Holocaust Survivors Fleeing Ukraine Find New Home in Germany
OverviewThis eight-minute video delves into how elderly Jewish citizens in Ukraine threatened by the war with Russia are being evacuated to a most unlikely place: Germany.
In September 1941, as part of the Axis powers invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, German forces occupied Kyiv and encircled the Red Army. In response, the Soviets planted explosives around the city targeting German officials. Claiming retaliation, the German commanders then decided to exterminate the city’s Jewish population. Over 33,000 Jews were killed in the first two days of the massacre. In the following months, over 100,000 people were killed and buried in the Babyn Yar ravine just outside Kyiv. During the current invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Holocaust survivors and the Holocaust Memorial at Babyn Yar are threatened.
This film and lesson were produced in partnership with the WNET Exploring Hate Initiative and the Pulitzer Center.
Objectives
Students will:
- Examine the history of the Holocaust in Ukraine.
- Compare and contrast the current crisis in Ukraine to the Holocaust.
- Analyze the current situation in Ukraine and evaluate whether war crimes are being committed.
- Formulate an argument about who should be responsible for Ukrainian refugees/evacuees.
- World History
- Geography
- Holocaust
- Russia
- Human Rights
- Migration and Immigration
- World War II
- World History
Essential Questions
- Who should be responsible for civilian evacuations during war?
- What obligation do countries – both those directly involved and those not involved – have to protect the health and welfare of civilians during wartime?
- What should the response be to potential war crimes taking place in Ukraine?
Additional Resources
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.
Explain how supporting questions contribute to an inquiry and how, through engaging source work, new compelling and supporting questions emerge.
Evaluate citizens’ and institutions’ effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
Analyze the reciprocal nature of how historical events and the spatial diffusion of ideas, technologies, and cultural practices have influenced migration patterns and the distribution of human population.
Evaluate the consequences of human-made and natural catastrophes on global trade, politics, and human migration.
Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.
Analyze change and continuity in historical eras.
Analyze how historical contexts shaped and continue to shape people’s perspectives.
Use questions generated about multiple historical sources to pursue further inquiry and investigate additional sources.
Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past.
More like this
The Cold War: From the Truman Doctrine to the Berlin Airlift
The Arab-Israeli War: America’s Role
How the U.S. Has Treated Wartime Refugees
