On Board Online • September 22, 2025
By Sara Foss
Special Correspondent
The New York State Education Department has unveiled a new online resource platform to support educators in teaching about the Holocaust and other genocides.
New York's Education Law requires every high school to provide "courses of instruction" in "patriotism, citizenship and human rights issues, with particular attention to the study of the inhumanity of genocide, slavery (including the Freedom Trail and Underground Railroad), the Holocaust and the mass starvation in Ireland from 1845 to 1850."
The platform was developed in partnership with the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of NY and the New York State Archives Partnership Trust.
Called "Teaching the Holocaust and Other Genocides," the platform includes resources by time period, case studies, learning activities, literature guides and a variety of ways to engage students in discussing and learning. The material is mostly geared toward students in grades 8-12, but there are also resources for younger grades. Some material can be adapted for different groups of students.
The new platform updates, expands and modernizes the previous materials on the Holocaust available for schools, ensuring digital accessibility and providing a range of multimedia resources, according to Diane Wynne, executive director of SED's Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
"The platform is intended to be a flexible tool for teachers to use to support a range of diverse learners," Dr. Wynne told members of the state Board of Regents at their September meeting.
Educating students about the Holocaust gives students the opportunity to "grapple with the nature of our responsibility to our fellow human beings and the choices we can all make to engage in individual and collective action in our communities and in our broader world to affirm the dignity of every individual," Wynne said.
The resource guide is organized into six main modules:
- Overview of Human Behavior.
- Holocaust Resources by Time Period.
- Responses to the Holocaust.
- Literature and Art.
- U.S. and the Holocaust.
- Other Genocides, which includes information about genocides in Armenia, Bosnia, Darfur and Rwanda, among others.
The materials are historically accurate, with an emphasis on "uplifting stories about individuals engaged in a range of actions to help others," Wynne said. One resource discusses the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego County, the only refugee camp in the U.S. during World War II.
The platform includes information about ghettos, concentration camps, the 1936 Olympics, the Kristallnacht, eugenics and other significant events and ideas.
Teachers are encouraged to teach students about resistance movements, such as the White Rose, a non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany led by five students, and efforts to rescue Jews and others targeted by the Nazi regime, such as the Kindertransport, which brought thousands of Jewish refugee children to Great Britain.
Wynne said her office will spread the word about the platform and what it offers. Next steps include presenting to BOCES district superintendents in October and disseminating information via listservs for educators.
Regent Susan Mittler asked whether the materials provide guidance for teachers "who are dealing with people who are in denial, who are bigoted, biased and racist?"
Wynne replied that there is information on the platform about the impact learning about the Holocaust might have on students and that the emphasis on accounts from real people who experienced the Holocaust should counter student skepticism. "A lot of times, the students today, the things they look up are not always accurate," she said. "So, we talk about how to address that."
Regent Frances Wills praised the updated resources. "What I appreciate is that you have expanded the study of the Holocaust to understand that anyone who was different in any way would be eliminated," she said. "Children born with any defect, all people with disabilities."
Wills added that she and others see many parallels between what is happening now in the United States and 1939 Germany. "This is the most timely of presentations in some ways, but it is also a sensitive, sensitive time for educators," she said.
Regent Shino Tanikawa echoed Wills comments, saying "I'm really appreciative that you created these resources, so that our teachers can actually teach our students not to repeat this history of atrocities."
The resource guide can be accessed at considerthesourceny.org/holocaust .