Teaching materials for Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day 

In this section, "Commemoration in the Classroom" are several suggested activities. The activities were created in partnership with the ADL, Jewish Education Council, and the Seattle Archdiocese. 

1. Introduction (this page - see below)
2. Names as Tools for Remembering
3. Bystanders and Responsibility
4. Readings for Yom Hashoah for Jewish Schools
5. Readings for Yom Hashoah for Christian Schools

What was the Holocaust?

The Holocaust refers to a specific event during the 20th century. It was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and destruction of European Jewish people by the Nazis and their collaborators between 1933 and 1945. While Jews were the primary target of Nazi hatred, the Nazis also persecuted and murdered Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), homosexuals, Poles, Jehovah's Witnesses, and people with disabilities. Six million Jews (two-thirds of the European Jewish population) and five million others were murdered in the Holocaust.

What does the word Holocaust mean?

The term Holocaust originally meant a sacrifice that was totally burned by fire. The Hebrew word Shoah, which means "catastrophe" or "destruction," is also used to refer to the Holocaust.

What date is Holocaust Remembrance Day and why is not the same every year?

After the horrors of the Holocaust, Jews wanted a day to memorialize this tragedy. But what day? For two years, the date was debated. Finally, in 1950, compromises and bargaining began. The 27th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar,* was chosen. This date falls beyond Passover but within the time span of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

On April 12, 1951, the Knesset (Israel's parliament) proclaimed Yom Hashoah U'Mered HaGetaot (Holocaust and Ghetto Revolt Remembrance Day) to be the 27th of Nisan. The name was later simplified to Yom Hashoah. This year Holocaust Remembrance Day begins on April 14th at sundown and ends on April 15th at sundown.

*The Hebrew calendar is based on the lunar cycle. The months are shorter than those on the solar calendar (the calendar we commonly use), so a date on the Hebrew calendar does not always match up with the same day on the solar calendar.

Isn't there also a Holocaust Remembrance Day in January?

The United Nations General Assembly Designated January 27th an annual international day of commemoration to honor Holocaust victims. January 27th is the day associated with the liberation of Auschwitz. Many European countries already use this date for commemorative events. To the thousands of survivors who were on the death march out of Auschwitz, this is a controversial day.

Israel and the United States will continue to observe Holocaust Remembrance Day on the date assigned on the Hebrew calendar, the 27th of Nissan. Nonetheless, the UN's move is momentous as it urges Member States to develop educational programs to instill the memory of the tragedy in future generations to prevent genocide from occurring again...read UN document.