Digital Learning and Teaching about the Holocaust: S1 and S2
Introduction
• The aim of this work was to explore ways in which Holocaust education could
be supported and enhanced by the use of digital approaches to learning and
teaching;
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It was anticipated that the nature of that ‘support’ would involve some form of
networking that would enable learners and teachers to access information and
resources and collaborate in its use;
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The assumed benefits included anywhere anytime access; flexibility in
allowing or restricting access to resources to better target learning needs;
speedy adaptability of resources to meet individual or group learning needs;
enhanced learning through ongoing dialogue.
Holocaust Education and the Digital
This resource did not aim to replicate the digital resources and approaches that
already exist. Holocaust education is richly supported through digital provision as the
following sites illustrate:
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Holocaust Memorial Day Trust http://hmd.org.uk/
Holocaust Educational Trust http://www.het.org.uk/
Anne Frank Trust http://www.annefrank.org.uk/
Imperial War Museum http://www.iwm.org.uk/exhibitions/iwm-london/theholocaust-exhibition
The National Holocaust Centre http://www.nationalholocaustcentre.net/
USHMM http://www.ushmm.org/learn/holocaust-encyclopedia
Yad Vashem http://www.yadvashem.org/
The Holocaust Explained http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/
Centre for Holocaust Education http://www.holocausteducation.org.uk/
The Technology
• The resource has been constructed around Microsoft SharePoint
o SharePoint is cloud based (i.e. its online and the content is stored on a
Microsoft server)
o SharePoint is web based (i.e. you are creating a website that can be
accessed on a range of devices; you can incorporate applications, for
example some of the common ones you find in social media such as
discussion forums, into the site)
o SharePoint is a content management system (i.e. it allows you to
manage digital content such as video, images or documents, in a range
of ways)
Note: there are a number of such systems, with different features, available to
schools. This resource, for example, was originally constructed on EDU 2.0.
The Structure of the Resource
The resource is structured around school years S1 to S5 in a manner that builds on
prior learning as learners moved from stage to stage, or year to year in their school
career.
In S1 learners should be able to DESCRIBE the experiences of one Holocaust
survivor; ACCESS further information about the Holocaust from a reliable website;
take part in an ONLINE DISCUSSION around a particular feature of the learning
experience. This is informed by an exploration of the experiences of one Holocaust
Survivor called Josef Perl.
Screenshot S1: Josef Perl
The resource contains the following elements:
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What was the Holocaust: a definition (web link)
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/16690175)
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Jewish life before the war (a video of Josef Perl describing his early life)
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A Short and Long version of Josef’s experiences during the war, summarised
from his book ‘Faces in the Smoke’) and presented in pdf format
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A map of Europe during the Holocaust (locating this places referred to by
Josef)
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Josef’s journey during the war (a video of Josef describing his travels from
one camp to another)
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Find out more about Josef (a web link to his family website)
(http://www.josefperl.com/)
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Teacher Notes (in Word format, supporting use of the resource)
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SURVEY (an online learner survey from which the teacher can evaluate prior
understanding of the Holocaust to guide how the resource should be adapted)
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HELPSHEET (learner helpsheet in Word format)
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A web link to the Anne Frank Trust site (i.e. focusing on one Holocaust related
site from a reliable and reputable organisation)
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THE FORUM (learner and teacher discussion area)
The S2 resource introduces the experiences of Holocaust survivor Freddie Knoller,
from which learners can COMPARE and CONTRAST the experiences of two
survivors; begin to understand how the Holocaust is DEFINED in different ways; and
introduces the terms PERPETRATOR and BYSTANDER.
Screenshot S2: Freddie Knoller
In S3 learners explore the Holocaust from the perspective of the French Jews; in S4
that exploration focuses on Holland; by S5 learners are encountering the place of
Auschwitz in Holocaust.
Digital Learning and Teaching about the Holocaust: S3 and S4
This digital approach to Holocaust learning and teaching in S1 and S2 is
underpinned by a number of principles:
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The resource should encompass aspects of Jewish life before, during and
after the Holocaust
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Personal stories should be emphasised
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The resource should be age appropriate and inter-disciplinary in its
application
In S3 and S4 the resource was further adapted to:
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Explore aspects of the Holocaust in different European countries and the
difference that context made
Introduce the perpetrators/collaborators/bystanders/rescuers framework that
provides a multiple-perspectives study of the Holocaust
Screenshot S3: The French Experience of the Holocaust
The experiences of Josef Perl are a common thread running through the resource.
The constant availability of all resources from S1 to S5, including transcripts of forum
conversations, means that these can be revisited and further adapted as learners in
S3 are introduced to the next part of their learning journey.
Forum use is assumes a greater role in the learning experience by S3 with the
following learning discussions taking place:
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Whohelped(RESCUERS)MarieBienstockescapefromoccupiedFrance?
WhoaretheBYSTANDERSinSusanWarsinger'sstory?
WhoarethePERPETRATORSinReneeTully'sstory?
Resources
Video materials were sourced from Yad Vashem and appear on its YouTube
Channel. These were incorporated into the SharePoint site due to the streaming
video resources not being enabled on the school network.
Where images were used on the site these were sourced from teacher visits to
respective sites and rights to use granted under a creative commons license.
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses
that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work. A CC
license is used when an author wants to give people the right to share, use,
and build upon a work that they have created. CC provides an author flexibility
(for example, they might choose to allow only non-commercial uses of their
own work) and protects the people who use or redistribute an author's work
from concerns of copyright infringement as long as they abide by the
conditions that are specified in the license by which the author distributes the
work.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license
This is an example of the kind of material that is enhanced through digital access.
This writing was scratched on the walls of the cells in which Jews were imprisoned in
the Ninth Fort.
The Ninth Fort in Kaunas, Lithuania was originally built as a defensive fortress
in the years 1901–1913. During the Nazi occupation, over 50,000 people were
executed there, including over 30,000 Jews and over 10,000 foreigners.
Source: http://www.gutstein.net/kaunas/kaunas-ninthfort.htm
A translation exercise in this section also allows learners to collaborate online to
investigate the source of a letter and translate its contents into English.
This was the last letter written by Marc Blum as he was deported from Drancy to
Auschwitz.
Marc Moise Blum a sa famille 11 aout 1944
Le 11/08/1944
A Gaston Vachon
Haute-Loire
Mes chers. Je suis dans le train de Vittel pour ou?? Je ne vous oblie pas.
J’espere que tout va bien pur vous. Courage et confiance. Je vous reverrai
tous s’il plait a Dieu. Mon moral est excellent dans cette epreuve. Nous
sommmes bien traites. Vive la France. Ne vous en faites pas pour mois et
gardez-moi toute votre affection. Je vous jure que ce n’est pas par imprudence
que je suis la. Je vous embrasse tous tres fort.
Marc
From Lettres de Drancy, Antoine Sabbagh, 2002, Page 345. Marc Moise Blum wrote
this letter to his family and threw it from the train that was deporting him on the 11th
August to 1944. He was taken to Auschwitz and killed there.
The S4 resource takes a similar approach and focuses on the Dutch experience of
the Holocaust.
Screenshot S4: The Dutch Experience of the Holocaust
Digital Learning and Teaching about the Holocaust: S5
Screenshot S3: Poland and the Holocaust
At S5 the resource explores the Holocaust through the experience of Auschwitz.
The definition of the Holocaust presented to learners is that from the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum. Learners can compare and contrast this definition with
those they were exposed to in earlier years.
The resource begins, as the S1-S4 areas did, by refreshing learner knowledge of the
experiences of Josef Perl.
The range of resources that learners then encounter allow them to explore and
discuss in the forum a range of questions around the role of Auschwitz:
The SURVEY in this section can be used to evaluate how learner understanding of
the Holocaust has developed from S1 to S5.