Transcript GUIDELINES FOR TEACHING ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST

Guidelines for Teaching About
the Holocaust
United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum
GUIDELINES FOR TEACHING ABOUT
THE HOLOCAUST:
1. Define “Holocaust.”
2. Avoid comparisons of pain.
3. Avoid simple answers to complex questions.
4. Just because it happened does not mean it was inevitable.
5. Strive for precision of language.
6. Make careful distinctions about sources of information.
7. Try to avoid stereotypical descriptions.
8. Do not romanticize history to engage your students.
9. Contextualize the history you are teaching.
10. Translate statistics into people.
11. Be sensitive to appropriate written and audio-visual content.
12. Strive for balance in establishing whose perspective informs
your study.
13.Select appropriate learning activities.
14. Reinforce the objectives of your lesson plan.
1. Define “Holocaust.”
What is holocaust?
• The holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic
persecution and anihilation of European Jewry by
Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933.
and 1945. Jews were the primary victims – six
million were murdered; Gypsies, the handicapped,
and Poles were also targeted for destruction or
decimation for racial, ethnic, or national
reasons.Millions more, including homosexuals,
Jehovah´s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and
political disidents also suffered grievous opression
and death under Nazy tyranny.
Jews were the
main target
Page from the anti-Semitic
German children's book, "Trau
Keinem Fuchs..." (Trust No Fox
in the Green Meadow and No Jew
on his Oath)
Not only Jews
Announcement in
Romanian issued by
the Mayor of Roman,
Food Distribution
Service on November
28, 1942, regarding the
distribution of sugar.
2. Avoid comparisons of pain.
Different
propaganda
politics
“Jews are
disease!”
Propaganda slide
entitled "The Jewish
spirit undermines the
healthy powers of the
German people."
“Because of
handicapped
you lose your
money”
Propaganda slide produced by
the Reich Propaganda Office
showing the opportunity cost
of feeding a person with a
hereditary disease. The
illustration shows that an
entire family of healthy
Germans can live for one day
on the same 5.50 Reichsmarks
it costs to support one ill
person for the same amount of
time.
3. Avoid simple answers to complex questions
Why didn´t
they leave?
Political cartoon
entitled, "Will the
Evian Conference
guide him to
freedom?" that was
published in the
Sunday, July 3, 1938
edition of The New
York Times.
4. Just because it happened does not mean it was
inevitable.
War and
crimes were
not
inevitable.
Propaganda slide
featuring two doctors
working at an
unidentified asylum for
the mentally ill. The
caption reads, "Life only
as a burden."
Nazi propaganda poster
with a picture of a Jewish
star and a German caption
that reads, "Whoever
wears this symbol is an
enemy of our Volk."
5. Strive for precision of language.
Are all the
Germans
Nazis and
murderous?
This image originates from a
film produced by the Reich
Propaganda Ministry. It
shows patients in an
unidentified asylum. Their
existence is described as
"life without hope." The
Nazis sought, through
propaganda, to develop
public sympathy for the
Euthanasia Program.
Resistance
against
agression
1
Cover of the underground
Yiddish newspaper, Jugend
Shtimme [Voice of the Youth] of
January-February, 1941, with a
graphic of a human fist
pounding a swastika.
The mimeographed paper was
put out by members of Zukunft
(the youth wing of the socialist
Bund movement) in the Warsaw
ghetto. The Yiddish caption at
the bottom of the page reads,
"Fascism must be smashed!"
Resistance
against
agression
2
A display box for the
"Der Stuermer"
newspaper that has been
defaced to read, "The
Jews are our fortune"
instead of "The Jews are
our misfortune".
6. Make careful distinctions about sources of
information. Be critical of sources
Be critical. What
is on the picture?
What does this
picture tell you?
Slide taken from a Nazi
propaganda filmstrip,
promoting "euthanasia,"
prepared for the Hitler Youth.
The caption says: "Mentally ill
Negro (English) 16 years in an
institution costing 35,000 RM
[Reichsmarks]." Place and date
uncertain.
Who is it ment
for? What is its
message?
A Nazi propaganda poster
encourages healthy Germans to
raise a large family. The
caption, in German, reads:
"Healthy Parents have Healthy
Children."
7. Try to avoid stereotypical descriptions.
Propaganda
slide entitled
"Nordic heads
[faces] from
all periods and
countries."
Page from the anti-Semitic
German children's book,
"Der Giftpilz" (The
Poisonous Mushroom). The
text reads, " The Jewish
nose is crooked at its tip. It
looks like the number six..."
Propaganda slide
which contrasts a
person of mixed
race (at the left)
with a healthy
"Aryan" youth (at
the right).
8. Do not romanticize history to engage students’ interest.
The caption: "Enough! Vote
Hitler!"
Propaganda slide
featuring a deformed
infant. The caption reads
"... because God cannot
want the sick and ailing
to reproduce."
9. Contextualize the history.
Propaganda slide produced
by the Reich Propaganda
Office entitled "The Fearful
Legacy of an Alcoholic.“
According to the chart, an
alcoholic will have 894
descendants in 83 years and
of these 40 will live in
extreme poverty, 67 will be
hardened criminals, 7 will be
murderers, 181 will turn to
prostitution, and 142 will be
beggars. Altogether, these
"asocials" and their activities
will cost 5 million RM.
Nazi propaganda poster advertising a
special issue of "Der Stuermer" on
"Rassenschande" [race pollution].
The poster warns of interracial
relationships, justifying and explaining the
Nuremberg laws. The text reads: "Race
Pollution. Since 1923, Julius Streicher has
enlightened the public about race pollution.
In 1933, the Fuehrer declared race pollution
a crime, punishable by imprisonment.
Nevertheless, thousands of race crimes
continue to be committed in Germany by
Jews. What is Race Pollution? Why did the
Fuehrer proclaim the Nuremberg Laws?
Why do Jews, systematically and in massive
numbers, commit racial crimes against the
German woman? What are the
consequences of race pollution for the
German maiden? What are the
consequences of race pollution for the
German Volk? The new Stuermer special
issue."
10. Translate statistics into people
Propaganda slide
featuring a chart produced
by the Reich Propaganda
Office showing that in
1936 the total cost of
caring for 880,000 people
ill with hereditary disease
was 1200 million
Reichsmarks, which was
almost double the 713
million RM spent on the
administration of the
national, state, and local
government.
11. Be sensitive to appropriate written and audiovisual
content.
Propaganda slide
featuring two disabled
brothers sitting in the
grass. The caption
reads, "Brothersasocial."
12. Strive for balance in establishing whose
perspective informs your study of the Holocaust.
Use of powerful
pictures in propaganda
with traditional
motives like family,
children...
"Mothers! Fight for your
children!" Note that the mother
portrayed has four children,
consistent with the Nazi goal of
encouraging as many births as
possible.
...use of christian
motives and
comparison with
Christ.
"Long live Germany!"
13. Select appropriate learning activities.
Point out issues like antisemitism, euthanasia
program, final solution, jewish resistance through
photographs and propaganda material
"The eradication of the sick and weak in nature"
"That which does not satisfy the demands of Being collapses."
14. Reinforce the objectives of your lesson plan.
What is our rensponsibility today?
Sudan, Darfur
Literature and film