These were all supplemented by the curriculum we used, which gave us a clearer foundation of the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the war.
This is a must-read for so many reasons, but the biggest is because young kids can read history from the reality of someone their age who was living it in real-time.
Anne Frank's Diary
What Was the Holocaust?
Who was Anne Frank?
They watched:
JoJo Rabbit
Additionally, we held deep discussions surrounding this era. Obviously it is a very tough topic and should be tailored to your student's level of sensitivity.
Although my kids had a great sense of what happened, I knew the museum would not be suitable until closer to middle-school age and so, that is why we waited.
Even then, we did some intense research up until the day of our trip. The National Holocaust Museum offers a variety of resources to do with students including this great timeline.
PBS created a "What Would you Do?" questionnaire that has students put themselves in the scary situations the Jewish community endured. I appreciated that my kiddos were vulnerable and honest in answering and quite often said they would give in to the demands of the Nazis for fear of their lives. Click here to view the questions.
Additionally, I purchased some activities through Teachers Pay Teachers on specific topics including
* Hitler's Youth Movement. While JoJo Rabbit does pepper some humor throughout the film, it mainly focuses on how Hitler brainwashed the youth to worship him. There are some hard to watch "close your eyes" scenes in it. I suggest the adult watching it first.
These worksheets above broke down big ideas so they weren't so complicated and students could understand clearly as we viewed things throughout the museum.
As far as The National Holocaust Museum itself, there are no words to describe the visuals of a tangible, sickening reality. I leave these images here to help better judge if your students/children are able to stomach it. Keep in mind that the tone of the museum is melancholy with the dimmed lights and either total silence or the sounds of Hitler's voice spewing propaganda from old news footage over the TVs.
This was my second time visiting and even with all the personal research I've done and having been here before, there were a hundred new things that caught my eye. That or things I'd seen before were new again after I'd consciously blocked them.
History is important. As a literature major, the one pattern that reveals itself through every era is that history repeats itself due to ignorance of society.
Learning about WW2 not only brings the gruesome, gross truth to light but it also shines a light on the heroes of the time, most of whom were your everyday individuals. They were the ones, with the strength in their conviction, that hid/saved the lives of many in the Jewish community or refused to bow down to the demands put upon them.
One of the highlights of visiting The National Holocaust Museum is receiving a small card where you learn all about a Jewish individual and whether or not they survived. We were grateful to see that four of our five individuals survived.
Prior to Covid closing down the country, I actually bought tickets to An Evening with Eva Schloss where Anne Frank's stepsister was set to speak on the horrific events. We were so honored to get to go until Schloss had to be whisked away from the states back to her home.
While we didn't get to hear her story straight from her mouth, we did get to hear first-hand stories from others who survived while at the museum. They run a reel of conversations and stories from survivors that are fascinating. My favorite is the one where the young American soldier found a young Jewish girl in hiding and they fell in love and married.
Overall, there is so much more to learn and our lessons on WW2 will continue as we begin to read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and Night by Elie Wiesel. This is just a "getting started" guide to get your kids interested.
Wanted to update here...
We recently discovered this new movie on Netflix called My Best Friend Anne Frank and it is such a gift in perspective.
This takes you past Anne's diary and into the concentration camp where she passed away. It is told from Hannah Ames side and gives a glimpse into Anne's childhood, too, before she went into hiding.
I'll continue to update this post as we discover new resources.