Teaching the Holocaust: Anecdotes

To teach the Holocaust I usually present to the class the after school special "The Wave" which is based on a true story in Palo Alto, California. I followed this with some (permission granted) film clips from Schindler's List and Life is Beautiful. We discuss mob mentality and look at the poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

It is one of those "moral lessons" of history that highlights that cliche "you study history so that history doesn't repeat itself... or rhyme." I like it, it is interesting... the kids get mad... they don't understand... I've done this every year since I started, in World History, in U.S. History and in Sociology. It is a big part of the curriculum and kind of something you can't skip.

Sometimes though, I learn a lot more...

My first year of teaching I forgot to explain what being a "Jew" meant and dove straight into the Holocaust. At the end I wound up with some really weird answers: Q: "Why were the Jews targeted by the Nazis?" A: "Because they had that star lookin' thing."

In my first Sociology class one of my sweet Guatamalan students had never heard of the Holocaust. Ever. I gave her Night to read and she tore into it... but she'd never heard of it before. Ever.

One year one of my Bosnian girls couldn't watch Schindler's List. It reminded her too much of the nightmare that had taken her brother and her uncle away. I learned a lot from her relaying her experiences over the three and a half years she was in my classes.

Last year a young man from Syria was in my class. He watched my film clips, he listened to my statistics and my spiel on why Hitler got away with it. The next day he brought me stacks of paper to prove to me that the Holocaust never happened. Ever. "It is fiction" he said and there was no arguing any other way no matter what evidence was presented or textbook it was in. It was all lies, and any further discussion was fruitless... This year his sister is in my class. She's never heard of Hitler or the Holocaust either.