A curated list of resources for
             educators of Holocaust studies:

Guidelines for Teaching About the Holocaust [U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum]: Teaching Holocaust history requires a high level of sensitivity and keen awareness of the complexity of the subject matter. These guidelines reflect approaches appropriate for effective teaching in general and are particularly relevant to Holocaust education.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Holocaust [U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum]: Students have questions while learning about the Holocaust. These short answers are meant to help educators address these questions. This page includes additional resources for educators and students, labeled with Teach and Learn.

Timeline of the Holocaust [Echoes & Reflections]: Designed as a resource for students, this timeline chronicles key dates in the history of the Holocaust from 1933-1945. Click on specific events to deepen your learning with additional information and primary source materials. Teachers can click the icon in the upper-right corners to find resources that can support classroom instruction.

Breaking Down and Fighting Holocaust Trivialization [AJC]: Holocaust trivialization is not always obvious; a casual observer might miss it without an understanding of the terms, symbols, and relevant history. Here is what you need to know.

Antisemitism - Translate Hate Glossary [AJC]: Antisemitism isn’t always easy to see, making it easier to spread. As it moves quietly through each of our lives—in a tweet, or a joke, or a conspiracy theory—it doesn’t just impact those it directly touches. It impacts us all. To stop antisemitism, we first have to understand it. This glossary can help.

Swastika - Symbol of Hate [Lappin Foundation]: The swastika has become a major symbol of the Holocaust. Swastika—Symbol of Hate is a short film and teacher’s guide explaining the origins of the swastika as a symbol of peace and goodwill, and about how Hitler hijacked it to use as a symbol of the Nazi party. The film briefly explores the horrific events that took place during the Holocaust under Hitler’s reign. Short interviews with Holocaust survivors Magda Bader and Dr. Hans Fisher reflecting on what the swastika symbol means to them are meant to be thought-provoking, serving as a starting point for conversations with students about what the swastika represents. For grades 6 and above.

The film can be especially powerful when a swastika shows up in a school or in a community.

The Path to Nazi Genocide [U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum]: This 38-minute film examines the Nazis’ rise and consolidation of power in Germany. Using rare footage, the film explores their ideology, propaganda, and persecution of Jews and other victims. It also outlines the path by which the Nazis and their collaborators led a state to war and to the murder of millions of people. By providing a concise overview of the Holocaust and those involved, this resource is intended to provoke reflection and discussion about the role of ordinary people, institutions, and nations between 1918 and 1945. For accompanying lesson plan visit here.

This film contains difficult subject matter and imagery. Some segments may not be appropriate for younger audiences.

List of Virtual Museum Exhibits:

  • iWitness / USC Shoah Foundation: A Conversation with Pinchas Gutter - Dimensions in Testimony - students will be introduced to the interactive biography of Jewish survivor, Pinchas Gutter and will engage with him online through USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony technology.

  • StoryFile: Interactive online AI video that talks back. Allows participant to ask questions and get answers from expert Stephen D. Smith about the Holocaust and antisemitism. Created for grades 6 and up.

  • Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum: Auschwitz-Birkenau Virtual Tour - Virtual sightseeing including background information as you scan and move through these former Nazi concentration and extermination camps.

  • YIVO Institute for Jewish Research: Beba Epstein: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Girl - An Interactive Storytelling Journey through Jewish History of Eastern Europe based on the life of a young girl named Beba Epstein, born in 1922 in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania). You will discover that despite her exceptional fate, Beba is not so different from any other young teenager today. [See below for link to educator resources that accompany this exhibit for grades 3-12]

  • Anne Frank House, Amsterdam: Online Visits - Includes video diary links, secret annex 360 degree interactive online tour, and free virtual reality headset app tour.

  • Montreal Holocaust Museum: Witnesses to History. Keepers of Memory - a virtual photography and video exhibit that honors the life stories of 30 Holocaust survivors.

  • Zachor Foundation: Ben’s Journey Through the Holocaust - an augmented reality, interactive storytelling of one man’s historical legacy via life-like conversation. [See below for link to curriculum resources.]

  • Yad Vashem: Voices From the Inferno - Holocaust survivors describe the last months in the Warsaw Ghetto.

  • U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: Americans and the Holocaust - 39-minute tour which walks through the Americans and the Holocaust exhibition and provides an overview of the history, themes, and artifacts that look closely at America’s role in this history.

  • Tell Me, Inge: Holocaust survivor tells her story through interactive virtual reality. Free and available via PC or smartphone.

Podcasts:

  • We Share the Same Sky - USC Shoah Foundation production taught in high school classrooms around the country as an innovative approach to teaching Holocaust history and the stories of refugees. This podcast documents a granddaughter's decade-long journey to weave together the thin threads of her family history. The project is an inter-generational diary of love, loss and the will to move forward in the face of uncertainty. (7 episodes)

  • Those Who Were There: Voices from the Holocaust - Yale University presents personal accounts into the unimaginable experiences that shaped Holocaust survivors and witnesses—and shaped our world. (13 episodes)

Museums and Organizations offering lesson plans:

US Holocaust Memorial Museum:

Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center

Yale Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies:

Race and Citizenship in Nazi Germany and Jim Crow United States - curriculum for middle and high school classrooms.

Lawrence L. Langer: A Life in Testimony - The film begins with Langer describing his entry into the field of Holocaust testimony, then traces his discovery of misleading assumptions about the nature of survival and the role of the imagination in bringing history to life. The film ends with Langer’s conclusions concerning the vital role of testimony in our understanding of the Holocaust and the world around us.

The Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program:

The Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program was established by the Azrieli Foundation in 2005 to collect, preserve and share the memoirs and diaries written by survivors of the Holocaust who came to Canada. Includes video testimonies, written memoirs, and educational resources.

  • Re:Collection - is an educational tool for exploring the history of the Holocaust through first-hand accounts of survivors. This innovative digital resource combines video interviews with memoir excerpts, photos and artifacts, and features interactive timelines and maps to place survivors’ stories in historical and geographic context. Use Re:Collection in your classroom to help students understand the experiences of individual survivors and learn about important themes in the history of the Holocaust.

  • Educational Materials - Education Programs and short activities highlight the stories of Canadian survivors, while exploring important themes related to the Holocaust. Each program and activity builds students’ knowledge of the historical context of the survivors’ stories.

  • Short films - Combining animation, archival and interview footage, these Holocaust survivor short films provide an engaging and moving introduction to their survivor stories and Holocaust history.

Centropa:

  • Lesson Plans (USA) - Centropa.org offers teachers a database of thousands of annotated photos, hundreds of interviews, and scores of award-winning, short multimedia films (none longer than 30 minutes)—ideal for creating virtual and in-class projects that teach digital literacy, promote critical thinking, increase global awareness. Visit the Lesson Plans link for over 300 linked plans by title and subject.

Facing History and Ourselves:

  • Classroom Materials - an extensive list of resources that includes art and music among other tools in the study of the Holocaust

Connecticut Remembers the Holocaust:

Connecticut Remembers the Holocaust - website for educators and students in middle and high school. The goal of the project is for students to hear the voices of survivors of the Holocaust, learn their stories, and then use that information to remember and more easily empathize and act on behalf of people whose identity makes them vulnerable today and in the future. Includes grade appropriate curriculum themes with supplemental lessons, activities, worksheets, slide shows and videos.

Anti-Defamation League (ADL):

Michigan Holocaust and Genocide Education:

Teacher resources and 6-Day lesson plan - model lesson plans can help teachers meet the requirements of Public Act 170 of 2016, introducing students to genocide studies and content on specific historical examples, such as the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and others. The lessons can be completed in six hours of instruction which is the minimum number of hours required by PA 170, though teachers are encouraged to take more time as students demonstrate more time is necessary for mastery of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards embedded in the lessons. Finally, the lessons are designed to stress the arc of inquiry and opportunities for critical thinking and dialogue about and personal responses to historical content in multiple media, so teachers are encouraged to familiarize themselves/employ best instructional processes with these model lesson plans.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage (NYC):

The Wiener Holocaust Library:

Holocaust Museum Houston:

  • Educational Videos - pre-recorded lessons for students to learn about the Holocaust from home.

Art & Remembrance:

  • Teaching tools - designed for grades 5 – 12, the lessons from Holocaust survivor Esther Nisenthal Krinitz’s art and story are immediate and understandable, nurturing empathy and courage while bringing the Holocaust to life in a markedly different way than the black-and-white photos more typical of the period.

Music And The Holocaust - ORT:

  • The musical and historical material in this collection offers a particularly useful resource for Holocaust education. While it is focused on music, the website has the potential to be used quite broadly across the teaching curriculum, in classes on music and music history as well as in subjects such as history, social studies, language arts or citizenship. The section for educators provides resources that have been created specifically for secondary school teachers. The new student guide introduces the main themes of the website, asks questions and gives students a chance to discuss the issues online. There are also resources for those interested in including music in their Holocaust commemoration events.

  • Educational resources and references

Liberation 75:

  • Educator Toolkit - a compendium of organization partners’ lesson plans and resources for in person and virtual classrooms.

Anne Frank House:

  • Educational materials - Anne Frank’s life and lessons facilitated through film clips, projects, online interactive tour of the secret annex, and exhibitions.

ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation:

  • The ZACHOR Holocaust curriculum - uses the firsthand experiences of Holocaust Survivor Ben Lesser to illustrate and support educators teaching the Eastern European section of World War II.