Introduction to the Holocaust

Resources

Film of Mala Tribich, interviewed by Antony Lishak,

followed by a Question And Answer session .

One Day poem (at the foot of this page)

Links to the above resources

Film of Mala Tribich and answers to questions There is some additional material on this page

Lesson outline

1.     Brief outline of the Holocaust

2.     Who? Where? When? What? Ask the pupils to volunteer what they know and think.

    We’ve put some of the information you’ll want to emerge.

3.     Short video with a Survivor, followed by a Question and Answer session(separate video)

4.     Conclusion to the lesson with poem activity 

1 What was the Holocaust? 

1.     pair and share ( hard to define but Nazi aim of extermination of every Jewish person under the cover of World War 2. The Nazis considered Jewish people to be inferior, as they did with many other groups. It’s a Greek work meaning complete burning)

2.     Brief definition of Antisemitism. The irrational hatred and targeting of Jews, was nothing new in Germany, but had existed for about 2 thousand years, in many countries and societies.

3.     The actions of the Nazis built upon existing prejudice and racism.

Dates of World War 2 1939-1945

2 WHO, WHERE, WHEN, WHAT

We are going to look at some question words to help us understand the Holocaust -

WHO, WHERE, WHEN, WHAT

You’ll notice they are all interdependent 

A. Who?… to whom, by whom?

(Targeted victims included Jews, Roma and Sinti, disabled - mental and physical disabilities, gays and homosexuals, Black people, Jehovahs Witnesses, all political opponents

Perpetrators included Nazis, collaborators both in Germany and in Occupied Countries, supporters of the Nazis in other countries

Names of victims eg Anne Frank, perpetrators eg Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, Himmler, Goebbels)

B. Where?…in which countries did it take place

(most countries in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Far East, North Africa, Channel Islands but neutral countries included Sweden, Spain, Switzerland)

C. When? … did the Holocaust happen? When did specific targeting of Jews start?

Pre 1933 there was growing tension, 1933 - Hitler came to power, 1935 - Start of Nuremberg Laws targeting Jews, 1939 - Start of WW2, 1942 - Nazis plan to exterminate all Jews.

As you can see, there is no agreement about when the Holocaust started, but most agree that the Government sponsored killing ended in 1945 at the end of the war. However, unfortunately, many surviving Jews were murdered after that by former neighbours…..

D. What? ...... What happened?

The Holocaust included over time, Jews being marginalised and humiliated, deprived of civil rights, losing their jobs, not being allowed to attend school or keep pets, moved from their homes into ‘ghettos’(which were overcrowded, confined areas with insufficient and insanitary space, food, medical supplies, which they were not allowed to leave). Many families were separated. Many men were imprisoned. Then they started to deport Jews to concentration camps as slave labour and take Jews into the countryside to murder them. They took thousands to death camps; the majority were killed on arrival. Over 6 million Jews were murdered.

HOW DO WE KNOW ALL THIS?

•    Extensive records left by the Nazis

•    Mass burial sites, concentration camps

•    Testimony of local witnesses and the liberating armies both the Soviet Russian Army and the British and American Army

•    Evidence provided at post war trials

•    Film from that time, including from the BBC

•    Personal testimony of survivors

3. Introduce the Film and Questions and Answers

It’s hard for each of us to understand such huge numbers. 6 million sounds like a statistic, so we have the privilege of now seeing and hearing one person’s personal testimony, their true story of what happened to them and their family. Afterwards, you’ll hear them responding to questions put by secondary school pupils, like yourselves.

The film is long, 55 minutes, so we suggest you show the students 2 short clips instead, as follows:

1. First clip begins 31 minutes in and lasts for 9 minutes (ie minutes 31- 40):

 Explain before you show it that at this point Mala and her family had been forced to move to the ghetto, her family had been taken away and only 12 year old Mala and her little cousin Ann, aged 5 were left. They were put on a transport. This explains what happened to them between then and the end of the war, when they were rescued.

2. Second clip begins 52 minutes in and lasts for 4 minutes (ie minutes 52 -56) 

Mala reflects on why she shares her experiences

Repeat of link to the film

Film of Mala Tribich and answers to questions There is some additional material on this page

Reflection - Think, pair, share

What was significant in the survivor’s story. What do you remember?

4 Conclusion to the lesson with poem activity 

Each year HMD has a theme and this year it is ‘one day’

One day something happened, but it could be understood as positive or negative

One day I heard a story (from a refugee)

They said it all changed in one day…..

  the day they came to power

We couldn’t go out

We were hungry

We lost our jobs

We could not go to school

Our neighbours could no longer be our friends

They said what we had to wear so we were identified

They called us vermin

They wanted to exterminate us

They did not want us but we were not allowed to leave

Nothing seems to change

Was it the Jews of Europe in the 1930s, or Rwanda in 1990, Darfur in 2003 or even today?

Can each of you add a last line to the poem, either positive or negative to share with the group.