Guidelines for Teaching the Holocaust United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Guidelines .

Guidelines for Teaching the Holocaust

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Guidelines

http://www.ushmm.org

Define the term “Holocaust”

1933-1945

State-Sponsored

Systematic

Persecution &

Annihilation

by Nazi Germany and its

collaborators

Avoid comparisons of pain.

Just because it happened does not mean it was

inevitable.

Avoid simple answers to complex history.

Strive for precision of language.

Make careful distinctions about sources of information.

"This is a photograph of me as I wish I looked all the time. Then I might still have a chance of getting to Hollywood. But now I am afraid I usually look quite different."

Try to avoid stereotypical descriptions.

Do not romanticize history to engage students’ interest.

Contextualize the history you are teaching.

Last letter sent by Herbert and Suse Weil to their sister Liesel in America.

In the letter Herbert describes the Jewish school in Nuremberg and how the class has shrunk to forty students.

Translate statistics into people.

Be sensitive to appropriate written andaudiovisual 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.