Anne Frank: 'Everything Changed For Us'

Summary

Discussion of the rights that we take for granted, comparing them to the rights lost by the Jews under Hitler.

Intended Learning Outcomes

To learn history from first-hand testimony.
To determine the types of discrimination that led to more acute persecution.
To understand the impact of majorities and minorities.
To understand the experience of Jews in Europe during the rise of the Nazis.
To understand the power of propaganda on public opinion.

Instructional Procedures

See preface material from 'Anne Frank in the World, 1929 - 1945 Teacher Workbook.' Make a list of activities that the students on the videotape could do before 1933 and after 1933. Why the change? What were the consequences? Discuss how people can be made to feel different. What techniques are used (i.e. exclusion. inferiority, physical fear)? Have students write about a time they were made to feel different and also when they were on the other side of the equation. Read or view other first hand accounts of times in history when people were made to feel like outsiders. Compare the methods and results. Are there any times when this behavior is acceptable? It is possible to have a local Holocaust survivor visit the classroom to 'finish the story' of what happened to Jewish children beyond the rise of the Nazis.