Summary
Subject: U.S. History
Suggested Grade Levels: 11th-12th
Time Required: 50 Minutes (75 for extended version)
Addressed Kentucky Standard: HS.UH.CH.1 - Examine the ways diverse groups viewed themselves and contributed to the identity of the United States in the world from 1877-present.
Summary and Rationale:
While the study of a historical theme, event, or question requires multiple sources to develop breadth of understanding, oral histories help students consider the impact of these events on individuals. The pain, oppression, antisemitism, and violence of the Holocaust resulted in the forced mobility of millions of people during the 1930 and 1940s. Oral histories from Holocaust survivors can illuminate some of the individual stories of human movement and how that influenced their lives and identities.
This 1-2 class period lesson invites students to consider the concepts like refugee, immigration (and immigration policies), assimilation, community, and exclusion through the critical reading of an oral history from a Holocaust survivor now residing in Kentucky.
Materials: This lesson utilizes a 14-minute excerpt of an oral history interview provided by Dr. Alice Dreifuss Goldstein in 2019. Dreifuss Goldstein discusses her family’s experience arriving in the United States as German Jewish refugees after escaping Nazi persecution in Kenzingen, Germany.