 |
Possible Applications of a Unit on the Holocaust to the Proposed History and social Science Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools |
|
| 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/> | |
History
History should be the integrative core of the curriculum, in which
both the humanities (such as art and literature) and the social sciences
(political science, economics, and geography) come to life. Through the
study of history, students can better understand their own society as well
as others. By better understanding the relationship between past and present,
students will be better equipped to deal with the problems that might arise
in the future. Students will understand chronological thinking and the
connection between causes and effects and between continuity and change.
History enables students to see how people in other times and places have
grappled with the fundamental questions of truth, justice, and personal
responsibility, to understand that ideas have real consequences, and to
realize that events are shaped both by ideas and actions of individuals.
In studying the Holocaust humanities and social sciences can fully be employed. The literature of the time and since, the music of the Jewish culture of the time and of the German culture of the time, the art created then and since, the governmental decisions in many nations, the economies with in ghettos and camps, the geography involved in the forced migration to genocide are all part of the story of the Holocaust.
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 its effects on 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 and the state of Virginia.
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.
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.
Geography
The goal of geography instruction is to provide an understanding of
human and physical characteristics of the Earth's places and regions, how
people of different cultural backgrounds interact with their environment,
and how the United States and the student's home community are affected
by conditions and events in distant places. Geographic themes include location
place, human environment, movement, and region. Geographic skills include
the ability to use maps, globes, and aerial imagery; to interpret graphs,
tables, diagrams, and pictures; to observe and record information; and
to assess information from various sources.
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. 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.
Civics
The goal of civics instruction is to develop in all students the requisite
knowledge and skills for informed, responsible participation in the public
life. Civics instruction should provide regular opportunities at each grade
level for students to develop a basic understanding of politics and government
and to practice the skills of good citizenship. Students should develop
an understanding of the values and principles of American constitutional
democracy. They should be aware of their rights; be willing to fulfill
their responsibilities; be able to obtain, understand, and evaluate information
relating to the performance of public officials; and be willing to hold
those officials accountable.
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.
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.
•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. The Holocaust is the antithesis of the goal for Civics. Students need to be aware.
Economics
The United States is recognized as a leader among the nations of the
world in large part because of its economic strength. In order to maintain
that strength, American citizens must understand the basic economic principles
that underlie the market economy. They must understand how our own economic
system works, as well as how other systems work. They must learn to make
wise economic decisions about their own lives and become intelligent consumers,
employers, and workers. A solid grounding in economics will help students
prepare for the global marketplace and the complex world of tomorrow.
Examples of economic education 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 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 offers ample sources for analysis. Primary sources in written, physical, and pictorial forms are available in museums, libraries, and in electronic technologies. Secondary sources by historians offer analysis of interpretation. Period atlases provide needed geographic understanding and skill building. In U.S. history, the American reaction to the Holocaust is to be analyzed using diaries, letters, government documentation, etc.Turmoil and Change: 1890s to 1945
The place of the Versailles Treaty in the story of the rise of Hitler is part of the story of the Holocaust. America's role and lack of role in world events of the 1920s is to be examined along with the effects the U.S. had on events in Germany that led to the rise of the Nazis.USII.6 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the major causes and effects of American involvement in World War II by (a through c).
America and the Holocaust merge into the same story by 1945. To totally understand World War II and the American participation in this war, the Holocaust must be fully studied.The United States since World War II
The concept of Human Rights and the American role in upholding this ideal both domestically and in the world grew from the Holocaust.
While students are in this course, the cultural background of the Jews is to be covered in all four Eras outlined, from their earliest developments to the Diaspora with the movements of Jews through the Mediterranean world and Europe. Also to be covered is the Christian attitudes toward the Jews up to 1500. Historical and geographical skills as described above in American History are to be developed and practiced.
Historical and geographical skills as described above in American History are to be developed and practiced. For Eras V and VI the story of the Diaspora continues-- the Inquisition leading to Jews settling in Greece, the continuing development of East European Jewish culture, the attitude of the Reformers to the Jews of Europe, the contributions of Jews to Western Culture. etc.Era VII: Era of Global Wars, 1914 to 1945
The role of the Jewish communities in the nations involved in World War I are to be examined. The consequences of the Treaty of Versailles is to be understood and analyzed as a factor in the rise of Hitler.(b) citing causes and consequences of the Russian Revolution.
The role of Jews and consequences to the Jewish communities before, during, and after the Russian Revolution is to be understood and analyzed.WHII.10: The student will demonstrate knowledge of political, economic, social and cultural developments during the Interwar Period...
Political, economic, social, and cultural developments in Europe are to be closely analyzed and understood with the rise of Hitler, Hitler's taking control of Germany, and the racial bigotry that occurs by state sanction.WHII.11: The student will demonstrate knowledge of the worldwide impact of World War II by (a) explaining economic and political causes, major events, and leaders of the war; (b) examining the Holocaust and other examples of genocide in the twentieth century; (c) explaining the terms of the peace, including the war crimes trials, the division of Europe, plans to rebuild Germany and Japan, and creation of international cooperative organizations.
STUDY OF THE HOLOCAUST IS VERY MUCH A CENTER PIECE OF THIS STANDARD.Era VIII: The Post War Period, 1945 to the Present
The consequences of the Holocaust on societies in Europe and around the world are to be analyzed: The moving of the center of Jewish culture from Eastern Europe to Israel and the United States, the advancing of Human Rights in many nations including the United States with the Civil Rights movement, the genocides that have occurred since 1945 and the reactions to them throughout the world are some of the consequences to be studied.
THE HOLOCAUST IS A CENTER PIECE OF THIS STANDARD.
And the Holocaust relates to other standards in this course, especially VUS.13 with the study of the Civil Rights movement in the United States.