RACINE — Samantha Cohen knows things are going well when students quietly read.
In classes at Park High School, Cohen assigns students literature related to the Holocaust, and she can tell a book hits home when they silently engage with the text.
“They’re really processing everything, they really connect to what’s happening in the story,” said Cohen, Park English department chair. “They care about what’s happening to those individuals.”
Cohen said relating to personal experiences is key when instructing students about the Holocaust.
“That human aspect of these events, I think, makes the learning more meaningful, more impactful for students,” Cohen said.
Racine Unified students already were learning about the Holocaust in sixth grade, ninth grade and 10th grade, and doing so is now part of state law. Starting this school year, all Wisconsin students in fifth through eighth grade must receive instruction on the Holocaust and other genocides at least once, and high schoolers must again be instructed at least once.
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The state law emphasized the importance of Holocaust instruction and provided additional education resources, but it didn’t drastically alter instruction at RUSD.
“It was expressed very explicitly: ‘This has to be taught,’” said Karin Gonzalez, Park High School social studies teacher. “But that doesn’t change actually how I was teaching.”
Mallory Umar, RUSD assistant director of curriculum and instruction, led the RUSD committee charged with implementing the state law, and Cohen was a committee member.
Umar said the state law didn’t cause major changes, but it did result in RUSD prioritizing and expanding lessons on the Holocaust and other genocides. For example, after the committee met with many citizens who mentioned the Armenian genocide, that will now be taught to RUSD seventh-graders.
The state Department of Public Instruction provided school districts with the 10 stages of genocide and a formal definition of genocide: “a process of a state agent and its collaborators seeking to destroy, in whole or in part, the physical and cultural existence of a minoritized group.”
RUSD received training and materials from the Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center, a Milwaukee nonprofit. Racine Unified students in seventh through 12th grade will also have the option to compete in a Holocaust art and writing contest next spring.
Pulling off the ‘Band-Aid’
Before teaching, the RUSD educators went through their own education about the Holocaust.
Cohen is of Jewish descent and cannot recall a time in her life when she was not aware of the Holocaust. Her uncle was a survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp, and she remembers the prison numbers tattooed on his arm.
In addition to learning from her family, Cohen saw “Schindler‘s List” in the theater with her parents around age 15 and said it was a “coming of age” moment for her.
“I will never forget that,” Cohen said. “It was like the Band-Aid was ripped off for me.”
Gonzalez similarly remembered watching “Schindler‘s List” with her father when the movie was released.
“The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank stayed with Cohen after she read it in high school. She also said “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” has helped her children personally connect to the Holocaust.
Indeed, Umar said it is important to have a variety of options for students to learn about the Holocaust — film, videos, novels and nonfiction writing, among others — in an age-appropriate manner.
Drawing connections
Gonzalez teaches the Holocaust to high-schoolers as part of her lessons on World War II so students can understand the context in which the genocide occurred. She emphasizes the importance of primary source documents and eyewitness accounts.
It is crucial for students to learn from “the people who experienced and lived it, the people who saw it,” Gonzalez said.
Cohen agreed.
“To better understand other people’s experiences is why this is so important,” Cohen said. “Everyone needs to know the history and the personal stories, because if we don’t examine it, if we forget it or we pretend that it didn’t happen, then history will most definitely repeat itself.”
Umar said personal stories can convey the reality of the Holocaust to younger students.
When she taught fourth-graders, students asked, “‘This is real? This really happened?’” Umar said. “The fact that there are folks who are living who can speak firsthand I think really shocked some of the students, to realize how close we are to the Holocaust and the fact that genocides are still occurring.”
The educators said it is crucial to connect the Holocaust to other genocides, including current ones.
“It’s not just something that happened back then and it’s over with,” Gonzalez said. “This is something that we do need to be paying active attention to in the here and now.”
Gonzalez also stresses the importance of students understanding potential signs of tyranny.
“They need to be able to recognize the signs of destruction, and they need to be able to recognize the signs of tyranny and dictatorship and respond to it in the present,” Gonzalez said.
Difficulties, inspiration
When learning about genocide, teachers aim for empathy from students.
“A person who’s good at history is one who can firmly identify with what they’re studying,” Gonzalez said. “They can put themselves in that place.”
Learning about historical atrocities can be challenging, though. Cohen noted the importance of age-appropriate instruction about the Holocaust but said that “doesn’t mean it’s not going to be upsetting” to students.
Teaching about genocide can be emotionally draining as well. Gonzalez has cried in class while instructing.
Students have left her classroom “because whatever it is that we’re talking about has just hit them full force,” Gonzalez said. “I hate making them upset and feeling bad, but then I realize how connected they are and how well they’re doing at studying and learning and taking on how important it is.”
Umar said it is crucial for teachers to “include processing time” in class when discussing tragedies so that students have time to work through their emotions.
Learning about genocide is a grave matter, yet Umar feels inspired by student discussions.
“Kids in general have a strong sense of justice, and they want to make the world a better place,” Umar said. “I’m always inspired (by) … the ideas that students have about how they want to make sure that things like this don’t occur. What they would have done, the awareness that they want to bring … It gives you hope for the future of our society. These are our future leaders, and they have some really great ideas about how we as people need to interact with each other.”
With the new state law in place, students could have a deeper understanding and more ideas.