‘Crimes Against Humanity’

1. Set Focus
Pose this essential question: How do you achieve justice for the most despicable crimes?

2. List Vocabulary
Share some of the challenging vocabulary words in the article (see below). Encourage students to use context to infer meanings as they read.

• systematically
• architects
• precedent
• atrocities
• perpetrated
• ethical
  

3. Engage
Have students examine the last photo in the timeline on page 19. Say: Imagine guards taking these children from their homes, forcing them onto trains to Auschwitz, and then locking them up. Think of Nazi leaders giving these orders. Why do you think so many people were willing to participate in terrorizing these children?

4. Read and Discuss
Ask students to read the Upfront article about the Nuremberg Trials. Review why the article is a secondary source. (It was written by someone who didn’t personally experience or witness the events.) Then pose these critical-thinking questions:

• What is a crime against humanity? What defines a war criminal? Support your responses with details from the article. (A crime against humanity is an act committed as part of a large-scale, systematic attack on civilians “with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.” A war criminal is someone who participates in such acts by deporting, imprisoning, enslaving, humiliating, brutalizing, and/or killing members of a targeted group—acts not necessary for winning a battle.)

• The author describes the Nuremberg Trials as a “watershed event”? What is a watershed event? How were the trials a watershed event? (A watershed event is an important event that changes the course of history. The trials were a watershed event because they were the first to charge the leaders of a regime with crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. They established the policy of rule of law rather than rule of force in punishing war criminals, setting a precedent for future trials for genocide.))

• What is rule by force? What is rule by law? (Rule by force is when the leaders of a nation or group create whatever policies and give whatever orders they want because they have the power to do so—usually through the backing of the military or police. Rule of law is when the leaders of a nation or group govern according to the laws, even when doing so does not always result in the outcome they desire.)

• What was the common defense of those on trial? What other choices might they have made when given the orders they followed? (The common defense of those on trial was that they were just following orders and that disobeying the orders would have meant death. Responses will vary but might include that they could have worked together to overthrow Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.)

5. Use the Primary Sources
Project or distribute the PDF The Gas Chambers (or assign it in Google Classroom), which features excerpts from Samuel Rajzman’s testimony about his experiences at the Treblinka death camp in Poland. Discuss what makes the testimony a primary source. (It provides firsthand evidence concerning the topic.) Have students read the excerpts and answer the questions below (which appear on the PDF without answers).

• How would you describe the tone and purpose of these excerpts from Rajzman’s testimony? (The tone can be described as matter-of-fact and solemn. The purpose is to explain some of the atrocities the Nazis committed.)

• What does Rajzman’s first response convey about the Nazis’ intent to murder Europe’s Jews? (Rajzman’s first response conveys that the Nazis were intent on quickly and efficiently murdering as many of Europe’s Jews as they could. Trains—sometimes three, four, or five—arrived every day at the camp, filled with Jewish people. And the process for moving the people from the trains to the gas chambers was so streamlined that men were murdered within 10 minutes and women within 15 minutes.)

• What do the follow-up questions to Rajzman’s first response suggest the prosecutors want to emphasize? (The president asks a follow-up question to verify the speed of the process. Counsellor Smirnov asks a follow-up question to verify that the times given include the time it took for the people to undress. These follow-up questions suggest that the prosecutors want to make sure that the extreme speed of the process was clearly captured on the record.)

• Based on the excerpts, what orders were the guards given? Do these seem like typical military orders? (The guards were given orders to quickly move people from the trains to the gas chambers—making them undress along the way—whip people to make them move quickly, cut off the women’s hair, and force those they didn’t murder to pick up the clothing of those they did. These are not typical military orders, and they have no relevance to winning a battle.)

• Based on the Upfront article and Rajzman’s testimony, why do you think camp guards and other Germans were willing to follow Hitler and the Nazis? What does this suggest about the ease with which a nation can devolve into an oppressive, nationalistic society? (Students’ responses will vary, but they should support their ideas with evidence from both texts.)

6. Writing Prompt
Some historians caution against describing the Holocaust as “unimaginable.” How might talking about it as an event that people did imagine, plan, and carry out help safeguard against similar situations happening?

7. Quiz
Use the Test Your Knowledge quiz to assess comprehension.

8. Classroom Debate
Should the U.S. join the International Criminal Court?

9. Research Briefs
Explain that the Nazis persecuted groups they considered inferior, financial burdens, or political threats. Assign students different groups (e.g., Germans with physical disabilities). Have them research the persecution their assigned group faced and write a brief report to share with the class.