Possible Application of a Unit on the Holocaust to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies
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/>

The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies combines the approaches of content and process. Paragraph 3 in the Introduction of the course United States History Studies Since Reconstruction states this approach clearly: "The eight strands of the essential knowledge and skills for social studies are intended to be integrated for instructional purposes with the history and geography strands establishing a sense of time and a sense of place." Specific knowledge and skills items that can apply to a study of the Holocaust will be noted in the courses of United States History Studies since Reconstruction and World History studies. The impact on government/civics, geography, cultural studies, economics, and the social studies skills are given.
 

United States History Studies Since Reconstruction
(6) History. The student understands the impact of significant national and international decisions and conflicts from World War II and the Cold War to the present on the United States. The student is expected to:
(A) identify reasons for U.S. involvement in World War II including the growth of dictatorships and the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The growth of Nazism in Germany and its "racial doctrines" are to be closely analyzed. The taking of power by Hitler and the following racial policies of his regime are to be analyzed. The racial attitudes of the American public and those in government are to be analyzed as well.

The entire scope of the three items listed here can be studied, analyzed, and compared.

The reasons behind the Immigration Act of 1924 and the results of that act are to be studied. The demographic changes from before the murders in East Europe to after the war are to be carefully viewed. The results of the Holocaust with the United States and Israel becoming the centers of Jewish culture are to be understood.

The role of the U.S. government in how it reacted to the racial policies in Germany in the 1930s and then again during the war years is to be understood.

A study of Jewish survivors and their stories during and after the war can be an integral part of (A) through (D) of this Culture Knowledge and Skills item.

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. The Holocaust is one of the major events of the modern period that has had its effects on the world and the United States. The event must be fully analyzed to comprehend that effect from what it did to the culture of the Jewish peoples, to the culture of Europe, to the impact on the United States.
 
In the study of the Holocaust, multiple sources are available that the teacher can make available for the student. 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.
 
The teacher who teaches a unit on the Holocaust has an opportunity to make the period of 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. Both written and video sources are plentiful.
World History Studies

The Holocaust is a major ear in world history.

The Holocaust is an important turning point.

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.

Exact parallels are impossible; however, situations in Africa and the Balkans could be studied.

The story of the Holocaust is a very important story in the 20th century.

A look at the anti-Semitism within this nation 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.
 
In a study of the Holocaust the basic tenets of Christianity and Judaism should be understood. These both are part of the history of the Holocausts as a student studies the issue of anti-Semitism. Music and the arts of the perpetrators and victims can help students understand the cultures of the people of Europe at the time of the Holocaust.
 
Analysis of Nazi racial doctrine and how it moved from racial laws to the "final solution" is to be made. The shift of the center of Jewish culture from eastern Europe to Israel and the United States as a result of the Holocaust is to be understood.
 
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.

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 as an example of what happens when civilized morals become warped. The policies of governments in the post World War I, Versailles Treaty era can show students how the economy in Germany led to the rise of Hitler .

Holocaust studies is in fact the analysis of choices; choices made by individuals (e.g. Oscar Schindler), groups (e.g. the "Aryan" Pols), and nations (e.g. Germany).

The Holocaust is the antithesis of the ideals of rights and responsibilities expressed in other Citizenship Knowledge and Skills items.

When students study the Holocaust, the Jewish cultures of Europe must be understood from the culture of assimilated Western European Jews to the culture the great numbers of Jews in Eastern Europe.

The horror of the Holocaust is an example of science and technology gone wrong. This is to be compared to the hopes for science, and technology. Example: The technological, industrial mindset of the Nazis is to be viewed by the student as it led to the industrialized murder factories located in eastern Europe.

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. The Holocaust is one of the major events of the modern period that has had its effects on the world and the United States. The event must be fully analyzed to comprehend that effect from what it did to the culture of the Jewish peoples, to the culture of Europe, to the impact on the United States.
 
In the study of the Holocaust, multiple sources are available that the teacher can make available for the student. 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.
 
The teacher who teaches a unit on the Holocaust has an opportunity to make the period of 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. Both written and video sources are plentiful.