2. 11 million people were killed in a span of 12 years from 1933-1945, of those killed 6 million were Jews. The Nazis targeted many different types of people such as gypsies, homosexuals, and disabled people. These people were sent to one of six main concentration camps. They would work hard labor then usually die from either starvation, harsh conditions, or execution in gas chambers.

3.  The Holocaust provides one of the most effective subjects for students to examine basic moral issues.  The Holocaust helps teach students an understanding of racism and prejudice.  The Holocaust is an example of what happens when people are impassive in the face of oppression and the dangers it can create by letting the problem accelerate.

5. The Holocaust is definitely not the only genocide in human history, and isn’t even very unusual. There are many other horrific events that have taken place. Mao Zedong was a Chinese leader, that is responsible for around 64 million deaths of his own people (in contrast to the 11 million in the Holocaust) from the time period 1949-1976. About 30 million were from starvation and about 30 million were from the revolution where people were captured, tortured, and killed.

6. In Russia, Joseph Stalin killed about 23-60 million of his own people in World War II (the same time period as the Holocaust), they died from either being sent to labor camps or being executed for ill political reasons. These 2 examples prove that the Holocaust isn’t the most impressive event when it comes to numbers. There are other events where millions were killed because of religion, ethnic group, and/or an over powering government’s punishments. Some were killed in camps, and mostly by technologies developed for mass murder. Although the events have a lot in common, there is something the Holocaust has that sets it apart from the others.

7. There are nearly 7 million people in the U.S. that are Jewish, that’s 2% of all the people in America today. There are nearly 300,000 Jewish people in Illinois, that’s 2% also. The amount of Jews in American has increased a few million from the beginning of the Holocaust in 1927 to the end of the war, to now. It is important to the Jewish community to teach about the Holocaust because it is their history and they want it to be remembered. Although, the Chinese community in America might want the Mao Zedong genocide to be remembered as well. Though there is only around 3 million Chinese in the U.S., that’s less than 1%. The history of the Chinese is not at all less important than the Jewish history. Though the factor that the Jewish population is greater than the Chinese population along with fact we were more involved with the Holocaust plays a big role in why we teach it and not others.

8. Teaching about the Holocaust has a lot of benefits, but so does teaching about other major events. Population and involvement plays a role on what is taught in the curriculum. We can not teach about everything that plays a role in history. I believe we should learn about more of these events in school, because they all have an significant role in history and they have an importance to the different people that live in the United States.

10. www.ushmm.org www.justontop.blogspot.com www.un.org www.history1900s.about.com www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org www.teachingresources.atlas.uiuc.edu www.migrationinformation.org