HIT: Holocaust Ideas (long)

[Joan Marstiller <JMarstille@AOL.COM>]

I have received some wonderful ideas for research activities regarding the
Holocaust.  Here they are:
The unofficial Unitarian Universalist e-zine "UU NEWS" had some stuff
on the Holocaust a couple of weeks ago. Um.... (looking for url) ...
you can see the issue  by going to (http://www.pbat.com/uunews1/) and
clicking on the issue for November 15.There's also a lot of good sites (some
overlap) by doing a search at the Encyclopedia Britannica website
(www.ebig.com).

I taught with an 8th grade teacher who every year does extensive research on
the Holocaust which culminates with a Holocaust Museum.  Her students do
projects (models, poetry, maps, exhibits, etc. as well as an occasional
paper). She was wonderful to work with. Unfortunately, we are not at the same
school anymore.

Do a reader's theater using the play The Diary of Anne Frank.
Or have them present scenes from the play, in costume.  Read, compare contrast
sections of Anne Frank with the journals that have been published in the last
few years.      Read the  Lois Lowry's Number the Stars  and Elie Wisenthal's  The
Night. Book discussions.

        Research and do  a report/debate/discussion  on the American internment 
camps
in the USA for Japanese.. (Fiction books the Bracelet and We Will Always Have
Baseball are small books but to the point).  Discussions about the Geramn
reparations to Jews and the US reparations to Japanese who were American
citizens. Maybe a unit/discussion/display on hate and racial hatred and the
consequences.  Look at newspapers over the weekends with stories about the
Japanese/Chinese meetings and the Japanese still will not apologize for war
crimes and atrocities committed in China.  Yugoslavia certainly in another
example, Isreal
and Palestinians.

Perhaps they could do something like what is done at the Holocaust Museum in
D.C. When you enter you are given a passport with a person's name, age, and
country of origin. At each level of the museum you are told to open your
passport to page 1 (but no further), then next level - page 2 and so on. The
levels follow the progress of the war and rise of Nazism through liberation.
At the end of the tour you turn to the last page to see if you survived or
not. Your researchers could be given a name (real or not), age, and country of
origin and then research what happened to people of that country (how many
were liberated, how many were killed in the camps, how many escaped before
the Nazis came in, etc). They could then look at the Holocaust on a more
personal level and write the story of their "person."

After doing a study of the chronology of the holocaust, prejudice, and
reading "I am a Star" and parts of Anne Frank, we have had the
students use forget-me-mot internet cards to do further research.
(http:www.graceproducts.com)  they have to take notes over these.  In
addition, they find five news articles based on prejudice in the
United States today and write summaries.  They also study the
holocauset memorial museum artifact poster set.  In addition we watch
a movie based on aneo-nazi who travels back through time to meet Anne
Frank (I don't have it on hand, I think it is called Forget-me Not  --
we got all the internet cards in a package with the movie -- if
interested please let me know)  Towards the end of the unit they need
to write a poem about the holocause, world war II, prejudice, or man's
inhumanity towards man.  They then conclude with an essay and
presentation on one of the following topics:  Why did the Holocaust
happen?  Why did Hitler want to exterminate people?  How can we keep
the Holocaust or any other such crime against humanity from happening
again?  Discuss prejudices that exist in America.  Describe prejudice
in your school.  Why should we study the Holocaust?

We do a wonderful project with our 8th graders who study the Holocaust.  The
students all visit the Holocaust museum to get an overview of theHolocaust.
They all read Diary of Ann Frank and another holocaust book from the
literature circle.  Only one of the three teachers does the project, but it's
worthwhile for that teacher's classes.  We do a continuation of the ANn Frank
Diary.  The student pretend they are Ann (boys can pretend to be Otto, her
dad).  For four days they research concentration camps in the library.  They
look at historical atlases, art from the Holocaust, listen to Nazi marches on
tape, view gruesome pictures, read first hand accounts.  The students amaze me
with their descriptions and insights and seem to really enjoy this project.  I
can send you a copy of the assignment we use along with the rubric for
grading.

If it is not possible to arrange a visit to the DC Holocaust museum, I'm sure
that they have available a teacher's resource.  I know that the Wiesenthal
Center here in L.A. has a great site at
<A HREF="http://www.wiesenthal.org/">Simon Wiesenthal Center Home Page</A>.
An adjunct of this organization is  <A HREF="http://tst.wiesenthal.com./">TST
Sample Home Page</A>  Another site I have on my favorites, but haven't tried
is    <A HREF="http://www.Holocaust-trc.org/">holocaust resources for teachers
</A>  <A HREF="http://www.wiesenthal.org/">.</A>  On your  own you might try
something similar to what is done at the Wiesenthal.  They issue each visitor
to the museum a card with a few statsitics of an adult or child who lived at
the time of the Holocaust.  The museum is a multi-media experience trying to
show not only the physical realities, but to explore the mental and social
make-up of the times.  At certain intervals during the tour, this card
(somewhat like a credit card in format) is inserted and the visitor learns
more and more about the person on the card.  At the conclusion of the visit,
one learns whether or not this individual survived.  These are all actual
biographies.  I've heard many times of people who are survivors who have
randomly received their own biography card.  Creepy.

How about a newspaper reflecting the era.  "Diary" entries by the students.

This is not reallly a project idea but the Museum of Tolerance in Los
Angeles has a large on-line Holocaust source of pictures and information.
The address is motlc.wiesenthal.com.    This museum also will be offering a
all expense paid week-long training for 5th and 6th grade teachers and
media specialist on using literature to teach tolerance.  If you are at all
interested it is EXCELLENT!  I was priveliged to attend last summer with
four of my teachers and it was wonderful!  The museum is 1/2 on the
holocaust and 1/2 on civil rights, hate groups, and other tolerance issues.
Check the website at tst.wiesenthal.com if you know ANYONE who is
interested.  Although it is targeted for 5th and 6th grades, some of the
teams had teachers from other grade levels.  The application is fairly
simple.
Also, if you have access to video conferencing, contact
jgarfinkle@wiesenthal.com and she would be able to arrange for that class
to videoconference with a holocaust survivor.

Our fifth grade teachers are reading Number the Stars to their classes and
created a short 8 or 10 card hyperstudio stack to introduce the Holocaust
to their class and get some discussion going. They were really pleased with
the questions it generated.  Our students are really not that educated on
this time period and your teacher might want to do something similar to
kick off the project.  Making hyperstudio stacks on various holocaust
topics would be a great activity if you have access to computers, etc.

Thanks to all who made such great suggestions.
Joan Marstiller
Librarian, Franklin Regional Jr. High
Murrysville, PA  15668  jmarstille@aol.com

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