Primary vs. Secondary Sources: Oppression, Identity, and Faith

Instructions: You will read two excerpts: one from Elie Wiesel's memoir Night (a primary source) and one from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on "Nazi Persecution and Jewish Religious Practices" (a secondary source). Then, answer the following questions based on your understanding of both texts and the nature of primary and secondary sources.

Question 1

Analyze the excerpt from Night. How do specific details in Elie Wiesel's personal account illustrate the themes of oppression and the struggle with faith during the Holocaust? Provide at least two direct examples from the text to support your answer.

Question 2

Compare the excerpt from Night with the "Nazi Persecution and Jewish Religious Practices" text. How does each source (primary vs. secondary) contribute differently to our understanding of the challenges to Jewish identity and religious practices during the Holocaust? What unique insights does each type of source offer?

Teacher Script: Witnessing History - Primary vs. Secondary

Warm-Up: What is History? (5 minutes)

Teacher: "Good morning/afternoon, class! Today, we're going to deepen our understanding of history by looking at different kinds of evidence. When we learn about past events, where does that information usually come from? Think about personal stories, textbooks, documentaries, or old photographs. What are some sources we use?"

(Allow students to share ideas. Guide them towards concepts of 'stories from people who were there' and 'information written later, often with analysis.')

Teacher: "Exactly! We get information from all sorts of places. But is all information equally reliable or does it offer the same kind of insights? Not always. Today, we're going to learn about two very important types of historical sources—primary and secondary—and how they help us understand a complex historical event like the Holocaust, particularly through the lens of oppression, identity, and faith. Understanding the difference is key to becoming excellent historians and critical thinkers." (Refer to Witnessing History Slide Deck - Slide 1)

Introduction to Primary & Secondary Sources (5 minutes)

Teacher: "Let's start with primary sources." (Advance to Witnessing History Slide Deck - Slide 2)

Teacher: "As you can see on the slide, primary sources are like direct windows into the past. They are original materials created at the time an event happened or by someone who experienced or witnessed it firsthand. Think of it this way: if you were writing in your diary about something exciting that happened yesterday, that diary entry would be a primary source. It's your first-hand account."

"Can anyone think of other examples of primary sources based on what we just discussed?"

(Allow for a few student responses, guiding them to examples like letters, photographs, speeches, etc. as mentioned on the slide.)

Teacher: (Advance to Witnessing History Slide Deck - Slide 3)

Teacher: "Now, let's look at secondary sources. These are different. Secondary sources are accounts or analyses that are created after the event by someone who did not directly experience it. They interpret, analyze, or summarize primary sources. A great example is your history textbook. The people who wrote that textbook weren't usually present for the events they describe, right? They gathered information from primary sources and other secondary sources to create their book."

"What are some other examples of secondary sources?"

(Allow for a few student responses, guiding them to examples like biographies, documentaries, encyclopedias, etc. as mentioned on the slide.)

Teacher: (Advance to Witnessing History Slide Deck - Slide 4)

Teacher: "So, why does this distinction matter, especially when we're trying to understand something as profound as the Holocaust? It's about critical thinking and understanding the information's context and reliability. Primary sources give us raw evidence and personal experience, while secondary sources offer interpretation, analysis, and broader context. Both are valuable, but we need to know what we're looking at to evaluate it properly. Today, we'll see this in action by reading two different types of texts about the Holocaust."

Reading and Analysis (Guided) (20 minutes)

Teacher: "Today, we're going to apply this understanding to two very powerful texts. First, we have an excerpt from Elie Wiesel's memoir, Night. This is a primary source, a first-hand account of his experiences as a teenager in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. As you read this, pay close attention to the personal experiences, the emotions, and the challenges to his identity and faith."

"Then, we will read an excerpt from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, titled 'Nazi Persecution and Jewish Religious Practices.' This is a secondary source, offering a broader historical overview and analysis of the policies and impacts of the Holocaust on Jewish life and religious practices."

"I'm going to hand out both the Night Excerpt Reading: Oppression and Faith and the Nazi Persecution and Jewish Religious Practices Reading, along with an activity sheet called the Primary vs. Secondary Activity: Oppression & Faith. Your task is to read both excerpts carefully and then answer the two questions on the activity sheet. Remember to use specific examples from both texts to support your answers. I'll be circulating to help if you have any questions."

(Distribute the readings and the Primary vs. Secondary Activity: Oppression & Faith. Provide a minute for students to skim the activity questions.)

(Allow students to read and work on the activity. Circulate, provide support, and clarify as needed.)

Wrap-Up & Discussion (5 minutes)

Teacher: "Alright class, let's bring it back together. Based on our activity, what did you identify as the strongest evidence in the Night excerpt that illustrates the themes of oppression and the struggle with faith? Who can share some examples?"

(Call on a few students to share their answers to Question 1, reinforcing the idea of first-hand experience, personal feelings, and the impact of the camps on faith.)

Teacher: "Excellent points. Now, let's look at Question 2. How did the Night excerpt and the 'Nazi Persecution and Jewish Religious Practices' text contribute differently to our understanding of the challenges to Jewish identity and religious practices? What unique insights did each type of source offer?"

(Call on a few students to share their answers to Question 2, emphasizing how the primary source shows personal impact and internal struggle, while the secondary source provides broader context, policies, and systemic analysis.)

Teacher: "Fantastic discussion today! Before we finish, in one sentence, what is one new thing you learned or one takeaway you have about evaluating historical information using both primary and secondary sources?"

(Allow a few students to share briefly.)

Teacher: "Great job everyone. Understanding how to identify and analyze primary and secondary sources is a vital skill, not just for history class, but for understanding the world around you. Keep these ideas in mind as you encounter new information!"

Night Excerpt: Oppression and Faith (Section 4)

Instructions: Read the following excerpt from Elie Wiesel's Night. As you read, consider how the author's experiences reflect themes of oppression, identity, and faith.

"I no longer felt anything except the lashes of the whip. 'One!...Two!... ' he was counting. He took his time between lashes. Only the first really hurt. I heard him count: 'Ten...eleven!... ' His voice was calm and reached me as through a thick wall. 'Twenty-three...' Two more, I thought, half unconscious. The Kapo was waiting. 'Twenty-four...twenty-five!' It was over. I had not realized it, but I had fainted. I came to when they doused me with cold water. I was still lying on the crate. In a blur, I could see the wet ground next to me. Then I heard someone yell. It had to be the Kapo. I began to distinguish what he was shouting: 'Stand up!' I must have made some movement to get up, but I felt myself fall back on the crate. How I wanted to get up! 'Stand up!' He was yelling even more loudly. If only I could answer him, if only I could tell him that I could not move. But my mouth would not open. At Idek's command, two inmates lifted me and led me to him. 'Look me in the eye!' I looked at him without seeing him. I was thinking of my father. He would be suffering more than I. 'Listen to me, you son of a swine!' said Idek coldly. 'So much for your curiosity. You shall receive five times more if you dare tell anyone what you saw! Understood?' I nodded, once, ten times, endlessly. As if my head had decided to say yes for all eternity."

"Next to the kitchen, two cauldrons of hot, steaming soup had been left untended. Two cauldrons of soup! Smack in the middle of the road, two cauldrons of soup with no one to guard them! A royal feast going to waste! Supreme temptation! Hundreds of eyes were looking at them, shining with desire. Two lambs with hundreds of wolves lying in wait for them. Two lambs without a shepherd, free for the taking. But who would dare? Fear was greater than hunger. Suddenly, we saw the door of Block 37 open slightly. A man appeared, crawling snakelike in the direction of the cauldrons. Hundreds of eyes were watching his every move. Hundreds of men were crawling with him, scraping their bodies with his on the stones. All hearts trembled, but mostly with envy. He was the one who had dared. He reached the first cauldron. Hearts were pounding harder: he had succeeded. Jealousy devoured us, consumed us. We never thought to admire him. Poor hero committing suicide for a ration or two or more of s o u p ... I n our minds, he was already dead. Lying on the ground near the cauldron, he was trying to lift himself to the cauldron's rim. Either out of weakness or out of fear, he remained there, undoubtedly to muster his strength. At last he succeeded in pulling himself up to the rim. For a second, he seemed to be looking at himself in the soup, looking for his ghostly reflection there. Then, for no apparent reason, he let out a terrible scream, a death rattle such as I had never heard before and, with open mouth, thrust his head toward the still steaming liquid. We jumped at the sound of the shot. Falling to the ground, his face stained by the soup, the man writhed a few seconds at the base of the cauldron, and then he was still."

"One day, as we returned from work, we saw three gallows, three black ravens, erected on the Appelplatz. Roll call. The SS surrounding us, machine guns aimed at us: the usual ritual. Three prisoners in chains—and, among them, the little pipel, the sad-eyed angel. The SS seemed more preoccupied, more worried, than usual. To hang a child in front of thousands of onlookers was not a small matter. The head of the camp read the verdict. All eyes were on the child. He was pale, almost calm, but he was biting his lips as he stood in the shadow of the gallows. This time, the Lagerkapo refused to act as executioner. Three SS took his place. The three condemned prisoners together stepped onto the chairs. In unison, the nooses were placed around their necks. 'Long live liberty!' shouted the two men. But the boy was silent. 'Where is merciful God, where is He?' someone behind me was asking. At the signal, the three chairs were tipped over. Total silence in the camp. On the horizon, the sun was setting. 'Caps off!' screamed the Lagerälteste. His voice quivered. As for the rest of us, we were weeping. 'Cover your heads!' Then came the march past the victims. The two men were no longer alive. Their tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing... And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes. And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished. Behind me, I heard the same man asking: 'For God's sake, where is God?' And from within me, I heard a voice answer: 'Where He is? This is where—hanging here from this gallows... ' That night, the soup tasted of corpses."}})) трубоgeniu_host_endpoint.default_api.addMaterial(position=5, material=default_api.AddmaterialMaterial13(type=

Nazi Persecution and Jewish Religious Practices

Instructions: Read the following informational text. As you read, consider how it provides a broader historical context for the experiences described in Night.

The growth and spread of antisemitism in Europe in the years between World War I and World War II—and especially the Nazi regime's state-sponsored persecution of Jews—posed fundamental challenges to Jewish life. Anti-Jewish laws in Germany directly affected Jewish individuals, families, organizations, and businesses in multiple ways. The Nuremberg Race Laws and other official policies legalized anti-Jewish discrimination and persecution. Jewish religious practices, synagogues, and emblems of faith often became targets of anti-Jewish discrimination and acts of violence.

Persecution and genocide affected Jewish religious practices in a variety of different ways. Circumstances changed over time as Nazi anti-Jewish policies became more severe and deadly, and conditions faced by Jewish people throughout Europe were often very different. When the Nazi regime and its collaborators applied greater pressure, Jewish people had fewer opportunities to maintain and observe religious traditions.

Nazi ideology identified and targeted Jewish people primarily based on ideas about race rather than religion. Many people who had converted to a Christian faith and assimilated were still labeled as Jewish based on Nazi definitions of race. But many Nazi leaders, German officials, and collaborators also held antisemitic views whose roots sprang from traditional anti-Jewish prejudices based on religious bigotry. Because of this, much anti-Jewish discrimination and violence tended to focus on rabbis, religious institutions, and ritual articles as targets. (Excerpt from Jewish Religious Life and the Holocaust from the United States Holocuast Memorial Museum)