Was the Nazi Holocaust inevitable?
This tried and tested enquiry models what great history teaching really can be like: accessible, puzzling, thought provoking, active and involving genuine historical interpretations.
Taking this hugely important issue the lesson proves why history and historians are important to society – because they can help us to answer the really big questions that are on many people’s lips.
Your students will be introduced to two historians who have very different views about whether or not The Holocaust was bound to happen after the Nazis took power.
They grapple with evidence cards, create their own headings, identify trends and try to draw their own conclusions about the big question. They will spot and explain turning points. With the injection of new evidence, can they decide which historian they support and justify their choice?
This lesson gets your class to think at the higher end and requires them to do no writing (until the very end!) If used at Key Stage 4 this enquiry serves as a sublime contrast to all of that GCSE textbook work.
Download lesson
- Lesson presentation: PDF
- Lesson write-up: PDF
- Resource 1 – Cards: PDF
- Resource 2 – Timeline: PDF
