Holocaust History: Raising Awareness of the Significance of the Holocaust Among Young People

On Nov. 9-10, 1938, attacks against Jewish communities living in Germany came to be known as Kristallnacht, or The Night of Broken Glass. The ensuing years of the Holocaust led to the mass murder by Germans of millions of European Jews.

A recent nationwide study found that Holocaust history is poorly understood by younger Americans today. We explore the history of the Holocaust, and what Maine students learn about this terrible but important period.

Shenna Bellows, executive director, Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine

Abraham Peck, adjunct professor of history, University of Southern Maine; child of Holocaust survivorsl founder, holocaust, genocide, and human rights studies, University of Maine

Edith Lucas Pagelson (daughter Ruth Lucas Finegold), Holocaust survivor, resident of Falmouth

Heidi Omlor, social studies teacher, Ellsworth High School

• Survey: Younger Mainers Lack Basic Knowledge About The Holocaust
  
• Nearly two-thirds of US young adults unaware 6m Jews killed in the Holocaust
  
• History.com: Kristallnacht
  
• Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine
  
• U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
  
• Maine Jewish Film Festival
  
• "Paper Clips" film
  
• "Against All Odds," by Edith Pagelson
  
• "Seed of Sarah," by Judith Magyar Isaacson
  
• "Night," by Elie Wiesel
  
• "The Destruction of European Jews," by Raul Hilberg
  
• "Germans into Nazis," Peter Fritzsche