Race and Space

About This Lesson

In the previous lesson, students analyzed the violent pogroms of Kristallnacht, a major escalation in the Nazis’ campaigns against Jews. In this lesson, students will continue this unit’s historical case study by examining the Nazi ideology of “race and space,” a belief system that provided a rationale for their instigation of World War II and their perpetration of genocide. Students will then connect this ideology to Germany’s expansion throughout Europe, including the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland, the invasion of Poland, and eventually the conquest of most of mainland Europe. Finally, students will examine the effects of the Nazis’ beliefs about “race and space” on individuals, through a close reading of eyewitness accounts by two individuals affected in different ways by the Germans’ 1939 invasion of Poland.

Essential Question

How can learning about the choices people made during past episodes of injustice, mass violence, or genocide help guide our choices today?

Guiding Question

How did the Nazis’ beliefs about “race and space” influence Germany’s violent aggression toward other nations, groups, and individuals in the first years of World War II?

Learning Objectives

• Students will be able to explain the relationship between the Nazis’ beliefs about race and their quest for “living space,” and how these ideas played a central role in Germany’s aggression toward other nations, groups, and individuals in the first years of World War II.
• After analyzing two firsthand accounts, students will be able to explain how the "race and space" ideology provided justification and motivation for many Germans to participate in the Nazi plans for expansion and conquest, just as it led to dire consequences for those of so-called inferior races who lived in the newly conquered lands.

Lesson Plan

Activity 1: Introduce the Nazi Ideology of “Race and Space”

Explain to students that Hitler and the Nazis were motivated by a specific ideology, or a framework of beliefs and ideals about the way the world works. If necessary, take a moment to explain the meaning of ideology, using examples of ideologies students might have heard about (i.e., manifest destiny, nonviolence, white supremacy, environmentalism, capitalism, and other political worldviews).

Tell students that historians have referred to the ideology that motivated the Nazis’ actions that started World War II and led to genocide as “race and space.”

In the short video Hitler’s Ideology: Race, Land, and Conquest (05:50), historian Doris Bergen introduces this ideology and explains how it is foundational to understanding World War II and the Holocaust. Watch the video with students, and then use the S-I-T teaching strategy to engage students in a discussion.

As the discussion continues, you might pose the following questions to check for understanding:

• Why does Bergen use the terms race and space to describe Hitler’s ideology?
• What does she mean by each term? How was Hitler’s belief in a superior Aryan race related to his desire for the conquest of new land? How did this ideology make war necessary, in Hitler’s view?

Activity 2: Provide Historical Context

Before students look closely at some effects that the Nazi “race and space” ideology had on the lives of individuals at the beginning of World War II, it is important to provide some basic historical context.

Pass out the map The Growth of Nazi Germany and the handout Notes on the Growth of Nazi Germany, 1933–1939 to students. As you give a mini-lecture covering the numbered notes on the latter handout, have students write the number of each note in the appropriate location on the map.

Finish the mini-lecture by reading aloud to students the testimony of the Polish woman Mrs. J. K. in the reading Colonizing Poland. You might give students a moment to jot down in their journals any thoughts or feelings they have about the story before moving on to the next activity.

Activity 3: Analyze a Firsthand Account

After considering basic facts about the German invasion of Poland, students will now analyze a firsthand account describing the experiences and consequences of German colonization.

The class will use the Save the Last Word for Me teaching strategy to discuss and analyze the "Cultural Missionaries" reading. Provide each student with three notecards and a copy of the reading.

As the class reads Melita Maschmann’s account together, each student should highlight three sentences that they find especially surprising, interesting, troubling, or otherwise noteworthy.

Then have students copy each sentence onto the front of one of their notecards, and on the back of each notecard they should write a few sentences explaining why they chose the quotation on the front.

Divide the class into groups of three, where they will take turns sharing one of their quotations. After reading the quotation to the group, the other two group members will discuss its significance for a minute before the student who shared the quotation explains his or her reasons for choosing it. Each student should have the opportunity to share one quotation before the activity ends.

Debrief the activity with a whole-group discussion of the following question:

What motivated Melita Maschmann to participate in Germany’s policies of expelling Poles and colonizing their land? How did the Nazis’ “race and space” ideology connect to how she thought about her work in Poland?

Activity 4: Reflect on the Influence of Ideology

Finish the lesson by asking students to write a response in their journals to the following prompt:

What are some examples of ideologies that are influential in the world today? Choose one that you have encountered in your own life or have read about in the news and write about how it influences, positively or negatively, people’s choices and experiences.