Possible applications of a Unit on the Holocaust to the Delaware Social Studies Standards--Grades 9-12
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/>

Civics Standard One: Students will examine the structure and purposes of governments with specific emphasis on constitutional democracy [Government].
Civics Standard Two: Students will understand the principles and ideals underlying the American political system [Politics].
Civics Standard Three: Students will understand the responsibilities, rights, and privileges of United States citizens [Citizenship].
Civics Standard Four: Students will develop and employ the civic skills necessary for effective participatory citizenship [Participation].

    Study of the Holocaust in grades 9-12 is the study of the antithesis of these standards in civics and government. Students need to realize what can happen when the people of a nation are not free. Holocaust studies can motivate a student to realize the importance of understanding the principles and ideals of the American government; the responsibilities, rights and privileges of citizenship. Holocaust studies can motivate a student to participate fully as a citizen of a free society.

Economic Standard Three: Students will understand different types of economic systems and how they change [Economic Systems].

    In studying the Holocaust and Europe of World War II, students are faced with the economics of the Nazi regime and their wartime production. This included mass use of slave labor. Questions of transportation of war supplies and human transportation to death camps are to be faced. The economics of the death camps themselves serves an example of what happens when civilized morals become warped.

    Holocaust studies require the knowledge of and use of maps: The chronology of war fronts, the location of the various types of camps, the transportation systems, etc. . The maps of camps are needed to understand how they operated and for what purpose. The maps of ghettos are needed to understand the events that occurred in the ghettos. Geography

Standard Two: Students will develop a knowledge of the ways humans modify and respond to the natural environment [Environment].

    The Holocaust created unnatural environments. Students will become aware of how humans modified and responded to the horrors they faced: racial laws, ghettos, camps.

    The diversity of the Jewish cultures can be examined. The culture of East European Jews no longer exist, the center of Jewish culture moving from eastern Europe to Israel and the United States, the Christian culture of Europe and anti-Semitism--all these can be examined.

    In Holocaust Studies a complete understanding of the chronology of events is an absolute must. One must take the student back to the origins of anti-Semitism, the development of racial theories in all corners of the world including the United States. The time line of events in the 1930s and 1940s is to be completely understood. If a teacher centers in on an individual's story in the Holocaust, the context of that story in time is a must. If a teacher assigns research to a specific person or event, the context of the time is to be understood.

History Standard Two: Students will gather, examine and analyze historical data. [Analysis].
and
History Standard Three: Students will interpret historical data [Interpretation].

    Primary and secondary sources are abundant for the teacher to guide the student toward. Stories of survivors, documents, historians analysis, can lead the student to study interpretations and to make interpretations. Example: How have historians in Israel and historians in the United States over the decades differed on how the Holocaust has affected the post war world.

History Standard Four: Students will develop historical knowledge of major events and phenomena in world, United States, and Delaware history [Content].

    The Holocaust is a major part of events of the world, United States, and Delaware in the twentieth century. The leading into the events of mass murder and the consequences of mass murder are to be understood. Example: The attitude of the United States government to the anti-Semitism before 1939; the inaction and actions of the United States government during the war; the immigration of survivors to the United States and the state of Delaware in the post war period.