Teacher s Resource - Pre-Workshop Information. WW2: The Holocaust

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Herbert Merritt
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1 Teacher s Resource - Pre-Workshop Information WW2: The Holocaust Pre-workshop information to help you and your students get the most from your visit. Workshop title: WW2 The Holocaust Venue: St Mungo s Museum of Religious Life and Art Meeting point: In the foyer at the front door. Please arrive at the allocated time of your workshop. You will be met by a Learning Assistant who will lead the workshop. Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes. Maximum group size: 33 pupils. Themes covered in the workshop: Children s Rights, personal accounts, Jewish persecution, German propaganda, Scottish links to the Holocaust. Learning objectives: By learning about their own rights, learners will find out about the rights deprived of children involved in the Holocaust By investigating and researching personal accounts and stories of Holocaust survivors learners will have a greater appreciation of the Holocaust, its causes and its long term effect. Curriculum links: SOC 2-01a I can use primary and secondary resources selectively to research events in the past

2 Venue Facilities: Bus drop off point Lunch space (please pre-book as space is limited) Shop Lift Access to all areas Before the Workshop Please make use of the pre visit activities supplied as they will help learners get as much as possible from their time at the museum. Activity 1 is a reading passage with 5 questions that can be answered individually or in a group. Activity 2 is a card based activity which encourages learners to think about conditions for children in the pre war period. The Workshop: Pupils are welcomed to St Mungo's Museum in our foyer and are taken to the first floor where they can store their jackets and/or lunches. The workshop takes place in two areas within the museum, the Scottish Gallery and the Gallery of Religious Art. After an introduction to the museum and topic the learners will take part in a number of activities designed to help them understand their rights, what rights were taken from Jewish children during WW2, to understand German propaganda, spiritual resistance and to connect with Scottish links to the Holocaust through exploring personal stories. Activities: Listening to and discussing oral testimony Discussing human rights Investigating museum displays to learn personal stories Create a museum display that tells a story Relating past events to current situations After your visit: There are post-workshop activity suggestions available which further enhance the workshop experience. Please ask the Learning Assistant delivering the workshop for further information.

3 The Holocaust Pre Visit activity 1: Group discussion and Feedback SOC 2-06a What is the Holocaust? The Holocaust is one of the most terrible events in human history. It was the mass murder of six million Jews and millions of other people leading up to, and during, World War II. The killings took place in Europe between 1933 and They were organised by the German Nazi party which was led by Adolf Hitler. The largest group of victims were Jewish people. Nearly 7 out of every 10 Jews living in Europe were killed. Most of the victims were killed because they belonged to certain racial or religious groups which the Nazis wanted to wipe out. This kind of killing is called genocide. The Nazis also murdered politicians, trade unionists, journalists, teachers and anyone else who spoke out against Hitler. We will never know exactly how many died but there were many millions of non-jewish victims, including: Civilians and soldiers from the Soviet Union Catholics from Poland Serbs Disabled people Jehovah's Witnesses Polish civilians Roma and Sinti people (Gypsies) Slavic people Who was involved and why Adolf Hitler was the dictator of Germany from He was born in Austria but soon after failing to become an artist in Venice moved to Germany as a young man and became a solider in the German army at the beginning of WW1. It was this service which made him very proud to represent Germany and began to love war. Germany lost WW1 and became a poorer country. Hitler entered politics and used the low spirits of the German people to believe in him and told them that he could make Germany great again.

4 Hitler wrote a book Mein Kampf where he set out his plans for Germany should he get into power. In this book he stated that he would rid Germany of all the Jews. Not many people believed he would really do this, but as soon as he became Chancellor he started his work against the Jews. He made laws that said Jews had no rights. Then he organized attacks on Jewish businesses and homes. On November 9, 1938 many Jewish homes and businesses were burnt down or vandalized. This night was called the Kristallnacht or "Night of Broken Glass". It was his need for a great and larger Germany that after taking over Austria and part of Czechoslovakia he invaded Poland which began WW2 in Hitler hated people who were Jewish. He believed that it was because of the Jewish people that Germany lost WW1. He also believed that Jewish people were less than human and set out to rid Germany of Jews. He went on to persecute Jews by making many different laws to make life very hard for them. Persecution is when one person or group of people (like the Jews) are badly treated over a long period of time by another person or group of people (like the Nazis.) Questions to discuss in your group. 1. If Hitler was from Austria How did he become dictator of Germany? 2. What groups of people were killed in the Holocaust? 3. What percentage of Europe s Jewish population were killed? 4. What was Kristallnacht? 5. Why did Hitler persecute the Jews?

5 The Holocaust Pre Visit activity 2: Anti Jewish Laws SOC 2-04a Teacher notes This activity shows the legal persecution that started before the war towards the German Jewish Population. It is hoped that the children will realise the conditions that Jewish people were put under prior to the beginning of the Holocaust and can begin to empathise with the young people who lived under this regime. You will need to copy and cut out a set of cards for each group prior to the activity. Cards are file: Anti-Jewish Laws CARD SORTING ACTIVITY.pdf Activity Ask the learners the following questions (either as a class or in groups) o What do they do with their family and friends for fun? o Are they a part of a sports team? o Do they play with children from different cultures? o Do you have a pet? o Do you wear anything that tells other people what religion you are? o Or any other question you take from a prior look at the cards. Ask the children Do they think that the Prime Minister would ever stop you from playing games or stop Mum buying eggs? Give each group a set of the cards. Explain that these were real laws passed in Germany that Jewish people had to follow Ask each group to read each card and put them in chronological order. Encourage them to discuss what they read what do they think about these laws. Is it fair that they are only for one group of people. How would they feel if they were a Jewish child. Ask each group to pick one card as a group for each of these categories: o A law that makes them angry o A law that makes them sad o A law that would be a nuisance o A law that would have made them scared. Allow time to for each group to feed back their answers to the class, always encouraging them to explain why they have chosen that law. In groups discuss if you were a Jewish child what law would you stand up to? With feedback Finally, if something were to happen now for example a specific group in the school were being persecuted in this way what could they do to stand up for the group.

6 Material produced for the use of classes who have undertaken workshops at St Mungo s Museum of Religious Life and Art

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