PROCESS

Process

READ ALL OF THE FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING THE ASSIGNMENT.

Your assignment for this lesson will be to create a diary or journal that chronicles at least two weeks from your life.

Use the research worksheet given to you by your teacher and gather information that can help you write your diary. Pay especially close attention to information about attitudes and events that led to the Holocaust. Also, remember to keep track of where you found your information.

Start with these sites:

Read about the Holocaust in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's online encyclopedia.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005143

Read about "antisemitism" -- the hatred of Jews that led to the mass murder of millions of innocent people.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?ModuleId=10005175

Read the stories of Holocaust survivors.
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/phistories/

View objects from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's online exhibit.
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/hiddenchildren/artifact_gallery/

Now visit these sites to deepen your knowledge:

This is the link to the main page of the Unites States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Use the "Inside History" menu or the "What are you looking for?" search machine to find details for your journal entries.
http://www.ushmm.org

This is a link to Yad Vashem, a Holocaust Memorial in Israel. You can use the "Gates of Knowledge" menu on the left hand side of the page to find out more about what was going on during this period of history. http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/index_before_change_table.asp?GATE=Z&list_type=4-1&type_id=1&total=N

Use this timeline to find out more about the Nazi persecution of Jews and other minority groups.
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/timeline.html

After visiting the sites above, you will need to create your fictional journal or diary. Make sure your diary includes all of the following elements:

Mention of and description of at least four major events from this period in history.
No less than ten different entries covering ten different days. (You can have gaps between days to cover a longer period of time and to fit in the four major events.)
Background details that show what it might have been like to live during this time period.
Evidence of how a teenager might have felt about living during this time period.
Mention of attitudes -- both of the Nazis and those who did not necessarily agree with them but did nothing to stop them. Click here and consider the quote from Reverand Martin Niemöller who spent seven years in a Nazi concentration camp.

Visit the EVALUATION page for more details about how your finished product will be graded.

a sinti gypsy girl looking out from a deportation car

Westerbork, The Netherlands, a Sinti Gypsy Girl Looking Out from a Deportation Train Car, 15.5.1944
copyright Yad Vashem (www.yadvashem.org)