Section 2: Teachers' Notes

The first part of this section is a series of questions and definitions.  Rather than simply reading through these, a more interactive method is as follows:

Print out the questions and definitions and enlarge them to A3 when you photocopy them.  Cut them up so the questions and answers are divided.  Split the class into two groups. Distribute the questions to one group and the definitions to the other.  Students then walk around the room and trying to match the questions with the answers.  Note that the question 'What are the features of fascist systems?' has 4 answers.  Make clear to the students that one question, requires more than one answer. The group given the answers, should ideally be slightly larger than those with the questions.

After 5-10 minutes, pairs of students report back their questions and answers to the whole class - ideally this will be done from memory.   Altogether there are 13 statements about fascism.  In an average class you would probably need to reproduce some of the questions and definitions more than once.

Some terms in this activity may be new to your students.  Eg. state; ultra; nationalist; anti; communist; socialist; liberal; democratic.  It is worthwhile exploring these terms as they are significant in developing students’ political literacy.  You may wish to refer to the definitions in the glossary.  You could make posters to display in the classroom explaining the meaning of these terms.  This will support the literacy development of all and is a worthwhile National Literacy Strategy word-level task.

This activity relies on understanding the concept of ‘institutions’.  You may wish to refer to the glossary for this or beforehand brainstorm different public institutions.

Allow opportunities both for small group and whole class discussion of this activity.

Again, these activities rely on political terminology.  You may wish to use the glossary to support this work. 

The task “Nationalism is exclusive by definition” What do you understand this to mean and do you agree? is challenging and requires students to be able to discuss abstract concepts at quite a high level.  If this does not suit your group, leave it out.

The first question in this section asks students to identify the lies told by the Nazi party.  It is expected that they have covered some of this in Section 1 – An Enquiry into Racism.  If they have not covered this section, then you may wish students to rely on general knowledge or you could use this as an investigation task.  It is recommended, however, to direct students to Section 1 to find out more, hence the hyperlink.

‘What if you disobeyed?’ activity.  Again, it is expected students have completed Section 1 covering the Nuremburg Laws in order to answer this question.  If they have not worked through the sections sequentially, this is a good place to introduce these laws.  There is a hyperlink accordingly.

In a television documentary about the Stanford Prison experiment (that in its entirety is not suitable for students below Year 11) there is an extract from the Milgram experiment.  If you can get hold of this it would enhance this activity as the students would be able to watch part of the experiment conducted.

When analysing the impact of the experiment, one of the questions requires an understanding of the differences between literal and metaphorical language.  You may wish to explain this difference using terms such as ‘concrete’ and ‘abstract’ but for some students this may confuse them further.  The language should not interfere with the concepts so if the language seems too formal, make it colloquial.

This introduces the notion of Trade Unionists.  You may wish to refer to the glossary for a definition before beginning this activity.

This activity introduces the overlap between Jews and Communists. Many significant Communist activists were Jewish and the connection between the two groups was played on by the Nazis in their propaganda against both.  It is expected that the discussion arising from this task should raise this issue.  It has not been covered in detail in this resource but some awareness of the connection is worth mentioning.  The purpose of this activity is to clarify that the Nazi regime persecuted people who were political opponents as well as those who did not fit their racial ideology.  Some people, as this activity illustrates, fitted both.

If you can get a copy of the BBC film "Conspiracy" this would be an excellent time to view it since reference is made in this section to it.

This activity makes reference to 'genocide'.  You may want to use the glossary to define this term before or during this activity.

This activity introduces the idea of a scapegoat. You may wish to elaborate on this from a Religious Studies perspective exploring the origins of the term.

This activity relies on students having completed the "Purpose of the Racial Laws' activity in Section 1. If they have not worked through the resource sequentially they can now complete this activity. If you are not working online it would be good to have copies available of the "Purpose of the Racial Laws - Activity and Answer Pages".

The term 'Homosexual' is used in this activity because this is how the Nazis categorised this group.   The word 'Gay' is used afterwards in square brackets to suggest a more appropriate term for today since 'homosexual' can be regarded as derogatory. 

The round brackets for the word 'gypsy' after the use of the terms 'Romani / Sinti,  however, do not suggest more appropriate terminology but act as a short-hand for clarifying understandings with students.  In this case, the terms Romani/Sinti are more appropriate.

If you are working off-line it would be good to enlarge the image of the map to A3 , to have the place names cut up on paper and glue available with which to stick them on.

This activity also introduces concepts such as ‘nation’ and ‘state’.  You may wish to explore these terms before, during or after the tasks.  The purpose of this work is to teach the students the differences and similarities between these concepts and whilst you may wish to refer to the glossary, it is hoped they will reach some understandings themselves through the process of the task.

Stage 2 is difficult and requires students to operate at an abstract level.  You may want to miss this stage for students who find it difficult to learn in this way.

The final activity (stage 4) should result in students being introduced to the concept of ‘multiple identities’.  You may wish to introduce the term ‘pluralism’ meaning multiple.  You could link it to the use in language studies of ‘plurals’ meaning more than one.  A pluralist society is one where all people’s differences are respected, valued and tolerated.  You may wish to engage students in discussing how Nazi society tried to destroy its pluralism.