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About Shoah Education Project Web Shoah Education Project Web, is a curriculum project which was begun in the Fall of 1997
to develop one of the first, online introductory sites on Shoah or Holocaust Education and Studies. While originally it was developed over a broad base to include all kinds of community groups,
it grew over the years to focus on the Church and General Public, although a small curriculum has been developed for limited classroom use in some situations. Wishing not to repeat efforts or build on another's
foundation, we have left general K-12 Education in Holocaust and Tolerance Studies to such fine organizations with expansive resources such as Simon Wiesenthal Center, USHMM, and Spielberg and Berenbaum's Visual History
Foundation.
Shoaheducation.com is not a scholarly curriculum for researchers, although it does provide a comprehensive overview
of basic holocaust topics, especially as they relate to beliefs, causes, and social influences which culminated in
the worst genocide of history. An undergraduate or graduate student not sure \ For example, the topic "Burning of the Reichstag" summarizes definitions, ideological founders and proponents, and applications, linked outside to such topics as "Beerhall Putsch", "The Bundstag", Goring, and other detailed sites on the burning of the Reichstag in WWII and others. Internal links include pages on the putsch, definitions, the German Bund fellowships, the Enabling Act and others. A side table shows the sequence of events which took place the day of the burning. In this way, those wishing to acquaint themselves with an introductory overview of what caused the Shoah and what it was really like, can educate themselves as well as Church groups, or Community groups using it in learning settings.
Why I do Not Recommend My Own Site for Public EducationI have labored almost without much of a break on this curriculum for 9 years. In the beginning, I had hoped to see it as more of an in-community fixture or organization, although over the years it has turned into online education. The site is fairly general, but a great deal of the site is written from the perspective of Evangelical Christian Viewpoints, with a primary concern on exploring how and why the Church came to behave as it did, what doctrines contributed to anti-semitic views, how hearts could be trained to hate instead of love, and what became of belief during the Shoah. I have a corollary site, shoahrose.com which focuses only on the Church during the Shoah, but shoaheducation.com focuses on how all beliefs and practices affected the development of the shoah. (See e.g. Nazi Beliefs). I have also included major original documents, famous historical documents from the period which are relevant.I have found over the years that students of middle school age or high school age are often fascinated by the site, and in a way I am very glad, but I still do not recommend it for High School use. The reason is self apparent to those who work in public education:
1. There are many other K-12 Programs excellent and with tried methods which are already out and working High School and Middle School students are more than welcome to use the site individually as a resource on the subtopics, and in deed we are prominently mentioned under such key terms as 'shoah education', nazi beliefs, Church and Shoah, Aryanization, Endlosung, and others. Since many schools have little time for holocaust education I am working to develop a very brief introduction which will be available shortly although this is still in the future. For now though, shoaheducation.com is used best in the classroom as a resource and not the main curriculum. Teachers should be well trained in the particular curriculum they choose, in this day in which we encounter many emotionally labile students and those turned to self-destruction and despair. The Structure of the Site & How to Use ItIn addition to several topical divisions, which may be found on the front page: http://www.shoaheducation.com/aaaa.html and Facts & History, the site contains several types of pages. These include:I. Administrative Pages- such as the Guestbook, Credits, Acknowlegements, and site business II.Traditional Informational Pages, described above III. Document Pages: reproductions or text reprints of famous Shoah Documents, e.g. The Enabling Act, The Vatican-Berlin Concordat, or Documents on Nazi Beliefs. All documents may be found listed either at Facts & History or on the Document Selection Page. I have tried to include the most essential and notable documents for the beginner, but an extensive site on documents outside of ours may be found at Calvin College's German Propaganda Archive. IV. A Shoah Dictionary at Definitions (under development) V. Summary Information Pages including:
VI. Concentration Camps, or Killing and Atrocity Centers: Since so many well-known websites deal in depth with one or all Nazi Concentration Camps [an excellent resource is deathcamps.org]; I have chosen instead to summarize basic data on each camp with a selection page at Killing & Atrocity Centers, with internal links to information on location, staff, history, statistics, and outside links dealing specifically with individual camps. In this way, as with much of the site, the person wishing to gain a comprehensive but beginning overview of topics or camps, may do so in one location, but easily seek out more detailed and indepth sites on individual camps. Also included is a section on Soviet Camps and American Detention Centers for Japanese Citizens VII. Two major Sections include topics usually under the rubric of the Final Solution: including The Final Solution, and The Einsatzgruppen. A further section is available on Operation or Aktion Reinhard. VIII. A separate section is available on The Ghettos including links, people, events and a timeline of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and descriptions of death in the ghetto, the Stroop Report, and the Ghettos Today. IX. With a look toward the effect of the Shoah on our lives, I have included a section on Since the Shoah. While this section is still under development, we have included links to current CIA information about the countries today, information about the EU, and where possible, foreign embassy statements about individual nations positions on Israel as well as links to Embassies, the Knesset and other sites of Interest. X. SHOAH /HOLOCAUST IN THE NEWS In line with positions of the nations towards Israel since the shoah, we run a current, link listing to online resources of News articles and sources regarding the Shoah, Ethics, Anti-Semitism, the Mid-East and Israel and other contemporary topics and discussions at Seditionact.blogspot.com-(formerly thoughts and news. XI.Dangerous Doctrines: The issue of belief and its affect on individuals, nations and the world runs throughout this site and all that is written here. Beliefs lead to views of the person and violence and life, and those views lead to actions, including violence and war. This is true in the beliefs of the Nazis, but it is also true in the beliefs and doctrines of the Church which if accepted without discernment and study can lead to heresy regarding the Jews and severe anti-Semitic. The true Christian believer cannot displace or hate Israel, or we would be in direct violation of the Lord's commands to love, mercy and humility towards Israel, recognizing our debt to our root and tree on which we are grafted. Common often widely held doctrines often bear this problem coming from the philosophies of men and not The Word. For those who do not agree with our position, you are welcome to discuss opposing ideas on the Shoah Education Project Web Forum XI.Genocide: Pages on Genocides since the Shoah and the events which turn us into people who can hate to that degree. {See Number of the Names.) XII. Other Sections: There are many other sections and subsections too numerous to mention, such as sections on Israel and its formation, theological issues, Anti-Semitism, slide shows [in need of revision!], curricula and best of the web picks. A limited genealogical link search is available and a section on remembrances is available. The forum is trying to keep track of obituaries of holocaust survivors as well.
A WORD OF CAUTION: You may not take credit for or re-write our materials, but you are welcome to use them with wisdom as freely as you
wish. It is nice to be given appropriate credit. HOWEVER- last time I tried to print out the whole site, it was nearing 3000 8.5 x 11
pages, so rather than exhaust your ink, you may want to use certain sections at a time. Sunday school or general public discussion groups
can use certain sections as springboards, making notebooks of the printed materials. Donations are welcome towards keeping the site
In Mercy,
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where to start may also find the site
helpful at the ground floor level. The development of the site includes the basic features of :
safe and on the net, but no fees are ever charged. Should you notice a real error [not just a disagreement], please contact
the web director at