UW Press: Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust

“Hilton and Patt's wide-ranging volume combines authoritative surveys of key aspects of the Holocaust—from antisemitism to postwar justice—with practical guides of using survivor testimonies, photographs, museums, and more with students. This book will help anyone involved in teaching about a subject that remains as challenging as it is urgent.”
—Doris Bergen, author of War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust

Few topics in modern history draw the attention that the Holocaust does. The Shoah has become synonymous with unspeakable atrocity and unbearable suffering. Yet it has also been used to teach tolerance, empathy, resistance, and hope. Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust provides a starting point for teachers in many disciplines to illuminate this crucial event in world history for students. Using a vast array of source materials—from literature and film to survivor testimonies and interviews—the contributors demonstrate how to guide students through these sensitive and painful subjects within their specific historical and social contexts.

Each chapter provides pedagogical case studies for teaching content such as antisemitism, resistance and rescue, and the postwar lives of displaced persons. It will transform how students learn about the Holocaust and the circumstances surrounding it.

Laura Hilton is a professor of history at Muskingum University, where she has taught courses on the Holocaust for sixteen years.

Avinoam Patt is the Doris and Simon Konover Chair of Judaic Studies and Director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of Finding Home and Homeland: Jewish Youth and Zionism in the Aftermath of the Holocaust.

“This excellently organized volume gets teachers thinking deeply.... Each chapter is clear and easy to consult, making this a very helpful resource for busy teachers.”
—John-Paul Himka, University of Alberta

“A timely and highly recommended contribution (given the current rise in Anti-Semitism at home and abroad) to personal, professional, college, and university library Holocaust Education collections.”
—Midwest Book Review

Of Related Interest
Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement Edited by Hasan Kwame Jeffries	Understanding and Teaching American Slavery Edited by Bethany Jay and Cynthia Lynn Lyerly