Mandel Fellowship Lesson Plans

Spiritual, Educational, and Physical Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto
Sol A. Factor
Cleveland Heights High School
Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Overview

Students have studied the organizing of the ghettoes in Eastern Europe by the Nazis. It is now time for the students to learn that the ghetto inhabitants were not passive captives, but rather showed their resistance to their situation in many different forms. The current lesson focuses on the initial movement to the Warsaw Ghetto, and the very beginnings of resistance. The lesson is part of a six-day unit which is available in its entirety at the Holocaust Teacher Resource Center (TRC) web site.

Objectives

• Students will understand the geographic dimensions of the Warsaw Ghetto.
• Students will be able to cite several of the legal and physical methods used by the Nazis in moving the Jews to the ghetto.
• Students will be able to cite several examples of physical effects upon the ghetto inhabitants due to life inside the Warsaw Ghetto.
• Students will be able to give at least one example of educational and cultural resistance displayed by the inhabitants of the ghetto.

Time Required

One class period of at least 50-55 minutes.

Grade

Grades 11-12 

Curriculum Fit

Social Studies

Procedure / Strategy

1. Mini lecture and discussion
   Students are reminded of what we have talked about concerning the formation of the ghettos by the Nazis. Included in this section is the distribution of a map of the City of Warsaw showing the actual boundaries of the ghetto. Mini lecture concludes with the introduction of key vocabulary terms.
2. Supplemental readings
   Students receive various articles such as The Resettlement Aktionen in Warsaw, The Appearance of the Jewish Quarter, and A Jewish Family Leaves Home. These readings enhance the students understanding of the methods used in resettlement to the ghetto, as well as the personal experience of a family in leaving their home and moving to the ghetto. There is also, in the last reading, an example of resistance. Students are encouraged to give their reactions to the various readings as well as to pose questions.
3. Videotapes
   Students view excerpts from the following videos: A Day in the Warsaw Ghetto, War and Love, Schindler’s List. Each of these enhance the students’ understanding of the process of creating the ghetto, moving the Jews to the ghetto, and some of the early forms of educational and cultural resistance. Schindler’s List, while not about the Warsaw Ghetto, does an excellent job at presenting very graphically, the steps taken in creating a ghetto, moving the Jews, and the early impact upon the residents of the ghetto.
4. Reaction essay
   The final activity, which becomes a written homework assignment, is a short reading from Vladka Meed’s "Jewish Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto," which deals with the development of educational and cultural institutions within the ghetto. Students are assigned a one-page reaction essay on a quote from Chaim Kaplan’s diary: Every Dance is a Protest Against Our Oppressors

Materials / Resources

Readings 

• Dvergetzki, Dr. M. A Jewish Family Leaves Home (Teachers’ Institute on the Holocaust) Yad Vashem.
• Meed, Vladka. "Jewish Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto." Dimensions, Vol. 7 No. 2, 1993.
  Note: This reading is provided in an online version (Microsoft Word document) by permission of the publisher.
• The Road to the Final Solution. Ohio Holocaust Curriculum Guide, 1988.
• YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. "Warsaw Ghetto: Discussion Guide." Dimensions, Vol. 7 No. 2, 1993.

Video 

• A Day in the Warsaw Ghetto. New York: Filmakers Library, 1991 (Opening segment: Layout of the Ghetto).
• Schindler's List. MCA Universal Home Video, 1993. (Movement to the Ghetto).
• War and Love. MGM Home Entertainment, 1984. (Movement to the ghetto and early youth resistance).

Evaluation / Assessment

• The quality of the reaction essays in the assignment mentioned above.
• The ability, in discussions, for students to connect information presented in lectures, readings, and video presentations, to the formation of the Warsaw Ghetto.
• The number of questions that students ask about the information presented to them.

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