Why should we teach the Holocaust

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Why should we teach the Holocaust?
Kevin Linden Brookland Elementary
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Moral Cultural Issues

• The history of the Holocaust represents one of
  the most effective, and most extensively
  documented, subjects for examination of basic
  moral issues.

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Why Students?

• Through a study of the Holocaust, students can
  come to realize that
• democratic institutions and values are not
  automatically sustained, but need to be
  appreciated, nurtured, and protected
• silence and indifference to the suffering of
  others, or to the infringement of civil rights in
  any society, can -- however, unintentionally --
  serve to perpetuate the problems and
• the Holocaust was not an accident in history --
  it occurred because individuals, organizations,
  and governments made choices which not only
  legalized discrimination, but which allowed
  prejudice, hatred, and ultimately, mass murder to
  occur.

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What does it teach students?

• The study of the Holocaust assists students in
  developing understanding of the ramifications of
  prejudice, racism, and stereotyping in any
  society.
• A study of the Holocaust helps students think
  about the use and abuse of power, and the role
  and responsibilities of individuals,
  organizations, and nations when confronted with
  civil rights violations and/or policies of
  genocide.

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Issues Raised as a Result

• Most students demonstrate a high level of
  interest in studying the Holocaust precisely
  because the subject raises questions of fairness,
  justice, individual identity, peer pressure,
  conformity, indifference, and obedience issues
  which adolescents confront in their daily lives.

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Focus on Social Studies

• Social Studies- Beginning Holocaust Studies -
  Topics include
• Prejudice
• Families' Cultural Identities
• Emigration/Immigration
• Connected Community
• Cultural Diversity of Canada/Community

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Rise in Neo-Nazism

• There appears to be a rise in Neo-Nazism in
  todays world.
• It is no longer a European Issue. It has found
  its roots here in North America.
• Canada too has seen a rise in Anti-Semitism.
• It has found its way into the Maritimes.
• It has become an issue for us here in our
  province as well.

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Ellie WieselAuthor Of NightHolocaust
Survivor

• Wiesel was accosted in an elevator at about 630
  p.m. on Feb. 1/07 after participating in a panel
  discussion during a conference at a San Francisco
  Hotel.
• The 78-year-old Holocaust survivor said the
  incident shook him and that, for the first time
  since World War II, he felt he was being
  personally targeted.

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Confirmation

•  
• Former Canadian resident Ernst Zündel operated a
  small-press publishing house called Samisdat
  Publishing, which published and distributed
  Holocaust-denial material such as Did Six
  Million Really Die?
• Ernst Zundel sentenced to 5 years for Holocaust
  denial
• Last Updated Thursday, February 15, 2007 858
  AM ET
• A German court on Thursday convicted Ernst Zundel
  of 14 counts of incitement of racial hatred and
  sentenced him to five years in prison, the
  maximum allowed under German law for denying the
  Holocaust.

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Global Perspective

• Prince Harry has apologized for wearing a
  swastika armband to a friend's fancy dress party.
  
• The more important issue here is his
  insensitivity in respecting those who have died
  as a result of the Nazis.

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Canadian Perspective

• The library of the United Talmud Torah school in
  Montreal was destroyed by another firebomb
  attack, in 2004.
• The volume of anti-semitic incidents in Canada
  registered with B'nai Birth has tripled since the
  start of hostilities in the Middle East.

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Nova Scotia Incidents

• Canadian professor attends Tehran's gathering of
  Holocaust deniers.
• The presence St. Francis Xavier University
  Professor at a Holocaust conference organized by
  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has raised
  eyebrows in Canada. Mr. Ahmadinejad has called
  for an end to Israel's existence, and the
  conference is widely seen as a provocative
  exercise in anti-Semitism.

• The president of St. Francis Xavier, Sean Riley,
  said, "there's been a real sense of shock and
  regret that the university's name should be
  associated in any way with the conference in
  Tehran.

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Anne Frank Exhibit

• This year in our province there was an incident
  where a student carelessly signed the guest book
  at the Anne Frank Exhibit with a swastika and
  Adolf Hitlers signature.

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History Should Not Repeat Itself Yet It Does!

• The repetition of human tragedies in the world
  today reminds us that we must be vigilant and
  learn lessons of the Holocaust again and again.
• Rwanda and Darfur are prime examples of genocides
  which have taken place in recent years.
• Have we not learned yet from our mistakes?

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Poem

• "First They Came for the Jews"by the Rev. Martin
  Niemöller
• First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak
  out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for
  the Communists, and I did not speak out because I
  was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade
  unionists, and I did not speak out because I was
  not a trade unionist. Then they came for me, and
  there was no one left to speak out for me.

• Two Hungarian brothers on the"Death Ramp"at
  Birkenau (Auschwitz II),shortly before they were
  escorted to the gas chamber.

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Awareness of Perpetrators, Collaborators and
Bystanders

• Students are also struck by the magnitude of the
  Holocaust, and the fact that so many people
  acting as collaborators, perpetrators, and
  bystanders allowed this genocide to occur by
  failing to protest or resist.

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How to Begin

• The teaching of Holocaust history demands of
  educators a high level of sensitivity and a keen
  awareness of the complexity of the subject
  matter.
• Define the term Holocaust.
• Avoid comparisons of pain.
• Avoid simple answers to complex history.
• Just because it happened does not mean it was
  inevitable.

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How to Begin

• Strive for precision of language.
• Make careful distinctions about sources of
  information.
• Try to avoid stereotypical descriptions.
• Do not romanticize history to engage students
  interest.
• Contextualize the history you are teaching.

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How to Begin

• Translate statistics into people.
• Be sensitive to appropriate written and
  audiovisual content.
• Strive for balance in establishing whose
  perspective informs your study of the Holocaust.
• Select appropriate learning activities.
• Reinforce the objectives of your lesson plan.

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Powerful Messages!

• We are all different because of that, each of us
  has something different and special to offer and
  each and every one of us can make a difference by
  not being indifferent.
• We cannot change the past but we can certainly
  influence the future.

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What I Dont Know-by Ruth Dykstra 1999

• What you dont know cant
• hurt, they say.
• I disagree
• Did they know?
• How awful, how hateful?
• The ghettos, the camps, the
• chamber, the stars?
• That made you feel, so
• different, so sad.
• As if, you werent human,
• anymore.
• The lives taken, those
• spared, will be changed forever.

• Those that saw and then,
• saw no more,
• Those that saw again and
• again
• Those forced to leave,
• Those forced to stay,
• Those forced to be
• somewhere in the middle.
• There was no way out, no
• escape.
• Only to live,
• Only to die.