Jennifer Goss designed the new IWitness Information Quest activity about Kristallnacht to teach students about the complexities of one of the most important turning points of the Holocaust.

Jennifer Goss teaches AP U.S. Government and Politics, Virginia/U.S. History and a Holocaust and Genocide Studies elective at Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton, Va. She has previously taught courses on the Holocaust in film and literature. She uses Echoes and Reflections, the multimedia Holocaust education program co-produced by USC Shoah Foundation, ADL and Yad Vashem, and leads Echoes and Reflections teacher training sessions. She previously authored the IWitness activity New Beginnings: Journey to America.

The new activity is called Information Quest: Kristallnacht, and it grew out of an activity Goss designed for her students two years ago when she wanted to find different ways to engage them with this topic. The finalized activity is expanded to include discussion of the differences between primary and secondary sources and also a clip from an American news broadcast about Kristallnacht. The clip helps bring the events of Kristallnacht a little closer to home for students in the United States, Goss said.

The activity features five testimonies of individuals who were teenagers or children during the event, close to the age of the students who are studying this time period. One man recounts the day which coincided with his eleventh birthday.  Another gentleman discusses his arrest as a Jewish teenager on Kristallnacht. Another woman, who was a neighbor to Josef Goebbels as a child, talks about the level of devastation her father expressed as the events were occurring. Each voice in the Information Quest shares a different and powerful story.

Goss believes it is important for students to recognize Kristallnacht as the turning point in Nazi anti-Jewish policies and actions. Following the looting and destruction of Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues across Europe on Nov. 9-10, 1938, 30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps.

Students often ask why more people didn’t try to leave Germany before the war began, not understanding that most Jews didn’t think conditions would get worse and then after Kristallnacht, it was too late, Goss said. She also felt it was important to include testimony clips that discuss the reactions of non-Jewish friends and neighbors to the events of Kristallnacht.

“Hearing about the events from those voices is such a powerful and important experience for students to have,” Goss said. “IWitness provides the perfect platform to provide them with an amazing learning experience.”

Goss will be the host of the next #IWitnessChat on Twitter on Oct. 28, 4 p.m. PST. The chat is a chance for educators to discuss their questions, best practices and ideas for using IWitness. This chat will specifically focus on teaching Kristallnacht.

She said she enjoys getting to interact with educators from around the world and the challenge of communicating succinctly in 140 characters – a skill many of today’s students are already very good at.

“I'm very excited to hear about different ways people use IWitness to teach Kristallnacht and utilize IWitness to do it,” Goss said.