Museum of Jewish Heritage Curriculum Guide: “Night” by Elie Wiesel
If you are teaching Night, we recommend using the following lessons from the Museum’s Holocaust Curriculum:
Lesson One – Introduction to Jewish Life During the Holocaust
Use this lesson to give students a background on life before, during, and after the Holocaust.
Lesson Four – Jewish Life in the Ghettos
Use this lesson to further explore the experiences of Jewish teenagers in ghettos through diary entries. This also provides an opportunity for students to discuss the differences between diary and memoir.
Lesson Five – Jewish Life in Concentration Camps
Use this lesson to enhance students’ understanding of life in the concentration camps through survivor testimony and artifacts.
Lesson Six – Experiences of Jewish Children and Teens
Use this lesson to teach about the varied experiences and options available to Jewish children living under the Nazis during the Holocaust. The metal comb from this lesson was made by a teenager in Auschwitz.
Additional Artifacts to Include in Your Teaching
To further examine the experience of Jews in Auschwitz, use the same methodology from this lesson for these artifacts:
- Louis Bannet promotional photograph and trumpet:
With the German invasion in 1940, Louis Bannet (b. Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1911) went into hiding with the Dutch underground, until he was discovered and deported to Westerbork transit camp, then Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon arrival in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bannet learned that he could have a chance to survive, at least for a while, as a member of the Men’s Orchestra. Bannet played with the orchestra for more than two years, entertaining his captors and forced to play music as many of 1.3 million who were murdered in the gas chambers of Birkenau marched to their deaths. Most of Bannet’s own family members were among those killed at Birkenau, including his sisters and their children. Later, Bannet passed through other concentration camps, in Ohrdruf, Sachsenhausen, and Buchenwald. - Auschwitz uniform of Margit (Manci) Rosenfeld Rubinstein
Margit (nicknamed Manci) Rosenfeld Rubinstein (January 31, 1907 – December 2, 1989), was the daughter of Lorincz and Julianna Rosenfeld. She was deported to Auschwitz from Tiszafured, Hungary in 1944, survived the camp, and died in Hungary in 1989. Manci was very small (as is this uniform); she weighed less than 100 pounds before deportation. - Drawing: “Roll-call: standing in the rain for hours” by Alfred Kantor
This postcard size drawing by Alfred Kantor shows people standing in a line in front of barracks in the rain. Their heads are covered with scarves colored in red pencil. There is some green pencil highlighting on buildings, and one person, probably an SS officer, is also seen. According to letter from the artist written in 1989, these drawings were done in camp in 1944.
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