You will investigate how German occupation reshaped daily life, power, and survival in Poland and France, using diaries, letters, oral histories, photographs, and museum or memorial resources to understand how different ethnic, political, and religious groups experienced the war. Through research, discussion, and source analysis, you will build a grounded understanding of military occupation, its human consequences, and its aftermath while strengthening your ability to evaluate new historical material. You will connect this history to present-day European relationships and reflect on how family, community, and national memory still shape responsibility, identity, and democratic life today.

You will investigate how German occupation reshaped daily life, power, survival, and resistance in Poland and France, using complex historical sources such as diaries, letters, photographs, oral histories, and museum or memorial archives. You will conduct sustained research, compare how different ethnic, political, and religious groups experienced occupation, and synthesize evidence into an accurate explanatory analysis of new historical material. You will collaborate in discussion, ask and refine research questions, and create a source-based product such as an oral history audio piece, video, or visual collage that presents one specific perspective from the war. You will also reflect on how this history connects to present-day European relationships and consider how family or national histories shape responsibility, memory, and civic understanding.

You will create a source-analysis portfolio throughout the project that includes annotated diaries, letters, photos, maps, and notes comparing occupation in Poland and France and its effects on different ethnic, political, and religious groups. You will also produce a research-based product centered on one perspective: either an oral history audio recording, short video, or photo collage using interviews and family artifacts, or an alternative profile built from archived sources such as Anne Frank’s writings, museum collections, and camp memorial records. By the end, you will present an informed historical analysis that explains how German occupation changed daily life, power, and survival, and apply that understanding to new source material. Your work will be shared in a small exhibition, gallery walk, or digital showcase that may include contributions from family members, museums, memorial sites, or local community partners.

Begin with a source immersion where you rotate through short diary entries, letters, occupation posters, ration cards, and photographs from Poland and France, then record what each source reveals about control, fear, resistance, and daily survival. Follow with a video or virtual museum segment from a Holocaust memorial, occupation museum, or preserved camp site, and invite a local museum educator, city historian, or family/community elder to share one personal or place-based story. End by creating a class evidence wall around the driving question, then write a brief reflection on how occupation shaped different ethnic, political, and religious groups and what responsibilities this history raises for Germany and Europe today.

Host a public “Occupied Lives” exhibition where you present your audio stories, short videos, photo collages, and source-based profiles in a museum, local history center, school gallery, or community space, with teachers, families, peers, and community partners invited. Organize the exhibition by themes such as daily life, control and resistance, persecution, collaboration, and post-occupation consequences in Poland and France, and include brief evidence panels with quotes from diaries, letters, and oral histories. Add a listening/viewing station for family interviews and an alternative research station featuring figures such as Anne Frank so every project has equal visibility and dignity. End with a student-led discussion or gallery walk in which you explain how occupation affected different ethnic, political, and religious groups, connect those histories to present-day European relationships, and reflect carefully on family and national memory.