Lesson Plan

“It starts with words,

and it ends in terrible places.”

Max Eisen was a husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He was a successful businessman, an exceptional educator and an award-winning author. Max was also a Holocaust survivor. He was 15 years old when he was deported to Auschwitz and had his world turned upside down.

Max, his father and uncle were selected as slave labourers upon their arrival in Auschwitz. They were together for approximately two months before Max’s father and uncle were selected for medical testing – which Max knew was a death sentence for them. In a brief moment before he was taken away, Max’s father gave Max a traditional Jewish blessing and told him, “If you survive, you must tell the world what happened here.”

Max did survive, and for more than thirty years, he told the world what happened to him and his family by sharing his testimony of survival with audiences of all ages, across Canada and all over the world. He also wrote his award-winning memoir, By Chance Alone, to carry out his father’s wish.

Max passed away on July 7, 2022, at the age of 93. This program is a way to carry on Max’s legacy and keep telling the world what happened during the Holocaust.

Introduction to Resource:

Surviving the Holocaust, By Chance Alone: Max Eisen’s Story is a three-module program designed to specifically support the Ontario Ministry of Education Grade 10 History curriculum expectations on the Holocaust. This program includes maps, timelines, artefacts, photographs and testimony, each accompanied by guiding questions and activities that allow students to connect with the human impact of this history, deepening their understanding and going beyond memorizing dates and facts alone.

The modules were designed as a complete program that can be utilized in its entirety. Max’s story is positioned within the larger context of the Holocaust, to illustrate the vast complexities of this period in history, while investigating the personal impact of these events on one family. A complete student workbook that includes the questions and activities featured in the online modules can be downloaded and handed out for students to complete. There are also evaluation tools included in the teacher section of this website to support your evaluation requirements for each student.

While the modules were created as a comprehensive program, there is also the opportunity to curate and shape your own unit, drawing on specific components included in the modules to supplement and support lessons you have already prepared.

Flexibility can also be found in the grades and subject areas in which to incorporate this program. While it was created specifically for Grade 10 history, there are many cross-curricular opportunities that can be made with the content in the modules.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize and understand the diversity of Jewish life in Europe prior to the start of the Second World War.
• Identify the role of antisemitism in Nazi ideology and its impact on individuals.
• Understand the Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers and crematoria but included a series of events that began with discriminatory words and dehumanizing actions that led to intensifying violence and eventually murder.
• Analyze and reflect upon the decisions and actions taken, or not taken, by a range of individuals (including perpetrators, victims, bystanders, upstanders and liberators).
• Think about ways Canadians responded to the Holocaust, both while events were happening as well as in the aftermath of the Second World War.
• Engage with first-hand testimony to deepen understanding about the complexities of the Holocaust.
• Create opportunities to engage with, think critically about, and reflect upon primary sources and the importance of documenting and preserving memory.
• Consider the role of memory in shaping understanding of the past, present and future.
• Generate questions to guide and extend learning.

How to Introduce this Resource in Your Classroom:

While Surviving the Holocaust, By Chance Alone: Max Eisen’s Story is designed to be an independent, comprehensive program, the Holocaust is a complex and difficult topic that requires an introduction to some key content in order to lead your students safely in and safely out of this learning.

Assess prior knowledge

What do your students already think they know about the Holocaust and where have they accessed their information? For many young people, their first point of entry to the history of the Holocaust is online through social media or gaming platforms. In a 2021 survey conducted by Liberation75, 80% of student respondents reported that they had heard of the Holocaust before learning about it in school, and 40% of those students heard about the Holocaust on social media. Reports, like the one released by UNESCO in 2022, have revealed the alarming rate in which Holocaust denial, distortion and glorification has been spreading in online spaces; therefore, illustrating the need to understand what has been learned in order to be able to guide authentic learning on the Holocaust in your classroom.

Suggestions to assess prior knowledge:

• Facilitate a conversation in your classroom, simply asking What do you know about the Holocaust? You can lead this conversation as a whole group. You could begin with a think-pair-share approach to generate discussion.
• Embed the assessment of prior learning into a larger unit introduction using the K-W-L approach, asking students what they know and what they want to know before starting. This also gives the opportunity to assess learning by having them complete the final column, what they have learned, at the end of the unit.

Introduce language, signs and symbols

Iconography from the Holocaust era, including the swastika and the sieg heil (also known as the Hitler salute), continue to cause harm in virtual and real-world spaces today. It is important for students to understand the weight carried by these symbols, their meaning and intention during the Holocaust period, and the harm and hurt they continue to carry today.

Suggestions to introduce language and symbols:

• Be aware of your school/board policies on hate symbols and use them to guide your classroom practice.
• When introducing the swastika, it is important to note the complicated history that the symbol holds. While it is a symbol that was central to the Nazi regime and continues to be used by extremist groups to promote hate today, it has a history that dates back 5,000 years. See the Echoes & Reflections article: Swastikas and Nazi Salutes: Addressing Holocaust Symbols in the Age of the Image for more information.
• Review safe school policies and your own classroom expectations for safe and inclusive learning spaces for all students.

Define Key Terminology

It is important not to assume that when you are using terminology like Holocaust, antisemitism, concentration camp and ghetto, students understand the meaning. Defining terms is a key starting point to any new unit, the Holocaust is no exception. You can draw on the glossary included in this program and direct students to reference it throughout their exploration of the site.

Suggestions to address key terminology:

• Select key terms to introduce the topic of the Holocaust. Present these terms to your class and begin by encouraging them to create their own definitions based on their prior exposure to the terms first with a partner and then share ideas as a full class.
• Consider a daily check in on terminology, to clarify understanding. Prioritize any terms that students may raise as they engage in the modules.
• Consider a print-out of the glossary to have on hand in the classroom for an alternative access point to the language and its meaning.

Additional Considerations:

• Each module, after a brief introduction, is organized into four sections: Timeline, Map, Artefacts and Testimony. Consider reviewing each section with your class prior to their independent engagement with the modules. Set the expectation that you have for completion of each module (are students to complete the full program or are you selecting specific sections for them to focus on).
• Provide opportunities for students to reflect on the impact of their learning. These reflections should not be graded, rather a space to share their thoughts and emotions. It could be as simple as writing a question they have as an exit ticket for class or writing a paragraph to share something that they heard that resonated with them.
• Encourage students to document and share questions that arise as they work through the modules. You can use these questions to start each class as a review and/or assign for extended learning opportunities.

Module Overview:

Each module begins with a brief introduction. It is then organized into four sections, supported by activities that allow exploration of the content:

1. Timeline – The timeline explores the history of the Holocaust from a broad perspective. It chronicles key dates in this history from 1933 to 1945 across continental Europe.
2. Map – This interactive map of Jewish life illustrates how Jews have lived throughout the world from 1899 to 2023.
3. Artefacts – Artefacts specific to Max’s testimony have been curated in this virtual library. Artefacts include a postcard featuring the synagogue Max attended in Moldava, the Eisen family’s census photo from 1940, the medical selection list from Auschwitz that includes Max’s father and uncle, and Max’s post-war displaced person’s card.
4. Testimony – Max shared his testimony with audiences all over the world through a variety of forums. The video testimony drawn on for this program include his February 1995 Testimony for the USC Shoah Visual History Archive and his July 2018 testimony recorded for a virtual reality program with the USC Shoah Foundation.

Max also participated in the USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony program, an innovative, interactive testimony that allows students to ‘speak’ with Max virtually, asking him questions about his survival experience. Max’s Dimensions in Testimony has been embedded into each module, so students can ‘talk’ to Max at any time, asking him questions that they have at any point in the program.

MODULE 1:

A Fragile Peace: The Interwar Years in Europe

In this first module, students explore the inter-war period in Europe, from the end of World War I and Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, to the discriminatory policies that were increasingly restrictive in Germany. These policies became a blueprint for countries that Germany occupied once the Second World War started. Students will also have a glimpse into fragments of Jewish life during this period. While antisemitism was a concern for Jews living in Europe during this period, as it had been for centuries, it was also a period where Jews in countries like Germany were experiencing more freedom than ever before. Students are introduced to Max Eisen as he shares memories from childhood, growing up Jewish in Moldava, Czechoslovakia.

MODULE 2:

A “War Within a War”: The Holocaust

Module 2 begins with the start of the Second World War. Students learn that while the Jewish population and other targeted groups had faced persecution and outright violence since Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, the war led to an expansion of these oppressive Nazi policies across continental Europe along with an escalation of violence. It also became a cover for the persecution of Jews, often referred to as a ‘war within a war.’ The impact of this escalation of violence will be explored in-depth through Max’s testimony.

There are numerous additional resources that can be used to tailor and enhance this module for your classroom, including additional videos that expand on the stories he shares in the prepared module.

MODULE 3:

“Never Again?”: Liberation & the Post-War Years

This final module leads students through Max’s liberation and post-war life. After his recovery, Max eventually made his way to Canada where he started a successful career, married, had a family and eventually became a Holocaust educator. He has spoken to audiences of all ages across Canada and around the world. He even provided testimony at two Nazi war criminal trials in Germany in 2015 and 2016. He dedicated his life to carrying out his father’s request to “tell the world what happened” to his family and millions of Jews across continental Europe during the Holocaust. Students will also explore Max’s legacy and how they interpret his messages for future generations

Recommended Classroom Schedule: