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Holocaust Museum Houston

“The Book Smugglers” Lesson Plan

Friday, Apr. 3, 2020 – Friday, May. 1, 2020

OBJECTIVES

  • Students will be able to define spiritual resistance.
  • Students will analyze choices and choiceless choices made by those in the Vilna Ghetto.
  • Students will evaluate the significance of culture in societies.
  • Students will use critical thinking skills as they consider the connection of this history to their own world.

OVERVIEW

The Book Smugglers exhibitin explores a little known act of resistance and survival. In the Vilna Ghetto – and later during the post-war Soviet Union – a group of people rescued Jewish cultural treasures for future generations.

In The Book Smugglers, author David E. Fishman used Jewish, German and Soviet documents to tell the story of this amazing group of partisans and poets. Risking their lives for books and manuscripts, they made a choice to insure that the “Jerusalem of Lithuania” would not be forgotten. The acts of both spiritual and physical resistance conducted by these men and women challenges the view of Jewish people as passive targets of Nazi aggression. The book and exhibition remind us that violence against the Jewish people didn’t end in 1945. Life under the Soviet Union had new perils to face with courage and cunning.

TEKS

US History Since 1877 – 7(C), 7(D)

World History – 12(A), 12(B), 12(C)

DOWNLOAD THE FULL LESSON PLAN

DOWNLOAD INDVIDUAL ACTIVITIES

Know One Story Activity [PDF]

Choosing Resistance Activity [PDF]

HOURS & ADMISSION

  • Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
    Sunday, noon - 5:00 pm
    The Museum is closed Mondays, except for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day.
  • Members: Free Adults: $22 Seniors (age 65 and above): $16 AARP Members: $16 Active Duty Military: $16 Ages 0 – 18: Free

    The Museum is free to all on Thursdays from 2 pm to 5 pm

    PURCHASE TICKETS or hmh.org/tickets

    If you have an international bank card, please purchase your tickets onsite at the Museum. We apologize for the inconvenience.

    Admission is free on the following holidays:

    • Veteran’s Day for active duty military and veterans
    • Human Rights Day
    • International Holocaust Remembrance Day
    • Yom HaShoah
    • Memorial Day through Labor Day for active duty military and their families

    The Museum is closed on the following holidays:

    • Rosh Hashanah
    • Yom Kippur
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas Day
    • New Year’s Day
    • Easter Sunday

Directions & Parking

  • Paid Parking
  • Paid parking is available in the parking lot next to the Museum on the corner of Binz and Caroline St.

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