Dora's Story 2: Moving to Postwar Britain

Moving to Postwar Britain, offers a way in to Dora's life story through a series of ten extracts from the original interview. In these extracts, Dora talks about travelling from Germany to England after the Second World War, the challenges of not speaking English and the prejudice she experienced as a German. She reflects on Nazi atrocities and gives us an insight into the opinions, beliefs and behaviours of a woman living in the shadow of conflict.

This resource offers

• a series of ten extracts (numbered 11 to 20) from the original oral history interview which have been subtitled and are made available through YouTube
• a Guide for Teachers with curriculum links, full transcripts and suggested learning activities available as a downloadable PDF

Learning at Key Stage 3

Dora's Story offers opportunities to:

• learn about challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day including topics such as the Rise of Hitler and the Nazis, Persecution of Jews in Germany 1933-1939 and Migration and Movement
• extend and deepen pupils' chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of world history by considering the lives of ordinary people in Germany between 1933 and 1945
• identify significant events, make connections, draw contrasts, and analyse trends by considering Dora’s life against the backdrop of national and international political upheaval and conflict
• use historical terms and concepts in increasingly sophisticated ways by using oral history as a historical source and comparing it with other sources
• pursue historically valid enquiries and create relevant, structured and evidentially supported accounts in response
• understand how different types of historical sources are used rigorously to make historical claims and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed by using first-hand oral testimony and considering the benefits and challenges of this source