Understanding the Holocaust

by Betty Merti

Understanding the Holocaust traces the Nazi genocides of World War II through a variety of means: descriptive passages, first-person narratives, maps, charts, and a variety of activities. A... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0825127084
• ISBN13: 9780825127083
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Walch Education
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.4" x 10.8"

Customer Reviews

Understanding the Holocaust

This is a good teacher's resource for middle school or high school students. In addition to covering historical events leading up to and including the Holocaust, it includes a chapter on the Jewish Resistance, debunking the commonly held notion that Jews just "marched meekly to their slaughter". It also talks about why resistance was so difficult, such as horrible retributions against entire communities for a single act of defiance by an individual. It mentions, briefly, the Jewish Brigade, composed of Jewish soldiers from Palestine who fought under the Star of David as a special unit in the British Army, fighting the Nazis in Italy and then working against enormous odds and bureaucratic indifference to help tens of thousands of Jewish refugees make passage out of Europe and on to Palestine. There are end-of-chapter questions and quizzes as well, which could be used as is or adapted by each teacher to suit his or her classroom and curriculum. The book can be used as a valuable supplement to any middle school/high school curriculum covering WWII, or a social studies curriculum on eugenics, hate crimes, racism, etc. Too often the study of WWII at this age consists of a cursory examination of the leaders and important battles that took place; this book examines the attitudes, beliefs, and historical and cultural ingredients which made the Holocaust possible, and poses discussion questions in such a way that it can bring this tragic aspect of WWII into sharp personal focus for students studying this important topic.