NEWS FLASH

Subject: Social Studies

Grade Levels: Middle School and High School

Sunshine State Standards:

• Grades 6-8
  • SS.A.2.3.2, 3.3.4
• Grades 9-12
  • SS.A.1.4.4, 3.4.9

View all Sunshine State Standards

Background:

The world was a very different place in 1933. The United States was in the midst of the Great Depression and Europe was at the beginning of a terrible conflict that would ultimately encompass the whole planet.

Assignment:

Select a handful of students to research each year from 1933 to 1945. During each day of class, have the students make a newspaper headline from a specific year to hang up for the rest of the students to see and discuss. Each headline should go in chronological order starting with 1933. If the researched material comes from actual newsprint of that period (like the New York Times) show your class the front page and talk about the other news that may be on it. Your students may be surprised to learn that the suffering and horror that the Jewish people were going through was not getting the press that it should have. The camp at Terezin was a prime example of the way the Nazis tried to hide the Jewish tragedy from outside eyes. Ask the students what they could do to be better informed about world affairs.

Resources:

• The New York Times, Page One 1896-1996. Commemorative ed. New York: Galahad Books, 1996.

A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology,
College of Education, University of South Florida © 2005.