This two-day learning module is designed to help your students understand Justice Jackson's role in uncovering the truth of crimes that became known as the Holocaust and in refuting the claims of Holocaust deniers. Jackson hoped that this evidence would once and forever shine a light on the atrocities committed by the Nazi's during the Second World War, and hold them accountable for what they had done.
Step 1: Understanding History: The Nuremberg Trial
Robert H. Jackson believed his greatest accomplishment was his service as U.S. Chief Prosecutor in Nuremberg, Germany following World War II. It was there that Jackson served as Chief of Counsel for the United States in charge of prosecuting the highest ranking Nazi leaders. His brilliance bringing Nazi war criminals to justice set the standards for modern international law, to which the world continues to look today.
The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between the years of 1933 and 1945. This lesson plan is designed to help you understand Justice Jackson’s role in uncovering the truth of the Holocaust and in refuting the claims of Holocaust deniers.
Play the film to learn more about Justice Robert H. Jackson, the Nuremberg trials, and justice after World War II.
Robert H.Jackson realized the importance of good credible evidence and sought to convict the Nazis with their own words. As such, Allied prosecutors submitted some 3,000 tons of records at the Nuremberg trial. Captured German documents provided a record of the policies and actions of the Nazi state, and submission and examination of these documents proved to the world how Nazi policies lead to the destruction of European Jewry.
Below, you will find samples of evidence presented at Nuremburg. Jackson hoped that this evidence would once and forever shine a light on the atrocities committed by the Nazi’s during the second World War, and hold them accountable for what they had done. Please click on the evidence links below to examine each piece of evidence. This can be done individually, in groups, or as a class. Use the evidence examination sheets to help examine the evidence. It is important to recognize that the evidence provided below is a small sampling of materials presented at Nuremberg.
Step 3 : Drawing Conclusions
30 minutes
"Well Stocked with Reading Matter"
Credit: Edmund Duffy, Baltimore Sun, 12/7/1945
What did the evidence tell you? Please recall the definition of the Holocaust used earlier in the lesson. Use your evidence examination sheets and your knowledge of Justice Jackson, the Holocaust, and Holocaust denial to complete the following exercise:
Construct a well written response to the following question:
“Don’t for a minute think that indoctrinating wide-eyed school children with the lies and slanders against Germans, Slavs, Catholics, Christians, Europeans, and whites in general isn’t a primary purpose of the Holocaust-mongers. … The Holocaust is a religion. Its underpinnings in the realm of historical fact are non-existent — no Hitler order, no plan, no budget, no gas chambers, no autopsies of gassed victims, no bones, no ashes, no skulls, no nothing… .”
Mark Weber – IHR Newsletter, May 1989
When confronted with claims that the Holocaust was a fabrication, or is grossly exaggerated, how will you respond?
The signature page of the Law for the Safeguard of German Blood and German Honor. Adolf Hitler’s signature is at the top of the list. (National Archives Gift Collection)
