In accordance with Genocide Awareness Month, Facing History offers nine classroom resources educators can utilize to help their students think critically about the specific historical and contemporary conditions under which genocides occurred to effectively unite head, heart, and conscience.

In this project-based learning lesson plan, students will explore the historical narratives surrounding the Holocaust and the significance of its impact on the world. Through a variety of activities and assessments, students will develop their critical thinking and analytical skills, as well as their knowledge of the Holocaust and its implications. In this lesson, they will be exploring Heroes of the Holocaust.

This inquiry focuses on examining a painting from a Holocaust survivor, a quote from a survivor, and an excerpt from an interview from a liberator to explore how art can express the pain of the Holocaust and how using a combination of first-hand sources can provide a better understanding of specific events of the Holocaust. The questions, tasks, and sources in this inquiry asks student to examine one piece of art using visual thinking strategies then use their observations on the painting in combination with a survivor quote and a liberator interview to construct a claim that using a combination of sources provides a better/more comprehensive understanding of the final days of the Holocaust and liberation.

This 2016 Inquiry Challenge winner leads students through an investigation of the actions made by ordinary people during the Holocaust: to participate, to help, or to stand by. By investigating the compelling question “Are bystanders guilty too?” students evaluate the different routes of action/inaction, as well as the associated risks. The formative performance tasks build on knowledge and skills through the course of the inquiry and help students recognize different perspectives in order to better understand the ways in which everyday people had choices to either help or be complicit in persecution. Students create an evidence-based argument about whether bystanders should be seen as guilty after considering the actions of persecutors and rescuers, and assessing viewpoints concerning bystander responsibility in a totalitarian regime.

IWitness includes features for teachers, including guidelines for using Holocaust survivor and witness testimony in education. The guidelines offer practical information and tips about how to integrate video testimony into classroom lessons and projects.   Students have the opportunity to use technology to become more active learners while encountering survivors and other eyewitnesses talking about their experiences before, during and after the Holocaust.

IWitness includes features for teachers, including guidelines for using Holocaust survivor and witness testimony in education. The guidelines offer practical information and tips about how to integrate video testimony into classroom lessons and projects.   Students have the opportunity to use technology to become more active learners while encountering survivors and other eyewitnesses talking about their experiences before, during and after the Holocaust.

Field trips offer opportunities to explore our exhibitions that address the history of the Holocaust, genocide, human and civil rights, as well as local and global social justice issues.

Student Leadership Days (SLD) offer opportunities to share the universal lessons of the Holocaust and are integral to the Museum’s ability to connect directly with students who are ready to take on a positive leadership role in their communities. The SLD program engages students in a variety of age-appropriate activities that inspire them to build leadership skills, explore their roles as citizens, and develop a deeper awareness and understanding of the Holocaust, genocide, and other human rights issues.

In a full-day session that includes guest speakers, group activities, presentations and discussions about perspectives other than their own, SLD offers participants an opportunity to engage with diverse peers, increasing their self-efficacy, and potential for learning. Participants return to their communities equipped to promote greater acceptance and understanding. Students leave with increased knowledge and tools and resources to stand up against injustice and bigotry.

Illinois Holocaust Museum’s literature-based teaching trunk program provides K–12 educators with a wide array of resources for classrooms with units on character education, human rights, the Holocaust, and/or genocide. Each trunk allows educators to create meaningful age/grade-appropriate lessons employing award–winning fiction and nonfiction, historical references, and other educational materials. Each trunk has been carefully developed to address State and National Learning Standards, including Common Core State Standards. Teaching Trunks are provided free of charge.

VIRTUAL TEACHING TRUNKS

Virtual trunks offer Holocaust and genocide curricula in a 100% digital format, providing flexibility for those who are teaching remotely, in person, or in a hybrid model. Virtual teaching trunks include:

E-books and digital texts
Illinois Holocaust Museum developed films
Online lessons and activities
Digital “artefacts” to help students explore the stories of local Holocaust Survivors

"This course explores how our views of Jewish history have been formed and how this history can explain the survival of the Jews as an ethnic/religious group into the present day. Special attention is given to the partial and fragmentary nature of our information about the past, and the difficulties inherent in decoding statements about the past that were written with a religious agenda in mind. It also considers complex events in Jewish history -- from early history as portrayed in the Bible to recent history, including the Holocaust."

This resource offers a selection of primary sources related to Mildred Fish Harnack. These sources include: photos, admission papers, letters of recommendation, a poem written by Harnack, and an article related to outstanding UW Alumni. Mildred Fish Harnack's life before leaving for Germany comes to life through these sources.

Uses sources from the time and historians' interpretations to analyze National Socialism in Germany. Topics include: the history of racist thought and policy in Germany before Nazism; the Nazi movement during the Weimar Republic; the structure of the Nazi state; Nazi policy against Jews and other groups between 1933 and 1939; Nazi economic policy; mobilization for war and the war experience in central Europe; the Holocaust; and the political roles of Nazism and the Holocaust in post-Nazi Germany.

The Secret Annex Online is the virtual version of the building where Anne Frank went into hiding during WWII. In this three-dimensional online environment visitors can explore the main part of the building and the Secret Annex as they were during the period in hiding.