Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 63, No. 45, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 5, 2009 Page: 3 of 28
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TEXAS JEWISH POST #SINCE 1947
Novembers,2009 I 3
TJ educator offers rare
Holocaust high-school course,
says lessons teach empathy
By Dave Sorter
Cathleen Cadigan is passion-
ate about teaching the Holo-
caust.
The history and government
teacher at Thomas Jefferson High
School in the Dallas ISD teaches
the only course in the district —
and perhaps among all public
high schools in the Dallas-Fort
Worth area — devoted solely to
the Holocaust. She is a fellow of
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington and is
one of 25 educators nationwide
on the museum's Regional Edu-
cation Council.
And she's Catholic. But her
undergraduate research was in
African American history and,
as she said, "I don't have a lot of
pigment."
Cadigan will be among the
presenters at the Holocaust mu-
Thomas Jefferson High School's
Cathleen Cadigan will presentatthis
week's Holocaust education forum
seum's fifth annual local educa-
tion forum this week at the Re-
gion 10 Education Service Center
in Richardson, where she will
discuss guidelines for teaching
the Holocaust.
see CADIGAN, p. 2 5
Nazi propaganda provides
many lessons for today
By Dave Sorter
Propaganda is everywhere, and
it has been used for a long time.
But perhaps the most brutal exam-
ple of propaganda came from the
Nazis during the Holocaust.
Examples of that communica-
tion and the lessons of its use can
be found at the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum's latest ma-
jor exhibit, "State of Deception:
The Power of Nazi Propaganda."
Museum historian Neal Guthrie
helped develop that exhibit, and he
will discuss it and propaganda in
general at the museum's education
forum for Texas teachers this week
at the Region 10 Education Service
Center in Richardson.
Learning about the Nazis'
methods is important, Guthrie
said, because "many techniques
are still used today. Hopefully, we
know enough that we try to figure
out what the message is and who
[is] the intended audience. We saw
propaganda in last year's elections;
we see it in the health care debate,
when people mention things like
death panels.
"People who have political
agenda are going to use propagan-
da techniques," he said.
So the exhibit and Guthrie's
presentation to the teachers this
week will tie the Nazi techniques
into how people today can recog-
nize those techniques in today's
communication* and be able to
decipher what is sincere and what
is spin.
"The exhibit focuses on how
Nazis used propaganda to gain po-
litical power and how they used it
to promote war, create a national
community and reject outsiders,
and to win complicity [in] geno-
cide practices," Guthrie said.
Propaganda can take many
forms, he said. It can consist of
truthful statements, half-truths or
outright lies, and it can omit in-
formation from otherwise correct
statements. It can appeal to emo-
tions, and it often targets specific
groups.
"It can just be a really good ar-
gument," Guthrie added.
One thing the Nazis did differ-
ently, he added, was to try to cre-
ate a national community, whereas
most other previous propaganda
in history was aimed toward a cer-
tain group.
"They targeted the entire Ger-
man population," Guthrie said.
"You could see messages to wom-
en, farmers, the working class and
the educated, trying to win the
support of a large group."
see PROPAGANDA P-25
Teaching the teachers: U.S. Holocaust museum plans fifth education forum
By Dave Sorter
Teaching the lessons of the Ho-
locaust is required in Texas' high
school social studies curriculum
— and those of every state in the
union. The U.S. Holocaust Me-
morial Museum in Washington is
trying to make sure local teachers
have all the information they need
to teach the unit.
The museum, in conjunction
with the Texas Education Agency's
Region 10 Education Service Cen-
ter in Richardson, will conduct its
fifth annual local education forum
on "Teaching About the Holo-
caust" today through Saturday at
the Region 10 offices. The sessions
will be electronically transmitted
to the Region 4 office in Houston
and the Region 1 office in Edin-
burg.
Hundreds of teachers from al-
most all area school districts will
attend at least parts of the confer-
ence to hear speakers discuss Nazi
ideology, anti-Semitism, Holocaust
literature and — new this year —
Nazi propaganda. Other sessions
will provide tips for teaching the
subject, including guidelines and
electronic resources. Video con-
ferences will feature experts from
London and Washington present-
ing materials to the attendees.
The Dallas Holocaust Museum/
Center for Education and Toler-
ance is participating, with Direc-
tor of Education Kathy Chapman
discussing local resources.
This is the first time the national
Holocaust museum is teaming up
with the Region 10 Service Center,
which serves all school districts in
Dallas, Collin, Rockwall, Grayson,
Fannin, Hunt and Ellis counties.
The previous four forums took
place under a partnership with the
University of Texas at Dallas.
The museum's mission is to
"advance and disseminate knowl-
edge about this unprecedented
tragedy," according to Stephen
Feinberg, special assistant for edu-
cation programs at the U.S. Holo-
caust Memorial Museum. "There
is no state in the United States to-
day that does not have information
about the Holocaust in their social
studies standards. You cannot find
a textbook today in America that
does not mention the Holocaust."
Because of that, museum offi-
cials want to ensure the lessons are
communicated effectively.
"It was felt by the museum
that it is extremely important
that when teachers teach about
the Holocaust, they teach it well,"
Feinberg said. "We bring material
resources that we donate to educa-
tors that participate, and we bring
extensive intellectual resources to
this program."
For example, the museum is
providing three books to the at-
tendees: "The Holocaust and Nazi
Ideology," "War and Genocide: A
Concise History of the Holocaust"
and "State of Deception: The Pow-
er of Nazi Propaganda." The latter
book ties into a new U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum exhibition of
the same name.
The gist of the conference — and
those conducted by the museum
nationwide (this year, forums have
taken place in Chicago and Los An-
geles, and one is planned at Arizo-
na State University in Tempe) — is
see FORUM, p.25
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rjj Community Spotlight
c
Mike Tod
Legacy Senior Communities is proud to introduce one of its most active
volunteers, Michael Todres. Mike volunteers at both of our retirement
communities, The Legacy at Preston Hollow and The Legacy at Willow Bend.
Whether it's sports, the arts, or politics, his current events discussions are lively
and make every Monday special. Mike's friendly visits bring much happiness
to our residents.
Mike began his commitment to our organization twelve years ago when
he retired from JC Penney, where he served as Vice President and Director
of Logistics and Procurement. Mike is a past Board member and currently
serves on the board of CHAl. He also volunteers for Meals on Wheels. We are
very fortunate to have Mike as a volunteer.
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Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 63, No. 45, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 5, 2009, newspaper, November 5, 2009; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth188265/m1/3/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .