Study Guides
Facing History has produced classroom study materials to accompany books, films, and other multimedia resources used to teach lessons of identity, membership in society, and the legacies of history and prejudice. The study guides currently available are listed below. Educators in the Facing History network may borrow books and multimedia from our Lending Library, and other printed materials may also be purchased from Facing History.
 | America and the HolocaustThis study guide accompanies the documentary America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference and offers a disturbing look at the choices Americans made at a time when the Germans were labeling, isolating, humiliating, and eventually murdering European Jews and others they considered "undesirable. |
An American Love StoryThis study guide compliments the documentary, An American Love Story, a film that follows the everyday experiences of an interracial family who tries to figure out a way to overcome instances of racism. | |
Anne Frank in the World ExhibitThe purpose of this guide is to prepare teachers and students to view the exhibition, Anne Frank in the World, 1929-1945, while incorporating perspectives and themes highlighted in the Facing History and Ourselves program. | |
Becoming AmericanBecoming American: The Chinese Experience describes the ways the first arrivals from China in the 1840s, their descendants, and recent immigrants have "become American." It is a story about identity and belonging that will resonate with all Americans. | |
 | Choosing to Participate Study GuideThis study guide is designed to accompany the exhibit and to elaborate its key challenge: to think deeply about what democracy really means, and what it asks of each of us. Choosing to Participate focuses on four stories about the meaning of civic participation and the critical need to promote a just society: 1. |
Eyes on the PrizeEyes on the Prize offers important lessons about the power of ordinary citizens to shape democracy. This study guide provides teachers with an invaluable resource that brings this landmark television documentary into the classroom and insures its legacy in the education of our students. | |
Facing the Truth with Bill MoyersThis study guide accompanies Facing the Truth with Bill Moyers, an extraordinary documentary about the efforts of South Africans to deal with their past-specifically the years of apartheid. The film focuses on the stories of some of the individuals who testified before the nation's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established in 1995 to investigate gross violations of human rights in South Africa and beyond its borders between 1960 and 1994. | |
Family NameFamily Name, the documentary, traces the efforts of filmmaker Macky Alston to uncover the history that unites three present-day families that share his last name-two are black and one is white. In the film, Alston shares the journey he took to learn more about his name, his family history, and ultimately, himself. | |
Farewell to ManzanarFarewell to Manzanar begins on the first Sunday in December of 1941, the day Japan launched a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It is a day that changes Jeanne's life and the lives of everyone in her family. | |
Finding a Voice: Musicians in TerezinSoon after Hitler and his Nazi party took over Germany in 1933, they began to isolate and then eliminate Jews and other "racial enemies." By the late 1930s, Jews could no longer own radios or record players. | |
From Modern Art to Degenerate ArtIn 1937, Germany's National Socialist government seized over 16,000 modernist artworks by over 1,400 artists from German public museums and displayed over 650 of them in the Entartete Kunst, or Degenerate Art exhibition. | |
Ghetto Life 101The idea for Ghetto Life 101 came from David Isay, a New York writer and producer. He was asked to make a documentary for a public radio station in Chicago as part of a series on issues of race and ethnicity in the city. | |
I'm Still Here: Real Diaries of Young People During the Holocaust (Salvaged Pages)During the Holocaust, a handful of young people chose to write and record in diaries throughout Europe. The documentary film developed by MTV, I'm Still Here: Real Diaries of Young People Who Lived During the Holocaust, weaves together excerpts of young writers' diaries covering the years 1937 - 1944 and is based on the book Salvaged Pages: Young Writers' Diaries of the Holocaust, by Alexandra Zapruder. | |
Look What a Wonder: A Gospel Musical by Walter RobinsonLook What A Wonder, Walter Robinson's gospel musical, tells the story of a black family in South Carolina between 1821 and 1822. Denmark Vesey is a free black man in a community of approximately 3,000 free blacks and 60,000 slaves. | |
Lost ChildhoodsThis study guide accompanies three documentaries: The Lost Boys of Sudan, Discovering Dominga, and The Flute Player. All three focus on individuals who were orphaned as a result of a war in their homeland. | |
Matters of RaceMatters of Race is a four-part documentary series that explores race, culture, and identity in the United States today. Each of the 60-minute programs focuses on a single story or set of stories that reveals how "matters of race" continue to shape and misshape American life. | |
Memphis: Building CommunityDay in and day out, our morning newspapers and evening newscasts document the consequences of our failure to value one another. It is a failure of truly global proportions. Memphis: Building Community recalls the voices of a few courageous individuals who tried to promote democracy by shattering the barriers that divide the people of Memphis and the nation. | |
New England Holocaust MemorialOur identity is shaped, at least in part, by our history. One way a community builds and preserves memory is through monuments that honor its heroes or mark its tragedies. As Professor James E. Young explains, memorials often become places where groups gather to create a common past. | |
Night Study GuideElie Wiesel's Night is a memoir that focuses on the final year of the Holocaust-a year that the author spent at Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp. The study guide for Night explores two central questions: What is the relationship between our stories and our identity? To what extent are we all witnesses of history and messengers to humanity? For teachers and students reading Elie Wiesel's Night, we have developed a number of resources that provide historical context, suggest teaching strategies, and stimulate discussion in the classroom: From the Library Night -- Elie Wiesel's book is a memoir that focuses on the final year of the Holocaust-a year that the author spent at Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp Challenge of Memory -- The video montage to accompany Elie Wiesel's Night provides a framework with which to explore a number of episodes recorded in the memoir. | |
Participating in Democracy: Choosing to Make a DifferenceParticipating in Democracy explores the challenges and possibilities of citizenship by highlighting the stories of four young Americans. Their work deepens and expands our understanding of the word citizen and helps us see good citizenship as a creative act - a work of the imagination. | |
Rescuers of the Holocaust: Boston ExhibitThe rescuers acted at a time when most people saw themselves as helpless. Their action deepens our understanding of the ways one person can make a difference. They also expand our understanding of citizenship by helping us see good citizenship as a creative act - a work of the imagination. | |
Schindler's ListSchindler's List, the award-winning film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Steven Zaillian based on the book by Thomas Keneally, tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a war profiteer and member of the Nazi party who saved over 1,000 Jews during World War II. | |
Stitching Truth: Women's Protest Art in Pinochet's ChileThis guide begins with a reflection on the arpilleristas and the women's protest movement in Chile by award-winning scholar, poet, and activist Marjorie Agosín. The introduction is followed by several readings, comprising a historical narrative that describes the movement, and a series of primary source documents, including poetry, diplomatic correspondence, and, of course, photographs of the arpilleras themselves. | |
Survivors of the HolocaustImmediately after World War II, Nazi leaders were brought to trial at Nuremberg, Germany for "crimes against humanity" and other war crimes. At those trials, the world heard evidence solely of what the perpetrators did. | |
Survivors: Testimonies of the HolocaustAfter hearing a survivor speak, many students express outrage at the behavior not only of the perpetrators but also of the bystanders. How, they wonder, could people turn away, as friends and neighbors were stripped of rights, possessions, family, name, and ultimately life itself? Students want to know why no one spoke out before it was too late. | |
The Children of Willesden LaneIn early 1938, Lisa Jura, a young Jewish girl in Vienna, dreamed that one day she would become a concert pianist. In March, her dreams were shattered. She became a refugee, one of about 10,000 children brought to England before World War II as part of the Kindertransport--a mission to rescue children threatened by the Nazis. | |
The GiverTwelve-year-old Jonas lives in a futuristic society in which all the needs of its citizens seem to have been met. They are protected from poverty, hunger, disease and violence. When Jonas is given his lifetime assignment, he becomes the receiver of "the memories of the whole world" that are held by just one other person in the community. | |
Totally Unofficial: Raphael Lemkin and the Genocide ConventionThis case study highlighting the story of Raphael Lemkin challenges all of us to think deeply about what it will take for individuals, groups, and nations to take up Lemkin's challenge. To make this material accessible for classrooms, this resource includes several components: an introduction by Genocide scholar Omer Bartov; a historical case study on Lemkin and his legacy; questions for student reflection; suggested resources; a series of lesson plans using the case study; and a selection of primary source documents. | |
Twilight, Los AngelesAnna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles directed by Marc Levin examines the event from a variety of perspectives. She has collected fragments of monologues that both invite and provoke conversation. | |
Twilight, Los Angeles (Espanol)El film, dirigido por Marc Levin y basado en la obra teatral de Anna Deveare Smith, examina el evento desde varias perspectives. Utiliza los fragmentos de conversación recogidos por ella para fomentar el diálogo sobre las razas, el poder, la verdad y la justicia. | |
Two Towns of JasperWe have known each other for twenty-five years. We attended the same high school, shared holidays and weddings, and at times even lived in each other's homes. Both of us went to similar northeastern colleges and ended up with similar careers as filmmakers in New York City. | |
Warriors Don't CryWarriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals-a first-hand account of the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. The book explores not only the power of racism but also such ideas as justice, identity, loyalty, and choice. |
