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There is a need, therefore, to present the often-ignored Jewish dimension of the Holocaust. Doing so
will help audiences get inside the heads of the threatened Jews, so they can understand not only how
Jews perceived and reacted to changing Nazi policies but how they understood the implications of
these policies. A more complete perspective will reveal that Jews were not passive victims, but active
agents who responded with a surprisingly wide range of resourceful actions. (p. 18)
The Holocaust is the systematic persecution and murder of the Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators
during the years 1933-1945 13 . As educators we must first teach our students what it means to be a Jew
and what Jewish people believe and practice. We must teach our students about Jewish life and Jewish
religious observance. Only then can they begin to truly appreciate how the various Jewish communities
responded to the Nazis persecution. We cannot only teach that the Jewish communities were victims. We
must also explain that the Jewish German community did not implode as a result of the anti-Jewish policies
issued by the Nazi between the years 1933-1938. We must tell the story of how the religious German
Jewish community demonstrated a degree of agency and continued to maintain its religious practices and
observances while living under Nazi rule.
References
Bauer, Y. (2001). A history of the Holocaust: Revised edition.
Danbury, CT: Franklin Watts.
Ben-Sasson H., & Goldberg, A. (2003). Years wherein we have
seen evil (vol. I orthodox Jewry in Germany under the Nazi rule):
Selected aspects in the history of religious Jewry during the
Holocaust. Jerusalem, Israel: Yad Vashem.
Kaplan, M. A. (1998). Between dignity and despair: Jewish life in
Nazi Germany. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Mais, Y. (2007). Jewish life in the shadow of destruction. In Y.
Mais (Ed.), Daring to resist: Jewish defiance in the Holocaust
(pp. 18-24). New York, NY: Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living
Memorial to the Holocaust.
89 HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN PEDAGOGY, HISTORY, AND PRACTICE
13
Definition from Yad Vashem