Resistance During the Holocaust - White Rose Student Essay Contest Resource

There is no date on the booklet, and I cannot remember how long I have had it in my files. I came across this little gem again when I was looking through my file drawer of Holocaust material to see what I happened to have on the topic of “Jewish resistance” since that is this year’s White Rose Student Essay Contest topic. I had forgotten about this booklet tucked away in the middle of the drawer: Resistance during the Holocaust published by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

I sat down and re-read it...41 pages of text not including the table of contents, notes, chronology, or index. It begins with a discussion of the reasons why it was difficult for people to resist. Then it gives examples of unarmed and armed resistance in the ghettos and unarmed and armed resistance in Nazi camps. The next section tells about partisan activities in both eastern and western Europe. The final two sections deal with spiritual resistance and resistance inside Germany.

As I was re-reading I realized that this booklet was a primer for anyone who was planning to tackle the White Rose project this year – my students among them. Next problem: I personally owned five copies of the booklet, but that wasn’t enough to cover my class. Solution: the World-Wide Web. The booklet is available on the USHMM website at

http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/resource/pdf/resistance.pdf

I created the following questions and instructions for my students to guide them as they read:

1. What does the word resistance mean in the context of the Holocaust? (Although this question is listed first, you may actually answer it last.)
2. What are the differences between armed, unarmed, and spiritual resistance? (Do not answer until after reading page 37.)
3. What obstacles to resistance did Jews face? (Make sure you can explain each of these – don’t just name them.)
4. Describe examples of resistance – the places it happened, the various forms it took, the people who implemented it. You should have notes for each of the headings and subheadings in this largest portion of the book. (For your White Rose essay, you will be choosing one specific person or group of people to focus upon for your research project; this booklet may give you some ideas. Caution! The booklet discusses non-Jews who resisted the Nazis. You must choose a Jewish subject for your White Rose essay.)

I reserved two days in the computer lab for my students to read and take notes over the booklet. I knew that might not be enough for them to finish, but it was enough to give them a very good start. And then the snow fell... We lost both of our work days to school cancellation. That meant my students had to do all of the reading and note-taking on their own. (The best laid plans of mice and men...)

My students did a good job on the obstacles to resistance and understanding the difference between armed, unarmed, and spiritual resistance. However, the notes they produced about the examples of resistance were very general. They missed the point that the book was a gold mine of names, places, dates, and events – the sorts of information that could be used as key words for searches on web sites and in the indices of books. They didn’t read with that question in the back of their minds: “Does one of these examples of resistance sound interesting enough to me that I would like to research it further?” (Ah – 8^th graders have so much to learn!) Thus, my advice to you, my fellow teachers... Coach your students to search for the answers to the questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? about the individual examples of resistance that are mentioned in the booklet. Not all of the answers are in the book, but it is an excellent starting point.

Many of you who are working on White Rose have probably found this excellent resource on your own already. For those of you who haven’t, my goal with this blog entry was to introduce you to Resistance During the Holocaust and help you avoid some of the pitfalls I experienced using it with my students. I hope I’ve accomplished my goal!

Resources:

Resistance During the Holocaust

MCHE Resources for White Rose Student Essay Contest

Teaching the Holocaust in Catholic Schools

In May 2005, I had the good fortune to be selected to travel to Poland for the March of the Living. In honor of the 40^th anniversary of the Vatican II Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate, the organizers of the March invited Catholic school teachers. I was teaching in the Diocese of Kansas City and St. Joseph at the time. Word filtered down to my principal, and I immediately signed up. The experience truly was life changing, deepening my grasp of such a fundamental period in history. Returning to the classroom, the message became clear to me: it is imperative to teach the history of the Holocaust in Catholic schools.

The Church’s declaration in Nostra Aetate laid the groundwork for opening a productive dialogue between the Catholic faith and the Jewish faith. Most important in this document is the removal of the blood libel held for centuries, and spoke actively against anti-Semitism. The historic teachings of the Catholic faith created a wedge that displaced the Jewish faith, and created animosity. With the publication of Nostra Aetate, the Church redefined the relationship, opening a door to a common ground.

"The Martyrdom of Simon of Trent" Gandolfino d' Asti, late 15th century.
A famous blood libel allegation in Trento, Italy, in 1475.

In 1998, the Holy See published We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah. Pope John Paul II charged Catholic educators to help our students understand the implications of the Shoah, and the role of the Church in the events. The Pope called on Catholics to repent for sins of commission and for sins of omission for centuries of negative teachings about Judaism that helped allow the Shoah to take place. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops released guidelines for Catholic educators to teach the Holocaust.

Holocaust studies should be taught in Catholic schools, as the role of Catholicism and Judaism are historically intertwined. Pope John Paul II called on members of the Church to understand the consequences of the actions of men, and to not allow it to happen again. Catholic educators are in a position to carry out this mission. Whether in a Social Studies classroom, Language Arts classroom, or even religion classroom, the memory of the Shoah should not fade. Catholic social teachings demand that we care for those who do not have a voice of their own. Let us never again turn our back on another. The teachings of the Church are clear: We are called to witness the cruelty that silence begets. We must not hide from our mistakes as an institution, but learn from it, teach it to our young, and grow as a community.


Resources:

Nostra Aetate
We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah
Catholic Teaching on the Shoah: Implementing the Holy See's We Remember
National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education
The Holocaust: A Teaching Guide for Catholic Schools
Bearing Witness - Professional Development for Catholic Educators

Resources available in the MCHE Resource Center:
Sister Rose's Passion - DVD
The Longest Hatred - video
Guidelines For Teaching The Holocaust in Catholic Secondary Schools
Catholic Teaching on the Shoah: Implementing the Holy See's We Remember

Culminating Activity for Elie Wiesel's Night

A great way to incorporate research with teaching a Holocaust memoir is to have students research other humanitarians or organizations who are currently advocating for victims. I use this as a culminating activity after my unit on Night. The students watch the PBS documentary First Person Singular about Elie Wiesel and read his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in which he addresses the fact that neutrality helps the oppressor, never the oppressed.

PBS has a great unit (CLICK HERE FOR THE UNIT) that I have adapted to allow students to research and create a presentation in PhotoStory (free to download from Microsoft) that combines the use of research skills and technology. PhotoStory allows students to create a “movie” that shows still pictures and has the students narrate the sound and can also add background music. The website for the project is http://www.pbs.org/eliewiesel/teaching/index.html and it has even more details about the lesson which I have adapted to work within my requirements. Some of my adaptations include asking students to address what the organization/humanitarian has done to help human rights, taking a risk, and providing a brief history/biography in at least 10 “slides” with a typed narration that they read into the presentation.

Students have really liked this assignment because most of them are new to PhotoStory and they like learning new technologies. I also let them work with a partner, which they enjoy and they like having a product at the end, which I allow them to present to the class. While they sometimes cringe when they hear themselves presenting, they like having it already recorded rather than presenting “live.”

Another angle teachers could take would be to have students research genocides that have occurred since the Holocaust and create a PhotoStory presentation about the information they have learned, having student address similarities and differences between the genocides (I would recommend limiting this to two genocides, i.e. the Holocaust and Rwanda, or Rwanda and Darfur.)

CLICK HERE FOR LINKS TO MY TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS AND HANDOUTS FOR THIS UNIT!

Resources to supplement Night:

Memoirs: All Rivers Run to the Sea by Elie Wiesel

The Nazi's Last Victims: The Holocaust in Hungary by Richard Braham
The Last Days - DVD
First Person Singular - DVD
First Person Singular Teaching Guide

The Auschwitz Album

Virtual Tour of Auschwitz

Resources on the Holocaust in Hungary available in the MCHE Resource Center
Rebecca's Night Teaching Unit

Using one story to reach your students

A few years ago I had the privilege to travel to Poland and Israel with a group of teachers to study the Holocaust. I have a daughter in elementary school and she knew I was going to be gone and that I was going to study history but she never really asked any more than that. While I was in Israel I picked up a book titled I Wanted to Fly Like a Butterfly written by Naomi Morgenstern. It was child’s recollection of the Holocaust. A few months after I returned my daughter finally asked what I learned about while on my trip. How do you talk about a topic like this with young children? How do you educate them without giving them too much information?

I sat down with my daughter and read her the book I had picked up on my travels. We are not Jewish so I had to explain a few things as we read like synagogues and Yom Kippur, but she was curious about the life of this little girl not much younger than herself. My daughter listened to the story and then came all of the questions. Some I answered and some I didn’t.

This book is written at a level a young person can understand. We learn about Hannah and what her life was like in Poland before the war. We learn about Jews wearing the Star of David, being banished from schools, and living in hiding. While Hannah and her mother survive the war, there is a brief discussion of the loss of her father and other family members. This book is only 36 pages long and has lots of real life family photos and child-like illustrations.

What I loved about this book is its ability to be used at many grade levels. Younger students (grades 7-8) can focus on the individual and what she goes through. Younger students can also focus on the story of the family unit. Older students (grades 9-12) can focus on the Jewish community in the book and the impact the Holocaust had on them. High school students can even read this book and see how it fits into the larger framework of the Holocaust.

This book can easily be read aloud to a class in a standard class period. Depending on the grade level, however, some prior vocabulary work might be needed. Students could easily complete a sequence ladder or story frame while reading this book in order to visualize the steps that Hannah is going through. Older students could complete a history frame in order to understand Hannah’s experience in the grand scheme of the Holocaust. Hannah also includes her current address at the end of the book. She invites young people to write to her so she can hear their thoughts on the book or she will answer questions if students have them.

Click here for a lesson plan to go along with this book, chapter by chapter at the Yad Vashem website.

Humanize the perpetrators too

During the eleven years I taught a Holocaust unit to my 8^th grade language arts classes, I often discovered that I was a student myself. Preparing for various lessons, I would delve into research, videos, and literature, finding more information to pass on to my students. I often felt that the more background information students had on the Holocaust, the more they would appreciate our various readings. Soon, this developed into a research project, as well. During those early years, I would nod my head in agreement as the students talked about the "evil" perpetrators and the inhumanity of the German people.

It wasn’t until much later in my teaching career that I realized I needed to present the perpetrators and citizens of Germany in a different way. It almost seemed that the students were seeing Hitler and many of the high-ranking Nazis as evil characters synonymous with the type of villains seen in movies. It became apparent that perhaps the students needed to know that many of these men had families and lead very normal lives.

Images of Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Hedydrich with their children humanized these individuals, thus putting into perspective that even an ordinary man is capable of committing horrific acts. We would discuss how, in many cases, these were family men simply looking to advance their positions in their careers, as incomprehensible as that may seem.






















Left: Heinrich Himmler with daughter Gudrun
Right: Reinhard Heydrich with daughter Silke

Furthermore, students always seemed quick to condemn all Germans for their actions. Again, as time passed, I realized that the students needed to recognize that the majority of German people were not perpetrators, but rather bystanders…that it wasn’t so much the action of the German citizens, but rather the lack of action that should serve as the lesson. In addition, I felt that students needed to remember that while we are quick to judge Germany’s past, we have our own dark chapters in United States history that we to need to recognize (slavery, discrimination, etc.). This often became great opportunity to discuss the similarities between the Nuremberg Laws and the Jim Crow laws.

Teaching about the Holocaust can be a very daunting task. It seems that each year, I gained a new insight on how to present a topic. Now, as I hold the position of library media specialist, I discover that I am presented with a whole new list of challenges on how to present lessons of the Holocaust; however it is a challenge I am ready to tackle.

Resources on Perpetrators and Bystanders (available in the MCHE Resource Center):
The Good Old Days by Ernst Klee
Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning
Death Dealer by Rudolf Hoess
Into That Darkness by Gitta Sereny
Bystanders by Victoria Barnett
Perpetrators Victims Bystanders by Raul Hilberg
Shoah (DVD) by Claude Lanzmann

Relevance and making a connection in today's world

One of the biggest challenges in teaching the Holocaust, I believe, comes after students have completed your planned activities and begin asking, “What can we do now; what can one person do to keep this from happening again?” Another side to this issue is how can we speak out against the genocides that are happening in our time.

Students are most ready to respond and act immediately after their study of the Holocaust, so having some responses and actions for them to consider at that time is important. This is also an opportune time to discuss world responses and actions following the end of World War II. A quick and interesting way to do this is to share the book For Every Child (published in conjunction with UNICEF) to illustrate the rights that every child in the world should have (similar to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was adopted by the United Nations in 1948). The book, which you can loan from the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education's Resource Center, is appropriate for use with all grade levels and is beautifully illustrated.

Before I read the book to students, I ask them to work in groups of three or four to list ten rights that all teenagers should have. The groups share and generate a class list of rights. The class votes on the top ten rights, which we then post in the classroom. Then students discuss the importance of rights in general, why we have guarantee rights, the history of rights in our country, what rights Jews and other groups were denied during the Holocaust and why.

After reading the book aloud and sharing the illustrations with the students, we discuss the differences between the rights on the class list and the rights in the book. This brings to light many rights that the students take for granted and raises their awareness of the conditions other children throughout the world are forced to live in.

A natural follow-up is to help the class plan an activity that will benefit children in countries currently experiencing genocides. Jewish World Watch sponsors four relief campaigns which students could easily support as well as educational and support information.

Please share activities you use to help your students respond to current genocides. The larger our community, the better resources we can make available for everyone!

Teachers as life long learners

Note: Auschwitz is a complex of camps covering many square miles. It is composed of:

1. Auschwitz I: concentration camp to house political prisoners (often Poles and usually non-Jews)
2. Auschwitz II-Birkenau: death camp built to murder European Jews
3. Auschwitz III (aka Buna/Monowitz: slave labor facility that drew much of it's work force from Birkenau
4. 50+ slave labor satellite facilities
   

My recent travels to Poland have left me pondering the impact that travel has on my teaching and my own education as a life-long learner. Before the excitement that always follows a trip wears off, I’d like to document my thoughts on how this trip will enhance my teaching of the Holocaust and history, in general.

On October 17^th, I departed for Poland, along with nine other American Holocaust educators. We were chosen by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to represent American teachers at a Holocaust Educators Summit, hosted by the Polish Embassy. While in Warsaw, we exchanged pedagogical ideas and learned history by exploring historical sites such as the Warsaw Ghetto (or what is left of it since 80% of Warsaw was destroyed during the war), the Jewish cemetery, and the Jewish Historical Institute. We then said goodbye to our gracious hosts and departed for Krakow where we stayed in Kazimierz - the old Jewish quarter, learned how teachers at a Fine Arts School educate their students on the Holocaust, and visited Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

The Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw

Interacting with Polish teachers allowed me to understand the different perspectives that must be taken into consideration when teaching the Holocaust and when teaching any historical event. Our Polish counterparts approach the topic from a different vantage point. They are teaching about the Holocaust, primarily as an historical event, which happened in the land that they live their daily life. It is important to Polish educators that the world acknowledge that these events took place in Nazi-occupied Poland and were not a "Polish Holocaust." Overall, I was humbled by the knowledge and professionalism with which these Polish teachers are educating their youth.

Because these events occurred in what seems to be a world away and a life time away from the lives we live, I found this trip incredibly impactful in my understanding of Holocaust history. I am a firm believer that it is important for educators to travel. This will only enrich the teaching of our subject matter, but also allow us to understand the various backgrounds and life experiences that are brought to our classrooms.

This trip was certainly no exception. There are certain experiences at Auschwitz that will always resonate with me. Travel enhances our sensory knowledge like no book can. The day we visited, it was dreary and in the lower 40s. It had been foggy and rainy for several days prior to our visit. The weather conditions and the pervasive mud helped set the tone and create a picture of conditions those imprisoned on those very grounds experienced.

Also, through my studies I have heard many survivors and perpetrators write and speak of the indescribable smell at the camp. This was not in my thoughts when stepping off the bus at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. I was taken aback when my first observation was how different Auschwitz I (the camp for Polish political prisoner) smelled compared with Auschwitz II-Birkenau (the Jewish death camp), just roughly 1 mile from one another. This certainly cannot be the same smell as sixty-five years ago, but the difference between locations was staggering. Walking on the grounds left me truly humbled by the vastness. Ruins of barracks stretch on for what seems like eternity, only separated by railroad tracks, fences and guard towers.

While in Auschwitz I, we were able to tour the museum that is housed in the barracks. I was reminded of the horrors that were experienced by not only Jews, but homosexuals, Poles, Jehovah’s Witnesses and prisoners of war. Walking through buildings that house various artifacts, recovered after liberation, I learned just how personal the events of the Holocaust are and how they impact us each differently, depending on our personal experiences. Having a five-year-old daughter, I found it extremely hard to view the suitcases, dolls, spoons, and shoes from children. Other exhibits in the museum impacted my colleagues differently.

Because I will not teach the Holocaust until May, I am unsure how my experiences in Poland will enhance my teaching. At this point, I can only guess that I will approach the history differently. The purpose of this trip was to allow teachers to share their teaching methods and learn more about the Holocaust. This was certainly achieved but I learned so much more. I learned about Polish culture and Polish history. I teach a course called Modern Global Issues which covers Polish independence from Soviet rule. This experience taught me more about the anti-communist movement than I would ever be able to truly comprehend from reading.

Most teachers strive to create life-long learners in their classrooms. Nothing helps me do that more than being a role-model to my students. Attending conferences to enhance my repertoire and learning from various cultures keeps me moving forward. I will be continually grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait for my next experience …Greece.

Resources:

360 degree tour of Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau
The Auschwitz Album
Auschwitz: Through the Lens of the SS
Liberation of Auschwitz