Applying to Public School
Applying the Minneapolis Public Schools' Social Studies Content Standards to "Remembering Luboml"
Prefatory Note
The bold statements indicate the content standards. The italicized statements below these provide suggested activities, or questions, for a variety of age levels from 5-9 up to 18-years old.
The bulleted statements reflect questions and activities that might be stimulated by the exhibition and other Holocaust related topics.
I. Students understand culture and its impact on human development, i.e., art, music, literature, belief systems, social organizations, economic systems, political structures, family systems.
- What was the cultural life of Luboml like?
- What was the primary social connection in Luboml?
- Luboml was a Shtetl. What is a shtetl?
Students identify and appreciate the similarities and differences in the way cultures address human needs and concerns. Compare, understand, and respect similarities and differences between self and others.
- Are there any similarities between Luboml and the students's hometown?
- How was Luboml different than an American town-in the past or today?
- What was the primary source of identity in Luboml? In the students's hometown?
Students explain how information and experiences are interpreted by people from diverse cultural perspectives. Investigate and describe how and why people have perspectives different from one's own.
- How did the people of Luboml understand and interpret the world around them? Is that different than the way the students's do? If so, why?
- Judaism was central to Luboml, but a particular kind. Do you know what kind? How is that different than Judaism in America today? Is it?
- What (and maybe when) did the Jews of Luboml understand was taking place when the Nazis invaded the region in 1941?
Students give examples of how the varying aspects of culture contribute to the development and transmission of the culture. Illustrate ways in which language, the arts, artifacts and behaviors serve as expressions of people living in a particular culture (e.g., stories, music, art).
- What kinds of artifacts have been preserved from Luboml? Why?
- The language of Luboml was not unique, but it was different. What was it?
- Many of the photographs illustrate some interesting characters in the Shtetl, e.g. the water carrier. Who were these people and how did they fit into the town's social structure?
Students discover ways in which people from different cultures think about and deal with their physical environment and social conditions. Investigate and describe how people from different cultures think about and interact with their physical environment and social conditions.
- What was the position of Luboml before 1918, before 1939, after 1941, after 1945?
- How did the people of Luboml cope with the Soviet occupation in 1939?
- What was the response to the German occupation in 1941?
Students interpret patterns of behavior reflecting values and attitudes that contribute or pose obstacles to cross-cultural understanding. Recognize how cultures understand and misunderstand one another.
- Why does Luboml seem so different to us today in America?
- Why were most of the Jews in Luboml killed?
- What was the response of the non-Jews in the Luboml area?
Students demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed to live in and contribute effectively to a world with limited resources characterized by ethnic diversity, cultural diversity, and global interdependence. Demonstrate understanding for others.
- If the Jews in Luboml were killed because they were Jewish, what were the Germans? The Poles? The Ukrainians?
- Why did the Germans want Luboml-and were willing to kill for it?
- Why couldn't the Germans compromise with the people of Luboml-and other areas?
II. Students analyze and interpret the interrelationship of time, continuity, and change.
Students identify and use various resources for reconstructing the past. Apply critical thinking skills to study and interpret the past.
- How does the exhibit recreate the past?
- What past is recreated? Is there a past that is left out? Why?
- Ask the students to "recreate" their own past. Is there something left out? Why? Are there any connections?
Students develop an understanding of attitudes, values, actions, and social conditions of people in different historical contexts.
Examine and describe how people from different times and places view the world differently
- How did the Germans view the world between 1933 and 1945?
- The Russians, between 1933 and 1945?
- The Poles and the Ukrainians, between 1933 and 1945?
Students explore personal, family, and community changes over time.
Identify changes of one's personal history.
- Based on the images in the exhibit, have the students make connections between the life histories in Luboml and their own.
- Compare and contrast the fate of Luboml to a Native American Reservation.
- Luboml, although it no longer exists, is currently in the Republic of the Ukraine. How many different governments have ruled that area since 1900?
Students identify and use key ideas related to chronology, causality, change, conflict, and complexity.
Investigate the idea of past, present, and future.
- Have students make a timeline for Luboml between 1933 and 1945.
- What changed in 1939? In 1941? Why?
- It is difficult to explain the Holocaust with any one answer, e.g. antisemitism, why is that? Are there other possible sources or causes?
Students use facts and ideas drawn from history to make informed decisions; know how to take action regarding public issues.
Describe connections between the past and present.
- What happened in Luboml in 1942? What happened in Kosovo between 1998 and 1999? Are they similar? If so, how and why? If not, how and why?
- (Role Play) If you were the President of the United States in 1941 or 1942, would you have done anything different than President Roosevelt? Why or why not?
- (Role Play) [same basic question as above] What about 1999? Why or Why not?
Discuss current issues.
- What happened in Kosovo-as best as anyone can determine?
- Does what happen four thousand miles away affect us in America? How and why or why not?
- Comparing the atrocities in Kosovo and what happened in Luboml is a little like comparing apples and oranges. Why? If they are similar (or not), how or why not?
III. Students understand the interconnection of people, places and environments.
Students create, interpret, use, and distinguish various representations of the earth (e.g., maps, globes, and photographs).
Recognize that maps, globes, and photographs are representations of actual places.
- Draw a map of where Luboml would be in Europe today.
- How do the images in the exhibit look like you would imagine that area looks like today?
- Have students find the area where Luboml would be on maps of different scale. Does the scale of the map affect what a town might look like?
Students describe how people create places that reflect cultural values and ideals.
Discover and describe how places are created to fit the people who inhabit that area.
- Based on the images in the exhibit, what were the cultural values in Luboml?
- Does your hometown reflect your cultural values? If not, whose?
- What does the area of Luboml look like today?
Students explain ways in which historical events have been influenced by physical geographic factors in local, regional, national, and global settings.
Explore and describe the inter-relationships between humans and their geographic environment.
- Luboml is in the middle of one of the major historical crossroads of Europe. What is it and why?
- Did this affect the Nazi's decision to invade the Soviet Union in 1941?
- What happened to Luboml after 1943?
Students understand the movement of people and ideas around the world.
Recognize the movement of people and ideas within neighborhoods and communities.
- Can you tell from the images and artifacts in the exhibit how people and ideas got around Luboml?
- Is that any different than your hometown? If so, how and why or why not?
- What was the "creating spark" for the exhibition Remembering Luboml?
Students use cause and effect, comparison and contrast, analogies, and inferences relative to the study of people, places, and environments.
Describe connections between people, places, and environments.
- What are the connections between the Jews of Luboml and the Poles? The Ukrainians? The Russians? The Germans?
- How are all of these people alike and different?
- How are we alike or different than the people living in Luboml before 1942?
IV. Students know that individual development and identity are achieved over time and are shaped by one's culture, the groups to which one belongs, and the institutions of the culture.
Students relate personal development to physical, social, cultural, and historical contexts.
Describe personal changes over time.
- Have students trace the history of one of Luboml's inhabitants-in the class or at the exhibit.
- Are you more like or different than the person's history you followed?
- Do the photographs give any clues to how that person was feeling or what they might have been thinking at the time? What about your last school picture or yearbook photograph?
Students describe personal connections to place, history, and culture, locally and globally.
Describe personal connections to place-as associated with home, extended family, school, neighborhood and city.
- It is possible to find something in Luboml that everyone can identify with. What is your connection?
- Have students plot the connection between Luboml in 1941 and the rest of the world. Then have them do the same for their hometown today. Similar or different? Why or why not?
- Trace the interactions between schools, families and the synagogue in Luboml. Compare that with their own experiences.
Students understand that family, gender, ethnicity, nationality, and institutional affiliations contribute to personal identity.
Distinguish the features of family and identify one's unique nuclear and extended family features.
- Describe the relationship between men and women in Luboml. Compare that with America today. Are they more alike or more different? Why or why not?
- What is an "ethnic group?" Would the Jews of Luboml be considered an ethnic group? Why or why not?
- Apply the previous question to] Nationality? Why or why not?
Students identify and describe the influence that perception, values, attitudes and beliefs have on personal identify.
Explore and identify factors that contribute to one's personal identity.
- What was the Nazi perception of Jews?
- Did the Jews of Luboml share that same perception?
- Did the images in the exhibit affect your perception of Jews?
Students compare and evaluate the impact of stereotyping, conformity, acts of altruism, and other behaviors on individuals and other groups.
Discuss examples and consequences of stereotyping, prejudice, conformity, and altruism.
- The Holocaust was an extreme form of prejudice. Have students list lesser forms-everyday habits, e.g. to say, "I was gypped," etc.
- Not all Germans participated in the Holocaust, in fact many aided many Jews at great risk to their own lives. Why?
- On the other hand, a greater number of Germans "ignored" what was happening in Germany and in other Nazi-occupied countries. Why?
Students examine factors that contribute to and/or erode one's self image.
Discover and identify factors that contribute to one's self image.
- What contributed to the self-image of Luboml's residents?
- How did Nazi perceptions of Jews affect this self-image?
- What is your impression of the people of Luboml as seen through the photographs and other artifacts?
V. Students know the ways in which individuals, groups, and institutions change over time, promote social conformity, and influence individuals and the culture.
Students determine characteristics of an institution and provide reasons for formations of institutions.
Describe the elements of local institutions and the reasons for their formation (e.g., rules, rights and responsibilities).
- What was the role of the "Great Synagogue" in Luboml?
- For a small town there were many different social and political groups including everything from charity to Socialist and Zionist groups. Why as that the case for this relatively poor and insignificant Shtetl?
- How did (or did they) all of these groups interact? Is that any different than the many groups in your hometown?
Students identify concepts to describe interaction and support of individuals, groups, and institutions.
Identify various roles an individual plays in family, peer group, classroom, and neighborhood.
- What role did the Chief Rabbi play in Luboml? Why?
- Schoolteachers had a prominent presence in the community. Is that different than your hometown?
- What was the role of women in the town? Why are they (or are they) less featured in the photographs?
Students describe examples of conflict between belief systems and government policies and laws (local, national, and international).
Describe examples of conflict between an individual's beliefs and rules and laws.
- With a little understanding of traditional Jewish law, examine the relationships between the residents of Luboml and the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
- Resistance to the Nazis took many forms from armed confrontation to disobeying laws. Explore the many layers of resistance, opposition and non-conformity.
- Are there laws that you don't obey? Why?
Students understand the role of institutions in furthering both continuity and change.
Give examples of the role of individuals and institutions in furthering both continuity and change.
- How has Jewish life changed since Luboml was wiped off the face of the map?
- What has remained the same? Why?
- Has anything changed? What and why?
VI. Students understand the historical development of structures of power, authority, and governance and their evolving functions in the contemporary United States society and the world.
Students describe the purpose of government and how its powers are acquired, used, abused, changed, and justified; locally, nationally and globally.
Understand and describe the purpose of government.
- What was the government like in Luboml before 1939?
- How did the Second World War change the government?
- Was the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews legal-and who decides?
Students recognize that an egalitarian and democratic society must work to ensure basic rights, equal opportunity, general welfare, and human dignity for all citizens.
Describe characteristics of classroom environments that ensure basic rights, equal opportunity, general welfare, and human dignity for all students.
- Describe the basic features of life in Nazi Germany and occupied Europe.
- How is that like or different than it is today-in Europe and in America?
- How did the Nazis (and their allies) degrade the human dignity of the people of Luboml and other Shtetls?
VII. Students understand how people organize for the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Students explain how scarcity of resources requires the development of economic systems to force decisions when deciding how goods and services are produced and distributed. Describe the basic economic concepts: scarcity, choice, and supply and demand of goods and services.
- If Luboml was a fairly poor town, why did the Nazis want it?
- What plans did the Nazis have for Luboml and the area around it? Why?
- What was the primary means of earning a living in Luboml? Why?
Students explore the relationship between geography and economics.
Identify local products and services and explore their connections to the local and regional geography.
- Are there any natural resources in Luboml-as best as you can tell?
- If there aren't natural resources, what about human resources?
- How does Luboml compare to its neighboring communities?
Students explain and illustrate how values and beliefs influence economic decisions, locally and globally.
Share with others (peers or adults) values and beliefs related to how they spend and/or save money.
- Economically, the Holocaust does not make sense. Why?
- If the Nazis were not concerned with an economic interest, what might have motivated them to murder potential human resources?
- Although not directly related to Luboml, how does the problem of the Swiss Banks fit into this question of economic interests?
Students compare basic economic systems related to production, distribution, and consumption.
Experiment with the system of bartering as an economic system within their classroom.
- How was the local economy of Luboml organized?
- How would Luboml fit into the global economy of today?
- Few people from Luboml lived long enough to enter the concentration camps, but explore the economic aspect of the concentration camp system, e.g. what did they produce, how and why?
Students use economic ideas to help explain historical and current developments and issues in local, national, and global contexts.
Conduct research comparing cost and availability of goods and services from their parents' childhood to the present.
- What was the currency in Luboml in 1939? In 1941? In 1945?
- Find out what the average income per person in Luboml (or in the region) was before WWII? How does that compare with the US average?
- Do the same for Germany and the Soviet Union and compare with the US.
VIII. Students understand the impact of complex relationships of science and technology on society.
Students identify and describe ways in which science and technology have changed and will continue to change the lives of people.
Identify and describe examples in which science and technology has changed the lives of people.
- The negative side of science and technology has been to perfect more efficient ways of killing people. How did those technologies develop in Nazi Germany?
- What was the difference between the way the people in Luboml were murdered and the way the extermination camps operated?
- Based on what we know about events in Kosovo, how has mass murder and killing changed over time? Has it? If so, how?
Students describe and analyze the effects of changing technologies on the local, national, and global community, e.g., new inventions, accessibility, medical ethics, world view, and global and technological communications.
Identify effects of technology on the environment.
- Examine the Nazi "medical experiments."
- What are the ethical obligations of physicians and scientists? Did Nazi doctors live up to these expectations? If not, why not?
- What are the longer-term implications of the Nazi "medical experiments?"
Students seek reasonable and ethical solutions to problems that arise when scientific and technological advancements and social norms or values come into conflict.
Explore and identify ways to monitor science and technology in order to protect the environment, individual rights, and the "common good."
- Whose "common good" is relevant?
- How can such crimes be prevented in the future?
- Who is responsible for monitoring research on human subjects in the US?
Students use critical thinking skills when interpreting information.
Differentiate between fantasy and reality.
- What was the fundamental flaw(s) with Nazi "science?"
- Many different countries and agencies-including a Minnesota researcher have used the results of Nazi "experiments"! Why?
- How scientific was Nazi "science?"
IX. Students understand the diverse and increasingly globally connected nature of the world.
Students analyze examples of connections, cooperation, conflict, and interdependence among groups, societies, and nations.
Discuss similarities of how basic needs of children are met around the world.
- Make an outline of Luboml's connection with the rest of the world in 1939, i.e. starting with Luboml trace the social, economic and political relationships of this Shtetl to increasingly larger bodies and groups.
- Do the same for the students's hometown(s).
- How are they alike? How are they different?
Students study systems that connect peoples and nations.
Trace the origin and transport of the food consumed by the classroom over a period of time.
- How does Judaism connect Luboml to other Jewish communities before WWII?
- How do the photographs in the exhibition connect the past with the present?
- [Activity] Make a map tracing the paths of Jews to the concentration camps and following liberation.
Students explore the causes, consequences, and possible solutions to persistent, and contemporary global issues.
Identify a problem shared by people of the world and discuss how they would like to see these problems resolved.
- Connect the Holocaust to other examples of genocide, e.g. Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Cambodia, Armenia, Native Americans, etc.
- One of the underlying causes of the Holocaust was intolerance. Have students identify examples of intolerance in America and in their own hometowns.
- Explore ways of eliminating intolerance, i.e. what can we do to prevent recurrences of the Holocaust and genocide?
Students demonstrate understanding of universal human rights and issues related to these rights.
Describe and contrast the development of all children's rights around the world.
- [Activity] Have students explore how children and young adults experienced the Holocaust. Compare this with other examples of genocide.
- How does (or does) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights address the unique concerns of children?
- What provisions in the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide relating to children and young adults?
Students identify and describe the roles of international and multinational organizations, both public and private.
Discuss examples of international cooperation to address global problems, (e.g. UNICEF, Red Cross, World Wild Life Federation, Save the Children).
- What was the role of the International Red Cross during the Second World War? [Ethical question: could they have done more?]
- Although the United Nations did not exist before 1945, what international organizations were available to assist deportees and refugees? Were there any in the United States?
- Following the war, the creation of the UN presented a massive crisis of refugees and displaced persons (DPs). [Activity] Draw a map of the routes of DPs-including German DPs.
Students assess the global impact of individual behaviors and decisions.
Understand and demonstrate that the actions one takes affect the global environment.
- It is difficult to attribute the Holocaust to the actions of any one person, but the writings and thoughts of Adolf Hitler bring together a wide variety of ideas and possible motivations. Have students explore documents or writings of other Nazi leaders and ordinary Germans, e.g. Albert Speer, etc.
- Elie Wiesel is well-known for his efforts to fight against social injustices. Have students follow his life story following his liberation from the concentration camps in 1945.
- What can we do to prevent what happened in Kosovo? Can we do anything? Letter writing campaigns and petitions to important leaders are a start!
X. Students study systems that connect peoples and nations.
Students examine the origins and continued influence of key democratic ideals.
Discuss the ideas of human dignity, justice, and equality related to their own lives.
- One aspect of the Nazi crimes was the dehumanization and degradation of human life. How was this possible? How did it operate?
- The exhibition rescues the dignity of Luboml's victims. How does it do this? Why is this important?
- What else might be done to "put a human face" on the numerous and often anonymous victims of the Holocaust-and other genocides?
Students identify and interpret sources and examples of the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
Describe the rights and responsibilities of students in the classroom and within the family.
- What legal rights did Jews have in Nazi Germany and occupied Europe?
- How does the legal position of Jews in this period make the Holocaust possible?
- What has been done since 1945 to prevent such recurrences?
Students locate, access, organize, and apply information about an issue of public concern from multiple points of view.
Recognize that there are multiple points of view on public issues.
- [Activity] Using old newspapers and magazines, have students make a photographic display of the events in Kosovo.
- Are there any similarities between Kosovo (if possible focusing a particular town) and Luboml?
- What was the world's response to Luboml in 1942? Kosovo in 1998-99?
Students explain how public policies and citizen behaviors may or may not reflect the stated ideals of a democracy.
Identify and discuss citizens' actions.
- Explore why Nazi Germany was not a democracy. How does a dictatorship differ than a democracy?
- What was the relationship between the German people and the Nazi government? If they all weren't Nazis, what were they?
- Not all Germans believed what the Nazis believed. Germans after 1945 and after 1989 have instituted an exemplary form of democratic government. Examine the difficulties in establishing democracy in Germany in 1945 and in 1990-91.
Students recognize and interpret how the "common good" can be strengthened through various forms of citizen action.
Describe how the "common good" can be strengthened through citizen participation.
- Remembering Luboml is an example of contributing to the "common good." How? And what does it contribute?
- How might this exhibit to the common good in your hometown?
- If you had to take one important lesson away from this exhibit, what is it? And why?
Students demonstrate the ability to actively engage with one's community, the nation, and the world in solving problems for the well-being and improvement of society.
Actively engage one's family and school groups in solving problems for the well-being and improvement of humanity.
- Discuss the difficulties of standing up for one's convictions. Why is it difficult?
- How does learning about Luboml contribute to a greater understanding of the world? What changes might be made to prevent other atrocities like what happened in Luboml?
- [Activity] Plan and commemorate Raoul Wallenberg Day, the signing of the Declaration of Human Rights or Holocaust Memorial Observance Day.
