Born December 1, 1935, in Lwow, Poland which is now Lviv, Ukraine. Germany invaded Lwow in 1941 at dawn. Her biological father was drafted into the Russian army. Once the Germans invaded Poland, life changed for Celia. One day when she went out to play with her long-time friends from the Catholic school that bordered her backyard, the girls shunned her.

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Define the Holocaust as the planned and systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945.
• Define antisemitism as prejudice against or hatred of Jewish people.
• Recognize the Holocaust as history’s most extreme example of antisemitism.
• Draw parallels between the past and the present to understand why we must study history.
• Arm themselves with facts so that when they are confronted with Holocaust denial, they can speak out.

Before you begin teaching about the holocaust:

Please refer to this guide from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for important pedagogical information for all teachers of Holocaust education:

• Guidelines for Teaching About the Holocaust — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (ushmm.org)

• https://www.ushmm.org/teach/fundamentals/age-appropriateness

For the teacher: the information included will help you inform your students and answer their questions.

• Timeline of major events that occurred before, during, and immediately after the Holocaust.

https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/resource-center/timeline.html

• Horrors of Auschwitz: The Numbers Behind WWII’s Deadliest Concentration Camp

https://www.history.com/news/auschwitz-concentration-camp-numbers

• This media essay provides interesting additional information about the Holocaust using maps:

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/gallery/the-holocaust-maps