Task
"[Mrs. Johansen] spoke in a low voice to Ellen's mother. 'They must be edgy because to the latest Resistance incidents. Did you read in Die Frie Danske about the bombings in Hillerod and Norrebro?' Although she pretended to be absorbed in unpacking her schoolbooks, Annemarie listened, and she knew what her mother was referring to. Die Frie Danske -- The Free Danes -- was an illegal newspaper, Peter Neilsen brought them occasionally, carefully folded and hidden among ordinary books and papers, and Mama always burned it after she and Papa read it. But Annemarie heard Mama and Papa talk, sometimes at night, about the news they received that way: news of sabotage against the Nazis, bombs hidden and exploded in factories that produced war materials, and industrial railroad lines damaged so that the goods couldn't be transported."
-From Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry, pages 8 and 9
Imagine: You have lived in the country of Denmark all your life. Suddenly, your quiet Danish town is invaded by Nazi soldiers who believe that German people should rule the world and that Slavic, African, and especially Jewish people are of an inferior race and should be destroyed. Your life has been changed completely and you have become a prisoner in your own town. Even more, the Germans have censored all newspapers in Denmark because they do not want you or the other citizens of your country to know what is happening in the world. You have heard that illegal newspapers are being printed by a resistance movement so that the people of Denmark can learn the truth. One of these papers is called "De Frie Danske," which means "The Free Danes." You feel that it is important that your friends and family are aware of what is truly going on in the world. What will you do?
Your job is to work with your book club groups to research different perspectives of Danish citizens during the Holocaust. Each group member will select one of the following roles: a Danish newspaper reporter, a member of the Resistance, a Jewish citizen of Denmark, or a Danish fisherman who supports the alliance. Each group member will work individually to write a journal entry describing what it would have been like to be this person during World War II. Once you have completed your journal entry, you and your group members will share what you learned from your research with each other. Then you will work together to create your own illegal newspaper to inform citizens about the war. You will use resources from this WebQuest and the Number the Stars book, along with any other books, newspapers, or magazines that may be available. Finally, you and your group members will present your newspapers or newscast to your language arts class when you are finished with the project.
This assignment will be graded by the use of a rubric found in the Evaluation section of this WebQuest.