Today I attended the Washington State Council for the Social Studies with a lot of social studies teachers from around the state and my cohort classmates. Out of the three presentations that I attended I was especially moved by the Holocaust one. In the description of this presentation it said that when teaching about the Holocaust many students ask, "Why didn't they (the Jewish people) do more to resist the Holocaust?". The presenter also said that often students will say, "If I was there I would have..." implying that they would have been braver, more intelligent, bolder and more able to change their circumstances then the victims of the Holocaust. I found this presentation to be really helpful as well as moving because he told us that it is easy to ask those questions now because we know how the story ended, but the people who were actually living in that hell from day to day weren't able to foresee the end. They knew that disobeying meant sure death but that cooperating meant that they might live to see the end of their ordeal.
He taught me that many students consider "resisting" as openly opposing with guns, violence, bombs and other obvious ways. The presenter taught me that the Jews resisted in many ways, but most of them weren't obvious and therefore many of today's students won't recognize them as resistance. Since the Nazis' goal was to kill of all the Jewish people, simply breathing and surviving was resistance. Continuing to keep their faith and believe that their suffering would have an end was resistance. Swallowing and hiding their jewelry was resistance. Hiding was resistance. In fact the Jews resisted the Nazis in many ways.
He also made a great point that many Jewish people in concentration camps felt a collective responsibility to not outwardly misbehave in fears that it would have dire consequences for others. They were also systematically degragated physically and mentally.
He made a point that the greatest form of resistance for the Jews was called spiritual resistance. It refers to their attempt to maintain their spirituality and humanity and refusal to have their spirit broken by the Nazis.
I would love to be able to teach a unit on the Holocaust relating it to today's world and that something like this could happen again if we forget about the past. I think it highlights the importance of combatting bullying in schools and standing up for people who are being put down.
He told us that the Holocaust Center has great resources for teachers including free movies, trunks full of learning materials and other opportunities.
What useful info to share when there is a disconnect on what constitutes resistance. And thank you for the resource!
ReplyDeleteI also loved this session. The Holocaust Center seems like a great resource for everything we could possibly need to teach a unit on this subject. He also mentioned the fact that there are not many survivors left, so if we have the opportunity to teach this unit in the next few years to jump all over it. The center has a few contacts from survivors, and they are more than happy to help us get a hold of them.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very moving and emotional session. The talk about resistance and the different ways in which Jewish people resisted during the Holocaust reminded me of the many different ways African-Americans resisted slavery in the U.S., especially in regards to spiritual resistance. I can definitely see the importance of teaching students that resistance, often, does not mean "guns a blazing." The resources and methods we learned in this session, will be great tools to help us pass along this message to our future students.
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