Educational Material for teachers and guides
Download Educational Material to further the visitors knowledge of the exhibition. The material takes the form of a manuel to guides.
Moriah School Button Project
Read here about the Moriah school button project and their goal to collect 1.5 million buttons which represent the 1.5 million children who died in the Holocaust.
Pre and post exhibition activities
Pre exhibition activities
Put Anne Frank’s story in historical context. Background reading about WW2 is crucial in order to realise the impacts upon Anne and her family. This knowledge will also make for a much more enriching exhibition experience for your students.
There are many approaches you could take in preparation for your visit, and obviously there are a lot of links across the curriculum. You will know how best to integrate your visit with your selected subject and the needs of your students.
Here are just a few suggestions for some pre visit activities:
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Study 1939 Europe. Have a selection of WW2 books available for students to read. What was happening to Germany’s economy at this time? Why was Kristallnacht significant? Examine Hitler’s Mein Kampf, what was his ambition? Hitler’s intended victims were Jews, Slavs, Poles, Gypsies, and other ethnic groups who were different, in tradition and appearance from those Hitler regarded as pure blooded Germans. Discuss discrimination with your students. Have they as individuals ever been discriminated against?
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Build up a glossary of relevant words e.g. anti-Semitism, Nuremberg Laws, ghettos, the final solution, Gestapo, Nazi, concentration camp, ‘Germanization’,
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Map the Western European locations occupied by Germany; Holland, Poland, Czech Republic, etc. Find out which countries declared neutrality.
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Investigate time lines and how to extract and interpret information from them.
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Examine diaries, both modern & classic.
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Read Anne’s diary, either as a class or individually. How did Anne’s family manage to keep safe? Discuss the idea of friends helping to hide them. What dangers did those friends face? Draw comparisons with threatening situations people face today, for example Swine Flu. Would you assist a family who were in isolation because of it? Discuss the moral and ethical implications of such a scenario.
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Before going into hiding Anne’s family had to pack up their possessions. Discuss what items you would take with you in such a situation and why?
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Investigate Moriah School’s Button Project. This project is an attempt for students to visualise what 1.5 million looks like. This was the number of children who were killed in the Holocaust. How will your students visualise the 6 million Jews who perished? Perhaps you can encourage your students to bring a button to Anne’s Exhibition, and leave it there to assist with Moriah School’s goal. Follow the link for more information.
The Moriah School Button project is based on an earlier project completed by a school in the US. Eighth graders in Tennessee built a monument of paper clips to Jews lost in the Holocaust. Their initial goal was to collect 6 million paper clips; however they received over 20 million from all over the world. You can read about this Paper Clip Project by following the here
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Investigate typhoid and other diseases which posed risks in WW2.
At the exhibition
- Read excerpts from the diary
- Find 3 dates on Anne’s timeline. Be prepared to discuss why you chose those dates as being significant.
- Write a note to Anne and leave it at the exhibition….”What would you say to Anne if you had the opportunity?”
Post exhibition activities
Allow for lots of discussion about what the students saw.
Encourage students to:
- Keep a diary of their own.
- Use drama to portray a scene from the diary.
- Create their own timeline, with dates significant to them.
Lead discussions on the following:
In light of what you have learnt, if you could rewrite history, what changes would you make?
Do you think it was ethically correct of Anne’s father to publish Anne’s diary after the war? Why, why not? Students could debate this.
What are the social injustices in your community, your country, the world?
If you reside in Wellington arrange a visit to the Wellington Holocaust Education & Research Centre.
Students can have a guided tour, and meet with Holocaust survivors. Perhaps they have questions to ask them.
Suggested reading material
The Sneetches by Dr Seuss
This is a story about where prejudice can lead.
‘Sneetchland is populated by two types of Sneetches: the Star Belly Sneetches, born with a yellow star on their stomachs, and the Plain Belly Sneetches, born with no stars. The Star Belly Sneetches flaunt their belly stars as proof of their superiority and refuse to mix with the "inferior" Plain Bellies. They snub them at every occasion and prohibit their Star Belly children from playing with Plain Belly kids. The Plain Belly Sneetches, for their part, feel inferior to the Star Belly Sneetches and envy them their belly star status symbols. Everything changes when a clever man named McBean arrives with his Star-On-Off machine.’
Witnesses to War - Eight true-life stories of Nazi persecution by Michael Leapman.