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Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies
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Curriculum Models

Holocaust & Genocide Denial

Students and researchers should be aware that there is a proliferation of websites operated by Holocaust and genocide deniers that CHGS and others in the academic community consider unreliable.

CHGS encourages all researchers to exercise caution when they use the Internet and any other media (films, books, journals, etc). Our Center, staff, advisory board and experts are here to assist researchers on a case-by-case basis.

We consider it our obligation to orient researchers toward reference materials which, in our opinion, represent the best scholarship in the field of Holocaust and genocide issues.

We recommend that researchers interested in the history, psychology and ideology of Holocaust and genocide denial should begin their investigation with the following resources:

Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide by Richard G. Hovannisian. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999.

Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory by Deborah Lipstadt. New York: The Free Press, 1993.

Assassins of Memory: Essays on the Denial of the Holocaust (European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism) by Pierre Vidal-Naquet. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

This list is NOT exhaustive, and will continue to be updated by the CHGS staff.

Please consult with us if you need more information about what we consider to be reliable versus unreliable sources.

(This section is currently under construction please continue to check back for updates and new resources.)

 

K-12 Educators

CHGS recommends teaching the Holocaust and genocide beginning with grade 6, as students at that level can begin to understand the complexity of these historic events in their proper context.  At the elementary level, students should receive character building lessons that teach empathy, citizenship, the value of diversity and the dangers of prejudice and bias in society.

Before teaching about genocide it is essential that educators at all levels establish a rationale for teaching it in their classrooms.  It is important to create a clear set of goals and objectives with an understanding of the historical context in order to connect with your students and aid them in their understanding of the complexities of Holocaust and genocide studies.

Resources for Establishing Rationale

State Standards

Minnesota Academic Standards
The Academic Standards division is responsible for the development and implementation of the statewide expectations for educational achievement known as the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards.

 

Archived Curriculum from the University of Minnesota

  • Sample Curricula: (1996-2001) Courses, workshops and lessons by Dr. Stephen Feinstein.

Archived Curriculum Modules from Former Perpetrator Countries

  • Holocaust Education Croatia (2000)
    From the Republic of Croatia. During the Holocaust, Croatia was a country that had a government very sympathetic to Nazi Germany and which carried out the "final solution" against the Jewish population. Therefore, this curriculum should be examined as an example of how a former perpetrator country deals with the memory and teaching of the Holocaust.
  • Holocaust Lesson Preparation for Grade VII, Example of a curriculum prepared by a country that was a perpetrator in the Holocaust, Croatia. This curriculum was presented at the Stockholm International Conference, January, 2000 as it offered as an example of how former perpetrators, and in the case of Croatia, a country with a troubled recent history because of genocide in the former Yugoslavia, deals with the Holocaust. Have there been any lessons for this country from such a curriculum?
  • Holocaust Education in Germany (1999-2005)

Archived Curriculum Concerns