High School Lesson Plans

Defiant Requiem Lesson Plans

Introduction:
The Defiant Requiem Foundation Curriculum is a multi-module educational program for high school students centered on the story of Jewish conductor Rafael Schächter, who taught prisoners in the Terezín ghetto to sing Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem as an act of creative resistance during the Holocaust.

Students will use the documentary film Defiant Requiem as the main resource across all four modules. The film tells the story of Schächter and his chorus, features interviews with surviving chorus members, and provides historical context about life in Terezín, the Nazi propaganda campaign, and the fateful performance before German officials and the International Red Cross on June 23, 1944.

Resource:
Defiant Requiem Film – WATCH HERE

Lesson Plans:
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Module 1: The Story of Defiant Requiem: The Holocaust and Creative Resistance
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Module 2: Propaganda and Deception: Terezín as a “Model Ghetto” and the Red Cross Visit
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Module 3: The Rhetoric of Verdi’s Requiem: Reading the Libretto in Three Contexts
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Module 4: Resisting Oppression: The Arts and Creativity in Terezín
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Last Stop Before The Last Stop Lesson Plans

Introduction:
These lesson plans were developed by The Defiant Requiem Foundation in partnership with The Leo Baeck Institute to provide classroom resources for the virtual exhibit “Last Stop Before the Last Stop: Theresienstadt, 1942–1945.” The exhibit uses artwork, memoirs, diaries, and historical documents from the Institute’s archives to reveal the brutal daily reality of the Theresienstadt ghetto/transit camp, where the Nazis confined over 143,000 Jews between 1941 and 1945.

Four lesson plans designed for grades 9–12 guide students through primary source analysis across key themes: the role of transit and deception at Terezín, intellectual resistance through reading and writing, the experiences of children in the camp, and how Nazi propaganda shaped the historical narrative. Each lesson includes ready-to-use worksheets, discussion prompts, and group activities, and can be accessed alongside the full virtual exhibit.

Resource:
Virtual Exhibition: Last Stop Before the Last Stop – VIEW HERE

Lesson Plans:
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Propaganda: Is A Picture Always Worth 1000 Words?
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Children in Terezín
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Intellectual Resistance
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Transit in Terezín
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Theresienstadt Archive: A Woman’s Microhistory of the Holocaust Lesson Plans

Introduction:
The Theresienstadt Archive: A Woman’s Microhistory of the Holocaust, created by Professor Justin Cammy and hosted by Smith College, is a digital collection that tells the story of Holocaust survivor Lotte Wotitzky Stern through the personal documents, artwork, objects, and testimony she preserved from her time in the Terezín concentration camp. The Defiant Requiem Foundation developed an in-depth lesson plans and a resource for the archive to help educators use these materials in the classroom.

“Lotte’s Memoir” walks students through her unpublished account of her early life in Prague, deportation and internment in Terezín, liberation, and eventual emigration to Canada. “Inside Lotte’s Archive” guides students in examining the collection’s letters, time cards, artwork, handmade objects, and oral testimony.

Resource:
Theresienstadt Archive – VIEW HERE

Lesson Plans:
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Lotte’s Memoir: A Woman’s Microhistory of the Holocaust
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Inside Lotte’s Archive
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