Providing historical context for a memoir study

When I first really started learning more about the Holocaust through the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, we learned about the main events in “10 Core Concepts,” which I then used and adapted (“stole”) to create a PowerPoint presentation that defines these 10 Core Concepts to use with the memoir I teach about the Holocaust. The Concepts are broken down chronologically to help students better understand the time frame of what happened before the Nazis took power all the way to what happened after World War II.

These Concepts also make it easier to teach the Holocaust if you are not a social studies teacher, which I am not; I teach English/Language Arts/Communication Arts. Another nice objective of teaching the history using these Core Concepts is that the Concepts align with the objectives that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum asks teachers consider when teaching the Holocaust. I include a few video clips when I teach the notes to make them a little more visually appealing to students, but teachers can definitely personalize the notes to make them fit their own classroom instruction. I want students to understand the book we are reading socially and contextually in history, so these notes allow me to put the book in perspective (I teach Night by Elie Wiesel, but this unit could easily be used with any memoir of the Holocaust). These notes and the lessons are available on the MCHE website as well and I welcome questions.

Resources:
Student Worksheet
Teacher Lecture Notes

Extra Credit Video Assignment

Because I am an English teacher and only teach the Holocaust in conjunction with teaching the memoir, Night by Elie Wiesel, I do not spend as much time on other aspects of the Holocaust as I would sometimes like, especially with snow days. So, to provide students with an opportunity to learn a little more about the Holocaust on their own, I allow them to watch a Holocaust video for extra credit, using the attached list and assignment qualifications. I do always try to preface the extra credit opportunity by saying that some of the selections are a Hollywood portrayal of the Holocaust and may have some inaccuracies. The students must write about the movie, making connections to what we have learned in class and reviewing the movie’s “credibility.” So, the extra credit opportunity also requires the students to practice some of the good writing habits that they are supposed to be developing in class.

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