Possible Applications of a Unit on the Holocaust to the California Social Studies Standards, Grades Nine through Twelve
A Color Key: Blue:  A link to the USHMM teacher’s guide web page. Black: Directly quoting a state’s social studies standard. Red:  The correlation of studying the Holocaust to the standards. Brown:  Other information.		If a secondary teacher would decide to teach a unit on the Holocaust, it would be highly recommended to first read "Guidelines for Teaching about the Holocaust" created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum which can be found at <http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/>

From the Introduction to the Social Studies Standards of California:
    The standards serve as the basis for statewide assessments, curriculum frameworks, and instructional materials, but methods of instructional delivery remain the responsibility of local educators.

    A study of the Holocaust fits many of the standards, would complement many of the standards, and strengthen several of the standards. Examples can readily been seen in the Analysis Skills below.

Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills
...In addition to the standards for grades nine through twelve, students demonstrate the following intellectual, reasoning, reflection, and research skills.
Chronological and Spatial Thinking

    Students studying the Holocaust will by necessity compare the events of the 1930s and 1940s to previous decades and centuries in Europe. Students will have to examine values and beliefs of victims and perpetrators.

Historical Research, Evidence, and Point of View

    Historical interpretations will be examined by students: Evolution of Holocaust policies presented by some historians to the planned from the beginning arguments presented by others. Students will have to be careful of interpretations presented by Holocaust deniers to interpretations presented by Orthodox Jews: Evaluation of materials is a skill to be applied. Students can be presented primary and secondary materials to construct their own hypotheses Historical Interpretation
    Students will have to handle cause and effect arguments, the complexity of cause and effect arguments, the limitations of cause and effect arguments. Judgments of values will have to be made in context of the pre-war situation, the situation of the killing camps. Students will have to judge the impact of the Holocaust on today's world.

Specific standards that could apply to the Holocaust are pointed out.

10.1 Students relate the moral and ethical principles in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, in Judaism, and in Christianity to the development of Western political thought.

    As stated, students should understand the place of Judaism in Western Culture. This is important as the events of the Holocaust are presented. Also to be understood is the development of anti-Semitism in Western Culture.

10.2 Students compare and contrast the Glorious Revolution of England, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution and their enduring effects worldwide on the political expectations for self-government and individual liberty.

    The student is to understand these ideas and ideals so that full comprehension of the totalitarian system gone into murderous action can be understood fully.

10.3 Students analyze the defects of the Industrial Revolution in England, France, Germany, Japan and the United States.

    Students will understand the industrial mind set and how this lead to the industrialize, factory methods of murder in the Holocaust.

10.4 Students analyze patterns of global change in the era of New Imperialism....

    Here students should understand Social Darwinism and how it was one of the logics used by the Nazi ideology.

10.5 Students analyze the causes and course of the First World War.

    Patriotism of Jewish soldiers in the German army can be looked at in documentation.

10.6 Students analyze the effects of the First World War.

    The Versailles Treaty and its aftermath in Germany is to be understood.

10.7 Students analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after World War I.

    Students are to understand the rise of the Nazi regime.

10.8 Students analyze the causes and consequences of World War II.

    The Holocaust is within this story. #5 listed under 10.8.

10.9 Students analyze the international developments in the post World War II world.

    #6 listed: "...how the Holocaust affected world opinion regarding the need for a Jewish state...."

Grade Eleven United States History and Geography: Continuity and Change in the Twentieth Century

11.1 Students analyze the significant events in the founding of the nation and its attempts to realize the philosophy of government described in the Declaration of Independence.

    This must be understood to comprehend the totalitarian system created by the Nazi regime.

11.2 Student analyze the relationship among the rise of industrialization, large scale rural-to-urban migration, and massive immigration from southern and Eastern Europe.

    This is part of the story in the United States role in the Holocaust. What were the attitudes of American leaders in the 1920s with the passage of the 1924 Immigration Act. How did the Roosevelt administration have to react to this political reality as knowledge of the Holocaust became known to them.

11.3 Students analyze the role religion played in the founding of America, its lasting moral, social, and political impacts, and issues regarding religious liberty.

    # 3 listed: "...religious intolerance in the United States (e.g., ...anti-Semitism)."

11.5 Students analyze the major political, social economic, technological, and cultural developments of the 1920s.

    The anti-Semitism issue within the United States and its role in actions of the United States during the war concerning the Holocaust.

11.7 Student analyze America's participation in World War II.

    #5 listed: "...the response of the administration to Hitler's atrocities against Jews and other groups...."

12.1 Students explain the fundamental principles and moral values of American democracy as expressed the the U.S. Constitution and other essential documents of American democracy.

    To be understood to understand the totalitarianism of the Nazi regime. To be understood to understand the anti-Semitism that had to be dwelt with during World War II. All 12.#s are to be compared to the Nazi regime.

Principle of Economics

All 12.#s: The economic principals that govern the United States and the world are to be compared to the economics of the the Nazi regime, the place of slave labor and how it worked in the German economy of the the 1930s and 1940s; and how the United States played a part in the situation that existed in Germany that led to the rise of Hitler. Specifically:
12.6 Students analyze issues of international trade and explain how the U.S. economy affects, and is affected by, economic forces beyond the United States's borders.
Listed #2.