Develop knowledge and understanding:
To deepen student knowledge and challenge common misunderstandings, in this chapter they will learn:
- Why the Nazis created death camps, where these were located, and how European Jews were murdered in them.
- That people all across Europe knew that Jews were being murdered.
Challenge myths and misconceptions:
Here is a summary of the key myths and misconceptions that we identified in our research and that we are aiming to challenge through this textbook chapter content and its supporting materials:
- The killing of Jews was done secretly in remote locations
- Concentration camps and death camps were the same thing
- Auschwitz was the only camp where Jews were murdered
Should you choose to share these with students it is very important to be clear that these are false statements and they need to be taught about with sensitivity and skill.
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 Think About p.60: Students can access this website to undertake further research into the deportations from the Greek islands of Kos and Rhodes:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/greece
Support for Activity p.62: ‘What is the value of the photograph (figure 4.15)? Why is it significant? What questions does it raise?’
This article on the Yad Vashem website will provide teachers with additional details and context about the Auschwitz Birkenau crematoria images. It will help you to explore the significance of these images with your students, as important evidence and as examples of resistance. We would not recommend that you share this resource in full with your students as the series of images in an enlarged view could be distressing for young people and the language of the article is challenging.
https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/general/epicenter-horror-photographs-sonderkommando.html
Additional resources for students:
To find out more about ‘the Final Solution’, students can undertake further research using these recommended websites:
https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/how-and-why/how/creation-of-extermination-camps/
https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/how-and-why/how/genocide-in-action-1941-1945/
Additional resources for teachers:
Online CPD course – Authentic Encounters with the Holocaust: A starting point for teachers. Through the story of Leon Greenman and his family learn more about deportations from Western Europe to Auschwitz-Birkenau:
Open access lesson materials: ‘What was a Nazi concentration camp?’
Explore Nazi concentration camps further with your students using our open access lesson materials. This series of 3 lessons explore:
- What was a concentration camp?
- The German public and Nazi concentration camps
- The first SS concentration camp: How did Dachau change between 1933 and 1945?
https://holocausteducation.org.uk/lessons/open-access/what-was-a-nazi-concentration-camp/
Open access lesson materials: ‘Ordinary Things’: Provides a way of starting a series of lesson on the Holocaust and introduces Auschwitz Birkenau.
https://holocausteducation.org.uk/lessons/open-access/ordinary/
Further reading materials:
Cesarani, D. (2016) Final Solution: The fate of the Jews 1933 – 49. Macmillan.
Kershaw, I. (2008) Hitler, the Germans and the Final Solution. Yale University Press.
Rees, L. (2005) The Nazis: A Warning from History. BBC Books.
Rees, L. (2017) The Holocaust: A New History. Penguin.