Classroom Resources

Echoes and Reflections: Courses by Echoes and Reflections (sponsored by the Anti Defamation League, Yad Vashem and the USC Shoah Foundation) are free of charge. Echoes & Reflections empowers middle and high school educators with dynamic classroom materials and professional development. Offered and listed on their website is a powerfully-packed schedule of free year-round webinars, online courses, and in-person programs and other resources to help educators gain the skills, knowledge, and confidence to effectively teach students about the holocaust. For information, see echoesandreflections.org.

NC Council on the Holocaust: Manyresources, including traveling exhibits, traveling plays, Holocaust survivor speakers, and the annual state Holocaust Commemoration. Newsletter: https://ncholocaustcouncilworkshops.org/nc-holocaust-council-newsletter/

Here is a powerful article written by a social studies teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL who is a survivor of the 2/14/18 shooting at her school. She reflects on the importance of Holocaust education in schools, "Learning about the Holocaust empowers us with the insight needed to question the past and the foresight to impact the future. Echoes & Reflections believes that through the study of the Holocaust, students can grow as responsible citizens and develop critical thinking, empathy and social justice skills for the future. My students have already exemplified that in the aftermath of this tragedy, and I’m so proud of their perseverance." The Parkland massacre reminds us of the importance of Holocaust education

A Passover Haggadahfocusing on the Holocaust has been written by Rabbi Bernhardt Rosenberg. The rabbi, born in a displaced persons camp to Polish Holocaust survivors wrote this tribute to the victims and survivors as a reminder to post Holocaust generations to keep the memory of that experience alive. The message of the Haggadah is simple, Rabbi Rosenberg said: "If you want to fight against anti-Semitism, if you want to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive, you have to keep retelling the story." Visit this website for more information: http://holocausthaggadah.com/uploads/Rosenberg_Holocaust_Haggadah_updated.pdf

Video footage of A Historic Evening with Eva Schloss - stepsister of Anne Frank
presented by Jewish Sparks https://vimeo.com/262664177
On March 5th, an overflowing audience at Duke University was treated to the life story

of Eva Schloss (stepsister of Anne Frank). Her story transversed her pleasant childhood

to the horrors of the Holocaust and horrific conditions of Auschwitz.

Holocaust to Hope; A Story of Survival by CJ Poran
The son of 2 Holocaust survivors, CJ Poran shares his family's heroic story with meticulously researched details, including personal photographs and maps. Click here to read his memoir.

Coursera offers three free online courses on the Holocaust, including:

The Holocaust - An Introduction (I): Nazi Germany: Ideology, The Jews and the World, taught by Tel Aviv University & Yad Vashem
The Holocaust - An Introduction (II): The Final Solution, taught by Tel Aviv University & Yad Vashem
The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, taught by Murray Baumgarten Peter Kenez, UC Santa Cruz

Save Their Stories: The Undiscovered Diaries of the Holocaust Project of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to rescue the evidence of the Holocaust to ensure the voices of survivors and victims live on for perpetuity.Every firsthand record of the Holocaust has an important story to tell, of suffering and strength, persecution and perseverance. Victims’ experiences have the potential to reveal a new aspect of Holocaust history or highlight its relevance to the world today

A Guide to the Holocaust (pdf)

Definition of the Holocaust (pdf); excerpted from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's online article Introduction to the Holocaust

The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 (pdf): excerpted from About.com

Judenrat (pdf); excerpted from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's online article Jewish Councils/Judenraete

Hitler Youth (pdf); excerpted from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's online article Indocrinating Youth

FDR and the Holocaust (pdf); excerpted from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's online article Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Displaced Persons Camps (pdf); excerpted from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's online article Displaced Persons

36 Questions about the Holocaust (pdf); from the Museum of Tolerance's Online Multimedia Learning Center

Transcript of Anna Blech's TEDx Talk: "Downplaying the Holocaust: Arthur Hays Sulzberger & The New York Times" (youtube video)

USHMM film: The Path to Nazi Genocide (online video).
NOTE: This film is intended for adult viewers, but selected segments may be appropriate for younger audiences.
Using rare historical footage, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has produced a concise,
informative overview of the Holocaust. Educators are encouraged to begin their Holocaust unit with the film.

Be an Agent of Change flyer (pdf)

Holocaust Fact or Fiction True/False Quiz (pdf) + Quiz Answers (pdf)

Antisemitism on College Campuses (youtube video)

20 Photos that Change the Holocaust Narrative (html link)

Deadly Medicine (website). Created by NC Educator Karen Klaich, the site focuses on the medical aspect

of the Holocaust and the American eugenics programs and offers historical timelines, videos and photographs,
and learning activities.

The Holocaust and World War II Timeline (link to USHMM website)

Teaching Resources on the Holocaust (link to USHMM website), including activities, lesson plans, and films, such as "The Path to Nazi Genocide", which offers a concise overview of the Holocaust and what made it possible.

The Rage to Live: The International D.P. Children's Center Kloster Indersdorf 1945–1946 (video link) A video on the history of the UNRRA Children's Center at Indersdorf. Details the lives of young survivors and their path back to 'normal' living.

Child Holocaust Diarists and Artists - Part I: Commemorating Anne Frank (PDF article with images)

Child Holocaust Diarists and Artists - Part IIDescriptions & drawings by other children who contributed memorable records of their lives during the Shoah.
(PDF article with images)

Moriah Films

The Simon Wiesenthal Center was a pioneer in creating Moriah Films, whose purpose is to continue

to produce quality, award-winning documentaries on the epic events of the 20th and 21st centuries –

events that shaped and redefined modern Jewish history. https://www.moriahfilms.com/film-library/

Against The Tide
Against The Tide is a compelling film that documents what happened in the United States during the Holocaust, highlighting how a young activist, Peter Bergson, challenged Washington and the establishment of Jewish organizations to demand that the rescue of Europe’s Jews become a top priority for American Jews. Through a never before seen 1977 interview, Bergson gives a first-hand account of what occurred. https://www.moriahfilms.com/film-library/against-the-tide.html
I Have Never Forgotten You
Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor who lost 89 family members, helped track down over 1,100 Nazi war criminals and spent six decades fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people. Watching the early efforts of the U.S. government to prosecute Nazi war criminals he realized, "There is no freedom without justice," and initially decided to dedicate a few years to that quest. A few years turned into the rest of his life. https://www.moriahfilms.com/film-library/i-have-never-forgotten-you.html
Unlikely Heroes
Unlikely Heroes documents unknown stories of resistance during WWII including a rabbi’s son who disguised himself as a Major in the SS to save Jews; a young woman involved in the plot to blow up the Crematorium at Birkenau; a Jew who defied Eichmann, devising an extraordinary scheme for 40,000 Jews to get to Palestine. https://www.moriahfilms.com/film-library/unllikely-heroes.html

The Long Way Home
Winner of the 1997 Academy Award® for Best Feature Documentary
May 1945 - Germany has been defeated by the Allies and the war in Europe is officially over. American, British, and Russian soldiers have liberated the Nazi death camps in Central and Eastern Europe, uncovering to the world the horror and tragedy of the Holocaust. Thousands of starving, half-dead Jewish survivors are freed from Nazi persecution. The majority have lost most, if not all of their family members. Most are forced to live in so-called Displaced Persons Camps overseen by the Allies often in the same location as the death camps. The few who try to return home are met with anti-Semitism and threats of physical violence. Legal immigration to the United States and other countries is very difficult. For a large number of the survivors, the only place they want to go is Eretz Yisrael—British controlled Palestine. But Great Britain has severely limited the number of Jews who can come legally. Their only choice is to make their way illegally from Europe to Palestine. This is the story The Long Way Home. https://www.moriahfilms.com/film-library/the-long-way-home.html
Liberation
Liberation tells the dramatic story of the battle waged on two fronts during World War II – the Allied campaign to liberate Europe and Hitler’s genocidal campaign against the Jews. https://www.moriahfilms.com/film-library/liberation.html
Echoes That Remain
Echoes That Remain is a poignant study of Jewish shtetl life before the Holocaust. It combines hundreds of rare archival photographs and previously unseen film footage, with live-action sequences shot on location at the sites of former Jewish communities in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Rumania. https://www.moriahfilms.com/film-library/echoes-that-remain.html
Genocide
Winner of the 1981 Academy Award® for Best Feature Documentary
The first Holocaust documentary to receive an Academy Award® and it remains today a chilling, heartbreaking testament to the strength and suffering of the Jewish people and the courage and heroism of those who came to their aid. https://www.moriahfilms.com/film-library/genocide.html

PBS Programs:

Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations https://www.pbs.org/show/viral-antisemitism-four-mutations/

Frontline: The Last Survivors https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-last-survivors/

The U.S. and the Holocaust:A documentary by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein- The U.S. and the Holocaust is a three-part, six hour series that examines America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century. Americans consider themselves a “nation of immigrants,” but as the catastrophe of the Holocaust unfolded in Europe, the United States proved unwilling to open its doors to more than a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of desperate people seeking refuge. Through riveting firsthand testimony of witnesses and survivors who as children endured persecution, violence and flight as their families tried to escape Hitler, this series delves deeply into the tragic human consequences of public indifference, bureaucratic red tape and restrictive quota laws in America. Did the nation fail to live up to its ideals? This is a history to be reckoned with.

PBS NC U.S. and the Holocaust Educator Resource Guide: downloadable PDF including links & resources from PBS and others.)

WWII Reenactment Documentary Playing Soldier follows the exploits of six very different people who may never have met each other if it weren't for their strange, shared hobby...World War II reenacting. Each dons vintage uniforms and relives someone else's war. Inevitably, conflicts ensue.To view the trailer, visit:
http://www.playingsoldierthemovie.com/trailer.html
To purchase a copy of the documentary ($20) please contact Ed Gendron, Director and Producer, at gendron_ed@hotmail.com.

Modern Maccabees: UK exhibit highlights Jews’ overlooked resistance to the Nazis: Display at London’s Wiener Holocaust Library reveals often underestimate rescue efforts and armed uprisings, as Jews fought back against their persecutors:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/modern-maccabees-scope-of-jewish-resistance-to-nazis-highly-underestimated/

Women Holocaust Survivors That Called North Carolina Home:Word document with links to video and audio testimonies, art exhibits, magazine & newspaper articles, theatre productions, & more from various organizations.

The U.S. and the Holocaust: A documentary by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein- The U.S. and the Holocaust is a three-part, six hour series that examines America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century. Americans consider themselves a “nation of immigrants,” but as the catastrophe of the Holocaust unfolded in Europe, the United States proved unwilling to open its doors to more than a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of desperate people seeking refuge. Through riveting firsthand testimony of witnesses and survivors who as children endured persecution, violence and flight as their families tried to escape Hitler, this series delves deeply into the tragic human consequences of public indifference, bureaucratic red tape and restrictive quota laws in America. Did the nation fail to live up to its ideals? This is a history to be reckoned with.

RESOURCES ON THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

A video on the destruction of the Ghetto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot37JrP9J2E

Leon Uris' historical fiction about the Ghetto, Mila 18: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mila_18

Ringlebaum Archives: http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/ringelbum/photos_documents_diaries.asp (for pictures of what was found in the milk cans)

The Museum of Jewish-Polish History which was recently opened on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto: http://www.polin.pl/en

Samuel Kassow, a 2-G, has written a book on the archives written and collected by Ringelblum. http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/books/who_will_write.asp

Other Resources on Genocide

Heeling our World: One Shoe at a Time(video): Students at Beaufort Middle School in North Carolina, USA made shoes for barefoot children in Mozambique.

The Worst Atrocity You've Never Heard Of (New York Times video and links to articles): Ethnic cleansing unfolding in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan.