Teaching the Holocaust With the
Internet
George Cassutto
Social Studies Department Chair
Harmony Intermediate School
Hamilton, VA USA
Overview
This presentation includes the following topics:
• Rationale: Why use the Internet?
• Themes: What topics lend themselves to the
medium?
• Methods: Ideas to use in the secondary classroom
• Technology: What will you need?
• Problems and Issues
• Resources: Sites and Books
Rationale: Why use the Internet?
• Allows for use of multi-media in teaching.
• It is an interactive medium.The end-user decides
what to do and where to go.
• The Internet contains primary documents, oral
histories, news sources and editorial
commentaries.
• Students have a medium of self-expression and
cultural exchange.
• Students must use critical thinking skills to
evaluate information.
Anne Frank’s Stories and Events from the Annex.
Themes: What topics lend
themselves to the medium?
• Chronology of the Holocaust including
– Hitler’s early life and rise to power.
– Development of Nazi Party and racial policy
– Military expansion of Greater Germany and
incorporation of Eastern Europe into Nazi
controlled territory.
– Conversion from de facto terrorism to
genocide.
– Liberation and establishment of the state of
Israel
Additional Topics for the
Telecommunications Method
• Geography of Occupation and Camps
• Progression of German military expansion.
• The placement of slave labor, death, and
extermination camps.
• Location and layout of uprisings and
resistance movements (ie., Warsaw Ghetto)
• Biographical information on rescuers,
resistance leaders.
Geography of the Holocaust
More Topics For Internet
Research
• 5 Million non-Jewish groups persecuted by
the Nazi Party:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Gypsies
Homosexuals
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Mentally Disabled (T-4 program)
Communists
Christian Resistance workers.
Using the Internet for Contemporary
Genocide Studies
• The Armenian
Conflict of 1915
• “The Killing Fields”
of Cambodia: late
1970s
• Rwanda: 1994
• Bosnia-Herzegovina:
1995
• Kosovo: 1999
• Other human rights
abuses around the
world.
A Student website on Kosovo
Methods: Ideas to use in the
secondary classroom
• The Internet can be
used to illustrate
traditional lectures on
the Holocaust.
• Students can conduct
research to develop
projects and papers on
teacher-assigned
topics.
• Students can develop
their own web pages
and PowerPoint
presentations using the
Internet.
A student-written short story
Project Tips
• Students can work individually or
in groups of two or three. Four is
the maximum.
• Provide a project calendar stating
when elements are due.
• Have students create a storyboard
or plan submitted to the teacher
for approval.
• Reduce graphics file sizes either
by file compression or file
resize/resample to reduce
download time and disk space.
More Project Tips
• Set aside time to teach the
technology.
• Provide links rather than
having students search.
• Some websites may be
blocked due to graphic
content.
• Preview incoming e-mail.
• Review all outgoing mail
and pages.
Town names at USHMM
Project Formats
• Photo Essay: Images of the Holocaust or of
prejudice in today’s world.
• Artwork in oil, pencil, watercolor, or other
medium.
• Interview with witness or expert.
• Recorded song, music or spoken word
(poetry)
More Project Formats
• Video (requires video capture equipment
and server to stream video content)
• Interactive Timeline
• Movie review (Schindler’s List, Anne
Frank)
• Formal Essay
• Interactive Fact Game or Quiz
• Email exchange (Keypals)
More Project Formats
• On-line newspaper,
brochure, or magazine.
• Poetry with illustrations.
• Web journal
• Review of websites and
CD ROMs
• Biographical Sketch
• Fictional short story
• PowerPoint Presentation
Tile from the USHMM
Adapting Projects for Students
With Special Needs
• Use Inspiration software to help students
create concept webs of challenging topics.
• Inspiration allows students to save their
work as a web page (HTML).
• Use visual language and appeal to multiple
intelligence to reach all learning styles.
• Cooperative learning: Each student has a
role within the group: secretary,
spokesperson, graphic artist, typist, etc.
Inspiration: Concept Webs
Evaluating Technology Projects
• Create a rubric that assigns points for the
quality of work created by students.
Go to http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
• Inform students regarding assessment
guidelines: grades for content and product.
• Content:Historical accuracy and completeness.
• Product: Originality, creativity, grammar and
cohesiveness.
• Product: Consistent use of graphics, color, font,
images, symbols.
Technology: What Do You Need?
• Computers with Internet Access
• A computer network is better than a
modem.
• Internet Browser
• Web publishing software (FrontPage 2000,
Dreamweaver, etc)
• Graphics software (Adobe Photoshop, Paint
Shop Pro)
Technology: What Else Do You
Need?
• Digital camera: Higher
megapixels is good for
resolution, bad for disk
space/download time
• Scanner: To digitize student
artwork.
• Digital video camera or
video capture card.
• Software tools: Microsoft
and Macromedia
• FTP: File Transfer Protocol
Sony’s Mavica Camera
Problems and Issues
• Graphic nature of
content makes
presentation difficult.
• Careful teacher
guidance needed on all
projects
“The Guide on the Side”
• Emphasize understanding, courage, moral decisions
rather than graphic violence, death, and destruction.
•Schools may block sensitive content.
•Religion and academic content sometimes don’t
mix.
•Teacher acts as “guide on the side” rather than “sage
on the stage.”
•
•
•
Schools may block sensitive content.
Religion and academic content sometimes don’t mix.
Students must “unlearn” incorrect facts
More Problems and Issues
• Hate websites distort truth and cannot be
used reliably as a source of information.
• Students need a good basis of knowledge
before beginning a project.
• Copyright: Images and text must be in the
public domain.
• Definitions: To whom does the term
“Holocaust” belong?
Using the Internet to Promote
Understanding
• Eliminate stereotypes
through cultural
expression.
• Have students exchange
cultural data with other
groups.
• Use current events to
discuss political
differences.
• Emphasize multicultural
approaches to traditional
curriculum.
A student website
Electronic Resources
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
http://www.ushmm.org
• Yad Vashem: http://www.yadvashem.org/
• America and the Holocaust (PBS Video)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/html
• Facing History and Ourselves http://www.facing.org
• Classroom Connect: Teaching the Holocaust with the
Internet http://twi.classroom.com/holocaust
• Simon Wiesenthal Center http://www.wiesenthal.com
More Electronic Resources
• Weisenthal: Multimedia Learning Center Online
http://motlc.weisenthal.com
• The Nizkor Project http://www.nizkor.org
• Cybrary of the Holocaust
http://www.remember.org/
• CD: Lest We Forget, Endless Interactive, Logos
research Systems, Inc. 1996
• CD: Survivors: Testimonies of the Holocaust,
Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation,
1999.
Print Resources
• Totten, Sam. Holocaust Education: Issues
and Approaches, Allyn and Bacon, 2002.
• Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must
Know:The History of the Holocaust as Told
in the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum, Boston: Little, Brown, 1993.
• Classroom Connect, Teaching the
Holocaust With the Internet, 1998.
More Print Resources
• Speigelman, Art, Maus, A
Survivor’s Tale: My
Father Bleeds History
and Here My Troubles
Began, Pantheon Books,
1993.
• Cassutto, Ernest, The
Last Jew of Rotterdam,
Pomegranate Press,
1974, 2000.
The Author’s Parents
From the Author
• Holocaust Journals
http://www.cyberlearningworld.com/holocaust/holocaustjournals/ope
ning.html
• The Cassutto Memorial Pages
http://www.cyberlearningworld.com/memorial/dadmom.htm
The Cassutto Memorial Pages
More from the Author
• Teaching the Holocaust from a Personal Perspective
http://www.cyberlearning-world.com/hololp.htm
• How to Set Up A Website for Your School
http://www.cyberlearningworld.com/internet/howto/present.htm
• Civics Lesson Plans, Teachingpoint Publishers,
2003.
• Internet Pocket Guide for Teachers, Genium
Publishers, 1999.