The Holocaust was the genocide, or the systematic murder of European Jews during World War II from 1941 to 1945 by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.
Below are reading and writing workshops. Some feature firsthand accounts of those who were victims of the holocaust and others are works of fiction related to the historical era.
Reading & Writing Workshop: The Holocaust
1. Big Picture
Grade level: 8–12 (adjust texts and excerpt choices as needed)
Length: ~6–8 class periods (modifiable_
Core focus:
2. Recommended Memoirs (Teacher Selects 1–3)
These are widely recommended for secondary classrooms by Holocaust education centers and state commissions. (THGAAC)
You do not need all of these. Pick 1–2 core texts + 1–3 options for literature circles.
Core / Anchor Text Options
3. Workshop Structure at a Glance
4. Detailed Session Plans
Session 1 – Setting the Stage
Goals
Why do you think it matters to read firsthand accounts of events like the Holocaust?
Students write 5–10 minutes, then optionally share in a circle.
Session 2 – First Encounters with Voices (Jigsaw)
Goal
Prepare 4–5 short excerpts (½–1 page each), one from each of:
Which voice or excerpt are you most interested in reading more of, and why?
Use these to form literature circle groups for Session 3.
Session 3 – Literature Circles: Deep Reading & Journals
Goal
Group students by preferred memoir (or text packets if you’re using excerpts instead of full books). Each group gets:
Short analytical paragraph:
How does your writer describe one specific moment of change or loss in their life? What words or details make that moment powerful?
Session 4 – Choices, Bystanders, Rescuers, Upstanders
Goal
Briefly introduce roles:
In literature circles, ask students to:
Prompt example:
In your memoir, describe one moment when a person’s decision had a major impact on someone else’s survival, dignity, or hope. What made the decision difficult, and why do you think they chose as they did?
Session 5 – Memory, Testimony, and Personal Reflection
Goal
Read a short reflection (e.g., Wiesel on the importance of remembering, or a short survivor statement on why they speak to students). Keep it brief and non-graphic.
Small-Group Discussion Prompts
Sessions 6–7 – Group “Memory Exhibit” Project
Goal
Each lit circle designs a “Memory Exhibit Panel” (physical or digital) about their memoir / writer / theme.
Each Exhibit Must Include
Session 8 – Gallery Walk & Final Reflection
Gallery Walk
Prompt example:
Choose one memoir or survivor story you encountered in this workshop. Explain what you learned from this person that you could not have learned from a textbook alone. How has their story changed the way you think about history, prejudice, or your own responsibilities today?
5. Safety, Support, and Differentiation Notes
1. Big Picture
Grade level: 8–12 (adjust texts and excerpt choices as needed)
Length: ~6–8 class periods (modifiable_
Core focus:
- Understanding the Holocaust through personal testimony
- Practicing careful, empathetic reading
- Responding through reflective, analytical, and creative writing
- How does a memoir help us understand history in a different way than a textbook?
- What can we learn from individual voices about courage, suffering, choices, and survival?
- What responsibilities do we have when we read about events like the Holocaust?
2. Recommended Memoirs (Teacher Selects 1–3)
These are widely recommended for secondary classrooms by Holocaust education centers and state commissions. (THGAAC)
You do not need all of these. Pick 1–2 core texts + 1–3 options for literature circles.
Core / Anchor Text Options
- Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl (diary in hiding; good 7–10).
- Elie Wiesel, Night (Auschwitz/Buchenwald; better 9–12).
- Gerda Weissmann Klein, All But My Life (labor camps, death march; 8–12).
- Ruth Minsky Sender, The Cage (ghetto, camps, survival; 8–12).
- Nechama Tec, Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood (hiding and passing as Christian; 8–12).
- Alexandra Zapruder (ed.), Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust (short diary entries, 8–12).
- Art Spiegelman, Maus I/II (graphic memoir; strong for visual learners, 9–12).
- Selected poems/diary fragments by young writers (e.g., from USHMM or local Holocaust centers).
- 1 whole-class anchor (e.g., Night or Anne Frank).
- Groups each get a different “companion memoir” for literature circles (e.g., The Cage / All But My Life / Dry Tears / Salvaged Pages excerpt sets).
3. Workshop Structure at a Glance
- Session 1 – Setting the Stage: Context, Norms, and Why Memoir
- Session 2 – First Encounters with Voices
- Session 3 – Deep Reading in Literature Circles
- Session 4 – Choices, Bystanders, Rescuers, and Upstanders
- Session 5 – Memory, Testimony, and Personal Reflection
- Session 6–7 – Group “Memory Exhibit” Project
- Session 8 – Gallery Walk, Reflection, and Closure
4. Detailed Session Plans
Session 1 – Setting the Stage
Goals
- Build historical context (briefly, non-graphic).
- Establish emotional safety and discussion norms.
- Introduce memoir as a genre.
- Short, factual overview of:
- Rise of Nazism
- Antisemitic laws
- Ghettos & camps
- Liberation & aftermath
(Use your existing materials / USHMM guidelines; avoid graphic photos.)
- Give each group 3 short source snippets (on chart paper or slides):
- A textbook paragraph about the Holocaust.
- A few lines from a memoir (e.g., Night or All But My Life, chosen carefully).
- A short diary fragment from a young person (e.g., Salvaged Pages / Anne Frank).
- Prompt:
- “What does each text help you understand?”
- “How does the feeling change when it’s one person’s voice?”
- Groups annotate and list 3 differences, then share out.
- As a class, brainstorm norms for:
- Speaking about traumatic history
- Listening with respect
- Responding to emotional reactions
- Turn them into a posted “Contract for Learning from Survivors” everyone signs.
Why do you think it matters to read firsthand accounts of events like the Holocaust?
Students write 5–10 minutes, then optionally share in a circle.
Session 2 – First Encounters with Voices (Jigsaw)
Goal
- Compare different survivor voices and styles.
- Prepare students to choose a memoir/lit circle group.
Prepare 4–5 short excerpts (½–1 page each), one from each of:
- The Diary of a Young Girl (life in hiding)
- Night (e.g., train, arrival, or reflection scene)
- All But My Life (early loss of normal life / deportation)
- The Cage (ghetto/family separation or camp life, non-graphic)
- Dry Tears or a Salvaged Pages diary entry
- Students sit in groups of 4–5.
- Each member gets a different excerpt (A, B, C, D, E).
- All A’s together, all B’s together, etc.
- In expert groups, students:
- Read the excerpt silently once.
- Re-read, annotating:
- Powerful words/phrases
- What we learn about the writer
- Emotions / questions that arise
- Create a 3-sentence summary and choose one line to share that feels important.
- Each student teaches their home group:
- Who is speaking?
- What is happening?
- How do they seem to be coping?
- Home group chart:
- What do these voices share in common?
- How are they different?
Which voice or excerpt are you most interested in reading more of, and why?
Use these to form literature circle groups for Session 3.
Session 3 – Literature Circles: Deep Reading & Journals
Goal
- Begin sustained small-group reading.
- Practice double-entry journaling and question-asking.
Group students by preferred memoir (or text packets if you’re using excerpts instead of full books). Each group gets:
- The text (or excerpt set)
- A reading assignment (e.g., 10–15 pages or 2–3 diary entries)
- A role sheet or responsibilities list.
- Discussion Leader – brings 3–4 open-ended questions.
- Context Connector – links events to the larger history they’ve learned.
- Line Lifter – chooses 3–5 key quotes.
- Emotion Tracker – notes moments of fear, hope, loss, resistance.
- Word Watcher – notices powerful, repeated, or unfamiliar words.
- Silent or partner reading of the assigned section.
- Students keep a double-entry journal:
- Left: quotation from the memoir
- Right: response, question, connection, or inference
- Start with “Line Lifter”: each student shares one quote and why they chose it.
- Discussion Leader guides conversation using their questions, making sure:
- Everyone speaks at least once.
- Context Connector adds historical background where needed.
- Emotion Tracker highlights key emotional shifts.
Short analytical paragraph:
How does your writer describe one specific moment of change or loss in their life? What words or details make that moment powerful?
Session 4 – Choices, Bystanders, Rescuers, Upstanders
Goal
- Explore moral complexity and human choices.
- Move from “what happened” to “why choices mattered.”
Briefly introduce roles:
- Perpetrators, bystanders, victims, rescuers, resistors
(using age-appropriate language & established frameworks from Holocaust education guidelines).
In literature circles, ask students to:
- Find two moments in the memoir section where:
- Someone makes a choice to help or not help.
- Someone shows courage, cruelty, or indifference.
- Label each example:
- Rescuer / upstander / bystander / perpetrator / victim, etc.
- Discuss:
- What pressures did this person face?
- What risks were involved?
- What might we have done in that situation? (Answer carefully; emphasize humility and that we can’t fully know.)
- On chart paper, groups diagram one crucial choice from their memoir:
- Context at the top.
- Branches for possible choices (what the person could have done).
- Highlight what they actually did, and the consequences for others.
- Include 2–3 quotes from the text as evidence.
Prompt example:
In your memoir, describe one moment when a person’s decision had a major impact on someone else’s survival, dignity, or hope. What made the decision difficult, and why do you think they chose as they did?
Session 5 – Memory, Testimony, and Personal Reflection
Goal
- Reflect on why survivors wrote their stories.
- Connect historical memory to students’ own values.
Read a short reflection (e.g., Wiesel on the importance of remembering, or a short survivor statement on why they speak to students). Keep it brief and non-graphic.
Small-Group Discussion Prompts
- Why do you think the survivor chose to tell their story?
- Are there parts of their story that seem especially hard to put into words?
- How might telling this story be both painful and healing?
- Letter to the Writer
- Thank them, ask questions, or explain how their story affected you.
- Reflective Narrative
- Write about a time you felt responsible for speaking up or staying silent (on a much smaller scale) and connect it to something from the memoir.
- Found Poem
- Using 10–15 words/phrases from the memoir, create a poem about memory, loss, or hope.
Sessions 6–7 – Group “Memory Exhibit” Project
Goal
- Synthesize learning in a collaborative, creative project.
- Practice explanatory and creative writing with evidence from texts.
Each lit circle designs a “Memory Exhibit Panel” (physical or digital) about their memoir / writer / theme.
Each Exhibit Must Include
- Title & Focus Question
- e.g., “Holding on to Hope: How did Gerda Weissmann Klein survive?”
- Short Expository Piece (Group-written)
- 2–3 paragraphs explaining:
- Who the writer is
- What happened to them (non-graphic summary)
- What big ideas their story highlights (identity, family, courage, faith, etc.)
- 2–3 paragraphs explaining:
- Text Evidence
- 3–5 carefully chosen quotations with page numbers / diary dates and brief captions.
- Creative Piece
One of:- A found poem
- A short monologue in the survivor’s voice (respectful, grounded in the text)
- A “missing diary entry” written in historically accurate, careful tone
- Visual Element
- Symbolic artwork, timeline, map, or collage (no graphic imagery).
- Day 1: Planning + drafting in groups (assign roles: writer(s), editor, designer, quote curator).
- Day 2: Finish writing, design exhibit, rehearse a 2–3 minute oral explanation.
Session 8 – Gallery Walk & Final Reflection
Gallery Walk
- Post exhibits around the room or share digitally.
- Give students a Gallery Walk Note-Catcher with prompts:
- One new person/story I learned about…
- One quote I keep thinking about…
- One example of courage / survival / resistance…
- Students rotate, read, and jot notes.
- What patterns did you notice across different memoirs?
- How did reading multiple stories change your understanding of the Holocaust?
- What responsibilities do we have after hearing these stories?
Prompt example:
Choose one memoir or survivor story you encountered in this workshop. Explain what you learned from this person that you could not have learned from a textbook alone. How has their story changed the way you think about history, prejudice, or your own responsibilities today?
5. Safety, Support, and Differentiation Notes
- Pre-reading communication:
Consider sending a short letter or email to families explaining the unit focus, texts, and your approach (age-appropriate, non-graphic, historically accurate). - Content screening:
Pre-read all excerpts; avoid especially graphic passages, especially for younger grades. - Opt-out / alternative:
Allow students to step out briefly or work with a supportive alternative if needed (without penalty). - Language support:
- Provide key vocabulary lists and sentence starters.
- Offer audio versions or teacher read-alouds of challenging passages.
- Allow visual responses or shorter written pieces where appropriate.