Nazi Persecution of the Jews

This unit of work should take at least 3 hours to complete. The Power Point leads students through all activities with answers when required along with the necessary contextual subject knowledge. All accompanying resources are included. I have previously broken this unit down into three classroom lessons and one final IT lesson where students researched their Holocaust hero.

LESSON 1 (Growing anti-Semitism of 1930s): Aims and Objectives:

• To know Hitler’s racial theories.
• To use sources to explore how these were put into practice throughout the 1930s in Germany.
• To empathise with those effected through producing a piece of creative writing in the first-person.

LESSON 2 (Life in a ghetto): Aims and Objectives:

• To know what ghettos were and where they were set up.
• To understand the purpose of the ghettos.
• To carry out independent research into conditions inside the ghettos and demonstrate empathetic understanding of what it must have been like to live in one.

LESSON 3 (The Final Solution): Aims and Objectives:

• To know the key events which led to the construction of death camps in Eastern Europe.
• To understand why these camps were created and how they eased the process of mass murder.
• To understand the motivation and psychology of those involved.

The three lessons focus on the journey of two fictional Jewish children throughout the period 1933-45. A short diary entry is written at the end of each lesson explaining what has happened to them at this stage. Lesson 1 explores the growing anti-Semitism of the 1930s using a range of sources to chart the development and escalation. Lesson 2 explores conditions inside the ghetto using video clips and handout. The final lessons explains the process of the Final Solution and focuses upon how it was able to happen (from a psychological angle). The student booklet for this lesson uses a series of sources to explore the key issues. To end the unit on a more optimistic topic, students consider those who stood up against the Holocaust and create a information poster on their hero of the Holocaust.