Teaching Holocaust Literature

To support you in developing a rationale and guidelines for teaching about the Holocaust, we recommend that you start by exploring one or more of these resources:

• Challenge of Memory with Elie Wiesel and Rabbi Polak Through storytelling and reflection, Holocaust survivors Rabbi Polak and Elie Wiesel explore the importance of noticing—really noticing—the people around you by listening to each others’ stories and becoming more sensitive to their experiences.
• Guidelines for Teaching about the Holocaust Holocaust history requires a high level of sensitivity and keen awareness of the complexity of the subject matter. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s (USHMM) guidelines, and the many other resources on their website, including Fundamentals for Teaching about the Holocaust can provide valuable support for your planning and instruction.

This collection includes a sequence of six introductory lessons that provides conceptual and historical context for studying a work of Holocaust literature. These lessons are not text-specific and can be modified or adapted based on your students’ prior knowledge of the Holocaust, your classroom context, and available time. We recommend teaching them in the sequence provided, even if you choose not to teach all of the activities, before introducing your Holocaust anchor text. 

• Holocaust Literature Introductory Lessons Access all six lessons and an overview grid with planning guidance.

After building background knowledge and preparing to engage with emotionally challenging content in the introductory lessons, students will be ready to engage in a book unit.

This collection includes guides for two Holocaust memoirs:

• Teaching Night by Elie Wiesel 
• Teaching Somewhere There is Still a Sun by Michael Gruenbaum

We recommend Night for high school grades and Somewhere There is Still a Sun for middle school grades.

We also offer a whole-school read guide for contemporary young adult novel The Assignment by Liza Wiemer. 

• Teaching The Assignment: A Whole-School Read Guide

While this book is not a Holocaust text and should not be taught as such, it explores important related themes such as antisemitism, personal agency, and moral courage. The Assignment could be used as an extension after a Holocaust literature and/or history unit to support students in considering the ongoing impact of the Holocaust and antisemitism, and to deepen their exploration of human behavior and decision-making in the face of prejudice and injustice.