Resources for teachers

Holocaust – the Path to Genocide and its Stages

The wall of the ghetto in Warsaw, being constructed by Nazi German order in August 1940.
Holocaust – the Path to Genocide and its Stages

This lesson provides an introduction to the Holocaust, presenting the most important historical facts and helping students understand the stages leading to genocide.

Timeline of events - towards the genocide

30 January 1933
President of the Reich, Paul von Hindenburg
appoints Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany

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15 September 1935
Proclamation of the Nuremberg Laws at the Nazi Party Rally

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29 May 1938
In Hungary the first anti-Jewish decree comes in effect

 

In this lesson you will find:

  • Lesson plans exploring the Path to Genocide and its key stages, designed to support structured, thoughtful classroom discussion.

  • Animation Memento – a 30-second charcoal-drawing film that evokes one of the most tragic events in human history. As director Zoltán Szilágyi Varga notes, when we confront the Holocaust, “we stand before the distortion of human nature, without clear answers, despite all the research, the counted victims, and precise descriptions of the events.”

  • Webinar recordings presenting the complete educational kit and practical guidance on how to use these materials in teaching.

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Download all materials

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Article

Holocaust in Romania

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Webinar - Resources for history teachers: an educational kit about the Holocaust (M. Grądzka-Rejak)

The whole teaching package presented during the webinar refers to topic since 1933 and Hitler’s/the Nazi’s rise to power, through the mechanism of exclusion, the Second-World-War genocide, as well as post-war dilemmas and changes. Teachers can use it delivering different school courses as well as with students of different age and varied knowledge. The speaker tried to show how those difficult issues can be adopted or included in school curricula.

For more about the series of webinars: https://enrs.eu/edition/series-of-web...

Martyna Grądzka-Rejak, PhD, historian and educator, graduated from the Institute of History at the Pedagogical University in Krakow and the Department of Jewish Studies of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She currently works in the Warsaw Ghetto Museum as well as the Historical Research Office of the Institute of National Remembrance. Her research focuses on the history and culture of Polish Jews the Holocaust and wartime fate of Jewish women and families in particular. She has conducted research in the USA, Israel, Germany and Poland. Her doctoral thesis focuses on Jewish women in occupied Krakow (1939–1945). She has received several awards and scholarships, such as a scholarship from the Foundation for Polish Science and the Polish Prime Minister’s award. She was also a finalist of the Scientific Award of the Polityka weekly. She is the author of several articles and books.

Animation "Memento"

“Memento” (2016, 36 s)
Directed by: Zoltán Szilágyi Varga
Produced by: European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, House of the Wannsee Conference
Executive producer: Rózus Film
Funded by: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Poland), Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (Germany), Nord-Ost Institut
Partners: Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site and Museum, Foundation for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe

Other lessons

Lesson

Wannsee Conference (1942)