Topic: An individual in totalitarianism and authoritarianism

Author: Anna Rabiega

Addressee:

8th grade primary school student.

Core curriculum:

VIII. National/ethnic communities and the homeland.

The student:

5) (...) recognizes xenophobic acts, including racism, chauvinism and antisemitism, and justifies the necessity to counteract such phenomena.

The general aim of education:

The student has some basic knowledge on human rights.

Learning outcomes:

The student:

• presents the Polish way to democracy.

• explains the similarities and differences between authoritarianism and totalitarianism.

• gives examples of undemocratic states.

• discusses the Holocaust and the Righteous Among the Nations.

• presents arguments that the 20th century was an age of genocide.

Key competences:

• communicating in a foreign language,

• digital competence,

• learning to learn,

• social and civic competences.

Teaching methods and forms of work:

• discussion,

• snowball method,

• source material analysis,

• teaching conversation using photo galleries, interactive exercises.

Forms of work:

• self‑learning,

• whole‑class activity.

Material & equipment needed:

• computers with loudspeakers/headphones and internet access,

• multimedia resources from the e‑textbook,

• interactive whiteboard/blackboard, felt‑tip pen/a piece of chalk.

Lesson plan overview (Process):

Introduction:

1. The teacher presents the goal of the lesson: You will analyze, what the differences are between a situation of an individual in a non‑democratic state and a democratic one.

2. The teacher reminds the students about one of the documents they discussed during a previous lesson - the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He tells the students that the initiator of the creation of this document was the wife of the President of the United States of America - Eleanor Roosevelt. It was also her, who initiated the establishment of an organization called Freedom House, which ever since 1941 has been researching the state of freedom in the world. Then the teacher asks the students to do exercise 1 from the abstract “An individual in totalitarianism and authoritarianism”. After the students are finished with the puzzles, they find out, which countries are deemed to be free, and in which of them there’s not enough freedom.

Implementation:

1. At the next stage of the lesson the teacher informs the students, that their task will be to create a definition of totalitarianism and authoritarianism. He asks the students to notice the etymology of these terms and give contemporary and historic examples of non‑democratic states. He explains that the students will be working using the snowball method and as a result create common definitions together. If necessary, the teacher explains the method.

The students write their own answers, including justification, on pieces of paper individually. Then in pairs they compare their ideas and on a new piece of paper they write down a joint suggestion for the definitions. The students gather in fours, and in a similar way they confront their positions, and write down a joint solution on a new piece of paper. Later, the student gather in even larger groups, until all the students in class have spoken on the subject. The definitions the whole class agreed on are written on the board.

2. The teacher asks the students to use their knowledge about democratic systems to identify, which of the human and civic rights will be limited in such systems and why. Then he asks the willing/selected students to present their answers.

3. The teacher asks the students to recollect from their history or Polish literature classes what extreme results can totalitarian rule bring. One of the examples the students mention will probably be Holocaust. If not - the teacher may bring it up himself.

During history classes the students focused more on the course of the second world war, including the establishment and liberation of the Nazi death camps. During Polish literature classes the students analyzed the “camp literature”, learning about all the physical and psychological suffering the inmates had to endure.

This time the teacher asks the students to try to establish, what human rights were violated by the Nazis during occupation, creation of the ghettos and in death camps.

Another aspect of Holocaust, important from the socio‑political point of view, is the reaction of the society. The teacher asks the students to familiarize themselves with an excerpt of a leaflet “Protest” of the Front of the Rebirth of Poland, and then initiates a discussion, asking the following questions: What two kinds of attitude present in the Polish society are described in the leaflet? Which of them seems right to you and why? At the end of the discussion the teacher asks one of the students to sum it up.

4. The teacher asks the students if they have ever heard about the Righteous Among the Nations medal. Do they know anybody who was honoured with such a medal? If necessary, the teacher supplements the students’ answers.

The teacher asks the students about the International March of the Living, which takes place every year on the site of the former Auschwitz concentration camp. If the students know nothing about it, the teacher presents the idea of the marches and they look at the photo gallery from the abstract together. The teacher initiates a discussion on whether in the students’ opinion marches like this are necessary today and why.

5. The teacher divides the class into six groups. Each of the groups familiarizes themselves with a fragment of the abstract assigned by the teacher, which would deepen their knowledge about instances of genocide after the second world war. Then the teacher selects a couple of students to present what they have found out to the rest of the class.

6. The students do exercise 2. They indicate a contemporary totalitarian state and present their ideas on what would have to happen to make it a democracy.

Summary:

1. The teacher asks a willing student to summarize the lesson from his point of view. He asks other students if they would like to add anything to their colleague's statements.

2. Homework proposal:

a. Choose one of the three topics and write a short essay (maximum 1000 words):

• Should political pluralism be in any way limited in a democratic state? Justify your answer.

• Personal freedoms and social justice - is the choice necessary in any case? How could these situations be solved?

• What kinds of civic participation are the most effective in influencing the authorities? Why?

b. Listen to the abstract recording to review the material and new vocabulary. Then do the vocabulary exercise at the end of the chapter.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

An individual in totalitarianism and authoritarianism

The 20th century is called the age of totalitarianism, which claimed several dozen million victims. Leaders of authoritarian and totalitarian states did not hesitate to use mass violence to achieve their goals. Concentration camps and mass murders were used by the Third Reich and the USSR armies against both representatives of other nationalities and their own citizens. During the second world war, Germans led by Adolf Hitler planned and started the extermination of the entire Jewish nation - the Holocaust. At least six million European Jews were killed. Despite the experience of the last century, the modern world is not free of autocratic political systems.

In autocratic (undemocratic) political systems, citizens are completely deprived of the possibility (totalitarianism) or have a limited ability (authoritarianism) to:

• participate in free elections of the most important state bodies,

• influence the manner of governance and decisions made by the authorities,

• create social and political organizations freely,

• express their views, including political ones.

In 1941, on the initiative of Eleanor Roosevelt (the wife of the President of the USA, Franklin Delano Roosevelt), the Freedom House organization was established, which researches the state of democracy and freedom in countries around the world. Its website publishes the results of annual reports on the matter. You can check how the situation in Poland and other countries is assessed.

Totalitarian states destroyed natural social bonds: families, neighbourhoods, nations. The authorities, through the widespread use of terror, not only violated the fundamental human rights, but also led to the extermination of individuals and entire communities. All social values were supplanted with the blind obedience to the leader, the omnipresent fear destroyed trust and increased mutual hostility.

Holocaust (Shoah) is the destruction of six million European Jews conducted by the Third Reich during the second world war.

Ghettos

During the second world war, the German occupation authorities forced the Jewish population to live in ghettos. The largest one was located in Warsaw. Robbed of their property, crowded into a small area, people died of starvation and easily spreading diseases. They were victims of murders committed by the Nazis. In 1942, the authorities of the Third Reich proceeded to implement the plan of total extermination of the Jewish people. Deportations of the ghetto inhabitants to extermination camps began.

German concentration and extermination camps

As we can read on the auschwitz.org website:

„All over the world, Auschwitz has become a symbol of terror, genocide, and the Holocaust. It was established by Germans in 1940, in the suburbs of Oświęcim (...) Auschwitz (...) was the largest Nazi concentration camp – a place for the gradual annihilation of prisoners – and, at the same time, the largest center for the immediate, direct extermination of Jews.”

The Nazis deported at least 1,3 million people of over twenty nationalities to Auschwitz. Jews constituted 85% of all deportees and 90% of the total murdered.

Before the outbreak of the second world war, Poland was a multinational and multi‑religious state. The Jewish community with 3 million people accounted for about 10% of the population of the state. Only few survived the war. According to the Polish Census of 2011, approximately 2000 Polish citizens declare Jewish identity as the only one.

There are righteous among us

The Jewish nation did not forget about those who risked their lives to save Jews during the second world war. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem established the Righteous Among the Nations medal, awarded for saving Jews during the second world war. By 1 January, 2017, 26 513 such awards were granted, of which 6 706 were received by Poles. The honored receive a specially minted medal and a diploma of recognition. Their names are immortalized on the wall of honor in the Garden of the Righteous in Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Remember that during the occupation in the Polish territories the people who helped the Jewish population were threatened with the death penalty. Germans used collective responsibility, punishing also the family, and often the neighbours of those who hid the Jews.

The medal of the Righteous bears the Jewish saying “Whoever saves a single life, saves an entire universe” (Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5, Talmud).

Since 1996, the International March of the Living has been organized on the site of the former Auschwitz concentration camp. The participation in the March is supposed to give testimony to the memory of people murdered by Nazi Germans during the second world war. It is also a manifestation of attachment to such values as: dignity and equality of all people, tolerance, the right of every person to live in peace. See the photo gallery below documenting this event.

The term “crime against humanity” is often used interchangeably with the notion of genocide, because both refer to cases of radical violations of the basic human right, which is the right to life. However, a crime against humanity is a broader concept and also includes situations in which the actions taken do not directly consist in death, but often lead to death (e.g. gulags in the Soviet Union). Crimes against humanity include: genocide, murder, extermination, deportation, persecution, and other acts committed with the intention of destroying all or part of the national, ethnic, racial or religious group. The 20th century was particularly abundant in crimes of this nature.

How was it in Poland after the Second World War? From 1944 to 1989, the Polish society was subject to the imposed communist rule. Citizens were deprived of the possibility to influence the decisions of the authorities, and their freedoms were very limited. The opponents of the regime were repressed. The authorities suppressed all forms of social resistance, activeness and independence. The establishment of the Independent Self‑Governing Trade Union “Solidarity” marked the beginning of a long way to a democratic, sovereign state.

Martial law

In order to curb the growing activity and independence of Polish society, on 13 December, 1981, the communist authorities imposed martial law in Poland. Fundamental human rights were restricted, e.g. curfews were introduced and the functioning of trade unions was suspended. The leaders of “Solidarity” were interned.

At the news of the introduction of martial law, a protest started in the coal mine “Wujek”. The striking miners demanded, among other things, the release of all arrested activists of “Solidarity”. The strike was brutally suppressed - nine miners were killed and twenty‑four wounded.