Holocaust Unit Bundle - World History and AP Euro - Digital Lessons

Explore the Holocaust in a meaningful and engaging way. Help students to understand how atrocities like this occur and reflect on the roles of complicit bystanders. Students will investigate various aspects of the Holocaust by analyzing primary and secondary sources, watching videos, and reflecting.

ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:

1. Intro to the Holocaust (approx. time needed 1 hour)

This digital interactive notebook will introduce your World History students to Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. The lesson begins with info from UNESCO about why the Holocaust should be studied. Students will build their understanding by watching short video clips, visit the US Holocaust Museum website, analyze a map, and listen to a first-hand account of a German man conflicted over swearing an oath of loyalty to Hitler.

TOPICS:

• Why study the Holocaust
• The history of Anti-Semitism (prior to the 1920s & 1930s)
• Anti-Semitism in Germany
• The Fuhrer Oath
• "Do you take the oath?" analysis from Facing History & Ourselves

2. Escalation of the Holocaust Timeline (approx. time needed: 2 hours)

This digital interactive notebook will allow your World History students to investigate the Steps of the Holocaust: from Anti-Semitism to the Final Solution. The 2 day lesson begins with an excerpt from Mein Kampf and a piece of Anti-Semitic propaganda. Then students will read the Nuremberg Laws and learn about Kristallnacht (including a short video and a secondary source). After investigating the ghettos, students will stop and reflect, ending day 1. During Day 2, students will learn about camps like Auschwitz and the development of the Final Solution. They will answer the final reflection question about how genocides occur by reading quotes by Edmund Burke & Martin Niemoller.

DAY 1 TOPICS

• Anti-Semitism in Mein Kampf
• Marginalization of Jews through propaganda
• The Nuremberg Laws
• Kristallnacht
• Ghettos
• Reflection: How did each of the steps we have studied ESCALATE (increase) persecution of Jewish people? How did each build on what came before it? Why is it important to speak out against injustice before it escalates?

DAY 2 TOPICS

• The different Camps
• Auschwitz
• Analysis of prisoner identification
• Wannsee Conference
• Final Solution
• Reflection: Consider the quotes and what you learned about the Holocaust. How does a genocide like the Holocaust occur? 

3. EDPUZZLE [Bonus assignment not listed in bundle] (approx. time needed: 45 minutes)

Make a copy to assign to your students. There are a few somewhat graphic images at the end, however, you may want to take a look at the last 6 minutes of the video before showing in your class to determine if it is appropriate for your students. 

• Video is from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum: This 38-minute film introduces the history of the Holocaust. It begins by looking back at the major changes from 1918 to 1933 that created the political climate for the birth and rise of the Nazi Party in Germany through the liberation of the camps at the end of World War II

4. INVESTIGATION STATIONS (approx. time needed: 2 hours)

This digital "Investigation Stations" activity allows students to dive deeper into important aspects of the Holocaust. They will analyze primary sources, secondary sources, images, and charts to learn about the escalation of persecution, ghettos & camps, resistance, medical experiments & the Nuremberg Trials.

This resource includes 28 pages of information and a 4 page digital or printable worksheet. Answer Key included.

5 STATIONS:

1. Escalation of Persecution: Mein Kampf, Nuremberg & other laws, Kristallnacht (a 13-year-old's account) & the Wannsee Conference.
2. Camps & Ghettos: images & a secondary source on the conditions in the ghettos; a first-hand account of life in Auschwitz
3. Resistance: The Warsaw Uprising, the White Rose & spiritual resistance
4. Medical Experiments: Dr. Mengele, twin studies, list of medical experiments, images, Unit 731 (Japan)
5. Responsibility & Blame: overview of the Nuremberg Trials. List of defendants and excerpts from their testimonies, excerpt from Ordinary Men about cowardice.

Reflection questions:

1. How did the Nazis intensify their persecution of the Jews as time went on? Give at least 3 examples.
2. How did the Nazis dehumanize the Jews? Why was this dehumanization necessary to carry out their plans?
3. Where should the line between following orders and taking responsibility be drawn? Why did so few people resist Hitler’s plans/policies?

TEACHER TIPS:

This assignment is best done over 2 days. Students should spend around 15 minutes on each “station.” The worksheet can be done digitally or printed and filled out by hand. 

Stations: In person, you can print the handouts & put the info in file folders for students to pass around the room as they complete each station rotation. Pre, COVID,  I printed everything on off-white cardstock to give it more of an aged look & cut out the images. The students passed around manila folders with the info and analyzed as a group. You can also post the info digitally, but having a hard copy (I laminated it so I could re-use them) does add to the overall effect of doing the “investigation.”

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