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Topics to teach

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The Museum has identified topic areas for you to consider while planning a course of study on the Holocaust. We recommend that you introduce your students to these topics even if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust. An introduction to the topic areas is essential for providing students with a sense of the breadth of the history of the Holocaust.

The following
list of topics is available in pdf.
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1933—1939
Dictatorship under the Third Reich
Early Stages of Persecution
The First Concentration Camps

1939—1945
World War II in Europe
Murder of the Disabled ("Euthanasia" Program)
Persecution and Murder of Jews
Ghettos
Mobile Killing Squads (Einsatzgruppen)
Expansion of the Concentration Camp System
Killing Centers
Additional Victims of Nazi Persecution
Resistance (Jewish Resistance and Non-Jewish Resistance)
Rescue
United States/World Response
Death Marches
Liberation

POST 1945
Postwar Trials
Displaced Persons Camps and Emigration


The Holocaust


Warsaw Ghetto


Auschwitz


World War II




Rescue

   Personal Histories (arranged by topic)


Consult the annotated bibliography (43 pages) at the end of Teaching about the Holocaust: A Resource Book for Educators for recommended readings.

In addition to these core topic areas, we recommend that, in your courses, you provide context for the events of the Holocaust by including information about antisemitism, Jewish life in Europe before the Holocaust, the aftermath of World War I, and the Nazi rise to power.



   Complete overview of Suggested Topics in PDF.
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Agenda
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Guidelines for Teaching
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Welcome and Introduction Before you start teaching 1. Define the term 'Holocaust' 2. Contextualize the history you are teaching 3. Translate statistics into people 4. Strive for precision of language 5. Avoid simple answers to complex history 6. Just because it happened does not mean it was inevitable 7. Try to avoid stereotypical descriptions 8. Strive for balance in establishing whose perspective informs your study of the Holocaust 9. Make careful distinctions about sources of information 10. Do not romanticize history to engage students' interest 11. Be sensitive to appropriate written and audiovisual content 12. Select appropriate learning activities 13. Reinforce the objectives of your lesson plan 14. Avoid comparisons of pain Topics to Teach Sample lessons Conclusion

Guest Lecture: Dr. William Meinecke Jr. discusses the topic "Nazi Ideology and Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution."

Personal Testimony: Nesse Godin, a survivor of the Siauliai ghetto in Lithuania, the Stuffhof concentration camp, four labor camps, and a death march, shares her memories.