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Holocaust and Genocide Education Resources

In July of 2016, Governor Gina Raimondo signed into law a bill requiring Holocaust and Genocide education in Rhode Island’s secondary schools, starting in the 2017-18 academic year. This page includes resources provided by the Rhode Island Holocaust/Genocide Education Committee to support instruction in those topics.

The Rhode Island Holocaust/Genocide Education Committee was formed in July 2016 and is comprised of educators and individuals committed to teaching this history to our students. The study of such past and present events will stimulate thought and discussion on why these tragic incidents happen and, hopefully, how society can prevent them from happening again.

Providing these links to Holocaust and Genocide curriculum through the Rhode Island Department of Education is a direct result of the legislation and the committee’s work. The Committee invites you to investigate the website, take a look at the information that has been vetted by the committee members, and utilize those materials appropriately for your students. Additional information will be added as it becomes available. Thank you for your commitment to teach our students about this critical subject matter.

If you have any questions about the materials, please contact Pauline Getzoyan or Esther Kalajian who will share your questions with the Committee.

General

Annotated Bibliography of Text Sources

  • Confronting Genocide
    Part of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Website devoted to genocide “The Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center is dedicated to stimulating timely global action to prevent genocide and to catalyze an international response when genocide does occur.”
  • Modern Genocide: Understanding Causes and Consequences, ABC-CLIO
    This is an ABC-CLIO subscription database (not available through public libraries). Like any database, it leads one to various vetted/reliable research articles, photos, documents- often including written testimonies. It also includes clearly written summaries (causes, consequences, perpetrators, victims, bystanders, international reaction) for 10 examples of genocide from the Herero Genocide to the Darfur Genocide.
  • Teaching About Refugees
    This is a part of the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Commission/ The UN Refugee Agency) webpage with links to educational materials to teach about refugees- Teaching Resource and Teachers’ Toolkit.
  • Teaching for a Tolerant World, Grades 9-12. Essays and Resources edited by Carol Danks and Leatrice Rabinsky
    The essays and resources in this book are designed to help high school English teachers adapt their own classroom lessons for teaching about genocide and intolerance. Beginning with guidelines developed by the National Council of teachers of English’s Committee on Teaching about Genocide and Intolerance, the 16 essays present approaches to teaching various works as literature.
  • Teaching Tolerance - A Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
    The Teaching Tolerance project combats prejudice among our nation’s youth while promoting equality, inclusiveness and equitable learning environments in the classroom.
  • USC Shoah Foundation - Introducing iWitness
    Collections about the European Holocaust, Rwanda, Cambodia, Armenia, Nanjing, Guatemala
  • The CHOICES Program at Brown University
    Confronting Genocide: Never Again? traces the evolution of the international community’s response to genocide and examines how the United States has responded to six cases of genocide. The evaluation of multiple perspectives, informed debate, and problem-solving strategies that are encouraged in this curriculum enable students to develop their own recommendations for U.S. policy.

Suggested Texts from the Committee:

  • A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide - Samantha Power
    Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, "A Problem from Hell" draws upon exclusive interviews with Washington's top policymakers, thousands of once classified documents, and accounts of reporting from the killing fields to show just what was known and what might have been done while millions perished.
  • Encyclopedia of Genocide - Israel W. Charny, Editor; Rouben Paul Adalian, Steven L. Jacobs, Eric Markusen, and Samuel Totten, Associate Editors
    This encyclopedia is the first reference work to document the full extent of the past and present of this awful subject with authority and objectivity, while also looking to the future and showing how education about the subject can perhaps lead to a world where genocide is better anticipated and prevented.

Video Resources

  • RI PBS: RI Holocaust and Genocide Education
    On April 28, 2021, RI PBS aired a story on RI Holocaust and Genocide education. The program included Barbara Wahlberg, Channavy Chhay, Len Newman, Representative Kathrine Kazarian, and featured a Rhode Island Holocaust survivor.

Primary Documents

Community Resources

  • Omar Bah
    Contact Omar Bah by email: author, former journalist in Gambia, refugee, founder of Refugee Dream Center

African Nations

Annotated Bibliography of Text Sources

Suggested Texts from the Committee

  • Tugire Ubumwe – Let’s Unite
    "Tugire Ubumwe – Let’s Unite!" was a graphic novel produced by the Outreach Programme on the Rwanda Genocide and the United Nations, in collaboration with Rwandan artist and genocide survivor Rupert Bazambanza. It is designed for a young audience and uses the example of Rwanda to promote respect for diversity and reconciliation.
  • Teenage Refugees from Rwanda Speak Out (Teenage Refugees Speak Out) - Aimable Twagilimana and A. Twagilimanaph D. 
    Teenagers from Rwanda, both Hutu and Tutsi, describe the conditions in their war-torn country that led them to seek safety and new lives in the United States and Canada.

Video Resources

  • Genocide in Africa - National Geographic
    This is a brief overview of genocide in Sudan. It is a video from 2008, but gives an overview of the struggles of the time. Approximately 2.5 minutes long; YouTube.
  • A young poet tells the story of Darfur
    2015 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion Emtithal “Emi” Mahmoud was born in Sudan and came to the United States in 1998, escaping the Darfur genocide with her family. In Emi's TEDMED 2016 talk, she shares how poetry has empowered her to share her story and helped her to heal. Approximately 11 minutes long; YouTube.
  • Poem read by Emi Mahmoud (award-winning Sudanese spoken word artist) on education
    United Nations, 18 September 2016 - Emi Mahmoud is an award-winning Sudanese spoken word artist originating from the war-town region of Darfur. She opened the meeting on the occasion of the launch of the Report by the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity. Approximately 4 minutes long; YouTube.

Survivor Testimonies/Oral Histories

  • Testimony by Eugenie Mukeshimana, a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda
    Linked from UN website - Recorded at the United Nations on 15 January 2014. Approximately 10 minutes long; YouTube.
  • Coexist
    Stories of Rwandan men and women who survived 1994 Genocide, reveal the complexities of forgiveness and reconciliation; DVD available through Facing History and Ourselves.
  • Rwanda video gallery
    From the US Holocaust Memorial Museum - A collection of video eyewitness testimonies.

Photo Gallery

Community Resources

  • Clementine Bihaga
    Clementine started the Clarette Refugee Fund which supports education for refugees in Kenya. She has spoken to a variety of groups and has some interesting workshops already planned. She does charge for these with proceeds benefiting the Clarette Refugee Fund.
  • Omar Bah
    "Winner of the 2016 John F. Kiffney Public Service Award from the Providence Newspaper Guild; and recipient of ‘One of Rhode Islanders of the Year 2015’ award from Rhode Island Monthly Magazine, Omar Bah is the Founder & Executive Director of the Refugee Dream Center, Inc. He is a torture survivor, former journalist and refugee from The Gambia in West Africa. Bah is also the author of the book, Africa’s Hell on Earth: The Ordeal of an African Journalist. Currently, he represents the state of Rhode Island at the Refugee Congress of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Washington, DC." (from RDC website)

Armenian Genocide

Annotated Bibliography of Text Sources

  • The World Was Silent - Issue 22, Fall F002 - Teaching Tolerance: A Project of the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center)
    A study of the Armenian Genocide raises troubling questions of remembrance and responsibility.
    Teaching Tolerance provides a variety of resources and materials distributed free of charge to educators, including award winning documentaries, film, teaching kits and lesson plans as well as the Teaching Tolerance magazine.
  • The Genocide Education Project and Teaching Resources
    GenEd is a nonprofit organization assisting educators in teaching about human rights and genocide, particularly the Armenian Genocide, as the predecessor of the pattern of genocides that followed. 
  • Facing History and Ourselves: Crimes Against Humanity and Civilization: The Genocide of the Armenians
    Online lesson plans, readings, resource text are available which allows students to make essential connections between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives. Most of these lessons are designed to be used with the film The Armenian Genocide (Two Cats Productions), which aired on PBS on April 17, 2006 and is available to borrow from the Facing History library.
  • The Choices Program at Brown University: Confronting Genocide
    Confronting Genocide: Never Again? traces the evolution of the international community’s response to genocide and examines how the United States has responded to six cases of genocide, including the Armenian Genocide. The evaluation of multiple perspectives, informed debate, and problem-solving strategies that are encouraged in this curriculum enable students to develop their own recommendations for U.S. policy.
  • The Armenian Journey: From Despair to Hope in RI; Grades 9-12
    A curriculum resource guide and video documentary created by The Genocide Education Project in cooperation with the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities provides a background to the history of the Armenian Genocide, the effects of the Genocide on subsequent generations, and universalizes the experience for other groups who have found safe haven in the United States.
  • They Shall Not Perish: The Story of Near East Relief
    A 32-page curriculum booklet on America’s response to the Armenian Genocide, through the work of the Near East Relief foundation. 

Bibliography of Individual Fiction/Non-Fiction Text

  • The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts from the American Press, 1915-1922 - Richard D. Kloian, Editor (Grades 9 to Adult)
    This compilation of 200 full length articles from The New York Times and over 60 full-length articles from 14 American journals of the time reprises the day to day reporting of the genocide.
  • The Armenian Genocide: The essential reference guide - Alan Whitehorn, Editor
    Historical timeline, primary source documents, 140 entries, contributions from leading authorities on the Armenian Genocide. Covers causes, consequences, perpetrators, victims, bystanders, international reaction, A-Z entries.
  • The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response - Peter Balakian (Grades 11 to Adult)
    Balakian exposes the roots of the genocide in the “total war” atmosphere of WWI, which combusted with the pan-Turkish nationalism of the Young Turk government, inflamed Muslim rage against “infidel” Armenian Christians, and a long-simmering Ottoman hatred of the Armenians dating to Sultan Abdul Hamid II and his slaughters in the 1890s.
  • Black Dog of Fate: An American Son Uncovers his Armenian Past - Peter Balakian (Grades 11-12, non-fiction)
    The author of four volumes of verse, Peter Balakian seamlessly interweaves personal and historical material to depict one young man’s reclamation of his heritage and to scathingly indict the political forces that conspired to sweep under the rug the 20th century’s first genocide.
  • The Sandcastle Girls - Chris Bohjalian (Grades 10 to Adult)
    In The Sandcastle Girls, Bohjalian creates an intergenerational tale firmly founded in the history of the Armenian Genocide. His characters take the reader back in time to Syria, and he recreates with astounding detail the tragedies faced by the Armenian people during the first modern genocide of the twentieth century.
  • The Road From Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl - David Kherdian (Grades 8-10)
    Kherdian tells his mother’s story of survival of the Armenian genocide in her voice.
  • As the Poppies Bloomed: A Novel of Love in a Time of Fear - Maral Boyadjian (Grades 9 to Adult)
    Set in the Ottoman Empire in late summer of 1913, As the Poppies Bloomed tells the story of young lovers Anno and Daron, who fall in love as their Armenian village comes under increasing threat by Turkish authorities in the period leading up to the Armenian Genocide.
  • Like Water on Stone - Dana Walrath (Grades 8 to Adult); Free Teaching Guide
    A fictional account of the Armenian genocide. This novel in verse recounts the flight to America of three Armenian children after the Ottoman Turks confiscate their family’s flour mill and murder their parents. 
  • Forgotten Fire - Adam Bagdasarian
    Brutally vivid, Adam Bagdasarian’s Forgotten Fire is based on the experiences of his great-uncle during the Armenian Holocaust. 
  • Passage to Ararat - Michael J. Arlen, Clark Blaise (Introduction); National Book Award Winner, 1976; Grades 9 to Adult
    Passage to Ararat echoes current headlines as Arlen examines the 1915 “ethnic cleansing” [genocide] of the Armenian race by the Turks.  
  • Goodbye, Antoura - A memoir by Karnig Panian
    This memoir offers the extraordinary story of what Karnig Panian endured as his people were deported from their Armenian community, as his family died in a refugee camp in the deserts of Syria, and as he survived hunger and mistreatment in the orphanage.
  • The Last Day of the War - Judith Claire Mitchell
    An American girl of Jewish descent meets an American-Armenian boy from Rhode Island at the end of World War I. 
  • The Knock at the Door - Margaret Ajemian Ahnert
    Ahnert recounts her mother’s harrowing experiences of survival and journey to America.

Video Resources

  • The Armenian Journey: From Despair to Hope in RI - The Genocide Education Project
    This video tells the story of an Armenian survivor “told through the voice of her great granddaughter.” (RI Council for the Humanities funded this film as a resource for all educators.)
  • The Armenian Genocide (as seen on PBS) and Teaching Guide; Grades 9-12
    This one-hour documentary features never-before-seen historical footage of the events and key players of one of the greatest untold stories of the 20th century.
  • The Forgotten Genocide - The Armenian Film Foundation Documentary; 28 minutes; Grades 9-12
    The classic documentary of the first genocide of the Twentieth Century. Narrated by Mike Connors, television and motion picture star.
  • Supplement to The Forgotten Genocide - The Armenian Film Foundation Documentary; 17 minutes; Grades 9-12
    The shorter film, a supplement to The Forgotten Genocide, continues beyond the genocide to the establishment of the first Armenian Republic in 1918, the Sovietization of Armenia, and the rebuilding of Armenian life in Diaspora. Narrated by Mike Connors, television and motion picture star.
  • The Armenian Genocide: 90 Years Later- Produced by Twin Cities Public Television and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota (2005); Grades 9-12
    This is a program that discusses the history, aftermath, and implications of the Armenian Genocide with scholars, survivors’ descendants, and members of the community.
  • The Promise - 2017 – Major Motion Picture; Rated PG-13; 134 minutes
    When Michael (Oscar Isaac), a brilliant medical student, meets Ana (Charlotte Le Bon), their shared Armenian heritage sparks an attraction that explodes into a romantic rivalry between Michael and Ana’s boyfriend Chris (Christian Bale), a famous American photojournalist dedicated to exposing political truth. As the Ottoman Empire crumbles into war-torn chaos, their conflicting passions must be deferred while they join forces to get their people to safety and survive themselves. Study guide below.
  • The Promise, Study Guide 2017
    Overview, historical facts, and documentation provided in this 30-page resource.

Survivor Testimonies/Oral Histories

  • Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide - Lorna Touryan Miller, Donald Eugene; Grades 11 to Adult
    Combining a compelling oral history from interviews with a hundred elderly Armenians with a trenchant analysis of the first major genocide of the 20th century, this moving study focuses on the Turkish murder of more than one million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 in a systematic campaign of mass deportations, slaughter, forced labor and starvation.
  • iWitness - Oral and Visual Documentaries of Survivors of the Armenian Genocide
    An exhibit by the Genocide Education Project; Accompanying Lesson Plan by the GEP for grades 7-12.
  • iWitness - USC Shoah Foundation; Grades 10-12
    Survivor testimonies from the Armenian Genocide
  • Voices of Survivors: The Armenian Genocide
    Utilizing the “Twenty Voices” interactive online map by Araz Artinian and accompanied by a lesson plan created by The Genocide Education Project, this exercise allows students to get a glimpse of the historic homeland of the Armenians that was completely erased in only a few years, from 1915-1923. Students learn what survivors had, what was lost, and can begin to imagine the impact of this trauma on the rest of their lives.

Primary Documents

  • The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts from the American Press, 1915-1922 - Richard D. Kloian, Editor; 400 pages; Grades 9 to Adult
    This compilation of 200 full length articles from The New York Times and over 60 full-length articles from 14 American journals of the time reprises the day to day reporting of the genocide.

Community Resources

Cambodia

Annotated Bibliography of Text Sources

Bibliography of Individual Fiction/Non-Foction Text

  • Determination: A Cambodian Family’s Journey - Makna Men and Michael J. Vieira, Ph.D.
    Book written by a Rhode Island resident.
  • First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (Book 1 of 3 in A Daughter of Cambodia Series) - Loung Ung
    From a childhood survivor of the Cambodian genocide under the regime of Pol Pot, this is a riveting narrative of war crimes and desperate actions, the unnerving strength of a small girl and her family, and their triumph of spirit.
  • Never Fall Down: A Novel - Patricia McCormick
    This National Book Award nominee from two-time finalist Patricia McCormick is the unforgettable story of Arn Chorn-Pond, who defied the odds to survive the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 and the labor camps of the Khmer Rouge.
  • Half Spoon of Rice: A Survival Story of the Cambodian Genocide - Icy Smith, illustrated by Sopaul Nhem
    When the Khmer Rouge comes into power, nine-year-old Nat is forced out of his Cambodian home, separated from his family, and over the next four years confronts starvation, fear, and brutality before he finds hope and strength to escape and reunite with his family. 
  • The Cambodian Dancer: Sophany’s Gift of Hope - Daryn Reicherter, illustrated by Christy Hale
    This illustrated bilingual children's book tells how Sophany, a dancer, was inspired to help herself and others heal from the loss of their homeland. It is a story of survival, triumph, and hope.

Video Resources

Survivor Testimonies/Oral Histories

  • The Digital Archive of Cambodian Holocaust Survivors
    Written testimonies about the Cambodian genocide.
  • Out of the Shadows
    Footage includes interview with Phatana Ith, lecturer, Communication Studies at California State University at Long Beach, about her research project collecting survivor stories and how it started by her wanting to know more about what her family had faced before bringing her to the United States when she was a baby. YouTube.
  • Former Khmer Rouge soldier faces up to past
    A EuroNews story (Published on Oct 3, 2012) about a woman who had been recruited as a teenager to fight for the Khmer Rouge who later testified against them. YouTube; 6 minutes.

Photo Gallery

Community Resources

  • Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)
    SEARAC is a national organization that advances the interests of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans by empowering communities through advocacy, leadership development, and capacity building to create a socially just and equitable society. We envision a socially, politically and economically just society for all communities to enjoy for all generations.
  • Laotian Community Center of RI (LCC) - Silaphone Nhongvongsouty
    LCC is a Rhode Island based organization that is an example of a strong grassroot efforts to work closely with Laotian community in Rhode Island to preserve and promote Lao culture and tradition. Their program include Lao traditional dance troupe, summer camp, oral story project initiative, etc.
  • Cambodian Society of Rhode Island - Chanda Wamack
    The mission of The Cambodian Society of Rhode Island is to bridge the gap between the Khmer community and the general public through cultural awareness campaigns, programs that enhance our culture and being the agency that advocates on behalf of the Cambodian community's interest in Rhode Island.

The Holocaust

Annotated Bibliography of Text Sources

  • Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the Holocaust - Susan D. Bacharach; ISBN: 978-0316074841
    Intended to extend the experience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum beyond its walls, this book reproduces some of its artifacts, photographs, maps, and taped oral and video histories. Grades 5 and above.
  • The World Must Know; The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Michael Berenbaum, Ph.D.; ISBN: 9-780316-091343
    This text documents the human stories of the Holocaust, from the families who received sudden orders to report to the trains for resettlement in the East, to the Nazi officials who determined who would live and who would die.
  • Through Our Eyes: Children Witness the Holocaust - Itzhak Tetelbaum; ASIN: B0007BF6UG
    This textbook presents the Holocaust period in its entirety, from the pre-war period to the present. It consists of eighteen study units, in chronological order, comprising children’s diary entries and survivor testimony, representing the various countries and times in which the events took place. Can be used in middle or high school classrooms. Available in the SBHEC library, children/young adult section.
  • Teaching and Studying the Holocaust - edited by Samuel Totten and Stephen Feinberg; ISBN: 0-205-18495-2
    This text is comprised of thirteen chapters by some of the most noted Holocaust educators in the United States on topics including: establishing clear rationales for teaching this history, incorporating primary documents, first-person accounts, film, literature, art, drama, music, and technology into a study of the Holocaust, as well as an extensive annotated bibliography of source texts.

Suggested Texts from the Committee

  • All But My Life - Gerda Weissmann Klein; ISBN: 978-0-8090-1580-1
    A classic of Holocaust literature, Klein’s celebrated memoir tells the moving story of a young woman’s three frightful years as a slave laborer of the Nazis and her miraculous liberation. 
    Grades 9 to 12.
  • The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank; ISBN: 9780553296983
    In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding, where she recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. Middle to high school.
  • Four Perfect Pebbles - Marian Blumenthal Lazan; ASIN: B019L4FIE8
    Following Hitler’s rise to power, the Blumenthal family was forced to live in hiding, as refugees, in transit, and in prison camps before finally making it to the United States. Middle school classrooms.
  • Hitler Youth: Growing Up In Hitler’s Shadow - Susan Campbell Bartoletti; ISBN: 9-780439-353793
    Bartoletti draws on oral histories, diaries, letters, and her own extensive interviews with Holocaust survivors, Hitler Youth, resisters, and bystanders to tell the history from the viewpoints of people who were there. 
  • I Have Lived a Thousand Years - Livia Bitton Jackson; ISBN-13: 978-0689823954
    This inspirational book is about the author’s survival in the concentration camps. Reading or middle school classrooms. If educators have time, pair this book with Bitton-Jackson’s sequel My Bridges of Hope, which captures her life after her liberation from the camps.
  • I Never Saw Another Butterfly - Edited by Hana Volavkova; ISBN: 978-0805210156
    Fifteen thousand children under the age of fifteen passed through the Terezin Concentration Camp. Fewer than 100 survived. In these poems and pictures drawn by the young inmates, we see the daily misery of these uprooted children, as well as their hopes and fears, their courage and optimism. 60 color illustrations. This book of poetry and art can be used either in an ELA classroom, or Art classroom, or in an interdisciplinary unit. Educators can pair this book with Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terezin. Grades 7-12
  • In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer - Irene Gut Opdyke; ISBN: 0-385-72032-7
    When the war began, Irene Gut was just seventeen and though forced to work in a German officers' dining hall, she learns how to fight back, even doing the impossible. Grades 9 to 12.
  • Maus I - Art Spiegelman; ISBN: 0-394-74723-2
    This 1992 Pulitzer Prize Winner is the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father, his father’s terrifying story, and History itself using the form of a cartoon where the Nazis are cats, the Jews are mice. High school.
  • Maus II - Art Spiegelman; ISBN: 0-394-55655-0
    The second installment of the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus that recounts the chilling experiences of the author’s father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats. High school.
  • Night - Elie Wiesel; ISBN-10: 0374500010; ISBN-13: 978-0374500016
    Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps.
  • 94 Maidens - Rhonda Fink-Whitman; ISBN: 9781457512773
    This is both a novel and nonfiction. Rhonda Fink-Whitman travels to Europe with her family to try to piece together what happened to her mother’s family during the Holocaust. There is also a website with a teacher’s guide and lesson plans for classroom use.
  • Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust - Collected and edited by Alexandra Zapruder; ISBN: 9-780300-092431
    This text begins with a discussion of Anne Frank’s diary and offers a new framework for thinking about young people’s diaries produced in this time of extreme crisis. Alexandra Zapruder assesses the value of these literary fragments as part of the historical record of the Holocaust, and provides informative introductions about when and where each diary was written; the diarist’s biographical, religious, cultural, and economic circumstances; the fate of the diarist; the circumstances of the diarist’s recovery; and offers a view of the diary’s significance.
  • Survival in Auschwitz - Primo Levi; ISBN-10: 9780684826806; ISBN-13: 978-0684826806
    The true and harrowing account of Primo Levi’s experience at the German concentration camp of Auschwitz and his miraculous survival, Survival in Auschwitz is Levi’s classic account of his ten months in the German death camp, a harrowing story of systematic cruelty and miraculous endurance. Can be used in a high school setting, grades 9-12, as a companion text to Night.
  • Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust - Allan Zullo and Mara Bovsum
    These are the true-life accounts of nine Jewish boys and girls whose lives spiraled into danger and fear as the Holocaust overtook Europe. Grades 8 to 12. Example eighth grade assignment.
  • The Sunflower: Of the Possibilities and Limitless Forgiveness - Simon Wiesenthal; ISBN-10: 0805210601; ISBN-13: 978-0805210606
    While imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Simon Wiesenthal was taken one day from his work detail to the bedside of a dying member of the SS who wanted to confess to - and obtain absolution from - a Jew. Grades 11-12.
  • To Tell the Story: Poems of the Holocaust - Yala Korwin; ISBN: 0-89604-091-7
    A book of poetry that examines all facets of the Holocaust, through the eyes of all those victims and their experiences. 
  • The White Rose: Munich 1942-1943 - Inge Scholl; Wesleyan; ISBN-10: 0819560863; ISBN-13: 978-0819560865
    The White Rose tells the story of Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl, who in 1942 led a small underground organization of German students and professors to oppose the atrocities committed by Hitler and the Nazi Party. High school 9-12 classroom use.
  • The Tree in the Courtyard: Looking Through Anne Frank’s Window - Jeff Gottesfeld Illustrated by Peter McCarty; ISBN-10: 0385753977; ISBN-13: 978-0385753975
    Told from the perspective of the tree outside Anne Frank’s window-and illustrated by a Caldecott Honor artist-this book introduces her story in a gentle and incredibly powerful way to a young audience. Kindergarten-Grade 4; appropriate for readers of all ages.
  • Yossel - Joe Kubert; ISBN-10: 074347516X; ISBN-13: 978-0743475167
    This boy's story, as told through his sketches, is a compelling account of increasing horror depicted by an artist whose soul drives him to bear witness through his art. High school classroom 9-12, and especially recommended for reluctant readers.
  • Your Name is Renee - Stacy Cretzmaeyer; ISBN: 0-19-515499-1
    This true story recounts the chilling experiences of a young Jewish girl during the Holocaust. This book can be read as a companion book to Night or All But My Life, or it can stand on its own.

Video Resources

  • As Seen Through Their Eyes - 2009 Menemsha Film, Not Rated. 74 minutes
    Narrated by Maya Angelou, this powerful documentary reveals the story of a brave group of people who fought Hitler with the only weapons they had: charcoal, pencil subs, shreds of paper and memories etched in their minds. 
  • The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler - Hallmark Films 2009, Not Rated, 95 minutes
    Based on the remarkable true story of WWII hero Irena Sendler, who rescued over 2,500 Jewish children during the German occupation of Poland. This film is excellent to use as a “safely out” lesson of a Holocaust unit for middle school level students. It can be borrowed from the SBHEC library.
  • Hidden in Silence - Echo Bridge Home Entertainment: 2010, Not Rated, 96 minutes.
    Przemysl, Poland, comes under Nazi control and the Jewish are sent to the ghettos. Catholic teenager Stefania Podgorska sneaks 13 Jews into her attic and smuggles food and water to them. A story of a rescuer, this film would be appropriate for middle school viewing. It can be borrowed from SBHEC library.
  • Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good - Gelman Educational Foundation, 2006, Not rated, 64 minutes
    In the fall of 1938, Nicholas Winton took a pleasure trip to Prague, Czechoslovakia. He saw that Czech children in the Sudetenland were stateless. He understood that these children would soon be doomed by Hitler. Thus began his journey, at the age of 28, to rescue over 600 children from the jaws of death. A film to use at the end of any unit on the Holocaust as a “safe out” of their unit. Can be borrowed from SBHEC library.
  • One Survivor Remembers - Southern Poverty Law Center
    The Oscar-winning film by Kary Antholis which documents the experience of Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein. A companion piece to use with the memoir All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein. You can download materials right from their website. Can be borrowed from SBHEC Library.
  • Paper Clips - The Johnson Group 2003; 2 DVD set (disc 1: 84 minutes; disc 2: 84 minutes) Not rated.
    When students of Tennessee”s Whitwell Middle School began studying the Holocaust as a way to learn about intolerance and diversity, nobody could have predicted the result. In 2001, the Paper Clip Project culminated in a unique memorial that changes the lives of those who created it, as well as touching Holocaust survivors and countless communities.
    An award winning film that can be used as a "safely out" film with students of all ages, middle through high school. Includes interviews with survivors. This film can be borrowed from the SBHEC library.
  • Unlikely Heroes - Produced by the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Moriah Films, No Rating; 114 minutes.
    This film highlights the previously unknown stories of extraordinary men and women who exemplified the highest level of courage and human dignity during the most desperate days of the Holocaust. 

Survivor Testimonies/Oral Histories

Community Resources

  • Art Gallery of Ontario
    A collection of Holocaust Photographs of the Lodz Ghetto by Henryk Ross. Includes lesson plans: Life in the Ghetto; Round-ups and Deportations; Resistance; Ross’s Legacy and Contemporary Connections.
  • Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center - Paula Olivieri, Education Coordinator T 401-453-7860; F 401-861-9246
    Survivors Speakers Bureau; Library Open to the public