The purpose of this lesson is to illustrate philanthropic acts of individuals in response to crises during the Holocaust, specifically the Warsaw Ghetto. Learners will apply strategies of philanthropy to current issues of human rights abuses. Learners will identify philanthropic themes of community building.

The learner will:

• write a four-paragraph summary of the philanthropic contributions of individuals or groups during the Holocaust based on his/her research.
  
  
• successfully use a timeline from the Internet source, Chronology of the Holocaust (Middle Tennessee University).
  
  
• give examples of philanthropic actions within communities during times of crisis.
  
  
• brainstorm ideas and list ways that the individuals in the Warsaw community could provide their time, talent, and or treasures to improve the common good within the ghetto.
  
  
• compare the philanthropic deeds gained through brainstorming session to actual examples in the Warsaw Ghetto.
  
  
• relate how the actions of the individuals in the Warsaw Ghetto reflected protection of core democratic values.
  
  
• explain how the individuals in the Warsaw Ghetto used their reserved power to act.
  
  
• identify a current issue in human rights and propose philanthropic solutions to alleviate the problem.

Anticipatory Set:


Have learners work in groups of three to answer the following and record their answers in their notebooks. Ask learners to define a community. Ask learners to define the roles of individuals in a community and identify those characteristics of people who help the community. Ask learners to define the roles of individuals in a community during a crisis such as a flood, hurricane, and deprivation of rights of a minority in the community.

An excellent issue to explore is the Americans With Disabilities Act and communities' resistance to putting in accessible ramps, elevators. Ask learners if a member of their school who suddenly becomes disabled through accident or illness should be forced to attend another school because their school is not accessible.

• After some discussion related to the anticipatory set questions, define philanthropy on the board for the learners: "Individuals and organizations providing their time, talent, and/or treasures intended for the common good throughout history and around the world."
  
  
• Ask the learners to relate that definition to their community in crisis. Example: do they have neighbors working together and sharing food, clothing etc? Do they have examples of the community coming together to help out, such as schools opening their doors and providing shelter? You could have information available for them that shows the flooding along the Mississippi River, hurricanes in Florida, etc. to show how people came together to help out during these times of crises. Approach the issue of providing that same shelter to homeless people. Do they believe their community would be more sensitive to providing shelter to homeless people or displaced people by storms? Would their community take in refugees from racial or ethnic discrimination from other parts of the world?
  
  
• At this time you should tell the learners that they are going to look at a community in crises during WWII, the Warsaw Ghetto. Define "ghetto."
  
  
• So that the learners have a relationship of time and place and a sequential history of the Holocaust, hand out the "Chronology of the Holocaust" from the following Web link http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/holokron.html, and go over some of the major events leading up to the creation of the Warsaw Ghetto.
  
  
• Explain the ghettoization process (including various other established ghettos in history), and describe the ghetto. Use the following links in preparing this information: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/ghet.html and http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/life_in_warsaw.html To help reinforce this description, use clips from "Schindler's List" which shows the removal of the Jews from their homes in Poland and placing them into the ghettos.
  
  
• Ask learners how the Warsaw Ghetto falls into the definition of a community.
  
  
• Have learners work for ten minutes in groups of three to brainstorm ideas and listing ways that the individuals in the Warsaw community could provide their time, talent, and/or treasures to improve the common good within the ghetto.
  
  
• After learners have completed the above procedure, call them back and ask the learners what philanthropic examples they came up with and list them on the board.
  
  
• To illustrate examples of philanthropic deeds under the worst of all possible human conditions, read chapter 7, The Holocaust: A History of Courage and Resistance (chapter 7, page 61) prior to class and prepare information necessary for the class. Write the following quote on the board first. "The idea that all Jews are responsible for each other has stopped being merely a slogan." (This quote is found in The Holocaust: A History of Courage and Resistance. Chapter 7, page 61.) Explain to the learners how the Warsaw Ghetto community came together and lived the motto.
  
  
• As a closing activity, have learners go back into original groups and have them compare the philanthropic deeds they came up with during their previous brainstorming session to the actual deeds you shared with them from chapter 7 of the text.
  
  
• Instruct learners that they are to research an individual or a group that performed philanthropic deeds during the Holocaust or other similar events in history. They are to write four paragraphs of summary on that topic. Provide the list of Web sites. If your school has Internet access, schedule time for your learners in the class or school laboratory. Provide research materials to assist learners. Give the learners at least three days after the instructional sequence to complete. Clarify your expectations for grammar, structure, usage, topic sentence and supportive and historical details. Essay must also have expressed knowledge of philanthropy themes and documentation though example.

RESEARCH RUBRIC

• Interactive Parent / Student Homework:

Learners and parents will brainstorm how the student can perform philanthropic deeds within the family community. The learners will return to class with a list of three things the learner may do. Instruct the learner that there should be one deed demonstrating time, one talent and one treasure.

• Stadler, Bea. The Holocaust: A History of Courage and Resistance. New Jersey: Behram House, Inc., 1973.
  
  
• http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/holokron.html
  Chronology of the Holocaust: 1930-1945 (Middle Tennessee University).
  
  
• http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/ghet.html
  The Ghettoization of European Jews: Deportation and Resettlement in the East. (Jewish Virtual Library).
  
  
• http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/life_in_warsaw.html
  Life in the Warsaw Ghetto. (Jewish Virtual Library).
  
  
• http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ (University of California-Berkeley Library)
  
  
• http://www.columbia.edu/ (Columbia University in the City of New York)
  
  
• http://www.detnews.com/ (Detroit News)