compulsory after 1939.
Holocaust: Derived from the Greek holokauston which meant a sacrifice totally burned by fire. Today, the term refers to the systematic planned extermination of about six million European Jews and millions of others by the Nazis between 1933-1945.
Homophobia: Fear of homosexuals.
Human Rights: (law) any basic right or freedom to which all human beings are entitled and in whose exercise a government may not interfere (including rights to life and liberty as well as freedom of thought and expression and equlity before the law.)
Hutu: a member of a Banti people living in Rwanda and Burundi
International Military Tribunal: The United States, Great Britain, France, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics charted this court to prosecute Nazi war criminals.
Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious sect that originated in the United States and had about 2, 000 members in Germany in 1933. Their religious beliefs did not allow them to swear allegiance to any worldly power making them enemies of the Nazi state.
Judenrat: Council of Jewish "elders" established on Nazi orders in an occupied area.
Judaism: The monotheistic religion of the Jews, based on the precepts of the Old Testament and the teachings and commentaries of the Rabbis as found chiefly in the Talmud.
Kapo: A concentration camp inmate appointed by the SS to be in charge of a work gang.
Khmer Rouge: a communist organization formed in Cambodia in 1970; became a terrorist organization in 1975 when it captured Phnom Penh and created a government that killed an estimated three million people; was defeated by Vietnamese troops but remained active until 1999
Kippah: he skull cap worn by Jewish men. A Kippah is worn to symbolize that man exists only from his Kippah down; God exists above the Kippah.
Korczak, Dr. Janusz (1878-1942): Educator, author, physician, and director of a Jewish orphanage in Warsaw. Despite the possibility of personal freedom, he refused to abandon his orphans and went with them to the gas chamber in Treblinka.
Kristallnacht: Also known as The Night of the Broken Glass. On this night, November 9, 1938, almost 200 synagogues were destroyed, over 8,000 Jewish shops were sacked and looted, and tens of thousands of Jews were removed to concentration camps. This pogrom received its name because of the great value of glass that was smashed during this anti-Jewish riot. Riots took place throughout Germany and Austria on that night.
League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel): Female counterpart of the Hitler Youth formed in 1927 but not formerly integrated by Hitler until 1932.
Lebensraum: Meaning "living space," it was a basic principle of Nazi foreign policy. Hitler believed that eastern Europe had to be conquered to create a vast German empire for more physical space, a greater population, and new territory to supply food and raw materials.
Madagascar Plan: A Nazi policy that was seriously considered during the late 1930s and 1940s which would have sent Jews to Madagascar, an island off the southeast coast of Africa. At that time Madagascar was a French colony. Ultimately, it was considered impractical and the plan was abandoned.
Majdanek: Nazi camp and killing center opened for men and women near Lublin in eastern Poland in late 1941. At first a labor camp for Poles and a POW camp for Russians, it was classified as a concentration camp in April 1943. Like Auschwitz, it was also a major killing center. Majdonek was liberated by the Red Army in July 1944, and a memorial was opened there in November of that year.
Marranos: Jews who professed to accept Christianity in order to escape persecution during the Spanish Inquisition. Marrano comes from the Spanish word "swine."
Mass murder: the savage and excessive killing of many people.
Mein Kampf: Meaning "My Struggle," it was the ideological base for the Nazi Party's racist beliefs and murderous practices. Published in 1925, this work detailed Hitler's radical ideas of German nationalism, antisemitism, anti-Bolshevism, and Social Darwinism which advocated survival of the fittest.
Mengele, Joseph (1911-1979): Senior SS physician at Auschwitz-Birkenau from 1943-44. One of the physicians who carried out the "selections" of prisoners upon arrival at camp. He also carried out cruel experiments on prisoners.
Mitzvah: Hebrew word meaning "a good deed."
Muselmann: German term meaning "Muslim," widely used by concentration camp prisoners to refer to inmates who were on the verge of death from starvation, exhaustion, and despair. A person who had reached the Muselmann stage had little, if any, chance for survival and usually died within weeks. The origin of the term is unclear.
Napolas: Elite schools for training the future government and military leadership of the Nazi state.
Nationalism: A movement, as in the arts, based on the folk idioms, history, aspirations, etc., of a nation.
National Socialist Women's Association: The NS Frauenschaft was an organization intended to recruit an elite group of women for the Nazis.
National Socialist Teachers' Association: Established in 1929, it assumed responsibility for the ideological indoctrination of teachers.
The Nazi (National Socialist German Workers') Party: The Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP was founded in Germany on January 5, 1919. It was characterized by a centralist and authoritarian structure. Its platform was based on militaristic, racial, antisemitic and nationalistic policies. Nazi Party membership and political power grew dramatically in the 1930s, partly based on political propaganda, mass rallies and demonstrations.
Neuengamme: Concentration camp located just southeast of Hamburg opened in 1940.
Night of the Long Knives: On June 30, 1934, Hitler murderously purged the ranks of the SA.
Nuremberg Trials: Trials of twenty-two major Nazi figures in Nuremberg, Germany in 1945 and 1946 before the International Military Tribunal.
Nuremberg Laws: The Nuremberg Laws were announced by Hitler at the Nuremberg Party conference, defining "Jew" and systematizing and regulating discrimination and persecution. The "Reich Citizenship Law" deprived all Jews of their civil rights, and the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor" made marriages and extra-marital sexual relationships between Jews and Germans punishable by imprisonment.
Operation Barbarossa: The code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union which began on June 22, 1941.
Operation Reinhard (or Aktion Reinhard): The code name for the plan to destroy the millions of Jews in the General Government, within the framework of the Final Solution. It began in October, 1941, with the deportation of Jews from ghettos to extermination camps. The three extermination camps established under Operation Reinhard were Belzec, Sobibór, and Treblinka.
Pale of Settlement: The area in the western part of the Russian Empire in which Russian Jews were allowed to live from 1835-1917.
Partisans: Irregular forces which use guerrilla tactics when operating in enemy-occupied territory. During the Holocaust, partisans operated secretly in their efforts to assist Jews and others persecuted by the Nazis.
Passover: The Jewish holiday that commemorates the Jew's liberation from slavery in Egypt. The holiday, which lasts for eight days, requires all Jews to place themselves spiritually in the shoes of their ancestors and remember the era of bondage in order to never allow such oppression to happen again.
Perpetrators: Those who do something that is morally wrong or criminal.
Phnon Penh: the capital and largest city of Kampuchea (Cambodia)
Plaszow: Concentration camp near Kracow, Poland opened in 1942.
Pogrom: An organized and often officially encouraged massacre of or attack on Jews. The word is derived from two Russian words that mean "thunder."
Porrajmos: A Romani term referring to the Holocaust that means, "the devouring."
Prejudice: A judgment or opinion formed before the facts are known. In most cases, these opinions are founded on suspicion, intolerance, and the irrational hatred of other races, religions, creeds, or nationalities.
Propaganda: False or partly false information used by a government or political party intended to sway the opinions of the population.
Protectorate: Any state or territory protected and partially controlled by a stronger one.
Rabbi: Leader of a Jewish congregation, similar to the role of a priest or minister.
Racism: A set of beliefs based on perceived racial superiority and inferiority. A system of domination that is played out in everyday interactions, and the unequal distribution of privilege, resources, and power.
Ravensbrück: Concentration camp opened for women in 1939.
Reich: German word for empire.
Reichskammern: Reich government departments.
Reichstag: The German Parliament. On February 27, 1933, a staged fire burned the Reichstag building. A month later, on March 23, 1933, the Reichstag approved the Enabling Act which gave Hitler unlimited dictatorial power.
Resettlement: German euphemism for the deportation of prisoners to killing centers in Poland.
Revisionists: Those who deny that the Holocaust ever happened.
Riefenstahl, Leni (b. 1902): Nazi film director chosen personally by Hitler to make propaganda films for the Nazi regime, which include The Triumph of the Will (1935), Olympia (1938), and Reichsparteitag (1935).
Righteous Gentiles: Non-Jewish people who, during the Holocaust, risked their lives to save Jewish people from Nazi persecution. Today, a field of trees planted in their honor at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Israel, commemorates their courage and compassion.
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano: Thirty-second president of the U.S., serving from 1933-1945.
Rwanda: a landlocked republic in central Africa
Rwandan: of or pertaining to Rwanda
SA (Sturmabteilung or Storm Troopers) Also known as "Brown Shirts," they were the Nazi party's main instrument for undermining democracy and facilitating Adolf Hitler's rise to power. The SA was the predominant terrorizing arm of the Nazi party from 1923 until "The Night of the Long Knives" in 1934. They continued to exist throughout the Third Reich, but were of lesser political significance after 1934.
Sachsenhausen: Concentration camp outside of Berlin opened in 1936.
Scapegoat: Person or group of people blamed for crimes committed by others.
SD (Sicherheitsdienst or Security Service) The SS security and intelligence service established in 1931 under Reinhard Heydrich.
Security Council: a permanent council of the United Nations; responsible for preseving world peace
Security Forces: a privalty employed group hired to protect the security of a business or industry.
Hannah Sennesh: A Palestinian Jew of Hungarian descent who fought as a partisan against the Nazis. She was captured at the close of the war and assassinated in Budapest by the Nazis.
Shoah: The Hebrew word meaning "catastrophe," denoting the catastrophic destruction of European Jewry during World War II. The term is used in Israel, and the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) has designated an official day, called Yom ha-Shoah, as a day of commemorating the Shoah or Holocaust.
Shtetl: A small Jewish town or village in eastern Europe.
Shull: Yiddish word for synagogue, or Jewish house of prayer.
Siddur: The Hebrew name for the Jewish prayerbook.
Sobibór: Extermination camp located in the Lublin district of eastern Poland. Sobibór opened in May 1942 and closed the day after a rebellion by its Jewish prisoners on October 14, 1943. At least 250,000 Jews were killed there.
Social Darwinism: A concept based on the idea of "survival of the fittest." Based on Social Darwinism, Nazis created a pseudo-scientific brand of racism which was most virulent when directed against the Jews, but others, particularly Slavs, were not exempt.
Socialism: A theory or system of social organization that advocates the ownership and control of land, capital, industry, etc. by the community as a whole. In Marxist theory it represents the stage following capitalism in a state transforming to communism.
Sonderkommando (Special Squad): SS or Einsatzgruppe detachment. The term also refers to the Jewish slave labor units in extermination camps that removed the bodies of those gassed for cremation or burial.
SS (Schutzstaffel or Protection Squad) : Guard detachments originally formed in 1925 as Hitler's personal guard. From 1929, under Himmler, the SS developed into the most powerful affiliated organization of the Nazi party. In mid-1934, they established control of the police and security systems, forming the basis of the Nazi police state and the major instrument of racial terror in the concentration camps and occupied Europe.
Stalin, Joseph: Secretary General of the Communist party 1922-1953 and Premier of the USSR from 1941-1953 during the Second World War. Life under Stalin's brutally oppressive regime was hard and often dangerous.
Star of David: A six-pointed star which is a symbol of Judaism. During the Holocaust, Jews throughout Europe were required to wear Stars of David on their sleeves or fronts and backs of their shirts and jackets.
Stereotype: Biased generalizations about a group based on hearsay, opinions, and distorted, preconceived ideas.
Streicher, Julius: Hitler's friend and founder of the antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer.
Stroop, Jurgen: (1895-1951) was the SS major general responsible for the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto in 1943. Later that year, as Higher SS and Police Leader in Greece, he supervised the deportation of thousands of Jews from Salonika. He was sentenced to death and executed in Poland in1951.
Der Stürmer: Antisemitic newspaper founded by Hitler's friend, Julius Streicher, which reached a peak circulation of 500,000 in 1927.
Stutthof: Concentration camp founded in 1939 in what is now northern Poland.
Sudan: a republic in northesastern Africa on the Red Sea; achieved independence from Egypt and the United Kingdom in 1956.
Sudanese: of or relating to or characherteric of the African Republic of the Sudan or its people.
Sudetenland: Formerly Austrian German-speaking territories in Bohemia which were incorporated into Czechoslovakia after World War I.
Swastika: An ancient symbol appropriated by the Nazis as their emblem.
Synagogue: Jewish house of worship, similar to a church.
Tallis: Jewish prayer shawl with fringes on four sides. These fringes represent the four corners of the world and symbolize God's omnipresence.
Theresienstadt (Terezín): Nazi ghetto located in Czechoslovakia. Created in late 1941 as a "model Jewish settlement" to deceive the outside world, including International Red Cross investigators, as to the treatment of the Jews. However, conditions in Terezín were difficult, and most Jews held there were later killed in death camps. Theresienstadt is the German name for the town; Terezín is the Czech name.
Third Reich: Meaning "third regime or empire," the Nazi designation of Germany and its regime from 1933-45. Historically, the First Reich was the medieval Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. The Second Reich included the German Empire from 1871-1918.
Tolerance: A fair and objective attitude towards those whose opinions and practices differ from one’s own. The commitment to respect human dignity.
Torah: A scroll containing the five books of Moses.
Treaty of Versailles: Germany and the Allies signed a peace treaty at the end of World War I. The United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy negotiated the treaty at the Peace Conference held in Versaille beginning on January 18, 1919. The German Republic government which replaced the imperial administration was excluded from the deliberations. The treaty created the Covenant of the League of Nations, outlined Germany's disarmament, exacted massive reparation payments from Germany, and forced Germany to cede large tracts of territory to various European nation- states.
Treblinka: Extermination camp on the Bug River in the General Government. Opened in July 1942, it was the largest of the three Operation Reinhard killing centers. Between 700,000 and 900,000 persons were killed there. A revolt by the inmates on August 2, 1943, destroyed most of the camp, and it was closed in November 1943.
Umschlagplatz: Place in Warsaw where freight trains were loaded and unloaded. During the deportation from the Warsaw ghetto, it was used as an assembly point where Jews were loaded onto cattle cars to be taken to Treblinka. It literally means "transfer point."
Underground: Organized group acting in secrecy to oppose government, or, during war, to resist occupying enemy forces.
United Nations: an organization of independent states formed in 1945 to promote international peace and security.
Volk: The concept of Volk (people, nation, or race) has been an underlying idea in German history since the early nineteenth century. Inherent in the name was a feeling of superiority of German culture and the idea of a universal mission for the German people.
Vught: Concentration and transit camp in the Netherlands opened in January 1943.
Waffen-SS: Militarized units of the SS.
Raoul Wallenberg: A Swedish diplomat who deliberately stationed himself in Hungary during the war to save Hungarian Jews from their deaths.
Wannsee Conference: On January 20, 1942 on a lake near Berlin the SS official, Reinhard Heydrich, helped present and coordinate the Final Solution.
War Crime: a crime committed in wartime; violation of rules of war
War Criminal: an offender who violates international law during times of war.
Warsaw ghetto: Established in November 1940, it was surrounded by wall and contained nearly 500,000 Jews. About 45,000 Jews died there in 1941 alone, as a result of overcrowding, hard labor, lack of sanitation, insufficient food, starvation, and disease. During 1942, most of the ghetto residents were deported to Treblinka, leaving about 60,000 Jews in the ghetto. A revolt took place in April 1943 when the Germans, commanded by General Jürgen Stroop, attempted to raze the ghetto and deport the remaining inhabitants to Treblinka. The defense forces, commanded by Mordecai Anielewicz, included all Jewish political parties. The bitter fighting lasted twenty-eight days and ended with the destruction of the ghetto.
Wehrmacht: The combined armed forces of Germany from 1935-1945.
Weimar Republic: The German republic, and experiment in democracy (1919-1933), was established after the end of World War I.
Westerbork: Transit camp in the Netherlands
Yiddish: A language that combines elements of German and Hebrew.
Zionism: Political and cultural movement calling for the return of the Jewish people to their Biblical home.
Zyklon B: (Hydrogen cyanide) Pesticide used in some of the gas chambers at the death camps
Resource List
A Teachers Guide to the Holocaust: http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/resource.htm
Echoes and Reflections: http://echoesandreflections.org/
Facing History and Ourselves: https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/resource-collections/holocaust-resource-collection
Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation: http://www.jewishpartisans.org/
NJ Holocaust Curriculum: http://www.state.nj.us/education/holocaust/curriculum/
The Holocaust a Guide for Teachers: http://www.remember.org/guide/index.html#Facts
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: http://www.ushmm.org/
Yad Vashem: http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/resource_center/index.asp