VICTIMS OF GERMAN-OCCUPIED FRANCE AND NETHERLANDS: NEWSPAPER ASSIGNMENT
You will be writing as a citizen of France or the Netherlands, whose countries have been taken over by the Germans.
White you can use a provided template, HOWEVER – if you do use a Microsoft Word provided template, ensure you edit and adjust it to make it your own.
You are writing and fully formatting a newspaper article for a situation of your choice as a French or Dutch victim in German-Occupied France/Netherlands. You need to be extremely thorough in your background and in your execution of the paper.
The assignment should be the front page of a newspaper at the time. It should be in Microsoft Word, but you can save it as a PDF. It should also be landscape and you should adjust the margins to be narrow. It should be one page. Not more, not less!
You will be writing one predominant article that should take up most of the main space of the page. You should include most of the suggestions/prompts below. Remember it is the front page of your newspaper, so there is a lot more happening than just your article. Samples will be shown for inspiration. You should also try to look up newspapers from the time to get an idea of how to do this!
There will also be YouTube videos included to help guide you on how you could format your article. You do not have to do it this way, this is just to show you some of the formatting Word offers of which a lot of people are not aware. This will be at the bottom of this post.
Things to Consider:
- Font size and style. Notice it is different for titles, articles, newspaper name. Do you want it to be readable from a distance? Subtle? Hide it from the German soldiers inspecting your baskets and bags? How could you do that?
- Name of newspaper.
- Date your article and newspaper is published.
- Minimum one photo matching your article (look this up online).
- Who are you writing as? Make up a full name for your character. What happened to them? Why are they writing this? (You cannot have the same scenario or backstory as the people in your table of five).
- Are there ads on your paper? What might they be for given the context of the time?
- Look up newspapers at the time. What other things do you see? What other articles are in the paper? How does it entice you to buy it? E.g. Advertisements, other articles in the paper.
READINGS
If just a link or title provided, you need to read the entire piece. If a link is provided with annotations below, it means only read those sections and skip the rest. This is also in addition to a verbal lesson given on the invasion of France yesterday.
Encyclopedia Britannica: Battle of France and Invasion of the Low Countries
- Battle of France (one mini paragraph at beginning).
- The Fall of the Netherlands.
- The Fall of France (skip beginning): Italian Entrance Into War and the Capture of Paris, The French Surrender.
Washington Post Article 2014: A History of Paris During Nazi Occupation
OPTIONAL (but, very interesting!) – Time: A Jewish Writer Kept a Secret Diary During the Nazi Occupation of France. It Offers an Important Lesson About History
A Firsthand Account of Life in German-Occupied France
Creating Canada Chapter 10 p. 287 “Growing Up in Occupied Holland.”
Dutch Perspective: Holland’s Occupation During World War II
You may use other sources (NEVER Wikipedia!), but you must cite them on a separate page.
MAKING NEWS ARTICLES IN MICROSOFT WORD TUTORIALS
Sound quality is not amazing, but the tutorials are quite helpful.
As always, remember it will change dependent on what version of Word you have, and whether you are using an app or online. All of these things are doable on all versions, you just may have to search or look in different locations to find them.
How to Make a Newspaper in Word (Basics)
Due at the end of class to Teams Monday, 15 April 2024.