Unit: Germany, Hitler, WWII in Europe, the Holocaust and the US

Andrew Wood, Hannah Midyett, Shreveport, CMHS
Originally uploaded by trudeau

Truly, it is painful to me not to be in the classroom with you these last two weeks. I love teaching and I have a great affection for you.

To re-cap my health situation:
the aneurysms with which I have been diagnosed, a celiac and a mesenteric, are rare, acc. to the Texas Medical Journal. But the word from my internist, Dr Alan Borne, is that they are reparable. And he expects me to be back at work for the 2008-09 year.

This week I'll see a Shreveport vascular surgeon, Dr Stephen White, for a consultation and I have, on May 21, an interview in Houston with the pre-eminent vascular surgeon, Joseph S Coselli.

In the meantime I am trying not to raise my already-high blood pressure. If there's a rupture of one of these aneurysms the mortality rate is exceedingly high.

So I shall be communicating via email and resting between sessions.

If principals Mrs Sheryl Thomas or Mrs Queen Snyder agrees, this week you will go to a computer lab or library to research the following:

- When did Hitler come to power? What was the name of that special era in US and European history?
- What were the 5 landmark events in his life prior to becoming Chancellor of Germany?
- How did he orchestrate his surprising rise to political leadership?
- What were the 3 chief points of his fascist program?
- How are fascism and communism different?
- How did Hitler present his anti-Jewish (anti-semitic) views and program?
- In what order of conquest did Germany take over most of Europe?
- What was the US attitude toward the outbreak of war in Europe and toward the Germans?
- What was the US attitude toward Jewish immigrants and awareness of the Nazi death camps?
- Who was the US President?
- What major steps were taken by the Nazis as they prepared to murder millions of Jews and significant numbers of political dissidents, Gypsies, Poles and other targeted groups? Ex:
a) excluding Jewish students and teachers from German schools.
b) Kristal nacht, a night in which citizens were given government approval in smashing windows in Synagogues and Jewish homes and businesses.
c) commanding that Jews relinquish their businesses.
d) Shipping masses of Jews to what were called "work camps." Prior to their deaths Jews were used as slave labor (see the book and movie entitled Schindler's List).

After those items have been established, you will watch a movie called Swing Kids. It is about German teens who were anti-fascist and how their lives were changed by the rise of the Nazis. There is a study guide to the movie and test, too.