TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST IN SOCIAL STUDIES

Connections to the Curriculum: NZC (2007), Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum, Social Sciences Refresh, and NCEA Levels 1-3.

​It is essential as teachers to realise that this is a challenging and emotionally charged subject area. Caution needs to be taken when teaching the Holocaust to junior school students.

A focus on the history, the various roles of key groups and linking it to the students’ own experience are good places to focus. Seek to avoid visually gruesome images or descriptions – this material is not always age-appropriate and can be counter-productive (e.g. images of dead bodies at Auschwitz are not necessarily appropriate). A discussion about a photo of a crematorium or human rights, for example, can generate just as much interest and discussion as a more explicit image.
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Video: Teaching the Holocaust Using Photographs (Yad Vashem)

You need to think carefully as a teacher about the purpose of teaching the Holocaust. A careful reading of the Teaching Guide section on our website is highly recommended before you start.

Social Sciences teachers are required to incorporate ‘Conceptual Strands’, ‘Achievement Objectives’, ‘Key Competencies’ and ‘Values’ into their unit planning. 

The following unit and lesson ideas are designed for Level 5 of the Social Sciences Curriculum. These can serve as a guide to planning and designing an effective Social Studies unit on the Holocaust: 

Fitting the Holocaust into Conceptual Strands

1. Identity, Culture and Organisation

Students can examine the Jewish community and culture in history; compare and contrast Judaism to other religions; learn how negative cultural interaction affects groups within society (e.g. German anti-Semitism towards the Jewish community); discuss the identity of Jews today (including New Zealand’s Jewish community) and the case for/against Israel.

2. Place and Environment

Students can: examine the place of Israel in Jewish and world history; discuss the Diaspora and lack of “place” for Jewish people; examine issues around place for Jews in the modern world - in both Israel and New Zealand

3. Continuity and Change

Students can learn about the narrative of events before, during and after the Holocaust; the experiences of different groups involved (e.g. bystander, victim, perpetrator, rescuer); and discuss ways that similar events can be avoided in the future

4. The Economic World

Students can examine how excluding groups of people from certain economic activities impacts their human rights (i.e. Jews were barred from certain professions for long periods of time.


Fitting the Holocaust into Achievement Objectives

Understand how the system of government in New Zealand operates and affect people’s lives, and how it compares with other systems.

Students can compare and contrast the Nazi system and New Zealand’s democratic parliamentary system. What human rights do we have here? What human rights were denied Jews and others in Nazi Germany, and why?

Understand how cultural interaction impacts cultures and societies

Students can examine the negative cultural interaction in Nazi Germany, and its effect on Jews and others; examine the consequences of the Holocaust on the Jewish people; discuss negative cultural interaction today – is there a chance the Holocaust could happen again? Have there been other genocides that could have been prevented?

Understand that people move between places, and the consequences for both people and places

Students can learn about the journey of Jewish migrants to New Zealand; examine the Nazi acquisition of Jewish homes and businesses in occupied Europe; examine the Jewish Diaspora and the reasons why; examine the consequences of the establishment of Israel for both Jewish settlers and Palestinians.

Understand how economic decisions impact people, communities and nations

Students can learn about the barring of Jews from certain professions; and the impact of the Nuremburg Laws and Kristallnacht on Jewish businesses in Nazi Germany.

Understand how the ideas and actions of people in the past have had a significant impact on peoples’ lives

Students can study the narrative of the Holocaust – cause, events, consequences; look closely at the roles of those involved; and consider the role of New Zealand in the post-Holocaust world (Jewish refugees).

Understand how people define and seek human rights

Students can examine the human rights that were taken away from Jews and others in occupied Europe; discuss how and why Jews and others attempted to resist the subjugation of their human rights; examine the human rights of people today and ask whether people’s human rights are now more protected or still at risk, and what we can do to safeguard these rights.


Fitting the Holocaust into Key Competencies

Managing self

Students can undertake independent research on an aspect of the Holocaust; use survivor testimony and  access the resources of the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand.

Relating to others

Students can attempt to take on the role of people involved in the Holocaust; lead a class room debate on human rights; participate in group work activities, examining specific areas of the Holocaust to present to the class or community.

Thinking

Students can discuss the causes and consequences of the Holocaust; debate the ability to learn lessons from  the Holocaust; examine other genocides – while being aware of the Holocaust’s unprecedented place in history.

Using language, symbols and text

Students can define keywords and phrases (e.g. Holocaust, anti-Semitism, Nazi, genocide); develop a glossary; interpret primary source documents; listen to speeches, audio/video files and survivor testimony.

Participating and contributing

Students can participate in class room discussion; debate and project work; present on an aspect of the Holocaust; participate in community activity related to the Holocaust (e.g. Button Memorial, United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day, visit an important site, museum exhibition or the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand).


Fitting the Holocaust into the Values of the Curriculum

Holocaust teaching is a powerful way of teaching young people key values, as defined by the New Zealand Curriculum. In particular, the value of acknowledging diversity of culture and language through the study of the Jewish people and Judaism.

Themes of equity are highly relevant throughout – students will gain a strong impression of social justice by studying case studies of obvious injustice during the Holocaust. In addition, ideas of community and participation for the common good can be drawn out, with concluding discussions on the Holocaust as an example of unfair treatment and exclusion of certain groups.

Respect for human rights is also a common theme; effective teaching of the Holocaust can give students a sounding board to look at their own world and community, and identify areas of risk to people’s human rights.