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This resource provides guidelines for teaching about genocide, including definitions, historical context, responsible methodology, and promoting critical thinking. It encourages educators to avoid simplifications, stereotypes, and comparisons of pain, while emphasizing the importance of precision, contextualization, and nuance in exploring this dark period of history.
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Guidelines for Teaching Genocide Amanda Solomon and Carrie McCallum
We study genocide to study ourselves; to examine our responsibility in an interconnected world where injustice persists.
Define the term “genocide” Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: • Killing members of the group; • Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; • Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; • Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; • Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Define the term “Holocaust” The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Other groups were also targeted and persecuted other groups on political, behavioral, and political grounds, and because of their perceived “racial inferiority.”
Do not teach or imply that genocide is inevitable. Just because a historical event took place, and it is documented in textbooks and on film, does not mean that it had to happen. Genocide takes place because individuals, groups, and nations made decisions to act or not to act.
Avoid simple answers to complex questions. Genocide raises difficult questions about human behavior and the context within which individual decisions are made. Be wary of simplification. Seek instead to convey nuances of this history. Allow students to think about the many factors and events that contributed to the genocide and that often made decision making difficult and uncertain.
Strive for precision of language. Avoid generalized statements such as: “all concentration camps were killing centers” or “all German were collaborators.” Avoid stereotypical descriptions. Though all Jews were targeted for destruction by the Nazis, the experiences of Jews were not the same. Be mindful of perpetrator language. Be mindful of how the questions you ask shape a narrative.
Strive for balance in establishing whose perspective inform your study. Make careful distinctions about sources of information. Encourage students to consider why a particular text was written, who wrote it, who the intended audience was, whether any biases were inherent in the information, whether any gaps occurred in the discussion, whether omissions in certain passages were inadvertent or not, and how the information has been used to interpret various events.
Contextualize the history. For example, the Holocaust should be studied within the context of European history and World War II. Encourage your students to not categorize groups of people on the basis of their experiences during genocide. Contextualization is critical so that victims are not perceived as only victims. Do not attempt to explain away the perpetrators as “evil monsters.”
Make responsible methodological choices. Be mindful of graphic content. This is not to say you should skip the topic; rather, use other approaches to address the material. Do no use simulation exercises or ask questions that require students to place themselves in the “victim’s shoes.” Be mindful of the activities that trivialize the history.
Upcoming Professional Development • November 7: Responding to Incidents of Hate and Antisemitism • Spring 2020: The Persistence of Hate (Facing History and Ourselves) Upcoming Exhibitions Leonard Bernstein at 100! October 3, 2019 - January 26, 2020 Southern Rites February 5 - May 24, 2020
