Introduction

Picture this: You have been transported back in time to Europe in the year 1942 - you are Jewish and you are now in danger of becoming one of the 1 ½ million children killed during the Holocaust. They were killed for no reason other than that they were Jewish.
Those that survived often did so because of the kindness of strangers. Children were often given to other families to raise, often had to take on completely new identities, lived in fear of being discovered, and were at the mercy of those risking death to help them. What is your story? How will you survive?

The Quest

You will spend time learning the stories of some of these children. You will find out why and how some Jewish children survived the Holocaust. You will present the story of a particular child to others in your class. You will also use the example of passing on history to begin documenting your own story.

The Process and Resources

In this WebQuest, you will work with other students in a research group. Each group will research and present the story of a particular Jewish child who survived the Holocaust in hiding. You will pick an individual who left behind a journal of their experience. Their journal will be your starting-point.
You will research the larger situation in that child’s particular country. You will create a timeline that chronicles Nazi policies against Jews in that country. You will begin your timeline from the date when the German authorities gained control of that country and continue it until the time when they were defeated or driven out. You will include details from the life of your individual as they relate to the larger timeline of their country.
You will perform research on a variety of web sites. You will take what you have learned and put together a PowerPoint presentation to show your classmates about your child and their place in the history of World War II.

On your own, you will also put together the beginnings of a journal and time capsule that someone 50 years from now might access to learn about your life and the world around you.
You will learn about the history of time capsules, how to store what you collect, how to choose a container, and how to register your time capsule.

Phase 1 - Background: Something for Everyone

Read through these websites to read about Hidden Children of the Holocaust. As you look at their stories, take note of different ways they survived – places they hid, families and individuals who aided them, what they left behind…

Phase 2 - Looking Deeper from Different Perspectives

INSTRUCTIONS:

Now choose a child for your group’s project and answer these questions using the websites you’ve looked at and through searching for other websites related to the history of the Holocaust. Record your answers in a Word document.
1.Who is your child?
2. Who were your child’s family members?
3. How did the child go into hiding?
4. What people assisted your child in hiding?
5. What country is your child from?
6. Find a timeline of World War II in that country – when did the Nazi authorities gain control in that country?
7. What policies were instituted against Jews and when?
8. Were gettoes created?
9. When did the authorities begin transporting Jews to concentration camps from that country?
10. When was that country liberated from Nazi control?
11. What happened to your hidden child and to their family members?

Group Quest

Now create a PowerPoint presentation that tells this story and provides this information to your classmates.
Make sure your presentation gives a timeline of the overall events in your child’s country as well as how their personal story fits into that timeline.

• Hidden Children of the Holocaust
• Between Two Religions
• Three Biographies of Hidden Children
• The Ikkersheim Children - Memories of Hidden Children
• The Kindertransports

Individual Quest

Go to the International Time Capsule Society home page.
Read here to learn the history of time capsules, how to store what you collect, and how to choose a container.

Make a list in a Word document of items you’d like to include in our time capsule. After each item, write a sentence explaining why you’ve chosen it. Use this time capsule to record your own story as well as information about the world around you.

• International Time Capsule Society

Phase 3 - Debating, Discussing, and Reaching Consensus

You have all learned about a different part of Holocaust Children. Now group members come back to the larger WebQuest team with expertise gained by searching from one perspective. You must all now answer the Task / Quest(ion) as a group. Each of you will bring a certain viewpoint to the answer: some of you will agree and others disagree. Use information, pictures, movies, facts, opinions, etc. from the Webpages you explored to convince your teammates that your viewpoint is important and should be part of your team's answer to the Task / Quest(ion). Your WebQuest team should write out an answer that everyone on the team can live with.

Phase 4 - Real World Feedback

You and your teammates have learned a lot by dividing up into different roles. Now's the time to put your learning into a letter you'll send out for real world feedback. Together you will write a letter that contains opinions, information, and perspectives that you've gained. Here's the process:

1. Begin your letter with a statement of who you are and why you are writing your message to this particular person or organization.

2. Give background information that shows you understand the topic.

STATE THE TASK / QUEST(ION) AND YOUR GROUP'S ANSWER.

3. Each person in your group should write a paragraph that gives two good reasons supporting the group's opinion. Make sure to be specific in both the information (like where you got it from on the Web) and the reasoning (why the information proves your group's point).

4. Have each person on the team proofread the message. Use correct letter format and make sure you have correctly addressed the email message. Use the link below to make contact. Send your message and make sure your teacher gets a copy.

Your Contact is: Jennifer Isaac

Conclusion

So is an elephant smooth, rough, soft, or hard? Well, when you're blindfolded and only *looking* at one part, it's easy to come up with an answer that may not be completely right. It's the same for understanding a topic as broad or complex as Holocaust Children: when you only know part of the picture, you only know part of the picture. Now you all know a lot more. Nice work. You should be proud of yourselves! How can you use what you've learned to see beyond the black and white of a topic and into the grayer areas? What other parts of Holocaust Children could still be explored? Remember, learning never stops.