LESSON: Overview of the Holocaust (4-Day Lesson)
| GRADE LEVEL: Recommended for grades 9–12
SUBJECT: Multidisciplinary TIME REQUIRED: Approximately 160–180 minutes (extensions available); modify as needed |
RATIONALE Teachers and students will understand key concepts about how and why the Holocaust happened. Students will analyze how and why the Nazis and their collaborators persecuted and murdered Jews as well as other people targeted in the era of the Holocaust. By providing a concise overview of the Holocaust and those involved, this lesson is intended to provoke reflection and discussion about the role of ordinary people and institutions between 1933 and 1945. |
OVERVIEW
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
- What was the Holocaust?
- How and why did the Holocaust happen?
EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES
At the end of this lesson, students will understand:
- Who the Nazis were and what they believed
- Why the Nazis and their collaborators systematically targeted Jewish people and others
- What actions the Nazis and their collaborators took to persecute and then murder the Jewish people of Europe
- The range of experiences of Jewish people in different times and places in Europe during the Holocaust
- How World War II changed what the Nazis were able to do during the Holocaust
- Who some of the Jewish men, women, and children were who were murdered in the Holocaust
TEACHER PREPARATION
- Recommended teacher reading for this lesson
- Holocaust Encyclopedia article “Introduction to the Holocaust”
- Holocaust Encyclopedia article “Antisemitis”
- Holocaust Encyclopedia article “Nazi Racism”
- Holocaust Encyclopedia article “Victims of the Nazi Era: Nazi Racial Ideology”
- Holocaust Encyclopedia article “How did Nazis and their collaborators implement the Holocaust?”
- Holocaust Encyclopedia article “How and why did ordinary people across Europe contribute to the persecution of their Jewish neighbors?”
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Overview of the Holocaust (4-Day Lesson) | 1 |
