Holocaust Education programs for professionals are founded on the belief that a healthy society depends upon engaged citizens. By studying the choices made by individuals and institutions during the Holocaust, participants gain fresh insight into their own professional and individual responsibilities today.

Training programs today are offered for those in the military, law enforcement, judiciary, education, and medical fields. These same institutions that were to uphold democracy & were entrusted to protect their citizens, failed during the Holocaust. How can we safeguard against making the same mistakes today?

This learning module examines the role of individual teachers and the education system under the authority of the Third Reich. Teachers were obligated to join the National Socialist Teacher’s Union and take an oath of loyalty to the führer. Within that framework, teachers were still able to make individual choices; some chose to comply with Nazi ideology, while others chose to act in opposition. This close scrutiny of the past provides a framework for a discussion on the role and responsibility of teachers in the education system today.

A short film sets the historical context. Participants then examine primary source documents in case studies and survivor testimony clips that highlight the pressures felt by and the range of choices available to teachers during Nazi rule.