Holocaust Education Resources
2004 American Library Association Conference
Interest in Holocaust education has increased over the past two decades and gained momentum in 1993 with the founding of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). The Holocaust is a mandated topic of study in six states and recommended in ten others. Legislation has been before Congress (HR 2464 and HR 2953) to direct the Secretary of Education to provide grants to promote Holocaust education and awareness.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum http://www.ushmm.org/
· Education section at http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/ has information about online workshops, the Museum Fellowship Program, Belfer Conferences and Belfer Exemplary Lessons. Instructional materials are downloadable or may be requested.
· Teaching about the Holocaust: A Resource Book for Educators provides guidelines for teaching about the Holocaust, a historical summary and chronology, and an annotated bibliography and videography on Holocaust related topics. http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/teachabo/teaching_holcaust.pdf
· The Holocaust Encyclopedia at http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php provides illustrated articles, photographs, artifacts, audio files and film footage appropriate for students.
· Online exhibitions available at http://ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/ are presented on such topics as Polish-born Jewish artist Arthur Szyk, Music, Poetry, Jewish Displaced Persons 1945-1951, Voyage of the St. Louis, The Kovno Ghetto, Kristallnacht, The Nazi Olympics, Nazi Book Burnings, The Doctor's Trial, Oskar Schindler, Anne Frank, and Hidden Children.
USHMM “Guidelines for Teaching about the Holocaust” http://www.ncssm.edu/holocaust/
· A project of a Museum Fellow, this site restates each of the USHMM guidelines. The viewer connects to images that help illustrate the key points of each guideline.
· After clicking on a photograph, the viewer finds descriptive information provided by USHMM Photo Archives and an explanation of how the photograph reinforces the guidelines.
Holocaust Education and State Legislation
· USHMM gives summaries of the status of legislation related to Holocaust education in each of the 50 states. See http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/states/
· Information provided about History/Social Studies and English/Language Arts state content standards and contact information for state departments of education.
Council of Holocaust Educators (CHE) http://www.che-nj.org
· This organization formed by Museum Fellow Colleen Tambuscio holds its annual conference in October. Elie Wiesel is Honorary Chair. Membership numbers over 500 classroom teachers.
· CHE’s goals: 1. Advocate and advance Holocaust, genocide and human rights education in the schools. 2. Foster the development and implementation of instructional strategies that incorporates content and pedagogy for effective Holocaust, genocide and human rights education. 3. Encourage and facilitate professional interaction among educators through networking and mentoring.
A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/
Photos, documents, literature, art, music, etc. from the Florida Center for Instructional Technology.
The Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive http://holocaust.umd.umich.edu
· The archive contains over 150 interviews with survivors conducted by Professor Sid Bolkosky, including 330 hours of audiotapes and 60 hours of video. Selected interviews are available online and through the Mardigian Library of the University of Michigan Dearborn.
· Bolkosky is the author of A Holocaust curriculum: a life unworthy of life: an 18-lesson instructional unit. This curriculum is available from the publisher McGraw Hill.
Holocaust Museum Houston Curriculum Trunk Program
http://www.hmh.org/ed_cur_trunk.asp
Trunks, geared at elementary, middle and high school levels, include videos, posters, CDs, CD-ROMs, artifact kits, maps, classroom sets of books, lessons plans and student activities.
Dallas Holocaust Museum
http://www.dallasholocaustmemorialcenter.org/
The Education section offers curriculum materials separately geared for middle school and high school students, lesson plans, worksheets, bibliographies along with sponsoring a yearly writing contest.
World War II: Prelude, Conduct and Aftermath of the War - an online instructional unit http://academic.kellogg.cc.mi.us/k12lincolnm/intro.html
· Teacher Page offers objectives, link to standards, procedure and evaluation.
· Chronology Page provides scope and sequence and additional online links.
· Student Page guides student through a mini-research unit designed according to Big6 model.
· Resources Page gives suggestions for using USHMM and other Internet resources.
· Steinfeldt, Irena. How was it humanly possible?: A study of perpetrators and bystanders during the Holocaust. Yad Vashem, International School for Holocaust Studies, 2002. This book uses case studies, photographs, documents, and testimonies to present views of perpetrators and bystanders and to tell the story of the few men and women who did not accept the evil of mass murder and chose to act differently.
· A reflection on the Holocaust education project carried out during winter 2003 in Battle Creek, Michigan can be found in the September 2003 issue of MultiMedia Schools, available at http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/sep03/lincoln.shtml. and in the October 2003 issue of School Library Journal at http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA326327.html?industryid=47087&q=margaret+lincoln+holocaust
Museum Fellowship Teaching Resources http://www.mandelproject.us
· An advanced funding project for USHMM has begun to showcase work of Museum Fellows.
· 36 lesson plans and 36 book reviews were submitted by Museum Fellows and may be used by educators seeking meaningful educational resources about the Holocaust. Lesson plans have been successfully field-tested and include additional online materials and support documents.
· Lesson plans are organized by categories: Prewar Life, Introduction, Nazism, Ghettos, Final Solution, Rescue/Resistance, Children, Literary Connections, Universal Lessons, and Global Connections.
· Book reviews are grouped under headings: Fiction (Adult), Fiction (Young Adult), Biography/Autobiography, History – Specialized, Holocaust - Study and Teaching, Holocaust – Historiography, Perpetrators/Collaborationists, Personal Narratives, Literature Collections, and World Issues.
Margaret Lincoln