This lesson covers the Holocaust and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Content should be factual, age-appropriate and non-graphic. The purpose is to understand scale, state power and why international human rights protections became urgent.
Key questions
- Can a government do whatever it wants to its own people?
- Why did WWII make international human rights protections feel urgent?
Learning objectives
- Describe the scale and significance of selected WWII atrocities
- Explain why WWII showed that governments could not always be trusted to protect human rights
- Connect WWII atrocities to the later creation of the UN and international human rights protections
Evidence organiser
Complete this organiser in your book as the class discusses each example.
One-sentence synthesis
Complete this sentence in your book: These events showed the world needed ______ because ______.
Bridge question
What kind of international system might stop governments misusing power?
Extension
What were the Nuremberg Trials? What principle did they establish about responsibility for war crimes?
Bookwork reminder: Add to your timeline: 1945 - WWII atrocities reveal the need for international human rights protections.