6
Guidelines for Teaching about the Holocaust
As determined by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM).
For a complete text of the guidelines with details please visi
Staff at the Washington State
Holocaust Education Resource Center would be happy to answer questions, provide consultation, and assist in
finding appropriate resources and lessons. Please visit
or email us a
1.
Define the term “Holocaust.”
The Holocaust refers to a specific genocidal event in 20
th
century history: the state-sponsored,
systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators
between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims – 6 million were murdered; Gypsies, the
handicapped, and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or
national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of
war, and political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny.
2.
Do not teach or imply that the Holocaust was inevitable.
Just because a historical
event took place, and it is documented in textbooks and on film, does not
mean that it had to happen. The Holocaust took place because individuals, groups, and nations
made decisions to act or not to act. Focusing on those decisions leads to insights into history and
human nature and can better help your students to become critical thinkers.
3.
Avoid simple answers to complex questions.
Allow students to think about the many factors and events that contributed to the Holocaust and
often made decision-making difficult and uncertain.
4.
Strive for precision of language.
Any study of the Holocaust touches upon nuances of human behavior. Because of the complexity
of the history, there is a temptation to generalize and, thus, to distort the facts (e.g., "all
concentration camps were killing centers" or "all Germans were collaborators"). Rather, you must
strive to help your students clarify the information presented and encourage them to distinguish,
for example, the differences between prejudice and discrimination, collaborators and bystanders,
armed and spiritual resistance, direct orders and assumed orders, concentration camps and killing
centers, and guilt and responsibility. Try to avoid stereotypical descriptions.
5.
Strive for balance in establishing whose perspective informs your study of the Holocaust.
There exist multiple perspectives, including: victims, bystanders, perpetrators, children, adults,
etc. Consider examining the actions, motives, and decisions of each group. Portray all individuals,
including victims and perpetrators, as human beings who are capable of moral judgment and
independent decision making.
6.
Avoid comparisons of pain.
One cannot presume that the horror of an individual, family, or community destroyed by the Nazis
was any greater than that experienced by victims of other genocides.
7.
Do not romanticize history.
People who risked their lives to rescue victims of Nazi oppression provide useful, important, and
compelling role models for students. However, given that only a small fraction of non-Jews under
Nazi occupation (estimated at .005%) helped to rescue Jews, an overemphasis on heroic tales can
