Holocaust Teacher Resource Center
Resources about the Holocaust
Recent Additions
Nicole Yancey, a Holocaust survivor, was the featured guest speaker at the April 29, 2019 Joint Base Langley Eustis Holocaust Days of Remembrance. The video is a repetition of her presentation at that ceremony. Click here to view the video.
USHMM Ordinary Soldiers Case Study
Contrary to public perception, Commanders in the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) were NOT commonly reprimanded or punished if they refused to carry out orders in having their military units participate in the murder of Jewish civilians in their designated areas of operation. Einsatzgruppen was the name for the killing squads. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) collected data that showed it was very uncommon for leaders to face punishment in the face of refusing to take part in mass killings.
On April 29, 2019, Captain Evan T. Kowalski, US Army, was the Master of Ceremonies (MC) at the Holocaust Days of Remembrance Observance for the Joint Base Langley-Eustis military community. His opening remarks included information that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and the West Point Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies researched regarding the 1st Battalion, 691st Infantry Regiment, of the German Wehrmacht.
Capt. Kowalski’s presentation is posted with his permission. Click here for his presentation. Click here for the full USHMM Ordinary Soldiers Case Study. Click here to view a video of Holocaust survivor, Nicole Yancey, read the script she read at that Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony.
Watch Jill David, an award-winning 6th-grade teacher in Virginia, as she presents a lesson about the Holocaust to her Grafton Middle School students. Her lesson addresses Virginia’s SOLs in both Social Studies and Language Arts. Specific SOL skills are listed on the Teacher Videos page
The United Jewish Federation of Tidewater (UJFT) created a program called What We Carry. Survivor Videos has some information about that program. It also has seven professionally made videos with Holocaust survivors telling some of what they experienced during the Holocaust.
Why Teach?
UNESCO asks the question:
“Why teach about the Holocaust”?
“What can be learned about preventing genocide and mass atrocities through study of the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes?”
“Other genocides have occurred after the Holocaust, on several continents. How can we draw better lessons from the past?”
(Posted with permission by UNESCO.)
Lesson Plans
Holocaust survivor Peter L. Fischl wrote a poem titled “To The Little Polish Boy Standing With His Arms Up” in response to a photo of Jewish people being forced out of a ghetto. A lesson plan written by award winning teacher Nancy Gorrell was published in the English Journal and posted on this site with permission.
Download the photo/poem and
lesson plan, or order the teaching kit.
(Posted with permission by Peter L. Fischl)
Response to Deniers
Arieh’s Response to Deniers
Arieh Lebowitz, Associate Director of Jewish Labor Committee responded to Sonya Brendon of Sydney, Austrailia who questioned the existence of evidence of gas chamber that killed Holocaust victims. His response details documented sources of that evidence.
Click here to read his editorial response.
(Posted with permission by Arieh Lebowitz.)