Learning Activities

Before beginning an extensive study of the Holocaust, it is essential that one begin with an examination of the history of antisemitism. Using either a jigsaw activity or a gallery walk, students analzye seventeen primary sources to gain an understanding of the historical roots of antisemitism from the Medieval Era through the early 20th century.
 

Students will read a letter from Adolf Hitler to Adolf Gemlich and excerpts from Hitler's Mein Kampf to understand the roots and nature of Hitler's Antisemitism.

Through a reading from Echo and Reflections and a video from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, students will learn about the lives of European Jews before Hitler took power.




 

Organized as a gallery walk, this lesson asks students to answer the essential question, "How did the social, economic, and political conditions after World War I contribute to the rise of Nazism?" Students will examine how choices made by individuals and groups contributed to the rise of the Nazi Party in the 1920s and 1930s.