Bringing the Holocaust Unit to Closure: Implications for the Future
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Dr. Joyce Witt, Highland Park High School, Highland Park, Illinois
COURSE OUTLINE
Curriculum Outline
World History Since 1500
World History since 1500 begins with the study of the Renaissance and covers the following:
- Age of Discovery
- Reformation
- Enlightenment
- French Revolution and Napoleon
- Revolution and Latin America
- Tokugawa and Meiji Japan
- Africa and Imperialism
- World War I
- World War II
- China in Revolution
The Holocaust Unit is taught in the fourth quarter of the year during the World War II Unit. It is a two-three week unit which includes the following topics:
- Rise of Hitler: Factors and Forces that bring Hitler to Power
- Anti-Semitism: Why the Jews?
What is anti-Semitism? Roots of anti-Semitism
What role did it play in Nazi Germany? - The Destruction Process: How did the Holocaust, evolve using Raul Hilberg’s paradigm of Definition, Expropriation, Concentration, Slave Labor, and Annihilation.
- World Reaction
What did the world know and when did they know it? What is the reaction of the rest of the world? - The Role of the Righteous
Who are the Righteous? What are their accomplishments? What are the characteristics of the Righteous? What are the lessons to be learned from their behavior? - Other Victims: Gypsies, Homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses
Why are these groups victims? How are their experiences different from and similar to the Jewish experience? - Lessons to be Learned and Implications for the Future
