Holocaust Education – Delivery Requirements

Policy

This policy outlines the requirements for Holocaust Education in school-based curriculum programs in Victorian government secondary schools.

Details

All Victorian government school students must be taught about the Holocaust as part of the school’s Level 9/10 World War II History curriculum program.

Schools are expected to align the design and delivery of their Holocaust Education program to the Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO) and the guidance and tips provided in the Guidance tab of this policy, which have been developed with teachers who are currently teaching the Holocaust in Victoria and Holocaust Education experts from Victorian, national and international organisations and universities. This guidance identifies 8 characteristics of a quality Holocaust Education program:

1. Program is clearly and comprehensively aligned to the Victorian Curriculum: History.
2. Program is logically sequenced and thematically rich and explores the significance of the Holocaust.
3. The Holocaust is taught with all essential components.
4. Program is factually accurate, rich in primary source material, and incorporates Victorian-specific content.
5. Learning resources used are well designed and varied.
6. Program has experiential components.
7. Pedagogical choices enable deep learning, are sensitive to the particularities and complexities of the Holocaust, and are inclusive of diverse learners.
8. Assessment opportunities are appropriate, varied and engaging.

The Guidance tab also identifies common barriers to designing and delivering a quality Holocaust Education program and suggests solutions and provides links to support resources.

The Resources tab contains links to capacity building resources for teachers, including professional learning opportunities and background reading/viewing as well as teaching and learning resources.

It is against the law in Victoria to display the Nazi Hakenkreuz symbol or perform gestures such as the Nazi salute in public, however, schools may utilise resources that contain the Nazi symbol or Nazi salute when teaching Holocaust Education, or for other genuine educational purposes. For further information, refer to Teaching and Learning Resources – Selecting Appropriate Materials, and About the Nazi symbol ban.

For Holocaust Education classroom teaching resources, including learning objects, sample lesson sequences and links to student experiential programs, refer to Holocaust Education on FUSE.

Related policies

• Curriculum Programs Foundation to 10
• Teaching and Learning Resources — Selecting Appropriate Materials

This Guidance contains the following chapters:

• Why study the Holocaust
• Characteristics of a quality Holocaust Education program
• Overcoming barriers to quality provision

Why study the Holocaust?

The Holocaust was the systematic, state-engineered genocide of the Jewish people by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, resulting in the murder of approximately 6 million Jewish people, including one and a half million children.

At the same time, other groups were persecuted by the Nazi regime and their collaborators.

The Holocaust was a defining event in the 20th Century that teaches us powerful and enduring lessons about humanity in shaping our world today. The Holocaust is, at its core, a human story which makes us question how it was humanly possible. It allows students to recognise the short- and long-term causes and effects of prejudice, discrimination and, ultimately, genocide.

Studying the Holocaust, allows students to develop the capacity and willingness to be informed and active citizens. It shows us how fragile the institutions that are supposed to protect the rights and security of everyone can be, and how they should not be taken for granted. Learning about the dangers of hatred and discrimination in the Holocaust is important to fighting intolerance and prejudice in today’s world.

Studying the Holocaust provides opportunities to explore and inspire with stories of courage and adversity, upstander behaviour and resilience. These lessons can encourage students to build an understanding of, and value, a diverse and cohesive society.

Characteristics of a quality Holocaust Education program

Whilst not an exhaustive list, 8 characteristics typically found in high quality Holocaust Education programs are described below.

These characteristics draw on the Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust which were written by a group of international experts and published by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), of which Australia is a member.

Guidance and tips were developed with teachers who are currently teaching the Holocaust in Victoria and Holocaust Education experts from Victorian cultural organisations and universities. They were informed by advice and feedback from Yad Vashem and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and privilege the voices of Melbourne-based Holocaust survivors.

1 Program is clearly and comprehensively aligned to the Victorian Curriculum: History

Elaboration: The Program aligns to the Level 9 and 10 History World War II content descriptor: 'Significant events, turning points of World War II and the nature of warfare, including the Holocaust and use of the atomic bomb (VCAA Content Description VCHHK147)'.

Tips:

• Do enrich History teaching and learning by drawing on the content of other learning areas, particularly English and Civics and Citizenship.
• Avoid trying to cover every element of the Holocaust -- stick with what’s essential (refer to Characteristic 3: The Holocaust is taught with all essential components).

2 Program is logically sequenced and thematically rich and explores the significance of the Holocaust

Elaboration: The Program is sequenced chronologically, from ‘Pre-war Jewish life’ to ‘Remembrance, legacy and life lessons’ — refer to Characteristic 3: The Holocaust is taught with all essential components. The Program also includes topics that support deep, thematic exploration. For example:

• hatred, racism and antisemitism
• democracy and respecting human rights
• human experiences and understanding the world through historical or cultural contexts

The Program encourages students to consider how they could apply lessons from the Holocaust in their current and future lives.

Tips:

• Do be upfront about the themes to be explored and the importance of such themes to humankind in the past and today, drawing on the rationale for studying the Holocaust, above. Refer to Setting goals and Structuring lessons.
• Avoid teaching the Holocaust as an event that is only relevant to learning about World War II.
• Avoid teaching themes separately to or after the curriculum content — interweave and explore them together.

3 The Holocaust is taught with all essential components

Elaboration: Recommended minimum Program components are:

1. Pre-war Jewish life
2. The rise of Nazi Party (up to 1939)
3. War, persecution and ghettoisation (1939-41)
4. Murder, deportations and the camps (1941-45)
5. Courage and resistance
6. Liberation, survivors and the return to life
7. Remembrance, legacy and life lessons

Tips:

• Do teach the Holocaust in its historic context — both World War II and a long history of antisemitism.
• Do focus on the people of the Holocaust — victims/survivors, the righteous, the perpetrators, collaborators and bystanders.
• Do focus on Jewish voices, either in primary source material, multi-media texts or testimony.
• Avoid reducing the Holocaust to dates, locations and numbers.
• Avoid ‘dipping in and out’ of the Holocaust as you teach World War II.
• Avoid comparing the ‘severity’ of the Holocaust to other genocides, and comparing suffering.
• Avoid treating Jewish people as homogeneous (they are diverse), equating Jewish experience with their Holocaust experience, and depicting victims in the absence of their broader life stories.
• Avoid presenting Jewish people as passive victims of the Holocaust, and defining Jewish resistance in only physical terms.
• Avoid generalisations (for example, all camps were death camps, all Germans were collaborators) and portraying perpetrators as 'evil' or 'inhuman monsters' (a denial of personal and collective responsibility).
• Avoid focusing on Hitler — focus instead on the experiences of the people and communities who were victims of the Holocaust.

4 Program is factually accurate, rich in primary source material, and incorporates Victorian-specific content

Elaboration: The Program only draws on reputable sources of information. The Program also makes use of a range of primary sources — artefacts, written documents and testimonies — which bear witness to different Jewish experiences and perspectives. The Program is enriched by Victorian Holocaust sources.

Tips:

• Do use reputable websites for identifying learning resources — for example, Yad Vashem, the Jewish Holocaust Centre, the Jewish Museum of Australia, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The Wiener Holocaust Library and The Simon Wiesenthal Center.
• Do prioritise learning through survivor testimony.
• Do be careful in your selection of learning resources: some may look worthy at first glance, but may be factually inaccurate or misleading; at their worst, some may deliberately seek to distort the Holocaust (excuse or minimise the impact of the Holocaust or its elements).
• Do pay particular attention to fictionalised accounts of the Holocaust (for example, novels, films) — continue to use them, if appropriate, but make sure inaccuracies are explicitly contextualised and addressed.
• Avoid encouraging students to seek out their own primary source material without first equipping them with key historical skills (for example, undertaking historical inquiry, including skills in the analysis and use of sources). Refer to Explicit teaching.
• Avoid using perpetrator sources unless such sources are firmly placed within their historical context and students are supported to critically read and analyse them.
• Avoid reliance on only a small number of primary source materials or primary source materials produced by only one person or institution — a broad range of materials will best reflect the diversity of human experiences during the Holocaust. refer to Multiple exposures.
• Avoid being engaged by students, or supporting students to engage, in conspiracy theories about the Holocaust. Such content has no place in a quality Holocaust Education program.

5 Learning resources used are well designed and varied

Elaboration: Learning resources are multi-modal material (for example, textual, visual and interactive elements) and are easy to navigate/use. They appeal to a variety of learners.

Tips:

• Do use art, music and literature, created during and after the Holocaust.
• Do use resources that provide an entry point for students — for example, resources that highlight experiences of people who are the same age as your students.
• Avoid using long feature films to do your ‘teaching’ (they position students passively in the learning).
• Avoid using very graphic materials that are likely to be confronting or traumatising for students. While such materials can be powerful teaching tools, students should be led ‘safely in and safely out’ of the experience. Refer to the Department’s Teaching and Learning Resources — Selecting Appropriate Materials policy.

6 Program has experiential components

Elaboration: The Program supports students to directly engage with artefacts, written documents and testimonies that enrich but may also challenge their understandings and beliefs about the Holocaust.

Tips:

• Do prioritise in-person and virtual tours and workshops (for example, to museum, library or centre) and incursions; local institutions (for example, Jewish Holocaust Centre, Jewish Museum of Australia), authors, historians and survivors; incursions (for example, Courage to Care, Click against Hate). Refer to Student experiential programs on the Holocaust Education page in FUSE.
• Avoid role plays and simulations, where students are asked to take on the roles of Nazis, camp guards, prisoners or survivors.

7 Pedagogical choices enable deep learning, are sensitive to the particularities and complexities of the Holocaust and are inclusive of diverse learners

Elaboration: The Program should acknowledge and be responsive to the possibly traumatic nature of studying the Holocaust. It should also acknowledge and be responsive to the differing backgrounds, experiences and perspectives of students.

Tips:

• Do design learning activities that promote high-order thinking, collaboration and reflection (for example, collaborative reflection on the learnings from a survivor recount, use of graphic organisers, supporting students to make connections across primary sources). Refer to Collaborative learning, Metacognitive strategies and Questioning.
• Do be precise with language (for example, not referring to all camps as 'concentration camps' — some were death camps or labour camps; Holocaust not holocaust; antisemitism not anti-semitism). Refer to Explicit teaching.
• Do create a safe space for students to develop curiosity about the Holocaust and ask and explore their own questions. Refer to Questioning.
• Do provide opportunities for students to explore and be inspired by stories of courage and adversity, upstander behaviour and resilience. Refer to Worked examples.
• Do provide support for students who may have had past experiences of trauma to safely engage with Holocaust-related content. Refer to Differentiated teaching.
• Do respond to student challenges if they arise (for example, a student who feels that the suffering of their own people or group has not been addressed). Consider: encouraging students to recount any personal experiences of exclusion, hatred and racism; initiating a broader discussion on the importance of human rights (as universal rights); incorporating a broader study of genocide into your Program. refer to Differentiated teaching.
• Do consider providing opportunities for parents/carers to support and engage in the learning. Refer to Collaborative learning.
• Avoid using perpetrator euphemisms (for example, 'special treatment', 'final solution').
• Avoid presenting students with impossible choices (for example, what would you do if …?).
• Avoid learning activities that give credence or an audience to myths and misconceptions — emphasise the Holocaust as an historical event of ethical significance.

8 Assessment opportunities are appropriate, varied and engaging

Elaboration: Assessment design addresses the historical content, and themes and ideas; includes historical reasoning; responds sensitively to the particularities and complexities of the Holocaust.

Tips:

• Do design assessments that include engagement with primary source material, particularly survivor testimonies. This could include developing personal or historical responses.
• Do design assessments that involve dialogue and reflection, and personal and collective meaning-making. Refer to Metacognitive strategies.
• Do consider assessment that supports students to take action in their own lives and communities (i.e. upstander behaviour).
• Do involve students in supporting the learning of peers, building collective responsibility for quality outcomes. Refer to Feedback.
• Avoid assessment that focuses on recall of dates, numbers and locations.
• Avoid assessment that asks a student to 'imagine if …'.
• Avoid reductionist assessment and assessment that supports or encourages simple answers.
• Never allow assessment that positions, or supports students to position, the Holocaust as a contested area of history (contemporary antisemitism includes denying the Holocaust took place).

Overcoming barriers to quality provision

The following barriers to designing and delivering a quality Holocaust Education program are commonly found in schools; solutions and links to support resources are proposed in each case.

Teachers

For teachers who lack Holocaust-related content knowledge — refer to Holocaust Education teacher professional learning on the Holocaust Education FUSE page.

For teachers who worry that their teaching will be ‘wrong’ given the particularities and complexities of the Holocaust — refer to Characteristics of a quality Holocaust Education program.

For teachers who worry that the content will be traumatising for students — refer to Characteristics of a quality Holocaust Education program, particularly characteristic 5; and the Department’s Teaching and Learning Resources — Selecting Appropriate Materials policy.

For teachers who worry that they will get questions from students that they aren’t sure how to answer — refer to Echoes and reflections Student’s toughest questions; refer to Difficult student questions from practice.

For teachers who anticipate reluctance or resistance from some students — refer to Characteristics of a quality Holocaust Education program, particularly characteristic 7.

School leaders

For school leaders who feel that they can’t ‘fit’ Holocaust Education into a busy curriculum program — refer to the Department’s Holocaust Education — Delivery Requirements policy.

For school leaders who are happy to offer a program optionally or at a surface level, lacking breadth and depth — refer to the Department’s Holocaust Education — Delivery Requirements policy; refer to Characteristics of a quality Holocaust Education program, particularly characteristic 2; review sample History lesson sequences on FUSE to see what a quality Holocaust Education looks like and how it can be designed and delivered.

For parents/carers

Where families are reluctant to have their children participate in Holocaust Education programs due to personal attitudes/views — create an information sheet or newsletter insert for parents/carers drawing on the rationale provided above at Why study the Holocaust? Refer also to the Department’s Holocaust Education — Delivery Requirements policy.

Resources

This page contains links to capacity building resources for teachers, including professional learning opportunities and background reading/viewing as well as teaching and learning resources.

Holocaust Education teacher professional learning

Refer to Holocaust Education teacher professional learning on the Holocaust Education FUSE page.

Holocaust background reading/viewing for teachers

Refer to Teachers’ background readings and viewing on the Holocaust Education FUSE page for readings, virtual tours, video explanations and survivor testimony.

Holocaust learning and teaching resources

For Holocaust Education classroom teaching resources, including sample lesson sequences (for History Level 9-10, and the English Level 9 learning areas), teaching resources (video explanations, virtual tours, graphic organisers, maps, survivor testimony, imagery, poems, artwork) and links to student experiential programs, Refer to Holocaust Education on FUSE.