Section 6: Teachers' Notes

Before beginning this task, you may wish to ask students how they define the difference between what is legal and what is just.  The discussion points are probably best undertaken first in small groups then followed up with a whole class discussion.

This is a fairly straightforward task although some of the subjects mentioned are highly controversial such as abortion, homosexuality and fox-hunting.  The topics are deliberately provocative and students should be reminded of the ground rules for discussion established at the beginning of using this resource.

This is a basic literacy task.  The correct answer is available on the following page.

There is a picture to open this activity.  It is the burning of the Reichstag.  The activity is a test of factual memory based on Activity 3 above.  It can be undertaken in small groups or as a whole class depending on the teacher’s preference.

This is a straightforward literacy based task.  If you are not working on-line, you may wish to reproduce this page on A3 paper, cut the statements up and allow students to sequence them by actually moving them around.  This will make it easier for students with literacy difficulties.  The correct order is on the following page.

This is a straightforward cloze task.  For more able students, they can work out the missing words.  For less able, the missing words are on the next page.

This information is similar to that presented in Section 1 – Purpose of the Racial Laws.  If you have covered that section thoroughly you may wish to use this just as a reminder.  If you have not covered that section, you may want to discuss the purpose and effect of these laws in some detail.  It is worth drawing to students’ attention that all these laws were introduced before the war.

The picture illustrates the new laws about passports showing the letter ‘J’ for Jew.  The purpose of this identification was to categorise citizens according to their race as defined by the Nazis government.

These activities stimulate discussion about identity.  You could extend the activity about names by asking students to discuss the origins of their own names; what their names tell us about who they are; where they or their family are from or why they were named as they were; how they feel about their name; how they would feel if the government made them add something new to their name etc.  The identity and symbols activity is a starter task to prepare for the fuller discussion to follow.

This discussion task is probably best started in small groups before coming together as a whole class for feedback.

This task introduces new concepts such as democracy and dictatorship.  These terms have been introduced in Section 2 An Enquiry into Fascism but if you have not covered the sections sequentially you may not have touched on these terms yet with your group.  It is recommended, therefore, that you refer back to this section in order to introduce the concepts within the context of fascism and anti-fascism.  For students with a high levels of political literacy, they may be able to tackle this first task without the help sheet that is available on the next page.  You will need sugar paper and felt pens for students to design their posters illustrating their understandings of these terms.

This is quite a difficult task.  There is a useful website that will assist students in this activity but they will need to be students who have quite high levels of literacy in order to access the information on the website, process it then reproduce it in diagrammatic form.  If your students do not have these literacy skills, organise learning support for them if it is available or skip the task with them!

This task introduces the concept of the Holocaust. The word ‘Holocaust’ means sacrifice or destruction by fire.  It refers to the mass murder of millions of people by the Nazis, specifically but not exclusively Jews. 

There are two versions of this text.  The first is the full version; the second is an edited version.  You may choose to use the second either because of time restrictions or the concentration/literacy skills of your students.  The discussion activities to follow can be used with either version.

The activity introduces the concept of internment.  You may wish to explain this with reference to the glossary.

These activities require a basic understanding of the concept of internment.  If you have chosen not to work through Activity no.14  you will need to explain briefly the fact that Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria and Italy were imprisoned without trial for National Security reasons.  The following up activity to the discussion task is picture based and should be accessible to most students.

As well as introducing the idea of refugees today being interned by European authorities for entering illegally, this activity also introduces the post September 11th anti-terrorist legislation.  Although this is not related to the story of refugees from Nazi Germany, it should broaden students’ understanding of the concept of internment and its ethical implications.

The chart puts forward the arguments for and against detaining asylum seekers.  For a very able, well informed group of students you may ask them to come up with these arguments themselves before hand.   Again, for able students, you may want to ask them to write up these arguments in the form of a discursive essay.  The purpose of this task is for them to relate the different positions back to the Declaration of Human Rights.

This task requires high level reading and concentration skills.  A suggested approach would be for each half of a group or the class to read a different article then report back to the other half what they have learned.  The discussion points can flow from there.   The discussion activities following on from the reading can be done without the reading having been completed.  For the first question, however, to prevent ignorant and bigoted positions being articulated (as they may be by some), refer students back wherever necessary to the ground rules established:  “Everyone has the responsibility to support an opinion with evidence.”