The Task

Each of you have been given a description of an actual child that lived in Europe during the Holocaust. Many of these children perished at the hands of the Germans, but some managed to survive. Your assignment is to take this initial description of your child and create a fictional story about his/her life during the Holocaust, based upon the actual events.

Many of the children were too young to have experienced much of the discrimination and acts of violence knowingly; in these cases you are to use their parents’ experience.

The following elements should be included in your child’s story.

1. An introduction that describes life for your child before the Nazis came to power.
2. At least four of the eight stages of the Holocaust as found in the provided online resources. This listing represents the approximate chronological order.
   • Anti-Semitism (class notes)
   • Boycott of Jewish Businesses/Nuremberg Laws (WebQuest)
   • Kristallnacht (WebQuest)
   • Life and death in the Ghettos (WebQuest)
   • Deportations to the Camps (WebQuest)
   • The Final Solution (WebQuest)
   • Life and death in the Camps (WebQuest)
   • Liberation (WebQuest)
     
3. An account of resistance or help from a rescuer. (class notes)
4. How your child survived or perished. Provide specific details.
   

Requirements

• Your account should include specific facts and descriptions of events as found in the walk around or in your own research.
• You may write it from the first or third person perspective. It may also be in the form of a diary.
• Minimum length is 600 words (word count required). Most students who go into any serious depth write close to a 1000 words.
• While typing is preferred, it is not required.
• Adding original images or photographs from the Internet is not required, but is encouraged.
• You may do additional research in the library or on the Internet.
• At the end of our unit on the Holocaust you will receive the actual account of your child’s life and/or death.