Prisoner B-3087

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“The Other Communities of the Holocaust”

In this activity, students complete a research project focusing on a non-Jewish community targeted by Nazi Germany for extermination.

In Chapter 9, Yanek describes other groups of people who were targeted by the Nazi German regime and sent to the concentration camps for forced labor and extermination. In this activity, work with a group to research a particular community and how its members were affected by Nazi German policies. Use the questions below to guide your research and share your findings with the class.

• Who is this community? Are they bound by a specific geographical location in Europe?
• What was the population of this community before WWII?
• Was this community accepted by European society prior to WWII? Why or why not?
• Why was this group considered “unfit” by the Nazi German state?
• How many members of this community were killed during WWII?
• What was the enduring impact of WWII on this community? Where is this legacy represented (for example, are there any museums or monuments)?

After presenting your information, field questions from the class and briefly discuss the theme ideas of Dehumanization, Good Versus Evil, and The Desire to Survive.

Teaching Suggestion: This activity broadens the discussion of the concentration camps to focus on the lesser-discussed communities affected by the Holocaust such as political prisoners (e.g., communists), criminals, the Roma community, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the LGBTQ+ community. Students can work in groups to focus on a community such as one listed above and how they were targeted for extermination. Students assigned the broader categories of “criminals” and “political prisoners” may also focus on the types of individuals (specific criminals or specific crimes) that were targeted by the Nazi German state. Additionally, this Activity might be extended into an opportunity for traditional research-based writing with students, including how to 1. conduct preliminary research, 2. write an annotated bibliography, 3. draft a thesis statement, 4. compose an outline, 5. submit a first/second draft for review, and finally 6. participate in a peer-review process.

Differentiation Suggestion: For classes at an introductory level, this activity may be adapted to focus primarily on assembling a poster board of visuals and general data, as well as developing public speaking skills.