Develop knowledge and understanding:
To deepen student knowledge and challenge common misunderstandings, in this chapter they will learn:
- About when and how the Holocaust ended.
Challenge myths and misconceptions:
Our 2016 student research showed that students had limited knowledge and understanding about how and why the Holocaust ended. Only 46.1% of students surveyed correctly knew that the end of the Holocaust came as a result of the Allied liberation of lands occupied by the German army.
Access the research briefing that is relevant to this textbook chapter content here:
Research briefing 3: An unfolding genocide
Suggested activities:
Further enquiry – Students can access this website to find out more about the death marches and to hear a short film of survivor testimony:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/death-marches
Additional resources for students:
To find out more about the death marches and the liberation of the camps, students can undertake further research using these recommended websites:
https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/how-and-why/how/death-marches-1944-1945/
https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/how-and-why/how/liberation-1944-1945/
Additional resources for teachers:
Online lesson materials, assemblies and tutor time activities: Belsen 75 project resource pack:
The Bergen-Belsen 75th anniversary programme aimed to provide young people in England with the chance to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the discovery of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by British troops on the 15th April 1945, of the events that led to liberation, and of its aftermath. This resource pack supported that programme. It contains a series of resources to help teachers to deliver this history in an authentic and sensitive way.
https://www.belsen75.org.uk/resources/
Online lesson materials: ‘Then and Now: Exploring the Dimbleby dispatch.’
This series of self-study lessons focus upon the now famous radio broadcast made by Richard Dimbleby in the days after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The sessions encourage students to develop English language skills and enhance media literacy.
Find out more about the liberation of Bergen – Belsen here through a range of articles and interviews relating to the Belsen 75 project. These include interviews with Mala Tribich who shares her experiences of Bergen-Belsen and its liberation and Jonathan Dimbleby who reflects upon his father Richard’s famous dispatch and it contemporary significance: