Should The Holocaust Be Taught

The Holocaust is a very important time in history. With many other time periods and events, the Holocaust was quite gruesome. Five to six millions Jews were killed, making it a mass genocide. The topic of teaching the Holocaust to middle school students is a controversy that has been argued for a longevity. Many think the subject should not be taught, but there is the big question: Why not? The Holocaust should be taught to middle school students, especially eighth graders, with the thought that it was very real, the other advantages learned, and the things the teachers need to know.

The Holocaust was, and still is, real. While the events in this time period may be disturbing, they did happen. As said before, five to six million Jews were

killed, and there were more than 40,000 death, killing and concentration camps throughout the countries. Also, genocide is still happening throughout the world. One example of another mass genocide is the Cambodian genocide, starting in 1975. The genocide happening because of “attempt of Khmer Rouge party leader “Pol Pot” to nationalize and centralize the peasant farming society of Cambodia virtually overnight, in accordance with the Chinese Communist agricultural model.” The Holocaust should be taught because if these things are happening in other countries, they could most definitely happen in the United States. Along with the mass genocide, there was much forced labor during. The Jews were sent to the 40,000 camps to die, and even the living spaces had a dreary feel to them, at most to eight Jews stacked into one bed and living space. With the learning of the Holocaust could bring many emotions to the minds of students, but most likely, the people back then felt much worse. This is important because if the Holocaust is taught to students, then the students will much better understand what living in that time period was like. While there is probably a textbook or two on the Holocaust, it would teach the same things as the teachers would have to. It would make no sense to hide the Holocaust if there are books on it. It can’t be hidden because it was real, and hiding it would be a detriment to the students in the future. When the Holocaust is taught in schools, they could learn many other advantages as well.
There are other advantages to learning about the Holocaust, other than extending the learning of the student’s learning. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the students could “Understand the roots and ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping in any society,” “Think about the use and abuse of power as well as the roles and responsibilities of individuals, organizations, and nations when confronted with civil rights violations and/or policies of genocide.” With these things, they could also learn many other traits. The Holocaust, being a complex time in history, could help students understand the complex events better with these traits and facts. They could also learn that the Holocaust was not an accident. Teaching the Holocaust would be beneficial also because the students could understand as well that something as simple as hatred could create something like a mass murder. This is important because this information could make the students better people, and the teaching of it would become more ‘spot-on’ in the classroom. While it is an important topic, there are also things that teachers need to consider.
Since the teachers themselves might know more about the Holocaust then these eighth grade students, they could make decisions about what to teach and what not to teach about the Holocaust.

One thing that the teachers should consider is that “Students in grades 7 and above demonstrate an ability to empathize with individual eyewitness accounts and to attempt to understand the complexities of this history, including the scope and scale of the events.” This means that eighth grade students are in this category, being able to technically handle the teachings of the Holocaust. There may be some things the teachers shouldn’t do, like compare pain to this time. Also, the teachers could have biased opinions. In the article This Day in 1985, a teacher named Jim Keegstra was fined for teaching his students that the Holocaust did not happen, and that “a Jewish conspiracy controls world affairs.” While opinions are a key part of people, the teachers should put their opinions aside when teaching the Holocaust. Another thing the teachers should consider is that they shouldn’t say something that isn’t true, or over glorify it, to make sure the students are staying interested. This could give false information to the students, and then teaching the Holocaust would be useless. This is important because if the teachers teach the Holocaust incorrectly, then they could make the event sound better or worse than it actually was. Relevant information would be crucial to success. While the

Holocaust should be taught, there are some issues with teaching it that could be said.
There are many ideas, people and facts that argue against teaching the Holocaust.

One thing that is argued is that children’s minds are young and innocent. While this may be true in some cases, it is not relevant. It would be better for the students to learn about the Holocaust when they are young then to coincidentally learn about it when they are older. Also, they are already learning about other things, and the first claim is an opinion. Another argument is that teachers may teach the Holocaust in a way that is different from a student’s family's beliefs. This could ruin the family's beliefs for the students, causing them to turn to the perspective taught in the school. While the students and their families may have different beliefs, they should still be taught about the Holocaust. Plus, if the beliefs are correct, then the parents or family members should not need to worry about what is being taught in the schools. This is important because these arguments could impact the teaching, The arguments from the families and other people should not impact teaching the

Holocaust.
The Holocaust is an important topic. With the traits that are taught to students, they can become better people. Also, there will not be many veterans from the Holocaust left in the next generation. This means that we will need to teach it well so that everyone can have just as good an understanding of the Holocaust, since there won’t be as many people who actually lived during the time to tell about it. Therefor, the Holocaust should be taught to eighth grade students.