As a historian I think that the rise to power of the Nazis is one of the most important topics to teach. There has been a lot of debate about too many schools doing too much 'Hitler' and it is an easy trap to fall into. Personally I find the rise to power stuff far more interesting than the rest in that it allows students to look at the nature of elections and democracy - including its' potential faults. I also want students to realise that Germans are normal people and very similar to us - they are not intrinsically evil.
This is one of my favourite exercises to run and I do it every year with Yr 9. I have just finished it with 2 groups and the results have been the most impressive and thought-provoking I have done.
Students start off with a simple cloze exercise to give an outline of the situation in Germany in 1932. I stick the answers around the room hidden under tables, behind filing cabinets etc to liven up the traditional cloze exercise. I then discussed with students what people would be unhappy about in Germany and students were given a sheet showing a brick wall on which they were allowed to write 1932 German grafitti - a risk I know but actually the responses from the kids were great. Surprisingly no swear words.
I then gave each student 1 of 5 profiles. Each profile titled Mr A, Mr B etc described a stereotypical German from 1932 and included a former soldier now unemployed, a mother of 4, a Jewish businessman, a disillusioned young man and an industrialist, and outlined their main views and problems. Students had to come up with a list of things that would make this person's life better. All students who had looked at the same person joined up to add their views to a combined list.
Students were then put into 5 groups and informed that they were now the 5 political parties that would contest the 1932 election. Their 1st task was to come up with a name, colour, slogan and symbol for their party. Over the next 3 lessons each group had to put together an election campaign including a speech, party manifesto and extras - posters, leaflets, badges etc. The groups were encouraged to go for something original in their campaign. 1 group had the slogan - "stepping to a brighter future" and made 30 footprints with the name of each student in the class on and laid them on the floor leading to an election box at the front of the room. Some groups bought chocolates and made cakes. The energy and enthusiasm from all the students was superb. Each lesson had a particular "extra" to focus attention - a radio interview, a visit from one of the people profiled at the beginning (another teacher!).
Election day itself saw some fantastic speeches and campaign presentations. Students were given back their original profiles and at the end of each presentation they had to judge it in role as A, B, C etc. They seemed to handle this dual role really well and although there were lots of shouts of "Can we vote for ourselves?" they did respond in role. At the end of the presentations each student was given a ballot paper and allowed to vote in secret. Votes were counted and the winners announced to much excitement.
The following lesson was the more important one for me. Each student was given a sheet of paper with the 5 profiles on and a box in the middle. The promises from the winning group were put in the box in the middle and students drew lines from each of the 5 Germans to specific promises which would have appealed to them. The reverse of the sheet was identical but this time I used a powerpoint which gave 1 at a time the promises made by the Nazi party in 1932 - with each of my Yr 9 groups the promises were identical. They had made the same promises as the Nazi Party. The final 'reveal' and 'sucker punch' was when I unveiled the name of the party from 1932 - the Nazi Party. Students were genuinely shocked - there was one of those brilliant moments when there was silence followed by a deep intake of breath. 1 student said she actually felt disgusted with herself - a tough reaction but a really powerful one. The discussion which followed was inspirational with students asking perceptive questions about how people had voted and the similarities between their experience and 1932.
This was one of those lessons that made you realise why being a teacher is so important. If anyone is interested I can email all the resources I used for this activity.
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