Teaching The Holocaust: Exploring Pedagogical Dilemmas

Avi Patt, University of Hartford

Alan Marcus, University of Connecticut

• Pedagogical Dilemmas• Teaching the Holocaust and Genocide with Film• Teaching the Holocaust and Genocide with other documents

PerpetratorsSurvivorsLiberatorsBystandersResistersRescuers

Collaborators

Victims

What risks do we run in reading fiction texts alongside the survivor narratives? How can we use these texts to better

understand the events of the Holocaust?

What is most important when deciding whether to use graphic content to teach the Holocaust?

• Meets goals for the lesson• Does not require parent permission• Students will not get upset• Does not show any dead/mutilated bodies• Appears in USHMM exhibit or online• Approved by department chair or principal• Creates historical empathy• Reinforces widely held beliefs/truths• Provides important evidence of the past

Can events during the Holocaust be utilized to show that similar things occur today without making either event seem trivial?

How do we best meld together teaching about the Holocaust with discussions about other Genocides and current conflicts around the world without

diluting the importance of the Holocaust?

How do we compare genocides, yet not relativize or set up scales of comparative suffering?

Pedagogical Dilemmas When Teaching The Holocaust

• How do we account for and address the moral and historical complexity of the Holocaust

• How do we choose and evaluate materials for teaching about the

Holocaust • In what ways are fiction and non-fiction documents trustworthy

sources for learning about the Holocaust? • What challenges to teaching the Holocaust are created by

potentially graphic content?

• What are appropriate ways to connect the Holocaust to other genocides and to modern society?

• How do you teach such complex events in a limited amount of class time?

How do we choose and evaluate materials for teaching about the Holocaust?

In what ways are fiction and non-fiction documents trustworthy sources for learning about the Holocaust?

Teaching the Holocaust and Genocide with Film

Film as a unique historical “text”• Potential risks or drawbacks

of history movies:• Conflating imaginary and

real people/events• Seeing the past only

through current values (presentism)• Movies as unique kind of

historical document• Content knowledge

concerns

Film as a unique historical “text”

•How can history movies be used educationally?• Purposeful and

connected to broader learning goals

• Tied to learning activities beyond just watching

• Used to build “historical film literacy”

Framework for Uses of Film (I)From “Teaching history with Film” by Alan Marcus, Scott Metzger, Richard Paxton, and Jeremy Stoddard

Developing Empathy• Caring (about the past and for its consequences)• Perspective Recognition (identifying past views and values)

Framework for Uses of Film (II)Developing Analytical or Interpretive Skills• Primary Source (document contemporary to the period)• Secondary Source (document about a past period)

Framework for Uses of Film (III)Raising Controversial and Historical Issues• Contemporary Controversial Issues (linking past to present)• Historical Issues (linking present to past)

Framework for Uses of Film (IV)Bringing the Past to Life• Visualizing the Past (recreating/representing past eras)• Film as Narrative (storytelling for a particular perspective)

Teaching the Holocaust and Genocide with Film

Teaching the Holocaust and Genocide with Film

•Why to never use The Boy in the Striped Pajamas to teach about the Holocaust.

• Less violence• “Easier” to watch• Students can relate to the main characters

• Historically inaccurate• Narrow in perspectives presented• Misleading

Criteria for Choosing Films to Teach About the Holocaust

• Adherence to the Historical Record• Minimal use of fictional elements• Reliance on historical evidence and scholarship when creating

the film• The ability to develop history empathy• Historical figures are represented accurately and shown to be

complicated multi-dimensional figures• The film depicts alternative perspectives on history in contrast

to what students might otherwise see in their textbooks or regular lessons

• The political, social, and ideological values reflected in the film do not overly distort the historical narrative and/or can be effectively used as part of the activities with the film.

• Other resources are available to use with the film• The film clearly supports the goals of the lesson• The genre of the film is appropriate

Criteria for Choosing Films to Teach About the Holocaust

Schindler’s List (1993)

Europa Europa (1990)

The Pianist (2002)

Defiance (2008)

Amen (2002)

The Counterfeiters (2007)