Transcript United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum
Guidelines for Teaching About the
Holocaust
Define Holocaust
Define Holocaust
 Refers to a specific event
in 20th century history. Systematic, bureaucratic
annihilation of six million
Jews by the Nazi regime
and their collaborators as a
central act of state during
World War II.
 In 1933 - nine million
Jews in Europe eventually
occupied by Nazis
 By 1945 – 2/3rds
European Jews had been
killed.
Arrival and selection of Hungarian Jews at
Auschwitz, May 1944.
The Jews in this photo are wearing the
Yellow Star of David. This was required by
the Nazis as a means of identification and
humiliation.
Define Holocaust
Other Victims
The Hadamar Institute near Limburg an der Lahn,
1944. Hadamar was one of six hospitals used in
the Nazi “euthanasia” program.
Because the Nazis planned to create a superior
master race, at least 250,00 mentally or physically
disabled persons were gassed, shot to death, or
killed by lethal injection.
3,000,000 Soviet POWs
3,000,000 Catholic Poles
2,000,000 Poles and Slavs
700,000 Serbs
500,000 Sinti & Roma
70,000 Handicapped
12,000 Homosexual
2,500 Jehovah Winesses
Avoid Comparisons of Pain
Avoid Comparisons of Pain
highlight different policies
carried out towards various
groups of people.
Avoid generalizations such as
“the victims of the Holocaust
suffered the most cruelty ever
faced by a people in the
history of humanity.”
A mound of victims’ shoes found at Majdanek
(Poland) after liberation. This photo symbolizes the
horrific experiences of victims of the Holocaust.
 Do not presume the horror of
an individual, family or
community was any greater
than that experienced by
victims of other genocides.
Avoid Simple Answers to
Complex History
Avoid Simple Answers to Complex
History
Holocaust raises difficult
questions and involves
complicated answers about
human behavior and why
events occurred.
 Do not oversimplify!
 There are no easy
answers
Nazi officials, Baldur von Shirach and Julius
Stricher, review a parade of Hitler Youth in
Nuremberg, 1933. This photo illustrates that
there were many factors contributing to the
Holocaust.
Avoid Simple Answers to complex
History
Racism resurfaced/grew
combined with centuries-old bigotry
renewed by a nationalistic fervor emerging in
Europe during the last half of the 19th century
fueled by Germany’s defeat in World War I.
 Other influences
the national humiliation following the Treaty of
Versailles,
World Wide Economic Depression
the ineffectiveness of the Weimar Republic,
international indifference
political charisma and manipulative propaganda of
Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
Just Because It Happened,
Doesn’t Mean It Was
Inevitable
Just Because It Happened, Doesn’t
Mean It Was Inevitable
Holocaust was not inevitable.
 Because an historical event took place
doesn’t mean that it had to happen.
 This concept is often overlooked by
students and teachers alike.
A crowd of Viennese children look on as a Jewish youth is forced by Austrian
Nazis to paint the word ‘Jude’ or Jew on his father’s store March, 1938. The Nazi
official and the bystanders made personal choices about their level of participation
in this event.
Just Because It Happened, Doesn’t
Mean It Was Inevitable
 action or lack of action
by individuals, groups,
and nations allowed it to
occur
 critical thinking skills
increase by looking at
these choices
Group portrait of the nursing staff at the Hadamar Institute, April 5, 1945. Nurses and medical
personnel, like those in this photo, made choices to participate in the Nazi’s so-called campaign to
further racial purity. They made decisions on who would live and who would die. Alternately,
between 1939 and 1941, groups of people protested publicly against the killings. Actions like these,
caused Hitler to officially stop Operation T-4 in August 1941. However, the killings went on in greater
secrecy.
Just Because It Happened, Doesn’t
Mean It Was Inevitable
 The Holocaust was
not inevitable.
 By 1936, large
groups of people
publicly and
enthusiastically
supported the Nazi
state.
German citizens saluting Adolf Hitler at the opening of
the 12th Olympiad in Berlin, August, 1936. This photo
illustrates that the Holocaust took place because
individuals, groups and nations made decisions to act or
not to act.
Voyage of the St. Louis
• Departed Hamburg for
Havana - May 15, 1939
• 937 passengers almost all
Jewish
• 28 allowed into Cuba
• Ship forced to leave Cuba
• Passengers eventually
divided between:
Passengers attempt to
communicate with friends and
relatives in Cuba
England
France
Netherlands
Belgium
• Most killed by Nazis
Strive For Precision of
Language
Strive For Precision of Language
 avoid over generalizing
which may distort facts
(e.g. “all concentration
camps were killing
centers or “all Germans
were collaborators”).
Ravensbrueck concentration camp was open in 1939 for
women, and was used for forced labor. All
concentration camps were not killing centers. The
Nazis built hundreds of camps throughout Europe that
first served as prisons and later for forced labor. In late
1941 and early 1942, six camps (Treblinka, Sobibor,
Belzec, Chelmno, Auschwitz/Birkenau, and Majdanek)
served as killing centers.
strive to distinguish
between categories of
behavior
distinguish between
relevant historical
references.
Strive For Precision of Language
 Clarify words that have
multiple meanings.
prejudice and
discrimination
collaborators and
bystanders
armed and spiritual
resistance,
direct orders and assumed
orders,
concentration camp and
killing centers,
guilt and responsibility.
Three Jewish businessmen are paraded down Bruehl
Strasse in Central Leipzig by the SA, carrying signs that
read: Don’t buy from Jews; Shop at German Stores!
(1935) This photo shows perpetrators, bystanders and
victims. Clarification has to be made between
categories of behavior.
Make Careful Distinctions
About Sources of Information
Make Careful Distinctions About
Sources of Information
Distinguish between
fact, opinion, and fiction;
between primary and secondary sources,
types of evidence - testimonies, oral histories, &
documents.
Analyze evidence for
Gaps of time/information
Biases
Who is intended audience
Interpretations
This is a photo of one of the three milk cans used by Emannuel Ringelblum to archive the history
of the Warsaw Ghetto. Also included were postcards received in the ghetto, notes written at the
gathering point for persons being deported and posters produced and hung in the ghetto. It was one
of three milk cans (only two have been found) and ten containers buried beneath the ghetto in the
spring of 1943, before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. By examining the story of the milk can,
students can analyze these documents that were written for a particular purpose under very unique
circumstances.
Make Careful Distinctions About
Sources of Information
All interpretations are subject
to analytical evaluation.
Help students gain skills to
discern between
legitimate scholars who
present competing
historical interpretations,
those who distort or deny
historical fact for personal
or political gain.
Trail of war criminals at Nuremberg in November,
1945. Court testimonies are a particular type of
evidence that should be interpreted carefully.
Try to Avoid Stereotypical
Descriptions
Try to Avoid Stereotypical
Descriptions
The experiences of all Jews were not the
same.
 Simplistic views and stereotyping take place
when groups of people are viewed as
monolithic in attitudes and actions.
 The way that curriculum labels ethnic groups
or social clusters has a direct impact on how
students perceive groups in their daily lives.
Try to Avoid Stereotypical
Descriptions
 All Germans cannot be
characterized as Nazis,
Do not reduce a
nationality to a onedimensional description.
Danish-Jewish children living in a Swedish children’s home after their escape from
Denmark (1943-1944). Because of the rescue efforts of many Danish people in 1943, 90%
of the Jews of Denmark escaped deportation to Nazi concentration camps. The efforts of the
Danish people was unique but should not be a stereotyped group behavior. Just as all
Germans were not Nazis, all Danes cannot be labeled as rescuers.
Do Not Romanticize History to
Engage Students’ Interest
Do Not Romanticize History to Engage
Students’ Interest
 A great risk in
Holocaust education is
the danger of fostering
cynicism in our
students and exposing
them to the worst of
human nature.
 Regardless, accuracy
of fact must be a
teacher’s priority.
Oscar Schindler (second from the right) in Munich one year
before the war ended with a group of Jews he rescued.
Schindler’s rescue efforts are well known, but teachers should
also discuss rescuers who are unknown to most students and
whose actions are not as well documented.
Do Not Romanticize History to Engage
Students’ Interest
 Less than one-half of one percent of the total
population (non-Jews) under Nazi occupation helped
rescue Jews.
 People who risked their lives to rescue provide
useful role models for students
 do not over emphasis heroic tales
results
inaccuracy
unbalanced account of history.
Jewish youth in Le Chambon (circa 1941). The residents of Le Chambon, a Protestant
village in southern France, helped thousands of refugees, including 5,000 Jews, escape Nazi
persecution between 1941 – 1944.
Contextualize the History You
Are Teaching
Contextualize the History You Are
Teaching
 Place events, individual and
organization behavior in an
historical context.
Second grade class of the Y.L. Peretz (Yiddish) school in Brussels (before 1939). Students
should be exposed to some of the cultural contributions and achievements of the Jews living
in Europe to help balance their perception of Jews as victims. This picture illustrates that
Jewish people had a vibrant culture and long history in Europe prior to the Nazi era, and the
Holocaust traumatically disrupted every aspect of their lives prior to the war, including their
studies.
Translate Statistics Into People
Translate Statistics Into People
the sheer number of victims challenges
easy comprehension.
show that individual people are behind
the statistics, made up of families of
grandparents, parents, and children.
 First-person accounts and memoir
literature help make meaning out of
collective numbers.
Portrait of two-year-old Mania Halef in 1936.
Mania was a Jewish child who later was killed
during the mass execution at Babi Yar.
Be Sensitive to Appropriate
Written and Audio-visual
Content
Be Sensitive to Appropriate Written
and Audio-visual Content
 Primary concern of educators
is how to introduce students to
the horrors of the Holocaust.
 Graphic material should be
used in a judicious manner and
only to the extent necessary to
achieve the objective of the
lesson.
 What is appropriate to one
student may not be appropriate
to all.
Jewish men dig their own grave before being executed in 1942.
This image illustrates the horror of the actions taken by the
mobile killing squads, but does not show the actual murder of the
victims. Teachers cannot avoid discussing these actions and
events, but there are ways to convey the information that
occurred within the context of the Holocaust without showing the
graphic horror of mass killing.
 When we assault students with
images of horror for which they
are unprepared, we violate a
basic trust: the obligation of a
teacher to provide a “safe”
learning environment.
Be Sensitive to Appropriate Written
and Audio-visual Content
Use images and texts that do
not exploit either the victims’
memories or the students’
emotional vulnerability to form
the center piece of Holocaust
curricula.
German police look through the clothing of people
killed at Babi Yar. This photograph illustrates that
thousands of victims were forced to remove their
clothes before being shot while naked in the ravine at
Babi Yar, without assaulting the students with images
of horror for which they might not be prepared.
Strive for Balance in
Establishing Whose Perspective
Informs Your Study of the
Holocaust
Strive for Balance in Establishing
Whose Perspective Informs Your
Study of the Holocaust
 Balance experiences of
Perpetrators/Collaborators
Bystanders
Victims
Rescuers
Danish rescue boat. – A study of the Holocaust should address
not only the victims and the perpetrators of violence, but also
the actions of other individuals, such as rescuers, who made
moral judgments and independent decisions in very difficult
circumstances.
Nazi Propaganda
Promote the images and ideas are unacceptable
"The result! A loss of racial pride“
Nazi propaganda poster
The Poisonous Mushroom
used in some elementary
classrooms and schools
Strive for Balance in Establishing
Whose Perspective Informs Your
Study of the Holocaust
 A study of the Holocaust
should address both the
victims and the perpetrators
of the violence.
 Portray victims and
perpetrators as human
beings, capable of moral
judgment and independent
decision-making
Explain that choices were
not easy due to consequences
or circumstances
A Jewish man is forced to cut the beard of another in front
of a group of soldiers and civilians. The beard is a
symbol of his faith and culture. This photo, showing
public humiliation of a Jewish man, illustrates that there
were many levels of participation during the Holocaust.
Select Appropriate Learning
Activities
Select Appropriate Learning Activities
Promote critical thinking activities
Avoid
 simulation exercises
Word scrambles
Crosswords.
Front view of the railcar on the third floor of the permanent exhibition
of the USHMM. The Nazis transported millions of Jews to camps on
railcars between 1942 and 1945. For efficiency, as many as 80-100
people were crammed into a freight car. Recreating the space of a
boxcar and filling it with students is an activity that should be
avoided. These activities might engage students, but they leave them
with a false impression that they know what it was like during the
Holocaust, and they often forget the purpose of the lesson.
Reinforce the Objectives of
Your Lesson Plan
Reinforce the Objectives of Your
Lesson Plan
 Opening and closing lessons are critically
important.
 A strong opening should
dispel misinformation
Set a reflective tone,
students become active learners
Establish open, safe idea exchange
history has multiple ramifications as
individuals and members of society
A segregated streetcar in Krakow. The sign in German and Polish reads, for Jews, for nonJews (circa 1940). This segregated streetcar illustrates the ways in which the Nazis
removed Jews from contact with other citizens. Jews were ostracized socially and
economically before being forced into ghettoes and then into killing centers. Students
should be encouraged to connect this with their own country’s history of segregation and
racism.
Reinforce the Objectives of Your
Lesson Plan
 A strong closing should encourage students to
connect this history to other world events
and their world
reflect on what they have learned
consider meanings for them personally and
as citizens of a democracy.
encourage further examination of Holocaust
history, literature and art.
Washington State
Holocaust Education
Recourse Center
Teaching Materials
Everyday Objects
Artifact Posters Set
INCLUDES
• 12 artifact posters
• the story and
description of the
object on the poster
• curriculum guide
cloth from a bolt of fabric from which
Stars of David were to be cut and sold
to Jews who were required attire
If interested in obtaining a CD with PDFs of the
posters and curriculum contact
Ilana Kennedy - [email protected]
Curriculum may also be downloaded at:
http//www.wsherc.org/teaching/handouts.aspx
Teaching Materials
found in your Packet
I never saw another
butterfly…
• Children’s Drawings and
Poems from Terezin
Concentration Camp
• Short biographies of some
of the more than 15000
children who passed through
Theresianstadt Camp
• less than 100 survived