Coming of Age During the Holocaust
Explore Holocaust history through powerful stories of young people who survived.
About
Coming of Age during the Holocaust, Coming of Age Now is an interactive curriculum based around twelve stories of young people who survived the Holocaust and one woman who grew up in the Mandate of Palestine during the same period. The stories are pitched at middle-school students and their educators, but can also be used by families educating their children at home or by other adults working with young people independently or in groups.
As part of this curriculum, students read real stories of people their own age who lived through the Holocaust and will have the opportunity to:
- Hear directly from survivors through video testimonies
- Answer geography and discussion questions
- Analyze primary documents and artifacts
- Explore timelines of the survivors’ lives
- Complete a research project
Students will reflect on the challenges survivors faced, the responsibilities they assumed, and the lessons they want to impart to the next generation. Each story reflects unique, individual experiences, and as a group, the stories provide a library of resources for learning about the Holocaust through personal narratives. The first chapter describes the survivor’s life before the Holocaust. Chapters two, three, and four cover life during the Holocaust. The fifth chapter focuses on life after the Holocaust.
Coming of Age is not a stand-alone curriculum for teaching about the Holocaust. It supplements a Holocaust curriculum by illustrating how real people’s lives were affected by historical events. This site has a historical timeline of the Holocaust, a glossary, and other resources.
