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Educational Materials for January 27
On January 27, 1945, Soviet forces liberated
the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, discovering the largest
Nazi killing center in Europe. Auschwitz has become a symbol of the
Holocaust, representing the depths of man's inhumanity to man.
Eighteen governments have legislated January 27 as an annual
Holocaust Memorial Day. Recently, the United Nations passed a
resolution to make January 27 an international day of commemoration
to honor the victims of the Holocaust and urged member states to
develop educational programs to impart the memory of this tragedy to
future generations.
Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies will be organized on the
international, national, regional and local levels, including in
universities and schools. This site has been developed in order to
help educators prepare ceremonies and lesson plans for middle school
and high school students.
Ceremonies
"Dear Diary, I Don't Want to Die". Ceremony for
grades 10-12. One-and-a-half million Jewish children were murdered in the
Holocaust, most of them with no one to perpetuate their memory or even their
name. This ceremony focuses on the life of these children. It combines excerpts
from the diaries of three children with poems and memoirs to create one
representative story.
For the ceremony,
click here.
The Image of Humanity in the Shadow of
Death. Ceremony for grades 7-9. This resource is designed to
highlight responses of Jewish people trapped in the inhuman
conditions within ghettos that had been created by Nazi Germany.
Based on diaries and survivor testimonies, the voices of Jews
who attempted to maintain their humanity in the face of unprecedented
inhumanity will be highlighted. Many Jewish people in ghettos
proved that the human spirit cannot be broken despite the most
insurmountable circumstances. For
the ceremony,
click here.
Lesson Plans
The Lives of Jewish Children During the Holocaust As Reflected in
Their Diaries. Lesson plan for grades 10-12. This lesson plan
contains selected excerpts from the diaries of five children who
lived and perished in the Holocaust. Through these diary entries, we
will highlight some central stages many Jewish European children
experienced: their pre-war existence; initial Nazi occupation;
anti-Jewish decrees – the “badge of shame”, economic policies and
disruption of schools; closure into ghettos or forced into hiding;
daily life in the ghetto. For the lesson plan,
click here.
Compassion within the Ghetto Walls.
Lesson plan for grades 7-9. Trapped behind ghetto walls, the Jews of
the Warsaw Ghetto suffered from starvation and the Nazi decrees
designed to dehumanize them. Jews, however, found many ways to help
each other through these difficult times. This lesson plan will
highlight some of the organizations that were established to
coordinate social welfare activities. For the
lesson plan, click here.
Map: Holocaust Commemoration in Europe
From this map, you can access information about educational
activities and resources for Holocaust commemoration in different
European countries. To view the map,
click here.
Guidelines for Holocaust Commemoration
These draft guidelines on preparing Holocaust Memorial Day have been developed by Yad Vashem
and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in an effort to
help support educators who are interested in developing programs, ceremonies and
lesson plans connected with Holocaust Remembrance Days in their respective
countries. This provisional version of the guidelines, including various
examples and educational strategies, is currently in draft form.
For Guidelines in English, click here.
For Guidelines in French,
click here.
For Guidelines in Russian,
click here.
For Guidelines in Flemish,
click here.
For Guidelines in Italian,
click here.
Ceremony in Croatian and in Polish
The Image of Humanity in the Shadow of
Death. Ceremony for grades 7-9. For the ceremony in Croatian,
click here.
The Image of Humanity in the Shadow of
Death. Ceremony for grades 7-9. For the ceremony in Polish,
click here.
Related Items
Online Resource Center for International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Additional Ceremonies and Lesson Plans
Holocaust Resource Center
Online Exhibition - The Auschwitz Album
Online Exhibition - Private Tolkatchev at the Gates of Hell
Online Exhibition - Nuremberg Trials
Your feedback on this site is important to us. Please send your
comments to: internet.education@yadvashem.org.il
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