Asking a Student to Understand the Plight of a Jewish Family
This page is included in the CD version of A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
GUIDELINES FOR Educational activity ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST
The primary mission of the Us Holocaust Memorial Museum is to promote educational activity near the history of the Holocaust and its implications for our lives today. This pamphlet is intended to assist educators who are preparing to teach Holocaust studies and related subjects.
Why Teach Holocaust History?
The history of the Holocaust represents one of the most constructive, and virtually extensively documented, subjects for a pedagogical exam of basic moral problems. A structured enquiry into Holocaust history yields disquisitional lessons for an investigation of human beliefs. A study of the Holocaust too addresses 1 of the central tenets of education in the United States which is to examine what it means to exist a responsible citizen. Through a study of the Holocaust, students can come to realize that:
- democratic institutions and values are not automatically sustained, simply need to exist appreciated, nurtured, and protected;
- silence and indifference to the suffering of others, or to the infringement of civil rights in whatever society, can -- however, unintentionally -- serve to perpetuate the problems; and
- the Holocaust was not an blow in history -- it occurred because individuals, organizations, and governments made choices which non just legalized discrimination, merely which allowed prejudice, hatred, and ultimately, mass murder to occur.
Questions of Rationale
Because the objective of teaching whatsoever bailiwick is to appoint the intellectual marvel of the student in lodge to inspire critical thought and personal growth, it is helpful to structure your lesson plan on the Holocaust by because throughout, questions of rationale. Earlier addressing what and how to teach, we would recommend that yous contemplate the following:
- Why should students learn this history?
- What are the near meaning lessons students can learn almost the Holocaust?
- Why is a particular reading, image, certificate, or film an advisable medium for conveying the lessons about the Holocaust which you lot wish to teach?
Among the various rationales offered by educators who have incorporated a study of the Holocaust into their various courses and disciplines are these:
- The Holocaust was a watershed issue, non only in the 20th century, merely in the unabridged history of humanity.
- Written report of the Holocaust assists students in developing understanding of the ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping in any gild. It helps students develop an awareness of the value of pluralism, and encourages tolerance of diversity in a pluralistic order.
- The Holocaust provides a context for exploring the dangers of remaining silent, apathetic, and indifferent in the face of others' oppression.
- Holocaust history demonstrates how a modern nation can utilize its technological expertise and bureaucratic infrastructure to implement destructive policies ranging from social engineering to genocide.
- A study of the Holocaust helps students think about the use and corruption of power, and the role and responsibilities of individuals, organizations, and nations when confronted with civil rights violations and/or policies of genocide.
- Equally students gain insight into the many historical, social, religious, political, and economical factors which cumulatively resulted in the Holocaust, they proceeds a perspective on how history happens, and how a convergence of factors tin contribute to the disintegration of civilized values. Part of one's responsibility equally a citizen in a democracy is to larn to identify the danger signals, and to know when to react.
When you lot, as an educator, have the time to consider the rationale for your lesson on the Holocaust, you will exist more than likely to select content that speaks to your students' interests and which provides them with a clearer understanding of the history. Most students demonstrate a high level of interest in studying the Holocaust precisely because the subject raises questions of fairness, justice, private identity, peer pressure, conformity, indifference, and obedience -- issues which adolescents face up in their daily lives. Students are also struck by the magnitude of the Holocaust, and the fact that so many people interim equally collaborators, perpetrators, and bystanders allowed this genocide to occur by declining to protest or resist.
Methodological Considerations
- 1. Define what yous hateful by "Holocaust".
- The Holocaust refers to a specific event in 20th century history: The systematic, bureaucratic annihilation of six 1000000 Jews by the Nazi regime and their collaborators as a central human action of land during World War II. In 1933 approximately nine meg Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be occupied by Germany during the war. Past 1945 ii out of every 3 European Jews had been killed. Although Jews were the primary victims, up to one one-half million Gypsies and at least 250,000 mentally or physically disabled persons were also victims of genocide. As Nazi tyranny spread across Europe from 1933 to 1945, millions of other innocent people were persecuted and murdered. More than iii million Soviet prisoners of state of war were killed considering of their nationality. Poles, too as other Slavs, were targeted for slave labor, and as a result of the Nazi terror, nigh two million perished. Homosexuals and others deemed "anti-social" were besides persecuted and oft murdered. In addition, thousands of political and religious dissidents such as communists, socialists, merchandise unionists, and Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted for their behavior and behavior and many of these individuals died as a upshot of maltreatment.
- ii. Avoid comparisons of pain.
- A study of the Holocaust should always highlight the different policies carried out past the Nazi government towards diverse groups of people; nonetheless, these distinctions should not exist presented as a basis for comparison of suffering between them. Avoid generalizations which suggest exclusivity, such as "the victims of the Holocaust suffered the most cruelty ever faced past a people in the history of humanity." Ane cannot presume that the horror of an individual, family or community destroyed past the Nazis was whatsoever greater than that experienced by victims of other genocides.
- 3. Avoid unproblematic answers to complex history.
- A written report of the Holocaust raises difficult questions about human behavior, and it often involves complicated answers as to why events occurred. Be wary of oversimplifications. Allow students to contemplate the various factors which contributed to the Holocaust; practise non endeavour to reduce Holocaust history to one or two catalysts in isolation from the other factors which came into play. For example, the Holocaust was non simply the logical and inevitable consequence of unbridled racism. Rather, racism, combined with centuries-old bigotry, renewed by a nationalistic fervor which emerged in Europe in the latter half of the 19th century, fueled by Deutschland'south defeat in World War I and its national humiliation following the Treaty of Versailles, exacerbated past worldwide economic hard times, the ineffectiveness of the Weimar Republic, and international indifference, and catalyzed by the political charisma, militaristic inclusiveness, and manipulative propaganda of Adolf Hitler'due south Nazi regime, contributed to the eventuality of the Holocaust.
- 4. Just because it happened, doesn't mean it was inevitable.
- Likewise often, students take the simplistic impression that the Holocaust was inevitable. Simply because an historical event took place, and it was documented in textbooks and on film, does not hateful that it had to happen. This seemingly obvious concept is often disregarded by students and teachers akin. The Holocaust took place because individuals, groups, and nations fabricated decisions to act or not to deed. Past focusing on those decisions, we proceeds insight into history and man nature, and we can better help our students to go disquisitional thinkers.
- 5. Strive for precision of linguistic communication.
- Any study of the Holocaust touches upon nuances of human behavior. Because of the complication of the history, there is a temptation to overgeneralize and thus to misconstrue the facts (east.g., "all concentration camps were killing centers" or "all Germans were collaborators"). Rather, teachers must strive to assistance students distinguish between categories of beliefs and relevant historical references; to analyze the differences between prejudice and discrimination, collaborators and bystanders, armed and spiritual resistance, straight orders and assumed orders, concentration camps and killing centers, and guilt and responsibility.
- 6. Make conscientious distinctions about sources of information.
- Students need do in distinguishing between fact, opinion, and fiction; between main and secondary sources, and between types of testify such every bit court testimonies, oral histories, and other written documents. Hermeneutics -- the science of interpretation -- should be called into play to help guide your students in their assay of sources. Students should be encouraged to consider why a particular text was written, who the intended audience was, whether there were any biases inherent in the information, any gaps in give-and-take, whether gaps in certain passages were inadvertent or not, and how the information has been used to translate various events.
- 7. Endeavour to avoid stereotypical descriptions.
- Though all Jews were targeted for destruction by the Nazis, the experiences of all Jews were not the aforementioned. Simplistic views and stereotyping take place when groups of people are viewed every bit monolithic in attitudes and deportment. How ethnic groups or social clusters are labeled and portrayed in school curricula has a direct impact on how students perceive groups in their daily lives. Remind your students that although members of a grouping may share common experiences and behavior, generalizations nearly them, without benefit of modifying or qualifying terms (e.one thousand., "sometimes," "ordinarily," "in many cases but non all") tend to stereotype grouping behavior and distort historical reality. Thus, all Germans cannot be characterized every bit Nazis, nor should any nationality be reduced to a singular or i-dimensional description.
- 8. Do not romanticize history to engage students' interest.
- 1 of the great risks of Holocaust education is the danger of fostering cynicism in our students by exposing them to the worst of human nature. Regardless, accurateness of fact must be a teacher's priority. People who risked their lives to rescue victims of Nazi oppression provide useful and important role models for students, nonetheless an overemphasis on heroic tales in a unit of measurement on the Holocaust results in an inaccurate and unbalanced account of the history. It is important to acquit in mind that "at best, less than half of one per centum of the total population [of non-Jews] under Nazi occupation helped to rescue Jews." [Oliner and Oliner, 1991, p. 363]
- 9. Contextualize the history you are didactics.
- Events of the Holocaust, and particularly how individuals and organizations behaved at that time, must exist placed in an historical context so that students tin begin to embrace the circumstances that encouraged or discouraged these acts. Frame your approach to specific events and acts of complicity or defiance past considering when and where an human action took place; the immediate consequences to oneself and 1's family of assisting victims; the impact of contemporaneous events; the degree of control the Nazis had on a country or local population; the cultural attitudes of particular native populations historically toward different victim groups, and the availability, effectiveness, and gamble of potential hiding places.
- ten. Translate statistics into people.
- In any report of the Holocaust, the sheer number of victims challenges easy comprehension. Teachers need to show that individual people are backside the statistics, comprised of families of grandparents, parents, and children. Outset-person accounts and memoir literature provide students with a way of making meaning out of collective numbers. Although students should exist conscientious almost overgeneralizing from kickoff-person accounts such as those from survivors, journalists, relief workers, bystanders, and liberators, personal accounts tin supplement a study of genocide past moving it "from a welter of statistics, remote places and events, to one that is immersed in the 'personal' and 'particular.'" [Totten, 1987, p. 63].
- 11. Exist sensitive to appropriate written and acoustic content.
- One of the master concerns of educators is how to introduce students to the horrors of the Holocaust. Graphic material should exist used in a judicious way and only to the extent necessary to achieve the objective of the lesson. Teachers should remind themselves that each pupil and each class is different, and that what seems appropriate for one may non be for all.
- 12. Strive for balance in establishing whose perspective informs your study of the Holocaust.
- Ofttimes, likewise great an emphasis is placed on the victims of Nazi aggression, rather than on the victimizers who forced people to brand incommunicable choices or only left them with no choice to brand. Most students express empathy for victims of mass murder. But, it is non uncommon for students to assume that the victims may have washed something to justify the actions against them, and thus to identify inappropriate arraign on the victims themselves.
- xiii. Select appropriate learning activities.
- Just because students favor a certain learning activity does not necessarily mean that it should be used. For example, such activities as word scrambles, crossword puzzles, and other contemporary exercises tend not to encourage disquisitional assay, only pb instead to depression level types of thinking and, in the example of Holocaust curricula, trivialize the importance of studying this history. When the effects of a particular activity run counter to the rationale for studying the history, and then that activity should not be used.
- fourteen. Reinforce the objectives of your lesson program.
- As in all pedagogy situations, the opening and endmost lessons are critically important. A potent opening should serve to dispel misinformation students may accept prior to studying the Holocaust. It should fix a cogitating tone, move students from passive to active learners, indicate to students that their ideas and opinions matter, and institute that this history has multiple ramifications for themselves as individuals and as members of society as a whole.
Words that draw human behavior often have multiple meanings. Resistance, for instance, unremarkably refers to a physical act of armed revolt. During the Holocaust, it too meant partisan activism that ranged from smuggling messages, food, and weapons to actual military machine engagement. Only, resistance also embraced willful disobedience: continuing to practise religious and cultural traditions in disobedience of the rules; creating fine fine art, music and poesy inside ghettos and concentration camps. For many, simply maintaining the will to remain alive in the face of apple-polishing brutality was the surest act of spiritual resistance.
Because scholars ofttimes base their inquiry on different bodies of information, varying interpretations of history can emerge. Consequently, all interpretations are field of study to analytical evaluation. But past refining their own "hermeneutic of suspicion" can students mature into readers who discern the departure between legitimate scholars who present competing historical interpretations, and those who distort or deny historical fact for personal or political gain.
Students should be reminded that individuals and groups do not always fit neatly into the same categories of behavior. The very aforementioned people did non always act consistently every bit "bystanders," "collaborators," "perpetrators," or "rescuers." Individuals and groups oft behaved differently depending upon irresolute events and circumstances. The same person who in 1933 might have stood past and remained uninvolved while witnessing social discrimination of Jews, might later accept joined up with the SA and get a collaborator or have been moved to dissent vocally or human action in defence force of Jewish friends and neighbors.
Encourage your students not to categorize groups of people but on the basis of their experiences during the Holocaust: contextualization is critical so that victims are not perceived but as victims. Although Jews were the primal victims of the Nazi regime, they had a vibrant culture and long history in Europe prior to the Nazi era. By exposing students to some of the cultural contributions and achievements of 2 chiliad years of European Jewish life, you aid students to rest their perception of Jews as victims and to ameliorate appreciate the traumatic disruption in Jewish history acquired by the Holocaust.
Similarly, students may know very little about Gypsies, except for the negative images and derogatory descriptions promulgated past the Nazis. Students would benefit from a broader viewpoint, learning something about Gypsy history and civilization, and understanding the diverse ways of life among different Gypsy groups.
Students are substantially a "convict audience." When we attack them with images of horror for which they are unprepared, nosotros violate a bones trust: the obligation of a teacher to provide a "prophylactic" learning environs. The assumption that all students will seek to sympathise human beliefs after existence exposed to horrible images is fallacious. Some students may be then appalled by images of brutality and mass murder that they are discouraged from studying the subject field further; others may become fascinated in a more than voyeuristic way, subordinating further critical analysis of the history to the superficial titillation of looking at images of starvation, disfigurement, and expiry. Many events and deeds that occurred within the context of the Holocaust do not rely for their depiction directly on the graphic horror of mass killings or other barbarisms. It is recommended that images and texts that practise non exploit either the victims' memories or the students' emotional vulnerability course the centerpiece of Holocaust curricula.
There is also a tendency among students to glorify power, even when it is used to kill innocent people. Many teachers bespeak that their students are intrigued and in some cases, intellectually seduced, by the symbols of ability which pervaded Nazi propaganda (e.thou., the swastika, Nazi flags and regalia, Nazi slogans, rituals, and music). Rather than highlight the trappings of Nazi ability, teachers should enquire students to evaluate how such elements are used by governments (including our ain) to build, protect, and mobilize a society. Students should be encouraged to contemplate as well how such elements can exist abused and manipulated by governments to implement and legitimize acts of terror and fifty-fifty genocide.
In whatsoever review of the propaganda used to promote Nazi ideology, Nazi stereotypes of targeted victim groups, and the Hitler regime's justifications for persecution and murder, teachers need to remind students that just because such policies and behavior are under discussion in grade does non mean they are acceptable. It would be a terrible irony if students arrived at such a decision.
Furthermore, whatsoever study of the Holocaust should address both the victims and the perpetrators of violence, and attempt to portray each as human being beings, capable of moral judgment and independent decision-making merely challenged past circumstances which made both self-defense and contained thought non merely difficult but perilous and potentially lethal.
Similarly, activities that encourage students to construct models of killing camps should also exist reconsidered since any consignment along this line volition almost inevitably end up being simplistic, time-consuming, and tangential to the educational objectives for studying the history of the Holocaust.
Thought-provoking learning activities are preferred, but even here, there are pitfalls to avoid. In studying complex human behavior, many teachers rely upon simulation exercises meant to help students "feel" unfamiliar situations. Even when teachers take great care to set a grade for such an activeness, simulating experiences from the Holocaust remains pedagogically unsound. The activity may appoint students, simply they often forget the purpose of the lesson, and even worse, they are left with the impression at the conclusion of the activity that they at present know what it was like during the Holocaust.
Holocaust survivors and eyewitnesses are among the first to indicate the grave difficulty of finding words to depict their experiences. Even more revealing, they argue the virtual impossibility of trying to simulate accurately what it was like to live on a daily basis with fearfulness, hunger, disease, unfathomable loss, and the unrelenting threat of abject brutality and death.
The trouble with trying to simulate situations from the Holocaust is that complex events and actions are over-simplified, and students are left with a skewed view of history. Since there are numerous primary source accounts, both written and visual, as well every bit survivors and eyewitnesses who can describe actual choices faced and made by individuals, groups, and nations during this menstruation, teachers should draw upon these resources and refrain from simulation games that lead to a trivialization of the subject matter.
If they are not attempting to recreate situations from the Holocaust, simulation activities can be used effectively, especially when they have been designed to explore varying aspects of human behavior such as fear, scapegoating, disharmonize resolution, and difficult determination-making. Asking students in the form of a discussion, or every bit office of a writing consignment, to consider various perspectives on a particular outcome or historical experience is fundamentally different from involving a class in a simulation game.
A potent closing should emphasize synthesis by encouraging students to connect this history to other globe events as well every bit the world they alive in today. Students should exist encouraged to reflect on what they have learned and to consider what this study means to them personally and every bit citizens of a democracy. Most importantly, your endmost lesson should encourage further examination of Holocaust history, literature, and art.
Incorporating a Study of the Holocaust into Existing Courses
The Holocaust tin can be effectively integrated into various existing courses inside the school curriculum. This section presents sample rationale statements and methodological approaches for incorporating a study of the Holocaust in seven different courses. Each course synopsis constitutes a mere fraction of the various rationales and approaches currently used past educators. Frequently, the rationales and methods listed under ane course can be applied likewise to other courses.
United states History
Although the history of the Usa is introduced at diverse class levels throughout about school curricula, all states require students to take a form in U.s. history at the high school level. Including a report of the Holocaust into U.S. History courses tin can encourage students to:
- examine the dilemmas that arise when foreign policy goals are narrowly defined, every bit solely in terms of the national interest, thus denying the validity of universal moral and human priorities;
- understand what happens when parliamentary democratic institutions fail;
- examine the responses of governmental and non-governmental organizations in the United States to the plight of Holocaust victims (eastward.m., the Evian Conference, the debate over the Wagner-Rogers bill to assist refugee children, the ill-fated voyage of the S.S. St. Louis, the Emergency Rescue Committee, the rallies and efforts of Rabbi Stephen Southward. Wise, and the decision by the U.Southward. not to bomb the railroad lines leading into Auschwitz);
- explore the role of American and Centrolineal soldiers in liberating victims from Nazi concentration camps and killing centers, using, for instance, commencement-person accounts of liberators to define their initial responses to, and subsequent reflections nearly, what they witnessed; and
- examine the central role played by the U.S. in bringing Nazi perpetrators to trial at Nuremberg and in other war crimes trials.
Since most history and social studies teachers in the United States rely upon standard textbooks, they tin can incorporate the Holocaust into regular units of report such as the Nifty Depression, World State of war Ii, and the Cold War. Questions which innovate Holocaust studies into these subject areas include:
- The Great Low:
- How did the U.S. respond to the Depression? How were U.S. electorial politics influenced past the Depression? What were the immediate consequences of the Depression on the European economic and political system established by the Versailles Treaty of 1919? What was the affect of the Low upon the electoral strength of the Nazi political party in Germany? Was the Low a contributing cistron to the Nazis' rise to ability?
- World War 2:
- What was the relationship between the U.S. and Nazi Deutschland from 1933 to 1939? How did the deportment of Nazi Germany influence U.South. foreign policy? What was the response of the U.S. Regime and not-governmental organizations to the unfolding events of the Holocaust? What was the role of the U.S. in the war crimes trials?
- The Cold War:
- How did the rivalries between the Globe State of war II allies influence American attitudes toward onetime Nazis? What was the position of America'southward European allies toward members of the quondam Nazi regime?
Globe History
Although various aspects of earth history are incorporated throughout school curricula, nigh students are not required to accept Earth History courses. It is in the context of World History courses, nonetheless, that the Holocaust is generally taught. Inclusion of the Holocaust in a World History course helps students to:
- examine events, deeds, and ideas in European history that contributed to the Holocaust, such equally the history of antisemitism in Europe, 19th century race science, the rise of German nationalism, the defeat of Germany in World War I, and the failure of the Weimar Republic to govern successfully;
- reflect upon the idea that culture has been progressing [one possible exercise might be to have students develop a definition of "civilization" in class, and then take them compare and contrast Nazi claims for the "one thousand Year Reich" with the actual policies they employed to realize that vision; the noise raised in such a lesson helps students to meet that government policies can cover evil, peculiarly when terror and fauna strength trounce dissent];
- explore how the various policies of the Nazi authorities were interrelated (eastward.m., the connections between establishing a totalitarian government, carrying out racial policies, and waging state of war); and
- reverberate upon the moral and ethical implications of the Nazi era every bit a watershed in world history (eastward.g., the systematic planning and implementation of a regime policy to impale millions of people; the use of technological advances to carry out mass slaughter; the part of Nazi collaborators, and the office of bystanders around the world who chose not to intervene in the persecution and murder of Jews and other victims).
Once once again, since virtually teachers of European history rely upon standard textbooks and a chronological arroyo, teachers may wish to comprise the Holocaust into the following, standardized units of written report in European History: the Aftermath of World War I; the Rise of Dictators; the World at War, 1939-45, and the Consequences of War. Questions which innovate Holocaust studies into these subject areas include:
- The Aftermath of World State of war I:
- What role did the Versailles Treaty play in the restructuring of European and earth politics? How did the reconfiguration of Europe following World War I influence High german national politics in the flow 1919-33?
- The Rise of the Dictators:
- What factors led to the rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe in the period betwixt the two earth wars? How was antisemitism used past the Nazis and other regimes (Hungary, Romania, U.S.Due south.R.) to justify totalitarian measures?
- The Earth at State of war, 1939-45:
- Why has the Holocaust frequently been chosen a "war inside the war?" How did the Holocaust affect Nazi military decisions? Why might information technology be "easier" to commit genocidal acts during wartime than during a flow of relative peace?
- The Consequences of War:
- What was the connection between Earth War II and the germination of the State of State of israel? Was a new strain of international morality introduced with the convening of the Nuremberg Tribunals? How did the Common cold State of war touch on the fate of onetime Nazis?
World Cultures
A course on Earth Cultures incorporates cognition from both the humanities and the social sciences into a study of cultural patterns and social institutions of various societies. A study of the Holocaust in a World Cultures course helps students:
- examine conflicts arising between majority and minority groups in a specific cultural sphere (Europe between 1933-45);
- further their understanding of how a government tin can use concepts such as civilization, ethnicity, race, diverseness, and nationality as weapons to persecute, murder, and annihilate people;
- analyze the extent to which cultures are able to survive and maintain their traditions and institutions, when faced with threats to their very beingness (e.g., retaining religious practices, recording bystander accounts, and hiding cultural symbols and artifacts); and
- apply understandings gleaned from an examination of the Holocaust to genocides which accept occurred in other cultural spheres.
Government
Government courses at the high schoolhouse level normally focus on understanding the U.S. political system, comparative studies of various governments, and the international relationship of nations. The Holocaust tin can be incorporated into a study of government in club to demonstrate how the development of public policy tin get directed to genocidal ends when dissent and debate are silenced. Inclusion of Holocaust studies in Regime courses helps students:
- compare governmental systems (east.thousand., by investigating how the Weimar Constitution in Frg prior to the Nazi seizure of power was like to, or different from, the Constitution of the United States; by comparing the Nazi system of governance with that of the United states);
- study the procedure of how a state tin degenerate from a (parliamentary) democracy into a totalitarian state (e.yard., by examining the processes by which the Nazis gained absolute control of the German language government and how the Nazi authorities then controlled virtually all segments of German society);
- examine how the evolution of public policy can lead to genocidal ends, peculiarly when people remain silent in face up of discriminatory practices (e.g., the evolution of Nazi racial and genocide policies towards Jews and other victim groups beginning with the philosophical platform elaborated in Hitler's Mein Kampf, continuing through the country-imposed Nuremberg Laws, and culminating with governmental policies of murder and extermination later 1941);
- examine the part of Nazi bureaucracy in implementing policies of murder and annihilation (e.g., the development and maintenance of a organization to identify, isolate, comport, enslave, and kill targeted people, and then redistribute their remaining belongings);
- examine the role of diverse individuals in the rise and fall of a totalitarian government (e.m., those who supported Nazi Germany, those who were passive, and those who resisted both internally, such as partisans and others who carried out revolts, and externally, such as the Allies; and
- recognize that among the legacies of the Holocaust have been the cosmos of the United Nations in 1945, and its ongoing efforts to develop and adopt numerous, meaning human rights bills (east.g., the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights and the U.N. Convention on Genocide).
Gimmicky World Problems
Many schools include a Gimmicky World Problems grade at the senior loftier level which allows students to bear an in-depth study of a topic such equally genocide. The focus is usually on what constitutes genocide, and areas of investigation include various preconditions, patterns, consequences, and methods of intervention and prevention of genocide. A study of the Holocaust in Gimmicky Earth Problems curricula tin can help students to:
- comprehend the similarities and differences between governmental policies during the Holocaust and gimmicky policies that create the potential for ethnocide or genocide (e.thousand., comparing and contrasting the philosophy and/or policies of the Nazi regime with that of the Khmer Rouge in Kingdom of cambodia);
- compare and contrast the globe response of governments and non-governmental organizations to the Holocaust with the responses of governments and non-governmental organizations to mass killings today (e.grand., comparing the decisions made at the Evian Conference in 1938, to the U.Due south. response to the Cambodian genocide between 1974-1979, or the response of not-governmental organizations like the International Ruby Cantankerous to the Nazi genocide of Jews during the Holocaust with that of Amnesty International to political killings in Argentina, Guatemala, Indonesia, and Cambodia in contemporary times; and
- analyze the relationship of the Holocaust and its legacy to the formation of the Israel.
Literature
Literature is read in English classes across grade levels and is also used to heighten and strengthen social studies and science courses. The literature curriculum is generally organized thematically or around categories such as American Literature, British Literature, European Literature, and World Literature. Literature, is capable of providing thought-provoking perspectives on a myriad of subjects and concerns which tin engage students in ways that standard textbooks and essays practice not.
Holocaust literature encompasses a variety of literary genres including novels, short stories, drama, poetry, diaries, and memoirs. This broad spectrum gives teachers a broad range of curriculum choices. Considering Holocaust literature derives from a true-to-life ballsy in human being history, its stories reveal basic truths well-nigh human nature, and provide adolescent readers with apparent models of heroism and nobility. At the same fourth dimension, it compels them to confront the reality of the human capacity for evil.
Because and then many of the stories intersect with issues in students' own lives, Holocaust literature tin inspire a commitment to decline indifference to human suffering, and can instruct them nigh relevant social issues such as the effects of intolerance and elitism. Studying literary responses to the Holocaust helps students:
- develop a deeper respect for human decency past asking them to confront the moral depravity and the extent of Nazi evil (e.chiliad., the abject cruelty of the Nazi treatment of victims even prior to the circular-ups and deportations; the outcome of Kristallnacht; the deportations in boxcars; the mass killings; and the so-called medical experiments of Nazi doctors);
- recognize the deeds of heroism demonstrated past teenagers and adults in ghettos and concentration camps (due east.one thousand., the couriers who smuggled messages, goods, and weapons in and out of the Warsaw Ghetto; the partisans who used arms to resist the Nazis; the uprisings and revolts in diverse ghettos including Warsaw and in killing centers such equally Treblinka);
- explore the spiritual resistance evidenced in literary responses which portray the irrepressible dignity of people who transcended the evil of their murderers, as establish, for example, in the clandestine writing of diaries, poetry, and plays;
- recognize the different roles which were assumed or thrust upon people during the Holocaust, such as victim, oppressor, bystander, and rescuer;
- examine the moral choices, or absence of choices, which were confronted past both young and sometime, victim and perpetrator; and
- analyze the abuse of linguistic communication cultivated by the Nazis, specially in the use of euphemisms to mask their evil intent (due east.g., their utilize of the terms "emigration" for expulsion, "evacuation" for deportation, "deportation" for transportation to concentration camps and killing centers, "police actions" for round-ups that typically led to mass murder, and "Final Solution" for the planned annihilation of every Jew in Europe).
Art and Art History
One of the goals for studying art history is to enable students to understand the role of art in order. The Holocaust tin be incorporated into a study of fine art and art history to illuminate how the Nazis used art for propagandistic purposes, and how victims used artistic expression to communicate their protestation, despair, and/or hope. A study of fine art during the Holocaust helps students:
- analyze the motivations for, and implications of, the Nazi'southward censorship activities in the fine and literary arts, theater, and music (e.m., the banning of books and certain styles of painting; the May 1933 book burnings);
- examine the values and beliefs of the Nazis and how the regime perceived the world, by, for case, examining Nazi symbols of power, Nazi propaganda posters, paintings, and drawings deemed "acceptable" rather than "degenerate";
- study how people living under Nazi command used art every bit a form of resistance (eastward.g., examining the extent to which the victims created art; the dangers they faced in doing and then; the various forms of fine art that were created and the settings in which they were created, and the diversity of themes and content in this artistic expression);
- examine art created by Holocaust victims and survivors and explore its capacity to document various experiences including life prior to the Holocaust, life within the ghettos, the deportations, and the myriad of experiences in the concentration military camp system; and
- examine interpretations of the Holocaust as expressed in gimmicky art, fine art exhibitions, and memorials.
Decision
A study of the Holocaust tin can be effectively integrated into any number of subject areas. Sample curricula and lesson plans, currently in use around the country, have been nerveless by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and are available for reference purposes. For further data on the range of materials available, and how to acquire copies of these materials for your own use in developing or enhancing study units on the Holocaust, delight contact the Education Department, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW, Washington, DC 20054; phone: (202) 488-0400.
References
Oliner, Pearl M. and Samuel P. Oliner. "Righteous People in the Holocaust." Genocide: A Critical Bibliographic Review. Edited past Israel Charny. London and New York: Mansell Publishing and Facts on File, respectively, 1991.
Totten, Samuel. "The Personal Face of Genocide: Words of Witnesses in the Classroom." Special Issue of the Social Science Tape ("Genocide: Problems, Approaches, Resource") 24, 2 (1987): 63-67.
Acknowledgements
Main authors:
William South. Parsons, Director of Education & Visitor Services, U.Due south. Holocaust Memorial Museum(U.S.H.Grand.M.); and
Samuel Totten, Banana Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, Academy of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Nosotros would also like to acknowledge editorial suggestions made by:
Helen Fagin, Chair, U.Southward. Holocaust Memorial Council Education Commission;
Sara J. Bloomfield, Acquaintance Museum Director for Public Programs;
Alice M. Greenwald, Consultant (United statesH.M.M.);
Stephen Feinberg, Social Studies Department Chairman, Wayland Centre School, Wayland, MA;
William R. Fernekes, Social Studies Supervisor, Hunterdon Cardinal Regional Loftier Schoolhouse, Flemington, NJ;
Grace M. Caporino, Avant-garde Placement English Instructor, Carmel High Schoolhouse, Carmel, NY; and
Kristy Fifty. Brosius, Resources Center Coordinator (U.Due south.H.Grand.Thou.).
This page ©United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Applied science,
Higher of Pedagogy, Academy of South Florida © 2005.
Source: https://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/sites/USHMM/guideint.htm
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