Jewish Europe in 1938
Open the map in 1938 and look at Europe from the Netherlands to the Soviet Union. Ask the atlas: "Where did most Jews in Europe live before the Second World War?"
Open this view on the mapSecond World War · 1933-1945
The Holocaust: persecution, rescue and resistance
Between 1933 and 1945 Nazi Germany moved step by step from excluding Jews to murdering about six million of them. Students learn how persecution grew, and use the map to find places where people resisted and rescued. Written with care for students aged 13 and older.
- Length
- 50 minutes
- Ages
- 13–16
- On the map
- 3 steps, AD 1938
- Live lesson
- 7 rounds, 3 on the map
- Worksheet
- Two A4 pages, with Classroom
- You need
- A projector; phones for live
Live lesson · new in Classroom
Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.
Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.
€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.
- 7 rounds
- 3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
- About 15 minutes
- Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
- A report
- Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
Introduction
5 minRead aloud
Between 1933 and 1945 Nazi Germany moved step by step from excluding Jews to murdering about six million of them. Students learn how persecution grew, and use the map to find places where people resisted and rescued. Written with care for students aged 13 and older.
By the end of the lesson, students can
- Describe the steps by which Nazi Germany moved from discrimination to the murder of Europe's Jews.
- Locate places of rescue and resistance, such as Denmark, Kaunas and Warsaw.
- Explain why people made different choices: perpetrators, bystanders, rescuers and resisters.
Explore the map
15 minProject the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.
Escape to Sweden
Zoom in on Denmark and the narrow Øresund strait. Find Copenhagen and the Swedish coast opposite. Ask the atlas: "How were the Jews of Denmark rescued in 1943?"
Open this view on the mapVisas in Kaunas
Travel to Kaunas in Lithuania. Ask the atlas: "Who was Chiune Sugihara?" Then follow the long route his visa holders took across the Soviet Union to Japan.
Open this view on the mapClass discussion
15 minPick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.
- The persecution began in 1933 with boycotts, laws and exclusion from schools and jobs. Why is it important to study the steps before the killing?
- In January 1942 senior Nazi officials met at a villa at Wannsee, near Berlin, to coordinate the murder of Europe's Jews. What does such a meeting show about how genocide is organized?
- Most people in occupied Europe were bystanders. Why did so few help, and what made rescuers different?
- Jews resisted in many ways: armed uprisings, hiding, smuggling, keeping diaries and keeping culture alive. Why do all of these count as resistance?
- The Nazis also murdered Roma and Sinti, disabled people and others. Why should their stories be told too?
Game round
10 minDo not play Rule History in this lesson. If you use it in a later lesson, play as Abraham Lincoln, the closest ruler in time, and discuss how a leader can protect or fail to protect the rights of a minority. Compare with the choices of rescuers such as Chiune Sugihara.
Open Rule HistoryWorksheet
5 minThis worksheet comes with Classroom
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