The Wreaths Across America TEACH program offers FREE, standards-based lesson plans for grades K-12, designed to help students engage with history in meaningful, age-appropriate ways that leave a lasting impact. Holocaust remembrance lesson plans are available for third graders and above and include stories of those who chose to act with courage and compassion in the face of immense adversity.

Telling Their Stories

One such story is that of Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker and member of the Polish Underground Resistance. During World War II, Irena Sendler helped rescue approximately 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. Using her position as a health inspector and working under the alias “Jolanta,” Sendler and her network smuggled children out in ambulances, toolboxes, and other hidden means. She carefully recorded their true identities and new names, hiding the information in glass jars buried beneath an apple tree, hoping families could be reunited after the war. Arrested and tortured by the Gestapo in 1943, Irena Sendler never revealed the names of the children or her fellow resistance members. Her story reminds us how individual choices, even in the darkest times, can save lives. (1)

The U.S. Armed Forces played a critical role in liberating Nazi concentration camps, including Buchenwald and Dachau, in 1945. American service members encountered prisoners suffering from extreme malnutrition, disease, and exhaustion. Soldiers, medics, doctors, and chaplains worked urgently to provide food, medical care, and comfort to survivors. (2)

Many of those service members also documented what they witnessed. They took photographs, wrote reports, and shared firsthand accounts. This evidence later became crucial in war crimes trials and helped ensure the atrocities of the Holocaust were recorded, acknowledged, and never forgotten.(3)

Holocaust survivors have spent decades sharing their stories because they understand that education is essential to preventing such atrocities from happening again. Teaching young people about events like the Holocaust helps them grasp the real-world impact of intolerance and discrimination. It also reinforces the importance of standing up for human dignity and shows them how even one person’s actions can shape history.

This January 27, take an active role in remembering the victims, honoring survivors, and recognizing the sacrifices of the service members who fought for freedom. Use these lesson plans to help ensure the next generation understands the importance of remembrance and the responsibility we all share to never forget.

Sources: