How Did the Holocaust Happen?

Today we're going to build a layered timeline, working to answer the question, how did the Holocaust happen?
First, we'll do some prewriting, exploring what we already know and where we learned it.
Next, everyone will receive an identity card, annotating it for key details like country of origin, age, gender, victim group, the year when persecution began, the type of persecution.
We'll build the first layer of the timeline by putting the people on the timeline according to the year when their persecution began. We'll stop and respond in our journals, considering any patterns that emerge and any surprising stories,
We'll build two more layers of the timeline by adding key events from WW2 and the Holocaust and laws and decrees that were passed After walking the timeline, we'll return to our journals and see if we can identify any events that help to explain the patterns that emerged and/or why the persecution occurred when it did.

We'll do a final response to the question of "why the Holocaust happened."

We'll continue our discussion by watching a video that will add another layer to our thinking by showing us how citizens of Germany and other countries were also instrumental in constructing an environment that allowed the Holocaust to occur. We'll start by watching this video: Some Were Neighbors and then each student will be assigned a different group of people to study.

1. Neighbors 
2. Workers
3. Teenagers
4. Policemen
5. Religious Leaders
6. Teachers
7. Friends

FOR HW: Explore your assigned group of people. You should watch some of the interviews and videos and analyze some of the images and artifacts. When finished, complete a journal entry in response to what you learned. Be sure to use details from the site in your entry. You may consider any or all of the following questions in your response but you must respond to the last one:

• Why did the Holocaust happen?
• Why did people betray their personal loyalty?
• At what age should individuals be responsible for their behavior?
• Why were some able to make the choice to resist? 
• What attitudes and circumstances influenced people's actions?
• What motives might lead a trusted friend to abandon another? 
• *How might this group of people have impacted your person from the timeline activity?