HOLOCAUST CURRICULUM THROUGHFilm

Film

Teacher's Guide

Resources

Bonus

Overview

Grades: 9 to 12

Ages: 14+

Duration: 7 hrs

Language: English

Watch Trailer

This Holocaust curriculum is designed to help with this difficult but important subject. By using the film, HIDDEN – The Kati Preston Story, it offers an accessible and supportive path for teachers to engage students with confidence. The film features thought-provoking scenes that will encourage critical thinking, inquiry, reflection, and dialogue in the classroom. The students will probably laugh, they may cry, and best of all, they will remember Kati’s incredible story.

One of the best ways to learn about the Holocaust is to get to know someone who lived through it. By watching the film, students get to “meet” Kati and learn the intimate details about what happened to her during the Hungarian Holocaust and how she survived it. With dignity, courage, honesty, and humor, she opens up about the trials and tribulations in her family, how they were mistreated and then murdered, and how she herself was hunted down by her own countrymen. She also talks about what it was like to live in a communist country under the rule of Stalin, and how she was brainwashed into turning her mother over to the police. She sets an example for students to follow, which fosters empathy, ethical reflection, moral reasoning, tolerance, and resilience. And most of all, she inspires kids to be the best versions of themselves. Kids need to hear her story.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

Explain the historical context of World War II and the Holocaust, including the rise of antisemitism, the role of Nazi ideology, and Hungary’s political alignment and actions during the war.
Identify and analyze key figures and events in Hungary, understanding how national leaders influenced the treatment of Jewish citizens through either collaboration or resistance.
Explore and reflect on the personal story of Kati Preston, connecting her lived experience as a child Holocaust survivor to broader historical events and moral questions.
Examine the concept of social identity and the loss, resilience, and reconstruction of identity during and after trauma, using characters like Kati, Gabi, and Daniel as focal points.
Recognize the traits of resilience in Holocaust survivors and consider how these traits can be identified in themselves and others through discussion, journaling, and essay writing.
Understand the role of rescuers and the criteria for being named Righteous Among the Nations, including analyzing Kati’s rescuer and exploring traits such as moral courage and self-sacrifice.
Demonstrate empathy, historical understanding, and critical thinking through creative and analytical projects, such as research presentations, reflective writing, and visual posters that connect historical learning to personal insight.
Think critically about issues of racism, prejudice, and injustice, both historically and in today’s world.
Reflect on their own identity, values, and character, recognizing the importance of knowing who they are and the kind of person they want to become.
Feel empowered to lead with compassion and integrity, standing up for their beliefs and taking on leadership roles in their schools and communities.

Lessons

The instructions for the classroom activities are covered in the Teacher’s Guide. The following table describes each lesson.

Lesson	Description
1 - Hungary and the Holocaust during World War II (60 min)	This lesson provides context and background for the film. Students review World War II and the Holocaust, roles of key Hungarian leaders in either resisting or collaborating with Nazi objectives, and essential historical terms. They compare the geography of Europe before and after the war and study how World War II shaped Hungarian decision-making. They also do timeline activities to reinforce their knowledge of the chronology of events that influenced Hungarians to collaborate in the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau and recognize how the German invasion of 1944 intensified and accelerated the persecution of Hungarian Jews.
2 - Watch and Discuss HIDDEN – The Kati Preston Story (180 min)	After watching the film and learning Kati Preston’s powerful story, students critically explore the motivations and decisions of those in her life. They connect historical context with personal narrative and express their insights through impactful presentations and class discussions.
3 - Social Identities: From Victim to Survivor (60 min)	Students explore the meaning of social identity and recognize traits of resilience in both the film’s characters and in themselves. Through self-reflection, they examine the roles and identities that shape how they view the world — culturally, socially, personally, and emotionally. The curriculum also addresses generational trauma through discussion of Kati’s son, Daniel Matmor, who appears throughout the film.
4 - Traits of the Righteous Among the Nations (120 min)	Students explore the concept of the Righteous Among the Nations as defined by Yad Vashem and evaluate the actions of Kati’s rescuer through that lens. The unit concludes with a creative project in which students design a poster illustrating a specific trait demonstrated in the act of rescuing Jews, such as compassion, courage, cooperation, ingenuity, moral leadership, self-sacrifice, or integrity.