Think Higher Feel Deeper

Approaching the Holocaust in your classroom can be a difficult, often daunting task. This practical guide for English and social studies teachers features lessons learned from the author’s 17 years of experience teaching the subject in public schools, as well as his work with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Using anecdotes and empirical data, Gudgel offers advice for teaching the Holocaust in a way that is nuanced, socially responsible, and historically accurate. He provides guidance on common challenges and questions teachers will encounter, such as correcting misconceptions, using films, and discussing genocide with secondary students. While World War II grows ever more distant in the past, the lessons of the Holocaust are perhaps more relevant today than ever before. It may never be easy to teach about the Holocaust, but it can be done in ways that make it edifying and empowering, rather than causing despair. This approach is as important for educators as it is for their students.

Book Features:

• Uses a conversational tone with classroom examples and actionable teaching advice.
• Designed to make a difficult topic more accessible for teachers at all levels of experience.
• Helps teachers think about best practices through a lens of inquiry, pedagogy, and personal experience.
• Focuses on what the author believes would have been most helpful when he began teaching about the Holocaust.

Mark Gudgel is an adjunct instructor in education at Nebraska Wesleyan University, a 17-year veteran of public-school education, Fulbright Scholar, and fellow of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

“That teaching about the Holocaust and other genocides today is more important than ever is a given. The question is how to teach it effectively and realistically. Given that time is a precious commodity for teachers, Think Higher, Feel Deeper is the best text I know of to consult and utilize both to incorporate the Holocaust into a course as well as the curriculum in general.”

—Teachers College Record

“Mark has reminded us all of the reasons we teach: to reach students and transform them, enlarge their horizons, empower them to grow, and, in Mark’s case, make them not only informed citizens but better people. . . . The Holocaust resists simple answers and raises significant questions. We must share our questions with our students and introduce them to a world that resists easy answers. Join Mark in pursuing the questions; share them with your students. Magic can happen in your classroom as well.”
—From the Foreword by Michael Berenbaum, professor, American Jewish University

“Gudgel’s book is a masterpiece that provides a healthy balance between big ideas and practical strategies for teaching the Holocaust. Using a teacher-centric voice and relatable real-life examples, Gudgel succeeds in creating a resource that not only will leave teachers thinking higher and feeling deeper but can motivate and inspire them.”
—Alan S. Marcus, professor, University of Connecticut

“How do we teach about the Nazi Holocaust of 1933–1945? How do we teach the unthinkable? The unteachable? Mark Gudgel has the answer in his outstanding new book Think Higher Feel Deeper. Gudgel addresses a wide range of issues pertinent to teaching the Holocaust that teachers will find are accurate historically and will contribute to excellent classroom interaction. This is truly one of the best Holocaust curriculum books I have seen or reviewed in the past decade.”
—Miriam Klein Kassenoff, director, University of Miami Holocaust Teacher Institute

“Think Higher, Feel Deeper is a stunning achievement that should quickly become an indispensable guidepost for educators. It is a remarkably fresh, candid, and compassionate inside view of both the challenges and moments that come with teaching about the Holocaust and genocide. Gudgel not only touches your heart and makes you laugh and cry, he leaves you empowered with an understanding that as an educator you can truly have an impact. I will continue to come back to this book over and over again.”
—Kelley H. Szany, vice president of education & exhibition, Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center

Contents

Foreword Michael Berenbaum  xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction 1

1.  Defining and Contextualizing the Holocaust With Young People 5
What Are We Talking About When We Talk About the Holocaust? 6
Comparing Definitions of the Holocaust 6
Defining Jews and Judaism 10
Explaining How Nazi Racial Ideology Distorted Judaism 10
Helping (Non-Jewish) Students Understand Jews and Judaism 11
Exploring Layers of History 12

2.  The Paradox of Education 15
Building Weapons 16
The Einsatzgruppen 16
Nazi Doctors 18
The Wannsee Conference 20
The Nuremberg Trials 23

3.  At War With Misconceptions and Misinformation 26
Misconceptions Abound 27
For Want of Heroism: Rescue Mythology 27
Nationalistic Narratives 29
The Complexity of the Camps 30
Auschwitz Comma And: Going Beyond the Popular Narratives 31

4.  Gray Areas, Name Calling, and Human Complexity 34
Five Problematic Words 35
More Problematic Words 37
Oskar Schindler and Other Complicated People 37
Teaching Using Schindler’s List 39

5.  Half-Truths My Teacher Told Me 44
Misconceptions, Half-Truths, Errors, and Omissions 45
How Many People Actually Died? 45
The Diary of a Young Girl 47
The Voyage of the St. Louis 50

6.  Avoiding Simple Answers to Complex Questions 54
“Why Didn’t They Just Leave?” 55
“Why Didn’t They Fight Back?” 57
“America Saved the Day Again—Am I Right?” 59
“But If You Disagreed With Hitler, Wouldn’t You Get Shot?” 61
“Why the Jews?” 62
“Why Didn’t Anybody Stand Up for the Jews?” 63
“Was the Holocaust the Worst Genocide of All Time?” 65
“When Did the Holocaust End?” 65

7.  “Others” 68
The Spectrum of “Others” 69
Teaching About Non-Jewish Victims of the Nazis 72
“Other” Genocides 73

8.  Images, Still and Moving 79
A Thousand Words 80
What Images We Choose 80
Photo Analysis 81
Survivor Testimony 83

9.  The Most Precious Resource 86
Time Constraints in Our Classes 87
The English Teacher’s Challenge 87
The History Teacher’s Challenge 89
Challenges in Other Curricular Areas 90
Planting Seeds 91

10.  Go There 93
Bring a Friend 95
Plan … But Don’t Overplan 96
Working With Destinations in Advance 97
What to Do and See 97
Kids 99
Chaperones 100
Meal Planning 101
Travel Light 103
Communication 103
Funding 104
Other Considerations 106

11.  Denying the Impossible 108
Holocaust Denial 109
Many Faces of the Same Hatred 109
Vetting Sources and Avoiding Debate 111
The Tenth Stage of Genocide 112

12.  Humor and the Holocaust 116
Mocking the Sacred 117
Humor in Holocaust Cinema 118
Ill-Conceived Jokes 120
“It Kept Us Alive” 120

13.  Teaching Brave and Free 123
Some Personal Advice 124
Establish a “Genocide-Free Zone” 124
Know Your Audience 125
From Past to Present 126

Glossary 129

References 135

Index 143

About the Author 151