Summary
Students will examine the results of the Holocaust and evaluate the defense of Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg Trials. Students will create a mini-documentary from guided research about the Holocaust and the subsequent trials as if they are reporting back to the American audience in 1946. Students will identify key elements that may prevent future genocides.
Essential Question(s)
Are actions during wartime justified? How did the US react to the Holocaust? Can future genocides be prevented?
Snapshot
Engage
Students answer a hypothetical question and complete a Commit and Toss activity.
Explore
Students watch and discuss a World War II news reel of Jewish concentration camps.
Explain
Students research the evidence presented at the Nuremberg trials from varying perspectives and create and present a mini-documentary of the Nuremberg trials as if they have just been completed to report back to the American audience at home.
Extend
Students read a commentary on genocide in the world and its prevention through a Jigsaw reading activity and create a statement about the personal prevention of genocide from their reading.
Evaluate
The mini-documentary can serve as the assessment. The statements on genocide prevention can also serve as an assessment.
Materials
Access to iPads with iMovie , power point, or Windows Movie Maker on student computers
Student Resource list of websites for research and storyboard planner
Video link to World War II news reel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtsnp1m85EI)
Photo Gallery of Jewish victims of Nazi genocide (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/aumb1.html)
Rubric for Multi-media presentation
Engage
Have these questions displayed on the board as students walk into the classroom. "What if you were told to do something that you KNEW to be wrong by a person in authority like a teacher? What would you do?" Ask them to write a response to these questions on a sheet of paper and crumple the paper for a Commit and Toss Activity. (An explanation of Commit and Toss is found in the link.) Have students share varying responses. Allow for as many responses as possible.
Have students watch a news reel taken at the time of the liberation of Jewish people. This YouTube video is a newsreel that is hyper linked here: American News Reel Caution: This is very graphic showing mass graves and near death starvation. This video was the least graphic of the videos reviewed. However, you may wish to preview or show only a brief segment. There are also alternative, less graphic photos at the photo galleries of the Jewish Virtual Library of Photos.
Tell students that we will investigate today the responses of Nazi leaders and soldiers who were told to kill Jewish citizens in the Nazi Death Camps. Were their actions justified because it was wartime? Would they have been killed for disobeying an order? Allow limited class time for discussion.
Explore
Students will move into groups of 3 or 4 to fulfill the following scenario:
The date is 1946 after World War II. Your team has been hired to report back to the American public information about the Jewish Holocaust, its survivors, and the fate of the Nazi soldiers and leaders at and after the Nuremberg Trials. You will create a brief documentary that is as objective as possible so that it gives the American people multiple viewpoints.
Pass out the rubric , the student research resource list, and the storyboard template for the documentary. Go over the expectations of the documentary from the rubric so that all student teams are clear about the documentary. The documentary can be done in power point or as a documentary movie (iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, etc.) depending on your school's technology capabilities.
Allow at least one to two class periods for research and planning the video. Students can share with the teacher the script/storyboard plan prior to formalizing the documentary. By the end of the third class period, students should have completed production of their documentary.
Explain
Day 4- Student teams will present their documentary to the class as they have interpreted the rubric. The teacher may use the rubric to score documentaries.
Extend
Day 4 to 5- Show students that genocides like the Holocaust continue to occur in the world.
Can future genocides be prevented?
What should be an American's role in preventing future genocides?
Can we (students) do something to prevent genocide now?
Jigsaw Reading Activity-- Place the three questions on the board and then divide students into groups by numbering students 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s. If your class is large, you may have two groups of one, two groups of twos, etc. so that your student groups are not over 4. Pass out the paper on "How We can Prevent Genocide" commentary. Students should read ONLY the page of the commentary with the SAME number as their group. After they read, they should create a summary statement of what they have read and also answer the three questions as a group.
Have each numbered group share their summary and responses to the questions. The summary and the question responses can be used as an assessment.
Evaluate
The documentary will be the assessment. The story board can be used as a formative assessment. The Extend activity can also be assessed as a summative assessment.
Resources
Storyboard That: https://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboard-creator
Georgetown University Library: http://guides.library.georgetown.edu/documentary
How to Make Your Movie: http://www.howtomakeyourmovie.com/PDF/production_notebook.pdf
Videomaker: http://www.videomaker.com/video-production-forms-download
TimeRime: http://timerime.com/en/timeline/1034900/Genocides+from+the+20th+Century+to+Now/
United Nations, "Office of the special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide:" http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/pdf/osapg_booklet_eng.pdf
K20 Center. (n.d.). Commit and toss. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/119