Developed specifically for educators in Jewish settings, the five new lessons combined with select lessons from Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior are designed to lead middle or high school students through an examination of the catastrophic period of the Holocaust from a historical perspective and also to consider what this particular history has to do with what it means to be Jewish today.
Students begin this journey by considering the place the Holocaust should take in the collective memory of the Jewish people, how memory and history are related in Jewish history, and what tensions arise when we have multiple belongings, such as identifying as both Jews and Americans. Later in the unit, the lesson on Jewish life before the war addresses the Haskalah and the issues arising alongside the newly gained freedoms of the Enlightenment. The Holocaust section of the collection includes a lesson on Jewish resistance, in which students discuss what it meant to resist the Nazis on both a physical and a spiritual level. In the final lessons, students grapple with the question of retaining faith after the unfathomable atrocities and cruelties that this history presents us with.
Before teaching this unit, please review the following information to help guide your preparation process.
How do these lessons differ from lessons found in Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior?
The five new lessons share their own essential question, which differs from the rest of the unit,and invites students to consider the relationship between the history they are studying and what it means to be Jewish today:
How is our Jewish identity tied in with the history of the Holocaust?
How do I incorporate the new lessons within Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior?
The five new lessons are meant to be used within the structure of Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior. To help orient you, we've included instructions at the top of the five lessons linking to the preceding and following lessons. See below for the list of 27 lessons in the order they should be proceeded through.
Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior leads students through a unit of study that examines the catastrophic period in the twentieth century when Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews and millions of other civilians, in the midst of the most destructive war in human history. Following our unique methodology, students take a parallel journey through an exploration of the universal themes inherent in a study of the Holocaust that raise profound questions about human behavior.
Throughout the unit, students will pay special attention to the choices of individuals who experienced this history as victims, witnesses, collaborators, rescuers, and perpetrators. This approach to teaching about the Holocaust helps students make connections between history and the consequences of our actions and beliefs today—between history and how we as individuals make distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil. As students examine the steps that led to the Holocaust, they discover that history is not inevitable; it is the result of our individual and collective decisions.
This unit draws upon and adapts resources from the resource book Holocaust and Human Behavior and its related media collection, and it follows our scope and sequence. Students begin with an examination of the relationship between the individual and society, reflect on the way humans divide themselves into “in” groups and “out” groups, and dive deep into a case study of the Weimar Republic and the Nazi Party’s rise to power in Germany. Students then bear witness to the human suffering of the Holocaust and examine the range of responses from individuals and nations to the genocidal mass murder perpetrated by the Nazi regime. In the unit’s later lessons, students draw connections between this history and the present day, weighing such questions as how to achieve justice and reconciliation in the aftermath of atrocities, how painful histories should be remembered, and how this history educates us about our responsibilities in the world today.
While this unit is designed to be used across a range of grade levels, in both middle and high school, we trust that teachers will adapt activities and resources to best meet the needs of their students.
We believe that a classroom in which a Facing History and Ourselves unit is taught ought to be a microcosm of democracy—a place where explicit rules and implicit norms protect everyone’s right to speak; where different perspectives can be heard and valued; where members take responsibility for themselves, each other, and the group as a whole; and where each member has a stake and a voice in collective decisions. You may have already established rules and guidelines with your students to help bring about these characteristics in your classroom. If not, it is essential at the beginning of this unit to facilitate a supportive, reflective classroom community.
Two ways in which you can create a strong foundation for a reflective classroom are through the use of classroom contracts and student journals. Even if you already incorporate both of these elements into your classroom, we recommend taking a moment to review both strategies.
The readings and videos in this unit introduce some vocabulary and concepts that may pose a challenge for your students, especially for struggling readers, so you may want to consider using the Word Wall strategy to keep a running list of critical vocabulary posted in your classroom that you and your students can refer to over the course of the unit. Students might have a corresponding list in a section of their journals or notebooks, and you could also challenge them to incorporate Word Wall terms into their writing and discussions to help them internalize and understand these challenging terms and concepts.
Facing History and Ourselves is designed for educators who want to help students explore identity, think critically, grow emotionally, act ethically, and participate in civic life. It’s hard work, so we’ve developed some go-to professional learning opportunities to help you along the way.
