Help your Children Learn the Facts About the Holocaust
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As a Messianic family that loves Israel and the Jewish people, this subject is near and dear to my heart. I’ve always grappled with how to teach children about such a difficult topic as the Holocaust. I believe you have to approach the subject from an age-appropriate point of view. But from what perspective do you teach it? How do you learn facts about the holocaust and yet make this very difficult subject approachable? In this article, I give examples of how you can help your Children Learn the Facts about the Holocaust.
Where to Learn Facts About the Holocaust
One of my favorite ways to launch into the subject was when we went on a field trip to see Wendy Kesselman’s play adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank. That year we studied how the Holocaust impacted one family, and really, just one girl. A girl about the same age as my boys. A girl who also attended a Montessori school (my boys started in a Montessori school before we brought them home to homeschool). A girl who loved the same God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In preparation for seeing the play, we started reading the Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank. I love to have the actual book in hand, but my kiddos prefer to read on their Kindles. So we purchased a Kindle version and we used this as a family book club.
In order to really understand the Holocaust, our children have to see antisemitism. I think that is a hard concept to teach when it is impersonal. Teaching it from one person’s perspective makes it more “real” or identifiable.
It makes it personal.
Other Biographies To Help You Learn Facts about the Holocaust
You certainly don’t have to use Anne Frank as the person you follow; there are several biographies out there to choose from. I have provided some of the well-known biographies below that have great reviews.
- The Boy on the Wooden Box. This is about a boy who was on Schindler’s List.
- Alicia. A 13-year-old girl starts saving the lives of people she didn’t know.
- I Have Lived a Thousand Years. Another 13-year-old girl tells her story about living in a concentration camp.
- Memories of Survival. A seamstress tells the story of how she survived the camps through hand-stitching embroidered fabric panels.
- The Champion of Children. A fascinating story about Janusz Korczak and how he ran an orphanage for Jewish children.
- Elsie’s War. A story about a child from a wealthy family who documents the war through photography.
- There are many other children’s books you can investigate here. For those with teenagers and young adults, here is a list better suited for their age group to learn facts about the Holocaust.
Learn the Facts About the Holocaust and Define Your Objectives
When you are teaching such a difficult subject, it helps to define your objectives clearly. For a Middle and High School homeschool, your list of objectives might look something like this:
1. Introduce your children to basic beliefs and customs of Judaism and the roots of Christianity. This might be accomplished by visiting a Rabbi or synagogue to discuss some of the basic rituals and beliefs of Judaism. You can also purchase a children’s book on Judaism such as Judaism, a DK Eyewitness Book.
2. Acquaint your children with what antisemitism is. I highly recommend you create a timeline depicting the major events of antisemitism. This started long before Hitler. I can guarantee that you will learn something yourself while researching this topic. I did and still do every single time I study this topic. I am horrified at what these people have been through.
3. Define democracy, fascism, communism, and socialism. Have your children list countries where each of these ideologies existed during the Holocaust. As a great extension for older children, have them list countries where these ideologies exist today. Unfortunately, it might take more than a basic Google search to get the answers for this now. You might consider creating 3×5 cards for the various characteristics of each ideology. And create Venn diagrams of where the ideologies overlap.
Your kids can also map the countries involved in World War II (maps for the area and time and study guides to go with the maps) and define those countries’ ideologies as they map them. Examine the efforts of Roosevelt and Churchill in Europe during World War II.
4. Understand. Your children should have a basic understanding of what caused the end of World War I and the Versailles Treaty. Be sure they understand the economic, social, and political conditions in Germany from the end of WWI through 1933 as this will help them better grasp the situation surrounding learning facts about the Holocaust. Again, I wish I could say a basic Google search would provide these answers, but it might not. Here is a comparison chart for WWI and WWII.
5. Discuss Hitler’s rise to power. Do the same for Nazi power and the basic ideas of Nazi philosophy, and their Nazi control over the German people. Things to discuss is the fact that Hitler was first elected before he became a dictator! Books to consider on this topic:
- Adolf Hitler: Wicked History,
- The Life and Death of Hitler,
- Adolf Hitler: Evil Mastermind of the Holocaust.
- Why did the Rise of the Nazis Happen?
6. Recognize and discuss the effects of apathy and indifference. Discuss why Germans may have done nothing when confronted with behavior they knew was wrong. How is not acting actually making a choice? What does apathy look like?
7. Research examples of how propaganda was used to brainwash the German people as part of learning facts about the Holocaust. Discuss how propaganda was used by Hitler and the Third Reich.
To bring this to a current events study, ask if propaganda is used in the United States today. Examples include television advertisers, the American government, foreign governments, political parties, etc. How do you determine if it is propaganda? How do you refute it? What is rumor? How does it start? Why is it believed? Why does this belief often persist? What is disinformation? Misinformation? Lies?
Research the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948. It was essentially a protective shield, preventing the US government from using the media to brainwash its citizens with propaganda. In 2012 it was reversed by the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act. Who was in office and helped get this passed? Why?
There are some great logic books that help teach how to identify fallacies including Fallacy Detectives, The Amazing Dr. Ransom’s Bestiary of Adorable Fallacies, and The Art of Argument.
8. Finally, be sure to look for the heroes. We always end such a horrific topic with something uplifting and encouraging. Here are some ideas: Raoul Wallenberg, Oskar Schindler, Rescue: The Story of how Gentiles Saved Jews in the Holocaust, Rescuing the Children: The Kindertransport, Luba, and The Boys Who Challenged Hitler. There are hundreds more stories that will encourage and restore hope.
Some extensions we did along with the Anne Frank Diary
We used the Journal of Anne Frank as our immersion into the Holocaust and to teach my children the facts about the Holocaust. Below is how we accomplished the objectives I listed above using Anne Frank as our eyes and ears.
- We are Messianic, so we keep the Biblical feasts and many of the rituals the Jewish people did. I think that helps us more fully grasp what the Jewish people experienced because we do some of the very things Anne Frank discusses in her diary.
- We created a timeline of Anne Frank’s Life on a poster board. Under it, we created a timeline for The War and major political events, inventions, and discoveries happening at the same time, We looked for people, arts, theater, music, film, and sports items that were happening, as well as what was happening in our family history during that time. This helped our children realize how recent the Holocaust was.
- Lastly, we mapped Anne Frank family’s moves.
I hope this has helped you consider ways to help your children learn facts about the Holocaust. These suggestions apply to upper elementary, middle, and high school students. I would not necessarily do all of these suggestions unless you are doing this as a complete unit study and have 4 – 6 weeks dedicated to the topic.
Current Day Situation
Finally, when you have finished studying these facts about the Holocaust, talk about the anti-semitism we are seeing everywhere today. Is this a dangerous movement? We have to talk about the hard things of history to prevent them from happening again.
Never again.
I pray I’ve helped you pull together a study of this vital topic.
Trish is the owner of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, Hip Homeschool Moms, Homeschool Travel Adventures and Only Passionate Curiosity. Trish is from the coast of North Carolina, but they now live in rural West Tennessee on a 40+ acre farm. She has been married to her best friend, David, for 27 years and they have three sons (ages 24, 23 and 19). She has been homeschooling since 2009 and her homeschool style leaned towards a Montessori approach with a heavy emphasis on hands-on learning. Trish’s family is Messianic and they love studying the Scriptures and growing in their faith. In her spare time, Trish loves to travel, work in their garden, work puzzles, and play games with the family.