Girl in the Blue Coat

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. German Nazi forces invaded the Netherlands on May 10th, 1940, despite the Netherland’s neutrality in World War II. What do you know about the Nazis and their ideology, in general? What did it mean for cities to be “occupied” by the German Nazis? What, if anything, do you know specifically about the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam?

Teaching Suggestion: Students will likely have a general understanding of the Nazis and their guiding philosophy: That Adolf Hitler was their leader until he committed suicide at the end of World War II in 1945, and that they believed the Aryans (Caucasians) were the superior race, that the Holocaust refers to the Nazi’s genocidal, systematic killing of Jews between 1941 and 1945. While students will have a basic understanding of Nazism and World War II, this prompt will deepen their understanding specifically of the Netherlands’ Transformation During Wartime.

• The Anne Frank Museum, based in Amsterdam, gives an overview in this article of how the Nazis came to occupy the Netherlands. The Anne Frank Museum also explains in this article that the Netherlands had the highest number of Jewish victims in Western Europe during World War II.
• Holland refers to a specific region of the Netherlands, and in this article from the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions, it explains the intricacies of Holland’s occupation by the Nazis in World War II.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who learn better with visual aids, you may have them watch this 2019 video by History Hustle that explains how the Dutch remember World War II. Students may also benefit from looking through this photographic retrospective of World War II by the Dutch Review.

2. Not every protest will involve a march with people carrying signs and chanting their discontent throughout the streets. What are some ways of demonstrating resistance that do not involve public demonstrations?

Teaching Suggestion: If students cannot come up with examples of protest that do not revolve around public demonstrations, you may share the following as examples: Consumer boycotts of goods and services, letters of opposition or support, slogans/caricatures/symbols, creation of alternative markets/transportation systems/economic institutions, renunciation of honors, and dissent through social media. These examples can help students better understand the ways in which Resistance to Nazi occupation took many forms.

• The Jewish Virtual Library, in this article entitled “U.S. Policy During World War II: The Anti-Nazi Boycott,” explains how the American Jewish Congress considered promoting an American boycott of German imports. 
• Resistance also took the form of a general labor strike in Amsterdam, as described in this article from the National World War II Museum.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Reflect upon a time when you were led to believe something that wasn’t true (or something that wasn’t entirely true) because you didn’t have all the relevant information. What were the circumstances and what was that experience like? When someone told you this falsehood (or half-truth), what was the person’s intention?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt will get students in thinking about The Difficulty of Interpretation. Given the personal nature of the question, it may work best as a free-writing assignment. Students may want to share stories and personal anecdotes from their personal lives, but a more general way of approaching this question would be to discuss common experiences in childhood in which we are taught something that is later upended as we become adults – for example, the belief in Santa Claus. Of course, manipulative motives can underlie the telling of lies/falsehoods, but – as with parents lying to their kids about Santa Claus –the motive can be to protect or shield the child from the outside world, to maintain their innocence. Encourage the students to consider the many reasons why the truth may intentionally be obscured or slowly revealed to a person over time.

• Reader’s Digest gives a list of other common half-truths we learn in childhood in “19 Lies You Were Told as a Kid—That You Probably Still Believe.”
• The Richest gives 11 examples of “the biggest lies we were taught in school” in this article.