Introduction
Understanding the history and culture that is the setting for the literature we read is very important if we are to understand what we read. I want you to ask yourself the following questions:
1. How does learning about the historical period help you understand what you read?
2. Can you decide your own destiny?
3. Can one person really make a difference?
The time period when Hitler was in power in Germany was a time filled with heartache and many terrible events. There were many reasons why things happened the way they did, and why Hitler and the Nazi party were not stopped sooner. I want you to discover some of the historical settings of the graphic novel we are going to read together about Anne Frank as well as the graphic novel White Bird by R.J. Palacio.
Visit the following sites, and answer all the questions in complete sentences on a separate piece of paper.
Task
1. Define "genocide" in your own words.
2. When we refer to the "holocaust", what time period are we talking about?
3. What levels of German society were most drawn to Hitler and the Nazi Party?
4. What was Hitler's term for the "master race"? Describe this type of person.
5. What types of German citizens were victims of the Nazi Party?
6. Define antisemitism.
7. When did it begin?
8. What other nations treated Jews as scapegoats (blamed them for some trouble)?
9. According to the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, how did the German government decide if someone was Jewish?
10. What did the German government require of Jews in German society?
Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass
11. What happened on November 9, 1938? What caused the violence?
12. Many Jews escaped Germany during this time. What countries accepted the most Jewish refugees?
13. Why did the US not allow entrance to more refugees before WWII?
14. What was the goal of the "Final Solution?"
15. How many ghettos existed in German-occupied territories?
16. Describe the largest ghetto.
17. Describe the picture and say how people are treated.
Abe's Story: Conditions Worsen
18. Describe how the conditions worsened.
19. What does Abe do? Where does he go? Why?
20. What were the first Nazi concentration camps?
21. What was the primary purpose of these camps?
22. Describe what happens to most "workers".
23. What happened at most of these camps?
24. Why were people forced to go on "death marches"?
25. Create your own caption for this photo. Describe what the family is doing and where they are going.
26. Choose two images from this site. Include their title and a description of each picture.
27. When the Soviet soldiers liberated Auschwitz Death Camp, how many shoes did they find?
28. Describe one hardship survivors had to face.
29. Read the poem, and summarize what it is about in a few sentences.
Importance of teaching about the Holocaust
30. If you were going to teach others about the importance of studying the holocaust, what would you include?