Guidelines for Teaching the Holocaust United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Guidelines

Define the term “Holocaust”

State-Sponsored Systematic Persecution & Annihilation by Nazi Germany and its collaborators

Avoid comparisons of pain.

Just because it happened does not mean it was inevitable.

Avoid simple answers to complex history.

Strive for precision of language.

Make careful distinctions about sources of information.

"This is a photograph of me as I wish I looked all the time. Then I might still have a chance of getting to Hollywood. But now I am afraid I usually look quite different."

Try to avoid stereotypical descriptions.

Do not romanticize history to engage students’ interest.

Contextualize the history you are teaching.

Last letter sent by Herbert and Suse Weil to their sister Liesel in America. In the letter Herbert describes the Jewish school in Nuremberg and how the class has shrunk to forty students.

Translate statistics into people.

Be sensitive to appropriate written and audiovisual content.

Strive for balance in establishing whose perspective informs your study of the Holocaust.

Select appropriate learning activities.

Reinforce the objectives of your lesson plan.