Discrimination to Dehumanization | Return to Auschwitz

Examine how the Nazis’ shift from discrimination to dehumanization of the Jewish population of Europe impacted Czech Holocaust survivor Vladimir Munk and his family. Students will follow and analyze primary resources depicting the mass deportation of Jewish families (including Vladimir’s) to ghettos and concentration/extermination camps, as well as how that moved the Nazis closer to “The Final Solution,” a systematic plan to eliminate the Jewish people of Europe, and the loss Vladimir would suffer in its wake.

During and after viewing the video clips from the documentary Return to Auschwitz: The Survival of Vladimir Munk, and reviewing additional resources, students will consider how the creation of those camps required organization, willing collaborations, passive acceptance from non-Jews, and exploitation of antisemitic sentiments that had existed in Europe for centuries.