LESSON PLANS and VIDEO

Story Preservation wishes to thank Morgan Blum Schneider the Director of Education at the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center in San Francisco for allowing us to use and share with Learning Lab partner schools the original lesson plan, which she developed, titled Surviving Hitler: A Love Story. The lesson plan follows the story of Jutta and Helmuth Cords and their involvement with the plot to assassinate Hitler.  Click here to access JFCS lesson plan: Surviving Hitler Curriculum, JFCS Holocaust Center

PBS: Assessing Responsibility and Conscience – Students will learn about the pressures of society and the struggles of conscience that operated during the Holocaust and in contemporary situations. (Grades 9 – 12)

FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES

Defying the Nazis: The Sharp’s War Ken Burns’ new documentary Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War tells Martha and Waitstill Sharps’ extraordinary story. Facing History and Ourselves three lesson plans use excerpts of the film, personal letters, photographs, and thought-provoking questions to help you to explore what motivated the Sharps’ mission, the dilemmas they faced, and the impact of their courageous actions.

RELATED BOOKS AND VIDEOS 

History.com – Valkyrie: The Plot to Kill Hitler / 12 part. Parts 5&6 July 20, 1944 plot.

The White Rose tells the story of Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl, who in 1942 led a small underground organization of German students and professors to oppose the atrocities committed by Hitler and the Nazi Party. They named their group the White Rose, and they distributed leaflets denouncing the Nazi regime. Sophie, Hans, and a third student were caught and executed.

Written by Inge Scholl (Han’s and Sophie’s sister), The White Rose features letters, diary excerpts, photographs of Hans and Sophie, transcriptions of the leaflets, and accounts of the trial and execution. This is a gripping account of courage and morality.

The Ulrich von Hassell Diaries 1938 – 1944 / Ulrich von Hassell was one of the most important members of the German Resistance: this is the first complete edition of his wartime memoir with new material from his grandson, Agostino von Hassell.

Operation Valkyrie  /  When on July 20, 1944, a bomb—boldly placed inside Hitler’s headquarters by Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg— exploded without killing the Führer, the subsequent coup d’état against the Third Reich collapsed. The conspirators were summarily shot or condemned in show trials and sadistically hanged. One of the few survivors of the conspiracy was Hans Bernd Gisevius, who had used his positions in the Gestapo and the Abwehr (military intelligence) to further the anti-Nazi plot.

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