Henry J. Brajkovic
First Lesson
: World War II Map
Activities: (Geography Lesson)
The students have two maps of Europe in their textbook “American History” (Fifth Edition) by Jack Abramowitz. The first map they should look over is on page 632 entitled “Europe before World War II 1939”. The second map that the students should study and compare with the first map is on page 650 entitled “Europe After World War II 1949”.
It is suggested that the teacher make copies of the following map in this unit and to hand them out to the students at the beginning of the lesson.
The students should first study the map of Europe in 1939 in their textbook. The teacher should direct them to fill in the following items on their blank map:
Bodies of Water:
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-Mediterranean Sea
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-Atlantic Ocean
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-Black Sea
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-Baltic Sea
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-North Sea
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-Caspian Sea
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-Adriatic Sea
-Western European Countries:
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-England
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-Denmark
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-occupied France
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-Vichy France
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-Italy
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-Belgium
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-Holland
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-Germany
Central and Eastern Europe:
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-indicate where Poland was
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-Slovakia
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-Hungary
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-Rumania
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-Bulgaria
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-U.S.S.R.
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parts of:
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-Russia
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-White Russia
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-Ukraine
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-Transnistria (territory added to Rumania on the Black Sea)
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-Serbia
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-Croatia
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-Greece
Cities: (underline the following)
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-London
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-Paris
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-Vichy
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-Rome
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-Berlin
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-Warsaw
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-Leningrad
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-Moscow
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-Vilna
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-Budapest
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-Bucharest
Middle East
:
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-Palestine
The teacher may select, add or omit items from the above list.
(figure available in print form)
Second Lesson:
Learning concepts
Since this is a unit that falls within the scope of the study of World War II, the following concepts would be helpful to the student to understand this topic.
1. Choose words that would cover the ideological and historical background of the Nazi Era.
Example:
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(a) definition of words
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-Volksdeutscher (German settlers)
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-Nazi
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-nationalist
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-Nazism
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-nationalism
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-Master Race
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-patriotism
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-subhumans
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-superiority (attitude)
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-The Big Lie
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-propaganda
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-ethnic minorities
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-Anschluss (annexation)
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-Chancellor
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-ghetto
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-Prime Minister or Premier
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-quisling
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-collaborator
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-Lebensraum (living space)
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-neutrality
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-dictator
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-The Fuehrer (The Leader)
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-Sieg Heil!
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-Reichstag (Legislature)
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-Kristallnacht (Night of the
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-Judenrat (Jewish Council)
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Broken Glass)
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-concentration camp
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-detention camp
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-extermination camp
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-crematorium
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-pogrom
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-shtetl (a small Jewish town)
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-deportation
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-resettlement
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-Mischling (mixed Jew)
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-hostage
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-Holocaust
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-The Final Solution
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-appeasement
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-Wehrmacht (German army)
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-SS Troops
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-Einsatzgruppen (Security Police)
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-Jewish Pale
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-anti-Semite
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-Semite
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-Aryan
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-Arganization
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-prejudice
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-intolerance
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-identification
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-immigrants
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-emigrant
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-refugee
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-escapee
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-Star of David
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-cooperation
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-laborers
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-kapo (trustee in a camp)
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-persecution
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-survivor
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-massacre
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-uprising
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-resistance
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-partisan (Guerrilla fighter)
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The teacher may select, from the above list of words, items for a spelling or a definition test.
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2. Homework assignment: Students can look up the following individuals and write short biographies of each.
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(b) Persons to know:
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-Adolf Hitler
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-Menahem Begin
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-Reinhard Heydrich
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-Elie Wiesel
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-Heinrich Himmler
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-Simon Wiesenthal
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-Adolf Eichmann
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-Anne Frank
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Third Lesson
: Class discussion
Students might want to know why there wasn’t more Jewish resistance to Germany’s “Final Solution”. The teacher might ask the students to put themselves in the place of Jews living in ghettos patrolled by an army that had conquered half of Europe and seemed on the brink of defeating Russia.
The following are questions the teacher could ask the students to stimulate class discussion:
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1. How would you react if you saw the enemy soldiers appear suddenly on your street? What would you do?
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2. What would you do if your neighborhood was surrounded by the enemy troops blocking your way out?
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3. What would you do if soldiers with rifles and sub-machine guns knocked on your door ordering you to come out?
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4. Ask the students to name some of the concentration camps that they have heard of. Some possible answers are: in Germany: Dachau, Buchenwald, Ravensbruck, Mauthausen, Theresienstadt, Bergen-Belsen.
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The teacher could point out the location of these camps, mentioned above, on the classroom map. Example: Dachau near Munich, Germany; or Sachsenhausen near Berlin, Germany.
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5. The teacher could ask the students to name some of the extermination camps that they have heard of. Some possible answers are: in occupied Poland: Treblinka, Chelmno, Auschwitz, Maidanek, Sobibor, Belzec. The teacher could again point out the location of these camps, mentioned above, on the classroom map. Example: Auschwitz, west of Cracow, Poland; or Treblinka, northeast of Warsaw, Poland.
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6. If you were to be deported, what items would you take with you? How would you feel if you were forbidden from taking them?
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7. If you were to resist deportation, how would you go about it?
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8. If you were a ghetto dweller, how would you try to escape?
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9. Can you imagine what life was like in the ghettos?
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10. Would you have helped the Jews in such dangerous times?
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11. Would you have hidden the Jews in your house?
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12. Would you smuggle food and medicine into the ghetto?
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13. How would you try to survive if you were in a concentration camp where you are put to work long hours?
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14. How would you have organized resistance against the Germans in the camps?
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15. Would you, at any time, refuse to help the Jews? Why?
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16. Having studied about the Holocaust, do you think the Jews could have saved themselves from mass destruction? How? (if answer is yes)