The Anne Frank Case: Simon Wiesenthal's Search For The Truth by Susan Goldman Rubin & Bill Farnsworth, ill. New York: Holiday House, 2009.

In October 1958, Simon Wiesenthal, holocaust survivor and well-known "Nazi hunter", begins a five-year-long search for the Gestapo officer who arrested Anne Frank and her family.

    - ISBN 978-0823421091

    - Media: Oils

    - Rating: 5Q/5P

    - Curricular Connections: Grades 7-10, History/Social Studies, Biography

 

Lesson Plan – Anne Frank

 

Grade Level: 7 - 8

 

Objectives:

Students will understand the following:

1.    Learn about the brief life of Anne Frank

2.    The circumstances in which Frank family had to go into hiding

3.    Learn about the life of Simon Wiesenthal and his significance in Anne Frank’s story

4.    Geography and the locations where these events took place.

 

Materials:

•    Copies of the book Anne Frank by Josephine Poole (2005)

•    Copies of the book The Anne Frank Case: Simon Wiesenthal’s Search for the Truth by Susan Goldman Rubin (2009)

•    Copies of the book The Diary Of A Young Girl by Anne Frank (any edition)

•    Maps of Germany and The Netherlands during World War II

 

Procedures:

 

1.    Opener: Read a passage from Anne Frank’s diary, preferably something that Middle School students can relate to.

 

2.    Read the first two books in class (Josephine Poole’s Anne Frank and Rubin’s The Anne Frank Case).

 

3.    Assign the reading of all or certain passages from The Diary Of A Young Girl.

 

4.    Have students fill-out a timeline of events in Anne Frank’s life.

 

5.    Have students draw a floor plan of what they think the annex looked like, based on Anne's descriptions in her diary.

 

6.    Show students a map of the locations where Anne Frank lived and/or was transported: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_nm.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005210&MediaId=302

 

7.    Show students an interactive map of the Holocaust: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_nm.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005143&MediaId=3372

 

8.    "What If" Creative Writing Exercise:

Give students the following question to answer: If you had to go into hiding for an indefinite period of time, what objects or materials would you take with you? Have them write on the blank journal page and then display their writing for others to see.

 

9.    Use the following questions to create an in-class discussion or written homework assignment in which the students will analyze each question.

 

Discussion Questions:

 

1. What was the Holocaust?

 

2. What were the historical circumstances that led the Frank family to go into hiding?

 

3. Why does Anne begin her diary entries with “Dearest Kitty”?

 

4. Why was Simon Wiesenthal called the “Nazi Hunter”?

 

5. What incident led Simon Wiesenthal to begin his search for the Gestapo officer who arrested the Frank family?

 

6. What creative talent kept Simon Wiesenthal alive on more than one occasion in the concentration camps?

 

7. Who was Miep Gies and what significant action did she take after the Frank family was arrested?

 

8. What was the name of the Gestapo official who arrested the Frank family in Amsterdam?

 

9. Which member of the Frank family survived the Holocaust and published Anne’s diary?

 

10. How long after Anne Frank’s death was Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp liberated by British troops?

  

DPower 7/28/09

 

 

The Anne Frank Case: Simon Wiesenthal's Search For The Truth by Susan Goldman Rubin & Bill Farnsworth, ill. New York: Holiday House, 2009. ISBN-13: 978-0823421091

This is a dark but moving picturebook about one man's search to prove that Anne Frank's diary was indeed authentic. It's a complex study of the Holocaust written and illustrated for younger people without speaking down to them.

    - Media: Oil Paintings

    - Rating: 5Q/5P

    - Curricular Connections: Grades 8-10 History, Social Studies, Language Arts

 

CHA 8/1/09