May 6th is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is a day to pause, reflect, and remember the atrocities that happened during Nazi Germany and Hitler’s regime. Eleven million people perished. Six million were Jews and one million were children.
Hitler was able to carry out his plan to eradicate the Jews through propaganda and false narratives. Unfortunately, stereotypes and anti semitic tropes still exist in 2024 through the erasure of the history of Jewish people, Holocaust denial, and dismissing Israel’s history.
I have always made a point to teach about the Holocaust in my middle school classroom. Not only is World War 2 part of the eighth grade social studies curriculum in New York, but I make it a point to provide books that would highlight Jewish voices and experiences of those who lived and died during WW2 in Nazi Germany and across Europe. I have had the opportunity to bring survivors into my classroom for students to hear their stories with the hopes of educating young people about the horrors that took place at that time and to hopefully teach empathy. I do not hide my identity and I always share with my students how my maternal grandfather was a paratrooper in the Airborne Division 101 and more than 150 cousins on my father’s side of the family perished in Poland when the Nazi’s invaded.
I hope that teachers will continue to teach about the atrocious of the Holocaust so that we can never forget and hope for a better future. I have curated the activities and work that I have created to teach this time period in order to share with other educators.
The Teaching Factor 