Drawing upon the online archives of the U.S. Holocaust Museum, this lesson helps students to put the events described by Anne Frank into historical perspective, and also serves as a broad overview of the Nazi conquest of Europe during World War II. After surveying the experiences of various countries under Nazi occupation, the lesson ends with activities related specifically to the Netherlands and Anne Frank.

This lesson concentrates on Anne Frank as a writer. After a look at Anne Frank the adolescent, and a consideration of how the experiences of growing up shaped her composition of the Diary, students explore some of the writing techniques Anne invented for herself and practice those techniques with material drawn from their own lives.

Bill Rice recalls how German soldiers began surrendering towards the end of the war in Europe. He also discusses how his platoon was involved in liberating prison camps in Germany in this video teaching module from the KACV's local perspective on "The War."

Genuis Hour project idea for ELA researching a topic of student's choice regarding WWII and/or the Holocaust. Preview image Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash

Social injustice occurs every day all over the world. In this lesson, students research a few historical examples of social injustice, including the Holocaust, the Trail of Tears, and Japanese internment.

Students in Fred Whittaker’s class create a bulletin board display filled with pictures of themselves and similar pictures of Jews who died in the Holocaust. The project helps students make deep connections to the people lost in the Holocaust.

Over six million Jewish men, women, and children were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. When we read that fact, it is hard to understand what it actually means. The scale of the tragedy is simply too overwhelming. It is only when we recognize that each one of those six million people was an individual—someone just like us—that we begin to understand.

Many of the photos we see of the Jewish people during the Holocaust show prisoners who are starving. But what did these people look like before the Holocaust? Did the children love their families and play with their friends? Did they go to school and ride bicycles?

Before undertaking this project, watch the video, Holocaust Pedagogy, in which Fred Whittaker introduces best practices in Holocaust education.

The three video collections here offer educators a detailed exploration of different ways to approach the topic in the classroom. Murals of the Holocaust describes a summer program that offers an art-integrated history course on Germany and the Holocaust. Juliek’s Violin focuses on three pieces of classical music, including music from the scene in Elie Wiesel’s Night where Juliek plays the violin in the concentration camp. Teaching the Holocaust explores how two middle school educators approach the teaching of Holocaust history to their students.

For over 20 years, a summer program for gifted adolescents at Western Kentucky University has offered an arts-integrated history course on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The course concludes with students working as a group to create a large mural on the Holocaust. In this way, students use the power of art to deal with their own emotions as well as to educate others. The murals from the past 20 years went on a traveling display in Kentucky to engage a broader audience in thought-provoking conversation on the topic. In this video collection, hear the stories of a Holocaust survivor and the son of a Holocaust survivor who are involved with the program, learn how students in the program decided on a theme for their mural, and learn how one teacher incorporates the arts into Holocaust history lessons.

In this social studies skill builder, students will learn about the life and death of Anne Frank. Students will be able to recognize what it means to empathize with the experience of others after reading about Anne Frank's life. This skill builder is most appropriate for students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. It is estimated this lesson will take about 15-25 minutes to complete. Through virtual field trips, class collaboration, and independent practice, students use reading comprehension and observation skills to learn about Anne Frank and her family's life before and during World War II. They will also learn about the trials and hardships the Jewish people faced and the importance of empathizing with others.

Thumbnail: screenshot of Nearpod lesson by Christina Nelson 7/27/2022

This episode of This American Life that discusses mob mentality and how easily we can all fall victim to it. English Language Arts teachers can use It with many different texts to explore the concept of mob mentaility. For example, it can be used when teaching Lord of the Flies.

Working in small groups, students read and discuss Elie Wiesel's memoir "Night" and then take turns assuming the teacher role, as the class works with four different comprehension strategies.