Investigating the Past: evidence from primary sources

Essential Question: How can you learn about a mass atrocity from primary sources?

Suggested length of time: 60-90 minutes

Suggested age levels: For Grades 10-12

Using the “Holocaust By Bullets” section of the online exhibition as a resource, explain what the Holocaust by Bullets was, what led up to it, how it was conducted, and the results.

Divide the class into small groups of about 3 or 4 students. Each group should research the mass shootings at Babyn Yar through primary sources, including testimonies from at least one survivor:

Suggested Survivors:

Leonard Spektor

David Chernyahovskiy

One perpetrator/collaborator, and one eyewitness . As a group, they should compare how each testimony describes the event and discuss how the individual’s role influenced their perspective and understanding of what happened. Ask students to consider the reliability of the source and the intended audience. The group should then discuss how primary sources inform historical knowledge and our current understanding of past events.

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More Activities

Refuseniks

Essential Question: What role can visual art have in creating change?

Suggested length of time: 45 minutes

Suggested age levels: For Grades 7-12

Resistance through Music

Essential Question: How can music be a tool for resisting oppression?

Suggested length of time: 45 minutes

Suggested age levels: For Grades 7-12

Resistance

Essential Question: What are different ways people can resist oppression?

Suggested length of time: 45-60 minutes

Suggested age levels: For Grades 7-12

Rescue

Essential Question: Why would someone risk helping a Jewish person survive?

Suggested length of time: 45 minutes

Suggested age levels: For Grades 7-12

Memorials

Essential Question: How do we remember our past?

Suggested length of time: 60 minutes

Suggested age levels: For Grades 7-12

Jewish Life in the Soviet Union – What Was Lost

Essential Question: What aspects of Jewish life in the Soviet Union were destroyed in the Holocaust?

Suggested length of time: 60-90 minutes

Suggested age levels: For Grades 7-12

Photo Analysis

Essential Question: How do visual images help shape our understanding of historical events?

Suggested length of time: 30-60 minutes

Suggested age levels: For Grades 7-12

9603 Woods Dr.
Skokie, IL 60077

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On view at

The Holocaust in the Soviet Union Online Exhibition is made possible through the generous support of:

Tanya and Michael Polsky

Julie Bashkin and Matt Brody

Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian translation of the online exhibition is made possible With Assistance from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Sponsored by the Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future." Supported by the German Federal Ministry of Finance.

Website Produced by Cuberis

Survivors and their families at the Il'ino ghetto memorial, Il'ino, Russia, 2000.