The power of a picture...or two

During the summer of 2006, I traveled to Warsaw, Poland. I was there to study the Holocaust with the Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Teacher's Program. On our first day there, when I was trying to overcome jetlag, we hit the ground running visiting many Holocaust related sites. In a stupor, I was going through the motions; not really taking it all in. I was standing in from of the Umschlagplatz [the deportation area in the Warsaw Ghetto] and found myself staring down the main street in a daze.

Our tour guide pulled out a book and asked if I wanted to see a picture. It was a picture of the very street I was standing on dating back to WWII. In this photo I could see what appeared to be Jews sitting along the sides of the street and Nazis preparing them for deportation.

In that moment my senses kicked in. A couple of the buildings were still dotting the thoroughfare. Knowing what had happened in the very place I was standing started to hit me. I walked down the street listening, observing, and breathing.

The cheesy historian in me believes that place holds memory. For me these two photos hold memory also. Comparing time and place opens up a door and brings meaning and understanding with it.

Justifying Holocaust lessons in US History class

Here is my situation. I am very passionate about Holocaust education and believe that all students need to study it in order to understand the complexity of human behavior and its consequences in history and today. But here is the catch. I teach U.S. History. And no where in our state standards for U.S. History does it mention teaching the Holocaust.

Understandably, the focus is on the US and its role in World War II, but this leaves a teacher like me in a bit of a pinch. I really feel the Holocaust is an important subject for students to engage in but technically I shouldn’t cover it in any detail because it will not be tested on our end of course exam. So what is a teacher to do? The last thing I want to do is a quick one-hour overview of the Holocaust because, to me, the significance of Holocaust education is helping students understand the complexity of it and in simplifying it and turning it into a neatly packaged presentation my students don’t engage in the material they just “learn it” for a unit test.

So for the last few years I’ve been trying hard to find ways to integrate Holocaust education into a class that does not have it as a standard, and to integrate it in ways that make students engage in the material but at the same time do not become so time-consuming that I get too far behind the “instructional alignment guide" (basically that is our calendar for what we should be teaching and when.) Well the best solution I’ve found are some great lesson plans/resources that connect American history with 20^th century German history and Holocaust education.

The first resource that I’ve found that is very useful in connecting things happening in America with those in Germany is Race and Membership in US History: The Eugenics Movement. It is a book published by Facing History and Ourselves and it deals with the US eugenics movement and its connection to Germany. The book has excellent readings that will engage students in the bigger issue of what constitutes “progress.” This book actually ties in nicely as well with the Deadly Medicine exhibit created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I had the luxury of taking my students last year to the actual exhibit because it traveled through our city, but there is an on-line version that has great resources! It also examines both the U.S. eugenics movement and its importance in 20^th century Germany as well.

Anther resource can both be found on the MCHE website. It is a lesson plan that compares and contrasts Jim Crow laws with early Nazi laws including the Nuremberg Laws. My students find this lesson especially engaging as it is really looking at the bigger issue of law. For example, as a class we will discuss the purposes of law and then examine these laws in context of those purposes.

The other lesson I use was created by USHMM. It examines the plight of Jewish refugees attempting to flee Germany and enter the United States on the St. Louis. This lesson is great because it helps address one of those frequently asked questions by students which is, “Why didn’t the Jews just leave?” This lesson is also great because it addresses the United States and its response to immigration during the Great Depression.

So there you have it---if you are like me and stuck in a bit of a bind in terms of how to teach the Holocaust in a class where it is not emphasized as a state standard---try these lessons and let me know how they work!

Kristallnacht Commemoration

November 9, 2010
7:30 p.m.

Lewis and Shirley White Theatre
Jewish Community Campus
5801 West 115th Street
Overland Park, Kansas

The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, in partnership with the University of Missouri-Kansas City conservatory of Music presents Different Trains, a multi-media concert to commemorate the 72nd anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Different Trains is a Grammy award winning musical composition created by noted minimalist composer Steve Reich and performed by an ensemble from the conservatory. It is a deeply personal work, evoking the contrast between the trains of the composer’s childhood in 1940s America and the very “different trains” that carried European Jews to the death camps during the same period.

A "conductor's talk" about the genesis and creation of the musical piece as well as readings from first-person accounts focusing on the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in Germany (1933-1939) will precede the performance.

The event is free and open to the public.Contact Fran Sternberg at 913-327-8194 or program@mchekc.org for your complimentary tickets.

The White Rose and introducing the contest

Several years ago, when I first presented the White Rose Student Essay Contest to my 8^th grade language arts class, the students began their research with different motivations. Some began earnestly devoted to the topic, while others focused on the competition aspect or grade. The next year, I decided to change my approach. I offered the White Rose Essay Contest as an option for a research project, as opposed to a requirement. This way, I hoped that the students choosing to work on the project did so because they were interested in the topic. Honestly, I was still not satisfied with this approach.

Suddenly, I decided that perhaps students needed to understand more about the people this contest commemorates. The next year, I presented students with the following quote, "An end in terror is preferable to terror without end." – Sophie Scholl.

We discussed the quote and I took the time introducing information about The White Rose, who they were and what they represented, as well as their fate. Obviously, the students were shocked by the extreme response to freedom of speech. Many of the students expressed a more genuine interest in the purpose of this essay contest.

I no longer teach language arts, however, at one time I had thought about having a parent-student evening. I considered showing the movie, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. (It is important to note that this is not a documentary, but rather a haunting dramatization of the final six days of Scholl’s life, from arrest to trial and sentence. This video is available from the MCHE Resource Center.) I felt this might be a good opportunity for students to have dialogue with their parents, as well as recruit parent support for their project.

Overall, I think the White Rose Essay contest provides a wonderful opportunity for students and I feel it gives them the opportunity to reflect on their own responsibilities as young people.

Resources:
http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/faq/languages/en/04/02/verdict.php
http://www.sophieschollmovie.com/

Join MCHE at Teacher Appreciation Day

The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education is pleased to take part in the first annual Museum Educators Roundtable Teacher Appreciation Day.

Sunday, August 8, 2010
12:00-4:00 p.m.


National World War I Museum
100 W. 26th Street  Kansas City, Missouri

• Pick up information about the 2010-2011 White Rose Student Essay Contest
• Learn about the Witnesses to the Holocaust Archive featuring local survivor testimonies
• Learn about 10 Misconceptions about the Holocaust
• Learn about MCHE's free lending library
• Meet representatives from other area educational centers and museums
• FREE WWI museum admission for teachers with ID!

The Myth of Never Again

The following is an editorial written by former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski in response to Kofi Annan's concern about the focus of Holocaust education:
_________________________________________________________________________________
In an article on June 18, Kofi Annan, the former secretary general of the United Nations, wrote that the teaching of the Holocaust should focus more on preventing ethnic conflict and genocide. 
 
Before questioning the value of Holocaust education,one should first address its goals:

What, exactly, are we trying to achieve in teaching about the Holocaust? Is it realistic to expect that the study of the Holocaust will diminish human rights abuses and racism, and instead nurture democracy and tolerance? Will mixing the narrative of the Holocaust with other types of atrocities really encourage better human behavior?

Accumulated experience from the field has proven that there are no short cuts. A trip to Auschwitz does not suddenly turn visitors into noble humanitarians. An hour’s lesson on the Holocaust will certainly not prevent the next Rwanda or Darfur.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE

CLICK HERE TO READ KOFI ANNAN'S ARTICLE

What to cover? A case for studying the Einsatzgruppen

When teaching about the Holocaust most teachers face the difficult task of deciding what topics to cover. Whether students have any previous knowledge adds to the difficulty of deciding. Also whether the topic and materials are age appropriate must be considered. If the students have no background or very little then you probably will focus on giving a broader overview of the Holocaust. But if the students have enough of the basic information then the focus can shift to more specific topics. All of this must be considered within the time available to teach the Holocaust. For most of us that can be measured in days not weeks.

I am lucky to teach seniors in International Baccalaureate History. This means they come into the class with some previous knowledge and they are academically motivated students. It also means age appropriateness of topics and materials is not a limitation. The topics covered, within the 8 days I make available to teach the Holocaust, can vary from year to year based on resources available and personal/student interests. This year I added a new topic, the Einsatzgruppen.

The Einsatzgruppen were mobile killing squads who followed the German army into the Soviet Union during the Nazi invasion in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa). Their purpose was to murder anyone behind the German lines who was considered racially impure (primarily Jews but also Roma) and politically threatening (Soviet officials). The Einsatzgruppen often used willing collaborators from among the local civilian population to aid in their task. Jews were identified and then ordered to assemble in an area before being transported or marched to an execution site. At these sites people of all ages and gender were shot so as to fall into a prepared trench and then buried. Between 1-1.5 million Jews were murdered by the Einsatzgruppen.

So why teach about the Einsatzgruppen? The fact that over one million Jews died as the result of being shot locally not shipped to some distant camp is probably something few students know. The image in most people’s minds when thinking about the systematic murder of Jews during the Holocaust is the death camps. In studying the Einsatzgruppen students can learn that there were other ways the Nazis murdered Jews in large numbers even before the death camps. The issue of collaboration can be brought in as the murders were done locally and in some cases with the assistance of the local population. The question of resistance can be discussed. Why didn’t the Jews fight back? The story of survival can be explored as some victims managed to escape death. The reality is the details may not be suitable for younger students but even if its not possible to spend a day or two on the topic the Einsatzgruppen should be mentioned to make students aware.

If you’re looking for information on the Einsatzgruppen there are a couple of excellent videos available, an A&E documentary entitled Nazi Secret Killing Squads (1999 and available in the MCHE Resource Center) and a National Geographic Channel documentary entitled Hitler’s Hidden Holocaust (2009). In addition the book Masters of Death (2002) by Richard Rhodes gives a good overview of the people who carried out these murders and how they were committed. Finally the book Holocaust by Bullets (2009) by Father Patrick Desbois discusses his attempt to identify and examine all the execution sites in the Ukraine.

Recommended Resources:

The Einsatzgruppen: Mobile Killing Units
Liepaja - The Holocaust
Testimony by Rivka Yosselevska
Testimonies from Babi Yar
Einsatzgruppen
One Day in Jozefow - From Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men