Nazi Genocide
 

Educational Support Notes

Nazi Genocide: The Spoken Recollections of West Midlands Survivors 1923-1996 is a collection of original sound recordings made and edited by Doreen Price with sponsorship by the Millennium Festival Awards for All. The original tapes from which these edited pages have been produced are held in the City Sound Archive at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham B3 3DH.

The long history of the Jews is extraordinary because they retained their identity from their final conquest by the Romans in 132 AD until the creation of Israel in 1948. They were welded together by their religion, its laws and traditions. Centuries of oppression and exclusion reinforced their identification as Jews.

At the beginning of the 20th century the majority of Europe's ten million Jews lived in Eastern europe, mainly in the Polish and Ukranian provinces of the Russian Empire. This is their story, told by some of the survivors of the Second World War.

The oral histories follow six main themes: 'Prologue to the holocaust in Germany and Austria'; 'Twentieth century diaspora'; 'Refuge and assimilation'; 'War and conquest'; 'Liberation and exodus'; 'The enduring sacrifice'. Each theme is presented through six chapters in both transcript and audiostream format. Additional screens support the context of these histories together with a Time Chart and information about the contributors.

Listed below are a few ideas to help you get the best from this invaluable resource. The list is by no means exhaustive so if you have any ideas of your own that you would like to share then please drop us a line at history@bgfl.org and we can add them to this page.

Some ideas for activities

The Rise of Naziism
  1. What evidence is there for the reasons for Hitler's rise to power? Use the FIND command to search for evidence (Try words like "inflation" and " unemployment") and write the reasons in your own words.
  2. Read / listen to the accounts of Berta S..., Walter S..., and Jack D... What do they tell you about how Jewish children were treated by non-Jews in the 1920s? What different reactions were there to this treatment?
  3. Listen to the extract by Walter S... and role play the incident when the Jewish lads were told they were not allowed in the handball team finals.
  4. Listen to Henry K... Why did Jewish people in Germany think that anti-semitism was just a phase?
  5. "Not all German people were prejudiced against Jewish people." Listen to the statements of Kurt R..., Jack D... and Walter S... What evidence is there to support the above statement?
  6. Draw up a list/timeline of laws against the Jews. Match a set of statements taken from the statements with the timeline. This would be a good thinking skills activity but would take quite a bit of careful thought and time for it to work.
  7. Listen to Henry K..., Hetty L... and Jack D... Why didn't Jewish people leave Germany? Use the FIND command by looking up the words: roots, flee, immigrants.
  8. Role play an argument between Hetty and her father, with Hetty trying to convince him to leave Germany. Be clear about Hetty's reasons for wanting to go and her father's reasons for wanting to stay.
  9. Hetty L... said that she felt she "was dancing on the edge of an abyss". Discuss what this means and reflect upon why she said it. Then produce a poem, dance, piece of music or piece of art that reflects this. (This will need a lot of discussion in the classroom so that all pupils have come to some understanding of the meaning of her statement)

Part 2 - Twentieth century Diaspora
  1. Compare the situation of Jewish children going to Britain in the 1930s to escape Nazi Germany with the situation of evacuees. How were their situations similar? How were they different? (A comparison grid and some sentence starters using the language of comparison would be useful here.)
  2. Draw a grid with the children's names or, better still, portraits on. Fill in a grid to compare their different experiences. This may well be better before question 1. Things that the pupils could find out involve: different ways of getting to England, how old the children were, what the journey was like, their destination, first thoughts, their experiences.

Part 3 - Refuge and Assimilation

  1. Listen to Gina G...'s account. Write a letter home, describing your experiences.
  2. On the whole, were the experiences of the Jewish refugees in Britain good or bad. Give your reasons.
  3. What was it like to be a refugee in Birmingham in the 1930s?
  4. Compare the experiences of refugees in the 1930s with that of refugees today.

Parts 4,5 and 6
  1. Listen to the accounts of Kitty H..., Geoff F..., Lola M... and Mindu H..., who experienced the concentration camps and the ghetto. What is the main feeling that Holocaust survivors have. Why do you think this is?
  2. What attitude did the Jewish soldiers have towards the Germans?
  3. What happened to the different people when the war ended?

Other ideas
  1. Trace the lives of two of the Jewish people. Compare and contrast their experiences (one a refugee, one a concentration camp survivor).
  2. Read Lola M...'s experience. It is very powerful.


A very special acknowledement goes to Doreen Price who conducted the research and created the original resource. It is with gratitude, and thanks to her generosity, that the BGfL is able to present this material as a unique and significant teaching and learning experience.

A limited number of resource packs which contain a set of audio cds together with a booklet of transcripts is available for eligible schools by email application to: history@bgfl.org
Start Activiy Start the Activity