Re: Was WWII more than the Holocaust?

Salvatore_B (Salvatore_B@BLS.GOV)
Mon, 27 Apr 1998 17:47:56 -0400 

i suggest an in-class debate: you and he, arguing for
"only to free the Jews", and 2-3 of your best students
arguing for the consensus historical view.   then this
one student will have to dig up his sources, you will
get in touch with new material by surveying the
bibliographies in his sources, and the rest of the class
will learn how historical research is conducted and evaluated.
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From:   Senneville[SMTP:psennev@ILI.NET]
Sent:   Sunday, April 26, 1998 3:47 PM
My name is Pat Senneville and I teach a suburban Detroit
Catholic High School.  I teach American History and my focus on WWII has
always been from the American perspective:  Why did we get involved in
this war?  What role did we play before we became combatants and after?
What role did we play in the ending of the war?  What impact did this
war have on American history?  (All of my student took World History as
Freshmen and they studied about WWII from a "citizen of the world"
perspective.)

        This year I have encountered something that I never encountered
before.  As I began the unit on WWII, one of the students in the class
made the remark that all this war was about was us freeing the Jews that
Hitler was killing in the concentration camps.  This student firmly
believes this to be true.

        Without diminishing in any way the plight and suffering of the
Jews in the concentration camps, the horror of this experience, or the
importance of their liberation, how can I get through to this student
that the war was more than a war to liberate the Jews from the
concentration camps.  I know that maybe he will catch on as we go over
the reasons for U.S. involvement which had little to do with the plight
of the Jews in Europe, and the fact that the war continued for several
months after the Jews were liberated.  But does anyone have any other
suggestion that will make the totality of the purpose of this war ring
true to this student and his fellow classmates, without diminishing in
any way the horror of the Holocaust and the importance of remembering
it?

                                        Pat Senneville
                                        Our Lady of Mt. Carmel H.S.
                                        Wyandotte, MI