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Possible Applications of a Unit on the Holocaust to the Mississippi Social Studies Course of World History: 1750 to the Present and to other courses for the Social Studies in the Mississippi Curriculum Guide |
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| 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/> | |
Geography: 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. The Holocaust created unnatural environments. Students will become aware of how humans modified and responded to the horrors they faced: racial laws, ghettos, camps.2. Describe the impact of science and technology on the historical development of the world. (H, G, E)Economics: Some examples 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 transportations to death camps are to be faced. The economics of the ghettos and the death camps themselves serves an example of what happens when civilized morals become wrapped. The policies of governments in the post World War I, Versailles Treat y era can show students how the economy in Germany led to the rise of Hitler.
Politics: The Holocaust can be incorporated into a study of government in order to demonstrate how the development of public policy can become directed to genocidal ends when dissent and debate are silenced. Inclusion of Holocaust studies in a government or a history course helps students: compare governmental systems; study the process of how a state can degenerate from a democracy into a totalitarian state; examine how the development of public policy can lead to genocidal ends; examine the role of Nazi bureaucracy in implementing policies of murder and annihilation; examine the role of various individuals in the rise and fall of a totalitarian government.
In the study of the Holocaust analysis of Nazi one must look at the psudo-science of racial doctrine and how it moved to the "final solution." Analysis of Nazi economic practices and its use of slave labor is to be understood. The technological, industrial mind set of the Nazis is to be viewed by the student as it led to the industrialized murder factories located in eastern Europe.3. Describe the relationships, of people, places, and environments through time. (C, H, G, E)
A look at the anti-Semetism within The United States and in Europe before 1939 is to be compared and studied. The actions of a government and society that carried out genocide is to be studied. The consequences of the mass murders in the post 1945 world is to be realized: from the founding of the United Nations, to the Declaration of Human Rights, to the center of Jewish culture no longer in East Europe, but now in Israel and the United States.4. Demonstrate the ability to use social studies tools. (C,H,G,E)
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.5. Explain how civic responsibilities are important to Americans as citizens of a global community.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 teacher who teaches a unit on the Holocaust has an opportunity to make the period of the that time come alive with the real stories of people who survived, who did not survive, who were victims, who were rescuers, who were bystanders. The resources are readily available and multiple. The best is a survivor to speak with students if one willing to present to students is available. Video sources are plentiful. Written sources are plentiful.
In the study of the Holocaust, multiple sources are available for the teacher to direct students toward. Questions of how and why, questions of interpretation such as who did what, who knew what when, questions of reactions of victims, etc . all can be formulated with the vast availability of primary sources and secondary sources that range from personal testimony of survivors, to photographic archives, to diaries and memoirs, to the records of the period, to the arts and literature, to historians interpretations.
Inclusion a study of the Holocaust can encourage students to:
•examine the dilemmas that arise when foreign policy goals are narrowly defined, as solely in terms of the national interest, denying the validity of universal moral and human priorities.
•understand what happens when parliamentary democratic institutions fail.
•examine the responses of governmental and non-governmental organizations in the United States to the plight of Holocaust victims.
•explore the role of American soldiers in liberating victims from Nazi concentration camps and killing centers.
•examine the key role played by the U.S. in bringing Nazi perpetrators to trial at Nuremberg and in other war crimes trials.
•understand the consequences of mass murder. 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 in the post war period.
A study of the Holocaust would fit into the Unit Theme: World War II and World Leadership. All justifications in the competencies given above for world history would also apply to United States history. One "suggested teaching strategy" would more than justify a close look at the Holocaust in an United States history course:
Research in the library or on the Internet the conflict between fighting for freedom and the discrimination existing at home.
(All justifications in the competencies given above for world history would apply. See especially competency #5)
An individual research project with a Holocaust theme would fit into this course. Jewish or Roma culture of the early twentieth century in Europe and/or the United States and the effect of the Holocaust on that culture would fit this course. The effects of hate on a minority and the majority would be part of such a study. The Holocaust is mentioned in one of the "Suggested Teaching Strategies."
Holocaust studies could be included here in the study of the arts, music, overall culture of the Jews of central Europe before 1939; the study of the arts that came out of the camps in the 1930s and 1940s.