Warning: This story includes images and discussion of the Holocaust and should be previewed before showing to your students.
NOTE: If you are short on time, watch the video and complete this See, Think, Wonder activity: What did you notice? What did the story make you think? What would you want to learn more about?
SUMMARY
On the 80th anniversary of its liberation, survivors of the Holocaust gathered at the extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Of the more than six million Jews murdered by the Nazis, 1.1 million were killed at Auschwitz, nearly a quarter million children. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports on a project to preserve the shoes of the war's smallest victims.
View the transcript of the story.
News alternative: Check out recent segments from the NewsHour, and choose the story you’re most interested in watching. You can make a Google doc copy of discussion questions that work for any of the stories here.
WARM-UP QUESTIONS
- When did the Holocaust take place?
- Where is Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp located?
- Who are the individuals and people featured in the segment?
- What are the roles of the museum conservators working on the exhibit?
- Why did the museum focus on children's shoes to describe the atrocities of the Holocaust?
FOCUS QUESTIONS
- How is an object as simple as a child's shoe a powerful way to communicate the horrors of the Holocaust?
- Read the exchange between Malcolm Brabant and Marcin Noras:
Malcolm Brabant: Do you think it will be possible these days to eradicate six million people the way the Jews in — during the Second World War?
Marcin Noras: It's a very difficult question, honestly. I need to think a little.
Malcolm Brabant: With social media, with all the public pressure and everything?
Marcin Noras: Yes, I think it would be very much possible to repeat the Holocaust, because I think propaganda is now more potent than it ever was.
You mentioned social media as a factor of preventing propaganda, but I think the past 10 years, if they taught us anything, is that social media is also the perfect medium for propaganda.
Do you agree with Noras that something as horrific as the Holocaust could happen again? Explain why.
Media literacy: Why do you think News Hour's Malcolm Brabant decided to report on the anniversary by focusing on a museum exhibit?
WHAT STUDENTS CAN DO
Learn more about the Holocaust by choosing one of these resources in this lesson. You may want to watch one of the historical videos with a family member or classmate that explains more about the history of the Holocaust.
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