The Holocaust
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the reasons why Josef Mengele escaped justice.
I have been inspired to write this lesson after reading an article by Gerald Posner who spent three decades trying to track him down.
The story makes fascinating reading; but was Mengele a brilliant mastermind at escape and evasion tactics or was it pure incompetence on the part of the West German authorities and a lack of will from the Western governments to track and find him?
Students are given the context to Josef Mengele, his background and a very brief description of the war crimes he committed at Auschwitz, without going into specific details.
They complete a missing word activity, before analysing the fake passport he used to flee to South America.
The main task is to judge how believable his escape story really is, with some red herrings thrown in for good measure to get the students really thinking.
Some key differentiated questions, an extended writing piece, with some ‘believable’ words as well as a thinking quilt will give the students an accurate account of his double life.
There is also an excellent link to video footage of a documentary by Gerald Posner himself.
The resource comes in PDF and PowerPoint formats if there is a wish to adapt and change and is differentiated.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson.
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