Unit Study

You will create a “diary” in which to complete all of your work for this unit. You will need 5-10 sheets of lined paper (depending on how much you like to write. Create a cover and back side with construction paper, give it a title (“Diary of Anne Frank” is fine) and include your name. Feel free to decorate. Your first page should be the Connection/Reflection Handout. Staple it all together.

Describe the perfect parent. How would you keep your spirits up in a time of terrible hardship? Do you believe that people are truly good at heart? Why or why not? Explain.

Read pages in the red literature anthology and answer the following questions in your diary: 1. When was Anne Frank born? 2. When does her diary begin? 3. When does it end? 4. Why does it end? 5. Where does Anne Frank live before her capture?

Read pages in the red literature anthology and answer the following questions in your diary: 6. When were the Nuremberg Laws passed and what did they do? 7. When was Kristallnacht and what happened? 8. Which countries did Germany invade first and in which year? 9. When and why did the US enter the war? 10. What was the “Final Solution” and when was it secretly announced?

Imagine that a tall, electric chain-link fence has been put up around the baseball field. You have heard that today, the military is rounding up all people between the ages of 13 and 19. Suddenly, while you are in class, you hear soldiers on the intercom and a loud commotion outside. What will you do to stay alive? Where (on campus or very nearby) will you hide? Respond to this in your notebook as though it is real. Be sure to include a realistic, but fictional narrative of what has happened, and include your feelings and opinions of such a situation.

Today, you should take inventory of all the items you have with you in class. This will be all you have to barter or survive with. Imagine that you are hiding somewhere in the school. Describe why you chose this hiding place and how you will avoid detection, where or how you will get food and water, and who you will or won’t trust with your secret. Be sure to include a realistic, but fictional narrative of what is happening and include your feelings and opinions of such a situation.

Today, I will call out hiding locations around the school. If your location is called, you were captured and taken to the open field inside the chain-link enclosure. There are small tents sent up; there is no escape and you are exposed to weather, with only one meal a day- bread and broth. Respond in your journal as if it’s real. Be sure to include a realistic, but fictional narrative of the day’s events, and include your feelings and opinions of such a situation. If you were not captured, be sure to share how you feel about avoiding detection or knowing that some of your friends were captured.

Today, if you are captured, you are given a choice. If you will give the locations of at least two of your friends’ hiding places, you’ll be allowed to leave the baseball field and live in a barracks (in the wrestling room). Your food will be the same food your guards eat and you will have access to television and hot water. Will you betray your friends, or continue to suffer? Be sure to include a realistic, but fictional narrative of the day’s events, and include your feelings and opinions of such a situation. If you are not captured, how do you feel knowing that some of your captured friends might betray you? Are you worried, disappointed, upset? Share your thoughts.

If you are still in hiding, how are you feeling? What are you doing to stay alive and pass the time? How are you feeling about not seeing your family or knowing if your friends are alive or not? How does it make you feel that those who are captured are facing the situation above? Respond to this in your notebooks as if it’s real. Be sure to include a realistic, but fictional narrative of the day’s events, as well and include your feelings and opinions of such a situation.

You have been promoted to work camp because of your exemplary work or because you gave up the hiding spots of two classmates. At work camp, your jobs may be clerical (paperwork), or you may provide services such as preparing meals and delivering supplies. If you are here because of exemplary work, how do you feel about your situation? How do you feel about the people you are now surrounded by all day (some of them are hard workers like you, but some are here because they revealed the hiding spots of others)? If you are here because you revealed the hiding spots of others, how do you feel about your situation and the decision you made? Do you have any regrets or any concerns about the welfare of those you betrayed?

Today, the guards brought you a shovel and told you to dig a hole that you could lie down in. What do they mean by this? Is it your grave? Are they trying to give you a new place to sleep and rest? Are you afraid? Are they making you leave the three person tent that has 15 people crammed in it? Remember, you are probably cold and weak from the weather and lack of food. How much strength do you have to dig that hole? How deep, wide and long will it really end up being? Who will you dig your hole next to? Respond to this in your notebooks as if it’s real. Be sure to include a realistic, but fictional narrative of the day’s events, and include your feelings and opinions of such a situation.

Today, it was discovered that a group of teens had been secretly digging a hole under the electrical fence and some of your classmates were able to escape back into hiding. The guards were so angry that they decided to punish everyone. Those who were in the work camp have been sent to the concentration camp. Those who are left in the concentration camp have been sent to the death camp. The people who are now in hiding have been told that if they return to the concentration camp, they may save the lives of two of their classmates who are awaiting the gas chambers in the death camp. Where are you now and what will you do next? If you are in hiding, will you return to save the lives of two of your classmates? Be sure to include a realistic, but fictional narrative of the day’s events, and include your feelings and opinions of such a situation.

Yesterday, someone in a hole close to you smarted off to the guards and the guards used a fire hose to spray that person with water, until he/she was soaked and their hole was half full. You are told that anyone who talks will be sprayed with water. Nobody talks. Today, the silence is too much. You want desperately to talk or at least communicate with someone. You are to devise a method of communicating with one of your friends without talking, or without drawing the attention of the guards. How will you do this? What are the details? Be sure to include a realistic, but fictional narrative of the day’s events, and include your feelings and opinions of such a situation.

Today, you are forced to stand in complete silence, huddled tightly in a group of approximately 15. You must stand inside the boundaries for five minutes, completely silent. Any movement or noise and the time starts over. This is to simulate conditions on the boxcars the Jewish people endured as they were being shipped to the various concentration camps. Be sure to include a realistic, but fictional narrative of the day’s events, as well as include your feelings and opinions of such a situation.

The diary begins on page 93 in the yellow Junior Great Books anthology. As you read mark (by jotting down the page/paragraph number) places where Anne’s high expectations help her, and places where her high expectations hurt her.