Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene must have missed all her required history courses in high school and college that discuss the holocaust and focus of the atrocities of that terrible period in European history.   I wrote the following article years ago, detecting that Holocaust studies, indeed - Genocide studies, was slowly being emphasized in the history curricula. What is perhaps more alarming is that members of Greene's Party, men like Kevin McCarthy, are content to let her jabber on, denying the holocaust and demeaning it's terrible impact. Such people literally need to go back to school.

 

Teaching the Holocaust should not be limited to a one-day lesson plan. The Holocaust is far too important to relegate to one or two days. Holocaust studies can be incorporated into History, English, Religion, and Philosophy-based classes. In many cases, this means that high school students may study this event in both World History or World Cultures classes, American History classes, and English classes. There are many ways teachers can make the Holocaust meaningful in terms of eliciting student understanding and response.

 

Resources and Ideas to Help Teach the Holocaust

 

Many organizations provide teachers with exceptional materials to teach the Holocaust. Teaching Tolerance and the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC offer free materials including downloadable materials, lesson plans, video or DVD. Additionally, teachers can utilize many of the following tips:

 

Asking Holocaust survivors to come as guest speakers and share their experiences

Assigning short books like Elie Wiesel’s Night (Bantam, 1982) or The Girl in the Red Coat (Delta, 2002) by Roma Ligocka

Using Art Spiegelman’s Maus series (Pantheon, 1986)

Showing Holocaust videos like Auschwitz: If You Cried, You Died, available on VHS or DVD free from Teaching Tolerance

Visiting Holocaust museums and exhibitions if such venues are local, such as the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC

Projecting virtual tours of Concentration Camps from on-line sites

 

Serious teachers can search the internet for organizations and university research projects that provide informational handouts and sample lesson plans.

 

Having Students do the Research

 

Given the hundreds of books on the Holocaust, teachers can assign a book report or book review that allows students to pick their own books on the Holocaust to read and develop into a response essay and class presentation. Alternately or in addition to the book project, students can be assigned to watch a movie on the Holocaust and write a reflection as well as present to the class. Teachers that decide to do this can compile a list of good movies, like Schindler’s List or Sophie’s Choice. There are dozens of good films, some documentary based like The Wannsee Conference.

 

The story of the St. Louis voyage of May 1939 has been recounted in the book, Voyage of the Damned as well as a Hollywood movie of the same name. A&E videos offer a documentary on the event called Doomed Voyage of the St. Louis. Although out of print, this video presents students with a powerful story of the plight of German Jews in 1939. Using the many materials available about this event by separating classes into cooperative groups can yield successful results. Additionally, students learn to research through a variety of media.

 

Poetry, Art, and Memoirs

 

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene must have miss all her required history courses in high school and college that discuss the holocaust and focus of the atrocities of that terrible period in European history.   I wrote the following article years ago, detecting that Holocaust studies, indeed - Genocide studies, was slowly being emphasized in the history curricula. What is perhaps more alarming is that members of Greene's Party, men like Kevin McCarthy, are content to let her jabber on, denying the holocaust and demeaning it's terrible impact. Such people literally need to go back to school.

 

The poem Babii Yar by Yevgeny Yevtushenko recalls the terrible massacre of Ukranian Jews in the Kiev area. There are many other poems as well as works of art that can be brought into a classroom discussion of the Holocaust. Students might find children’s art of the Holocaust from Theresienstadt Concentration Camp very poignant and thought provoking. An entire class period can be constructed around children’s art.

 

How Much Time Should Be Spent on the Unit?

 

To teach the Holocaust properly, it is recommended that an entire week be devoted to the endeavor. Teaching the Holocaust can be chronological in terms of the historical record, but each day can focus on specific aspects of the terrible event. The final day of the unit must be devoted to reflection and resolution. Students should be encouraged to discuss freely the lessons of the Holocaust and, most importantly, the need to keep the history alive and in the forefront. To honor the victims means that humanity must strive at all costs to never again allow genocide. 

 

Every American students should know about the the Holocaust. Every American should know about  the Armenian Holocaust. Every American should know about Germany's colonial decimation of indigenous people in Angola, perhaps a forerunner to THE Holocaust.

Until Burma style coups resulting in the killing of thousands is confronted in very strong terms by the entire world, including China, genocide will continue. And if it does, it may one day wind up in your neighborhood.

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