Develop knowledge and understanding:
To deepen student knowledge and challenge common misunderstandings, in this chapter they will learn:
- What ghettos were, why they were created, and what conditions were like in them.
Challenge myths and misconceptions:
Our 2016 student research showed that students had limited knowledge and understanding of the following:
- What were ghettos?
- Where were ghettos located?
- How did the existence of ghettos relate to the development of the Holocaust?
Access the research briefing that is relevant to this textbook chapter content here:
Research briefing 4. Spaces of killing
Support for in chapter activities:
Support for Activity p.49:
In this chapter, the Activity asks that students research the life of Chaim Rumkowski and compare him to Adam Czerniakow. You may find that students express judgements of the actions undertaken by these figures or other victims that you find inappropriate. To address this, you could introduce your students to the term ‘choiceless choices’ developed by Lawrence Langer. Langer defined the choices made during the Holocaust as ‘choiceless choices’ “where critical decisions did not reflect options between life and death, but between one form of ‘abnormal’ response and another, both imposed by a situation that was in no way of the victim’s own choosing.” If students can understand that choices during the Holocaust were ‘choiceless choices’, it can help them to emphasise and understand the ‘choiceless choices’ faced by Rumkowski and figures like them, and not to judge them outside their context.
Students can access these websites to undertake some research into Chaim Rumkowski, the leader of the Jewish council in the Lodz ghetto.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/give-me-your-children-voices-from-the-lodz-ghetto
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/rumkowski.html
https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205839.pdf
For further information about Adam Czerniakow, the leader of the Jewish council in the Warsaw ghetto students can use these websites:
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/acdiary.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/adam-czerniakow
Additional resources for teachers:
Online classroom materials: ‘Jewish life in Warsaw before the Holocaust.’
These lessons are intended for students in Year 9 or above. They have been designed for student directed home study or teacher directed study, there are materials to support both approaches. We recommend that you divide the content into two manageable 40 minute lessons.
https://holocausteducation.org.uk/teacher-resources/post-it-online-courses/jewish-life-warsaw/
Online classroom materials: ‘Resistance and the Holocaust.’
These lessons are designed for self-study as part of KS3 History.
https://holocausteducation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Lesson-2-Fighting-Back.pdf
Online classroom materials: ‘The Warsaw ghetto uprising: exploring history, meaning and significance.’
This resource centres upon a specific event, the Warsaw ghetto uprising. The material is designed for use with students in KS3 and KS4.
Online classroom materials: ‘Janusz Korczak and the orphans of the Warsaw ghetto.’
This KS3 self-directed lesson supports learning in RS, Citizenship and History.
Online classroom materials: ‘The struggle to survive: resilience and resistance in the Warsaw ghetto.’
This self-directed lesson is for students in Year 9 and above, exploring survival, resilience and resistance in the Warsaw ghetto.
https://holocausteducation.org.uk/teacher-resources/post-it-online-courses/the-struggle-to-survive/
These articles and accompanying resources may assist teachers to facilitate the activity in this chapter that focusses upon Jewish councils in the ghettos.
https://www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-8/jewish-councils
https://www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-9/choiceless-choices
Further reading materials:
Langer. (1980) The Dilemma of choice in the Death Camps.
Berg, M. (2007) The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing up in the Warsaw ghetto. Oneworld.
Sem-Sandberg, S. (2011) The Emperor of Lies. Faber & Faber. (Historical fiction about Chaim Rumkowski and the Lodz ghetto).