Possible applications of a Unit on the Holocaust to the History and Social Sciences Standards of Vermont
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/>

CRITICAL EVALUATION

Cause and Effects in Human Societies
6.1 Students examine complex webs of cause and effects in relations to events in order to generalize about the workings of human societies, and they apply their findings to problems.

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. This can be done using all eight categories from the history and social science standards.

Uses of Evidence and Data
6.2 Students understand the differences and relationships among generalization, categorization, bias, and stereotyping, and their uses in the presentation and analysis of evidence and data.

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. Critical analysis of the individual's story must be made.

Analyzing Knowledge
6.3 Students analyze knowledge as a collection of selected facts and interpretations based on a particular historical or social setting.

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.
 
 

Historical Connections
6.4 Students identify major historical eras and analyze periods of transition in various times in their local community, in Vermont, in the United States, in various location world wide, to interpret the influence of the past on the present.

At the 9-12 level this standard asks students to analyze the two models of historical interpretation, the contingency and history as teleology. In studying the Holocaust, the two types of interpretation can be analyzed. Did the Nazi's know from the beginning of their taking power in 1933 that they would commit this genocide? Or, did it evolve over time as the world did not react to the steps taken culminating in the Wannsee Conference and the carrying out of the genocide.

Traditional and Social Histories
6.5 Students investigate both the traditional and the social histories of the people, places, and cultures under study....

A study of the Jewish cultures of Europe in the first thirty years of the twentieth century is a must when studying the Holocaust. Traditional and social approaches can be made.
 

   See comments under CRITICAL EVALUATION above.
 
 

Geographical Knowledge
6.7 Students use geographical knowledge and images of various places to understand the present, communicate historical interpretations, develop solutions for problems, and plan for the future.

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.

Movements and Settlements
6.8 Students analyze the factors and implications associated with the historical and contemporary movements and settlements of people and groups in various times in their local community, in Vermont, in the United States, and in various locations world wide.

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.
 

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

CITIZENSHIP

Meaning of Citizenship
6.10 Students examine and debate the meaning of citizenship and act as citizens in a democratic society.

The Holocaust is the antithesis of the ideals of rights and responsibilities expressed in this standard.

Types of Government
6.11 Students compare and evaluate the philosophical underpinnings and the workings of different types of governments, including constitutional governments, in various times in their local community, in Vermont, in the United States, and in various locations world wide.

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, and recognize that among the legacies of the Holocaust have been the creation of Human Rights organizations and declarations.

Institutional Access
6.12 Students analyze the access that various groups and individuals have had to justice, reward, and power, as those are evident in the institutions in various time in their local community, in Vermont, in the United States, and in various location world wide.

Inclusion of a study of the Holocaust into a U.S. history or a U.S. government course 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.

Human Rights
6.13 Students identify and evaluate the concept of human rights in various times in their local community, in Vermont, in the United States, in various locations world wide.

Students will recognize that among the legacies of the Holocaust have been the creation of Human Rights organizations and declarations. What happened to Human Rights in the 1930s and 1940s must be understood.
 
 

DIVERSITY AND UNITY

Concepts of Culture
6.14 Students understand the concept of culture, including the cultures of indigenous peoples, in various times in their local community, in Vermont, in the United States, and in various locations world wide.
and
Forces of Unity and Disunity
6.15 Students understand the tensions between the forces of unity and those of disunity in various....

In a study of the Holocaust the basic tenants of Christianity and Judaism should be understood. These both come into the story 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 to the "final solution" is to be made.
 
The event must be fully analyzed to comprehend the effect from what it did to the culture of the Jewish peoples, to the culture of Europe, to the impact on the United States.
 
 
 

Knowledge of Economic Systems
6.16 Students identify the institutions that make up economic systems and compare the bases of decision making within each system in various....
and
Impact of Economic Systems
6.17 Students evaluate the impact of economic systems on the needs and wants of all people and on the environment....
and
Applying Economic Knowledge
6.18 Students apply economic knowledge to historical interpretation, to their own lives, and to the resolution of problems
and
Governments and Resources
6.19 Students understand how governments affect the flow of resources, goods, and services.

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 .

CONFLICT AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Nature of Conflict
6.20 Students analyze the nature of conflicts, how they have been or might be resolved, and how shaped the divisions in various times of....
and
Disruptions to Social Patterns
6.21 Students identify, analyze, and evaluate disruptions to social patterns in various times...
and
Conflict and Social Theory
6.22 Students understand concepts of conflict and social theory (e.g. group dynamics, social stratification, socialization forces) to create strategies for resolving persistent social problems.

The study of the Holocaust and World War II is the study of a conflict that was resolved only in the total defeat of the Nazi regime. The conflict and resolution of conflict can be looked at specifically in many of the Jewish communities, ghettos, etc.
 

IDENTIFY AND INTERDEPENDENCE

Identity Changes
6.23 Students understand how changing societal roles and beliefs contribute to identity and role changes within the family and other social structures.
 

In the Holocaust, students can study what happen to specific family members as those families went from normal life, to ghettos, to camps.

Individual survivors and his or her story in the post war world will be source for this standard.

National Identity 6.25 Students understand the sources and characteristic of the national identity of the culture under study, and understand how competing identities may cause confrontations.

Holocaust studies would be rich in material for analysis within this standard.