List of activities

- A recommended approach to teaching the history of the Shoah is to use background pedagogical material and to start with the study of a book or a film.
- The second step would be to explore the chronology of events and clarify specific vocabulary to show the outcome of  the process of exclusion.
- Allowances should be made for children's prior command of the subject and what they may have imagined. Primary school children come into contact at a very early age with all kinds of facts in the media: printed press, radio, television, Internet or in their home environment. The aim therefore is to help them put what they already know in order rather than to overwhelm them with a mass of information.
- Use of a map is advisable so as to locate the countries at war and the main centers of Jewish life.
- Documents can help illustrate the various themes to be studied(photographs, children's drawings, letters written by children in hiding).  Photographs need to be carefully selected since they are powerful instruments of proof and fascination. Showing children direct photographic representation or film footage of the genocide is obviously out of the question. 
Children may however be asked to bring objects to school (badges, newspapers, tracts, posters, photographs, etc.).
- At the close of the sequence, children should be encouraged to illustrate the theme through drawings, painting, collage, writing, so that they can externalize their emotions; if possible, answers should be given to  their questions.
- Teachers must be cautious not to provoke rejection or saturation on the subject. The specificity of the Shoah should be pointed out but later, a wider perspective could help to relate coherently to other victims of racism or mass crimes (genocide of the Armenians in 1915 and of the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994).
- Beyond the horror of crimes incomprehensible to a child's mind, taking a broader view including a message of hope for a better world is recommended. Themes such as the following could be mentioned: the Righteous amongst the Nations, democratic advances such as justice, secularism, citizenship, essential values such as tolerance, humanism, universalism; the establishment of firm and lasting peace between France and Germany in a European framework after three conflicts. What does it mean to be French? What do we have in common? (The language, the country, sites of commemoration, cuisine, etc...)

Resources

- The history of the Shoah can be studied from many different angles and a variety of subjects: history, geography, civics, French, art and non-curricular activities, such as encounters with witnesses or with writers who described that period, shows, exhibitions, films, and activities organized by the Shoah Memorial. Current cultural and artistic events are also worth attention.


Meeting a witness

- Meetings with witnesses of the period must be carefully prepared, both as regards the witnesses themselves and the children. Witnesses should be asked to talk particularly about how their own personal experience relates to the historical context, but not confine what they have to say to that, nor try to give a history lesson. A wise precaution is to go through the story with the witness beforehand so as to be sure it will be comprehensible and does not mention unnecessary details which might shock young listeners.

- Teachers should prepare the children for the visit and insist on the fact that it is impossible to judge events of which we all now know the tragic outcome with hindsight, so as to avoid involuntarily indecent or arrogant questions.

Pedagogical and cultural activities organized by the Memorial Museum

- Visit of the permanent exhibition with a special signposted tour and a visitor's brochure especially designed for children.
- Guided visits
- Pedagogical workshops for groups and individuals
- Slide shows and debates at the Forum des Images, Paris
- Training courses for teachers and summer universities
- Assistance with specific school projects
- Pedagogical files and data sheets, etc.
- Traveling thematic exhibitions
- Multimedia Learning Center (testimonies, encyclopedia, website selection, films, etc.).  Viewing on our premises.
- Exhibitions, lectures, showing of films, debates.

And on the Memorial's website: "Sarah's attic", initiation for 8-12 year olds, a FAQ for the little ones, bibliography, a comparative timeline, and a dictionary of the Shoah linked to every page of the website, and more.