Learning Exercises
1. Recreate a discussion between Eichmann and the District Commissioner about the need to increase the capacity of the Lodz ghetto from 160,000 to 180,000.
2. Invite a Holocaust survivor to speak to your class or view a video of an interview.
3. Define the following words using their dictionary definition, and construct another definition, using the Nazi context where appropriate:
- murder
- slaughter
- pogrom
- killing
- genocide
- massacre
- liquidation
- decimation
- extermination
- Holocaust
- euthanasia
- deportation
- execution
- persecution
- mass murder
- assassination
- terrorism
What do these words have in common?
What words above are interchangeable?
Which are euphemisms?
Which may be condoned (and under which circumstances) and which may not?
Why is there sensitivity among scholars, teachers, Holocaust survivors, and perpetrators about how these words are used?
4. Research Simon Wiesenthal’s account of the capture of Eichmann.
5. Research the American’s government’s resettlement policy with respect to Japanese Americans during World War II.
6. Find out information about immigration bills which are pending in the U.S. Congress.
7. Research how your home-town newspaper covered the Eichmann capture, trial, verdict, and sentence, and compare this to how these events were covered in national newspapers and regional Jewish newspapers.
Teaching strategies
1. U.S. immigration policy, both toward political refugees and immigrants who are not threatened with persecution, is a perennial topic in national domestic policy.
Have students research what legislation is pending in the U.S. Congress on immigration policy, and have students discuss what values and prejudices, if any, are being expressed in these bills.
2. Have the students discuss the activities of groups and individuals in the United States that provide sanctuary for illegal immigrants who were persecuted in El Salvador, and the efforts of the U.S. government to enforce immigration laws.
Engage students in a discussion of the concept of civil disobedience. Under what circumstances do students feel that civil disobedience is justified?
3. Educate students about acts of genocide which occurred in Bosnia, Rwanda, and other places around the world. Discuss why the United Nations, the United States, and other countries and organizations are ill-equipped to combat this continuing Man’s Inhumanity to Man.
by Gary Grobman
copyright © 1997 Gary M. Grobman
Note: Material in all capital letters is copyrighted by other individuals/organizations.
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