While most people consider Germany's invasion of Poland the start of World War II, the invasion was only one of a sequence of events that led to the global conflict. Using archival footage of the invasion, as well as clips from interviews and lectures from historians, scholars consider the impact of the blitzkrieg. Additional resources link to articles and related videos. 

Concepts

adolf hitler, world war ii, poland, military history, european history, historians, primary source analysis, primary source images

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Have learners view individual videos of World War II scholars and present perspectives on the beginning of World War II to the rest of the class
• Use film clips to examine perspectives of the German invasion during the time of the war

Classroom Considerations

• Create a free C-SPAN Classroom account or the use of the login credentials - Username: students, Password: C-SPANCLASSROOM to use the resource
  

Pros

• Videos are short and curated, making it easy to adapt them to instruction
• Historian interviews and lectures give various perspectives on the event

Cons

• None

Common Core

RH.6-8.1 RH.6-8.2 RH.6-8.4 RH.6-8.6 RH.6-8.10 RH.9-10.1 RH.9-10.2 RH.9-10.4 RH.9-10.6 RH.9-10.10 RH.11-12.1 RH.11-12.2 RH.11-12.4 RH.11-12.6 RH.11-12.10