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concentration camp, Ghetto, Sinti and Roma

key data

details
place/state: United Kingdom of Great Britain
SCHOOL: Broadwater School, Godalming, Surrey
TEACHER: Owen G. Scott
age group: 16 years and older
Country/ Countries: United Kingdom
subject: History

learning activities
Interpreting historical images
Interpreting historical texts
Oral history
Writing workshop

topics
Concentration camps
GhettoThe Nazis revived the medieval term 'ghetto' to describe their compulsory "Jewish quarters". Ghettos were poor sections of a city where all Jews from the city and surrounding areas were forced to reside. Surrounded by barbed wire or walls, the ghettos were sealed and no one could leave. Established mostly in German-occupied Eastern Europe (for example, Lodz, Warsaw, Vilna, Riga, Minsk), the ghettos were characterized by overcrowding, starvation and heavy labor. All ghettos were eventually dissolved, and the Jews and Gypsies that had resided there were deported and murdered.
SintiThe predominant populace of Gypsies residing in Central Europe, especially in Germany. (See "Gypsies," "Roma") and RomaConsidered a pejorative collective term for Roma and Sinti. These nomadic people are believed to have come originally from northwest India, which they left for Persia in the first millennium A.D. Traveling mostly in small caravans, Roma and Sinti first appeared in western Europe after the fourteenth century. By the sixteenth century, they had settled in every country of Europe. It is estimated that between 250,000-500,000 Roma and Sinti perished in the gas chambers, concentration camps, ghettos, and mass executions of German-occupied Europe during World War II.

Owen G. Scott

Broadwater is a state school for young people of all abilities between the ages of eleven and sixteen. Our fourteen year-old students study the Holocaust in mixed ability teaching groups. Broadwater is a Maths and Computing Specialist School, so classes had eight consecutive lessons in a computer suite, where they were able to utilise the Internet and word-processing and DTP software.

Learning Outcomes

The intention was to make a closely structured use of chosen sites on the Internet in order to allow students to experience a journey of self-discovery about the Holocaust. The aim was to engage them in a style of investigative journalism that would engage them in piecing together the shocking reality for themselves. The method was immensely successful, with a high level of student interest and participation.

My intention was also to try to let the details unfold themselves in much the same manner as they had to members of the British public during 1945. The investigation leads students from the generalised to the particular, from LublinA city in eastern Poland, also the alternate name for the Majdanek concentration and labor camp. to Warsaw and finally to a human-interest stories. The contact with a real people enabled many students to personalise the experience.

Structure of the Unit

Lessons One and Two

Question students about what they know about the Holocaust. Most will know about it in broad terms. Set the scene for the investigation and instruct them to only visit the links provided. Most of the initial information can be drawn from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website.
(see document 1)

Lessons Three and Four: Life and death in the Lublin GhettoThe Nazis revived the medieval term 'ghetto' to describe their compulsory "Jewish quarters". Ghettos were poor sections of a city where all Jews from the city and surrounding areas were forced to reside. Surrounded by barbed wire or walls, the ghettos were sealed and no one could leave. Established mostly in German-occupied Eastern Europe (for example, Lodz, Warsaw, Vilna, Riga, Minsk), the ghettos were characterized by overcrowding, starvation and heavy labor. All ghettos were eventually dissolved, and the Jews and Gypsies that had resided there were deported and murdered.

This lesson makes use of the ARC website in order for students to discover for themselves what happened in Lublin and to discover the significance of these events.
(see document 2)

Lessons Five and Six: The Warsaw GhettoEstablished in November 1940, the Warsaw Ghetto was surrounded by a wall and contained nearly 500,000 Jews and several thousand Gypsies. In 1941, about 45,000 Jews died there from overcrowding, hard labor, lack of sanitation, starvation, and epidemics. During 1942, most of the ghetto residents were deported to Treblinka, leaving 30,000 Jews in the ghetto. A revolt lasting 28 days took place in April-May 1943, when the Germans attempted to raze the ghetto and deport the remaining inhabitants to Treblinka.

This lesson takes students to the Warsaw Ghetto and asks them to piece together what happened. Once again, they are asked to adopt photo-journalism, collecting pictures and information in order to piece together aproduce a precise, informative and concise account of their own.
(see document 3)

Lesson Seven and Eight: The Romany Experience

The intention of this section is to personalise the experience of the Holocaust for students, by asking them to investigate the experiences of individuals. They will also learn something of the experience of the Romany peoples inside Nazi Germany.
(see document 4)

Project Contact

Owen G. Scott
Broadwater School
Summers Road, Farncombe Godalming, Surrey
Tel: 01483 414516
Fax: 01483 425782
Mail: admin [at] broadwater [dot] surrey [dot] sch [dot] uk
www.broadwater.surrey.sch.uk