VOLUME II A Curriculum Guide for Grades 9–12 New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education 2003 Nathan Rapoport, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising THE HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE: THE BETRAYAL OF HUMANITY A Curriculum Guide for Grades 9–12 New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education 2003 TABLE OF CONTENTSiI - TABLE volume TABLE OF CONTENTS UNIT V: RESISTANCE, INTERVENTION AND RESCUE . 583 I Introduction. 585 I Unit Goal, Performance Objectives, Teaching/Learning Strategies and Activities, and Instructional Materials/Resources . 587 I Readings Included in This Unit (list). 628 I Quotation from the Diary of Hannah Senesh. 631 I Reprints of Readings . 632 UNIT VI: GENOCIDE . 729 I Introduction. 731 I Unit Goal, Performance Objectives, Teaching/Learning Strategies and Activities, and Instructional Materials/Resources . 733 I Readings Included in This Unit (list). 756 I Reprints of Readings . 758 UNIT VII: ISSUES OF CONSCIENCE AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY . 837 I Introduction. 839 I Unit Goal, Performance Objectives, Teaching/Learning Strategies and Activities, and Instructional Materials/Resources . 842 I Readings Included in This Unit (list). 887 I Reprints of Readings . 890 APPENDICES. 1015 A New Jersey Legislation Mandating Holocaust Education. 1015 B Holocaust Memorial Address by Governor James E. McGreevey . 1016 C Holocaust Timeline . 1017 D Glossary . 1020 E Holocaust Statistics . 1027 F (Part I) The Holocaust: A Web Site Directory . 1029 F (Part II) Internet Sites . 1049 G New Jersey Holocaust Resource Centers and Demonstration Sites . 1061 H Resource Organizations, Museums and Memorials . 1065 I Oral History Interview Guidelines (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum). 1068 J Child Survivor: Suggested Interview Questions . 1090 K List of Vendors . 1098 UNIT V RESISTANCE, INTERVENTION AND RESCUE “MORDECAI ANIELEWICZ” Unit V UNIT V: RESISTANCE, INTERVENTION AND RESCUE uring the Holocaust, thousands of individuals risked their lives to protect, hide or Drescue Jews from Nazi terror. In this unit, students will explore the various forms of resistance, intervention and rescue that occurred during the Holocaust. After students define resistance, they will examine the major obstacles involved in resisting the Nazis and the various forms of Jewish and non-Jewish resistance that occurred during the Holocaust, including passive and active, armed and unarmed resistance. They will examine reasons why some exhibited ethical behavior while so many chose to be silent bystanders or to actively collaborate with the enemy. Some of the key questions that will frame the activities of this unit include: Why did some people rise above the angry crowd? Why did so many Danes, Bulgarians and Italians choose a different course from their counterparts in other countries to save Jews? Why did so many refuse to become involved? Explanations vary, but surely a national tradition of acceptance and/or tolerance set the stage in Denmark, Bulgaria and Italy for rescue. It was such a tradition in Denmark, exemplified by King 585 Christian X’s public support for Jews and denunciation of Nazi terror, that prepared the way for many Danes in October of 1943 to spirit more than 7,000 Jews to safety in neutral Sweden. There are other examples of rescue. Some 5,000 villagers living in the French area of Le Chambon Sur-Lignon hid an equal number of Jews from ubiquitous detection by the pro-Nazi Vichy government. Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish official in Budapest, took extraordinary advantage of his position to issue passports to thousands of Hungarian Jews under siege. The German Oskar Schindler saved Polish Jews by employing them in a factory. Sempo Sugihara, a Japanese Consul in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania, issued 6,000 visas to Jews. Consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese Catholic lawyer, issued some 10,000 visas to fugitive Jews in Bordeaux, France in defiance of his government. Facing reprisals for insubordination, both Sugihara and de Sousa Mendes consulted a higher authority in making their decisions –their consciences. Defying the Nazis, however, was rare. One important example was the White Rose movement, a network of German university students led by Hans and Sophie Scholl, that publicly demonstrated against Nazi dictatorship and its aggressive, criminal policies. For their part, Jews exhibited remarkable resistance to the relentless Nazi assault. Hannah Senesh took considerable risks to contact the Hungarian underground for help. She decided that it was more important to return to Hungary, her homeland, than to continue living in RESISTANCE, INTERVENTION AND RESCUE the relative security of Palestine. A record of her experience survives in the diary she kept at the time and in her poetry. Students will examine parts of both in their study. Many Jews who were able to escape joined groups of partisans in the forests of Eastern Europe, such as the Bielski Brigade, and in the Soviet Union, to save Jews, find weapons and sabotage Nazi maneuvers. In the ghettos, even as the Jews were being murdered in 1942-43, underground leaders organized revolts against all odds. Among the most noteworthy were Mordecai Anielewicz in Warsaw, and Abba Kovner in Vilna. Numerous other examples will be presented. Jews forged passports and smuggled food. As slave laborers, they sewed German military uniform pockets shut or reversed the firing pins in guns. They organized impossible uprisings in the death camps, too, if only to defeat resignation and despair. Some examples include uprisings at Sobibor, Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau. All acts of resistance, however, were not military. Religious practices, even the prosaic rituals of everyday existence, served to thwart Nazi genocide intentions. Simple activities, such as making menorahs, studying Torah, printing newspapers or listening to radio broadcasts acquired major spiritual purposes under extremely forbidding conditions. These and countless other acts of Jewish and non-Jewish resistance must, however, be kept in perspective. Although hundreds of thousands of Jews and others the Nazis considered “undesirables” survived, millions perished. Nevertheless, those acts are instructive: even in the grip of deadly Nazi domination, it was possible to save a life and, in so doing, preserve 586 the preeminent value of life over death itself. As the Talmud teaches, a person who destroys a life destroys a universe, but a person who saves a life saves a universe. The goal of this unit is to help students develop an understanding of the various forms of resistance, intervention and rescue that occurred during the Holocaust. Students will (1) define resistance; (2) examine the major obstacles to defying and resisting Nazi authority; (3) analyze various forms of spiritual and religious resistance; (4) identify and analyze the various forms of Jewish and non-Jewish unarmed resistance; (5) analyze Jewish armed resistance; (6) demonstrate insight into the reasons why non-Jewish rescuers risked their lives to save Jews; and(7) investigate countries that responded to the plight of the Holocaust victims and offered refuge. At the conclusion of this unit, students will be asked to (8) reassess their previous generalizations about human nature in light of their newly acquired knowledge of resistance, intervention and rescue. New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education Unit V UNIT V: RESISTANCE, INTERVENTION AND RESCUE UNIT GOAL: Students will understand the various forms of resistance, intervention and rescue that occured during the Holocaust. PERFORMANCE TEACHING/LEARNING INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES MATERIALS/RESOURCES Note: the notation (READING #) in this column indicates that a copy of the article is included in this curriculum guide. 1. Students will A. Develop a definition of A. Resources for Sections A define resistance. resistance. and B: 1. Consult one or more of the 1a. Gutman, Israel, ed-in-chief. resources listed to the right and Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. develop a written definition of New York: Macmillan Library the word resistance. Share your Reference USA, 1995. 1265. definition with a small group. Then develop a group definition 1b. Eliach, Yaffa. Hassidic Tales of of the term and share it with the the Holocaust. New York: Avon class. After the class discusses the Books, 1982. various definitions, come to 587 agreement on a class definition of 1c. Zucker, Simon and Gertrude the term. Hirschler, Ed./Trans. The Unconquerable Spirit: Vignettes 2. Examine the popular myth that of Religious Spirit the Nazis emerged from the Holocaust: that Could Not Destroy. New York: Jews were led “like sheep to the Zachor Institute and Mesorah slaughter” without resisting the Publications, 1980. Nazis. Read and discuss the questions at the conclusion of the 1d. Werner, Harold. Fighting Back: A article To Die With Dignity. Memoir of Jewish Resistance in Then, read the excerpt from World War II. Columbia Gerda Klein’s All But My Life. University Press, 1992. What do these articles imply about resistance? 1e. Hogan, David J., ed-in-chief. “Jewish Resistance.” The Holocaust Chronicle: A History in Words and Pictures. Lincolnwood, Ill., Publications International Ltd., 2000. 492-496. 1f. Historical Atlas of the Holocaust. CD-ROM. Washington, RESISTANCE, INTERVENTION AND RESCUE PERFORMANCE TEACHING/LEARNING INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES MATERIALS/RESOURCES B. After consulting one or more D.C., U.S. Holocaust Memorial of the resources to the right Museum. Note: This reference (1a-1f and 2a-2b), distinguish may be used as a