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Lesson plan for Citizenship/Humanities (upper secondary/post 16)

This lesson uses the case study of Ben Helfgott

This lesson has been produced in partnership with the Holocaust Educational Trust, a UK charity which runs the Lessons from Auschwitz project and supports Holocaust education in schools and colleges.

Starter

Talk about plans for the Olympic Games, London 2012.

Explain that each Olympic Games throw up remarkable stories. A good example is Ben Helfgott, who represented Britain at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne and at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

Show everyone the photograph of Ben weightlifting and ask each student to note five things the photograph tells us about Ben. You will find the photograph at the end of this lesson plan. Share these responses and encourage students to reflect on the meaning of terms such as strength, training, health, well-being, as well as on the dangers of making assumptions based solely on appearances.

Divide the class into six groups, ask each group to elect a spokesperson. Give each group a copy of the Ben Helfgott case study. If you wish, each group may also be given a copy of the timeline map for Ben’s story. You will find this at the end of the lesson plan.

Suggest that Ben’s story can be split into six chronological segments – his happy childhood up to the arrival of the Nazis in 1939, his time in the ghetto, his experience of liberation, his actions on arriving in the UK, his career as a sportsman and his involvement in Holocaust education. Assign one of these segments to each group and ask students to sift through Ben’s case study in order to find out more about this part of his life and to note down three important details from this stage of the story.

Collect the findings from each group and record them on the timeline map for Ben’s story. Display the map to the whole class or alternatively supply an individual copy to each student and ask them to complete it themselves during the discussion.

Ask everyone to consider how their reconstruction of Ben’s story relates to some or all of the points for discussion provided below. This may be done individually, in groups, or as a whole class.

© HMDT/HET