<p> EXPERIENCING Concentration Camps WebQuest “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work makes one free)</p><p>Created for a World History Class </p><p>By Laura Norris Graduate Studies L595 Created June, 2003</p><p>I. BACKGROUND Q: Where do children with attention problems go for the summer? A: To a concentration camp?! Actually, no, a concentration camp is more of a political jail than a fun “camp.” There’s nothing funny about a concentration camp. According to Merriam Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, a concentration camp is, “a camp where persons (as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or foreign nationals) are detained or confined and sometimes subjected to physical and mental abuse and indignity.”</p><p>The most infamous of these concentration camps were established during World War II by Nazi Germany. During WWII, the Nazis created concentration camps for those individuals and whole groups of people whom they felt were either inferior to the white, Aryan race, or whom were perceived threats to Nazi power: Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, Poles, and Soviet Prisoners of War. Prisoners were persecuted, tortured and killed at an alarming rate. They were burned in incinerators, gassed to death in “showers,” converted into deadly gas chambers, starved, beaten, and experimented upon medically. [See http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/holocamp.html for more information and details]. Today, thousands of tourists flock to these former killing grounds to pay homage to the victims of these unimaginable atrocities of WWII.</p><p>II. Task Pack your bags, get your cameras ready, and let’s roll! We’ve all been given an exclusive opportunity to take a behind-the-scenes look at Nazi concentration camps. Our task is to discover first hand what a concentration camp was like. During the course of our tour, you will record your thoughts in a blog, or a web log, on the Internet. Please realize that what you are about to see, hear, and read might disturb you, might shock you, and might change you. The often graphic nature of this material is nothing more than the horrifying truth of WWII revealed to you in a way that you will hopefully never forget.</p><p>Please read the process carefully! This web quest will be your tour guide.</p><p>Swastika image taken from www.biblehelp.org/why.htm III. Process</p><p>A. Create your own web log, or “blog,” of your experience on this tour. Use this blog as if it were a journal. Record your thoughts, reactions, and questions. You will also post your assignments on this blog. Visit this site for an example of what your blog might look like http://lauranorris.blogspot.com/. 1. Go to “Blogger” http://www.blogger.com/. 2. Sign up for a blogging account. Enter your username and password. Click Signup. 3. Enter your first and last name and your email address. Select “Agree to terms and conditions.” Click “Enter.” 4. On the right hand side, click on “Create A New Blog” 5. Enter your username and password again. 6. Continue 7. Enter the title and description of your blog. It should have something to do with the project at hand. 8. Make your blog public. 9. Choose to host your blog at blogspot.com 10. Create your own address. I prefer that you use your first and last name like the example given below. EX: HTTP://[email protected] 11. Choose a template for your blog, one that looks appealing to you. 12. Read and follow the quik-start instructions. 13. You are now ready to begin your own personal blog! (This type of blog will work without using HTML, but we will learn some basic HTML in class to complete a couple of assignments.) 13. I will be publishing a list of all your blog addresses, if you wish to be included on the list, and you may share your thoughts by reading one another’s blogs. </p><p>B. Explore the resources listed in section IV. Be sure to read the captions that accompany the pictures to get a better idea of what went on in these camps.</p><p>C. Complete the following blogs using what you have just seen, read, and heard. 1. Please include at least one picture in your blog. a. Choose a picture from the resources listed in section IV that particularly affects you, and write a haiku about it. Remember how to write a haiku. Go to http://www.preneo.com/nwylde/haikU/writehaiku.html to practice. b. The haiku should create imagery, either visual or sensory, that conveys feelings or senses that the photograph evokes in you. c. Below your haiku, please describe the picture about which you wrote the haiku. Explain why you chose the words you did and what you hoped to accomplish by using them. ***We will cover how to write simple HTML for haiku format and other simple blogging techniques etc. during class time. 2. Write a blog explaining what is ironic about the way the concentration camp you viewed Background pictures courtesy of http://www.ushmm.org/ looks today. How is it different/similar to what you expected? (You may look at the sub-title of this web quest for an example of irony. This quote is taken from the entrance to Auschwitz, one of the original work camps.)</p><p>3. Discuss/respond to a poem of your choice from Poem Finder, making sure to give the name and author of the poem. Use the following questions to help you develop your personal response: How does the poem relate to people today? What feelings or pictures does this poem create in your mind? Why? What is the poem’s central message, or theme? Do you agree with what the poem means? Why/why not? 4. Create a questionnaire of at least seven questions you’d like to ask a Nazi, or perhaps one of the survivors listed on the Audio resource. Please ask higher level thinking questions such as “How…?” and “Why…?”and “Explain…” that aren’t answered in your virtual tour. Hopefully they are questions you are truly curious about. Do not ask yes/no questions. EX: You might ask a Jew the question that has always nagged me: Why didn’t you lie about being a Jew to save your life? 5. Reflect on whether or not you believe such a thing as Nazi concentration/extermination camps could happen again. It is said, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Is it possible that something similar to this atrocity could happen again? Why or why not? What do you think made it possible for this to happen at all? How can we prevent this from happening again? Use a logic in your response, and support it with details and examples. </p><p>IV. Resources</p><p>A. Photographs 1. Photographs from Belsen Concentration Camp: Victims, Perpetrators, Liberators http://www.holocaust-history.org/~dkeren/camps/belsen/ This site contains very graphic photographs in the Belsen Concentration Camp. Please do not go here if you have a weak stomach. Nevertheless, these photographs also give a frighteningly accurate picture of the purpose of concentration/work camps and death camps. I prefer that you spend the majority of your time here, as opposed to the other two photograph sites listed below.</p><p>2. Simon Wiesenthal Center Photo Album http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/albums/palbum/p00/a0048p2.html Contains many, many pictures, but the pictures are small and sometimes difficult to see details. However, this is probably the best site if you have a weak stomach for the horrors of concentration camps, simply because of that very fact that the pictures are small. 3. Holocaust Photographs http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/phototoc.html This site containsSwastika hundreds image of taken photographs, from www.biblehelp.org/why.htm though is more time-consuming to view, simply because each photo must be viewed individually. Don’t spend too much time here, as we are on a time schedule.</p><p>4. Concentration Camps http://remember.org/camps/index.html Tour one of the camps listed at the web site below, beginning anywhere on the map, and ending when you have come full-circle through all of the stops in the tour. </p><p>B. Video Nordhausen: Liberation http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/camps/nordhausen/Nordhausen.html Watch and listen to the RealPlayer video footage and narration of the liberation of a German concentration camp. </p><p>C. Audio Excerpts from Testimonies http://www.library.yale.edu/testimonies/excerpts/index.htm Contains excerpts from Testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust. Choose to listen to the audio (NOT video) version of two testimonies of your choice. As some testimonies are difficult to understand, please read the written form of the testimony BEFORE you listen to it. D. Written Poem Finder Go to http://lore.inspire.net/. Choose to search Lit Finder, then choose Poem Finder. Search for a poem relating to concentration camps.Read several poems. Choose your favorite to write about for blog 3. a. Only choose the poems that have a yellow T next to them, as they are full-text. b. Key words or phrases you might search for are the following:“concentration camp”, “Nazi and death,” “Auschwitz,” “Holocaust,” “Jews,” or “Hitler.” c. You might also look under the subject heading of “History,” underneath “Historical Events and General History,” or “Military and Wars.” </p><p>V. Concluding Thought Your last blog will be your final thoughts about the Nazi concentration camps and what the Jews and other prisoners endured. You may free write about your experience on this tour for this blog. Please also include feedback on the blogging aspect of this journey. Was it helpful to experience the emotional side of the concentration camps more fully? How will having blogged make this a more memorable experience for you? I will be checking for living brainwaves on this one, so do be sure to put some thought into it.</p><p>I truly do hope that this web quest left a lasting impression upon you. Share your blogs with others by sharing the address of your blog. I hope this web quest makes you more aware of the </p><p>Swastika image taken from www.biblehelp.org/why.htm world around you so that you do not allow another generation to experience such horrors as the horrors of Nazi Concentration Camps of World War II. VI. Evaluation</p><p>Elements 0 1 2 3 4 5 Blog 1 Blog 2 Blog 3 Blog 4 Blog 5 Blog 6</p><p>0=not attempted, no credit 1=attempted, but with no effort, no thought 2=attempted with little effort, no in-depth thought, missing a great amount of detail 3=attempted with reasonable effort and thought, missing some detail 4=good effort and good thoughts, answered thoroughly 5=well thought-out answers, well-written, and good depth of thought</p><p>Accuracy of Completing Instructions=_____ 12 (2 points per blog) Total Possible=42points Teacher’s Page</p><p>Time Frame: 3-4 class days, depending on the ability of students</p><p>This web quest is made for World History students, most likely 10th grade students. Primarily, this web quest is to make history come alive to students, to let them see and hear first-hand accounts of the atrocities of the Nazis during WWII. I’ve incorporated various writing forms (poetry, exposition, list) with these activities because I believe that writing about ones thoughts and experiences in various forms is not only fun because it allows for creativity, but it also makes a person experience and remember an activity more intimately. Various English terms have been included (irony, imagery, haiku) simply to incorporate teaching across the curriculum, helping students see how English is important to the understanding of all subjects. </p><p>I. Standards Met</p><p>Social Studies : World History and Civilization : Standard 10 WH.10.3 …Describe acts of oppression, including extermination by the Nazis…against particular inhabitants within [its] countries…during the 1930’s by…Nazi Germany.</p><p>Language Arts Grade 10 10.5.4 Write persuasive compositions that  Use specific rhetorical devices to support assertions, such as appealing to logic through reasoning; appealing to emotion or ethical belief; or relating a personal anecdote, case study, or analogy.  Clarify and defend positions with precise and relevant evidence, including facts, opinions, quotations, expressions of commonly accepted beliefs, and logical reasoning.</p><p>Art: Responding to Art: Criticism H.3.2 PROFICIENT: Construct well-supported interpretations of works of art using problem solving and critical inquiry (reflecting on various interpretations, evidence presented in the work, and its cultural context).</p>