AUGUST 26 • 2021 | 15

“When you’re talking about genocide, 
how do you approach it safely and accu-
rately?” Bergman says. “How do you make 
sure students are getting the right infor-
mation that’s age-appropriate?”
This, Bergman says, is where Michigan’s 
genocide education mandate significantly 
opened the doors to better access and 
learning resources to continue teaching 
today’s youth about the Holocaust. “The 
mandate gave us that entrance to be able 
to talk to schools, teachers and superin-
tendents about teaching the Holocaust 
appropriately.”

IMMEDIATE IMPACT
Michigan’s genocide education mandate 
changed the course of the state’s Holocaust 
education capabilities for the good. The 
Holocaust Memorial Center was able 
to greatly expand its content services, 
increasing support and lesson plans for 
Michigan teachers, specifically.
The museum was also able to hire an 
outreach manager to boost communica-
tion between the museum and schools 
across Michigan. “The outreach manager 
talked to every school district in the state 
to let them know that we are available to 
help them and to train them to teach the 
Holocaust appropriately,” Bergman says. 

The first step was to create workshops 
to train teachers how to use literature to 
teach the Holocaust, Bergman says, which 
is often one of the initial ways youth are 
exposed to the genocide that killed 6 mil-
lion Jews. “Many students’ first exposure 
to the Holocaust is actually not through 
social studies,” she said, explaining that 
books tend to take precedence.
The museum also beefed up its online 
content that teachers can pull from for les-
son plans. Additionally, it created various 
accommodations to those lessons that can 
be used for English-language learners or 
for students in special education.
Jennifer Sepetys, a social studies teach-
er at West Bloomfield High school who 
teaches global studies of 
genocide and world 
history, was one of many 
educators who participated in 
a professional development 
program from Echoes and 
Reflections instructors at the 
Holocaust Memorial Center, 
which she completed a year after the pass-
ing of the mandate.
“The program provides training 
and materials to middle school and 
high school teachers for teaching the 
Holocaust,” Sepetys explains. “The man-

date offered more opportunities for teach-
ers to receive training on Holocaust edu-
cation, and now there are more programs 
and webinars available for teachers who 
would like ongoing professional develop-
ment as well.”

FACING THE HOLOCAUST
Though West Bloomfield High School’s 
genocide course was offered before the 
mandate was passed, the mandate made 
learning about the Holocaust more 
accessible (with the addition of ongo-
ing support and increased professional 
development for educators). For Sepetys, 
she has seen the real-world impact of the 
importance of both learning about and 
preventing genocides.
“Students who learn about the 
Holocaust in my high school class reflect 
on what happened much differently than 
younger students,” Sepetys says. “
As stu-
dents mature, they think more critically 
about how and why it happened and what 
actions need to be taken to ensure it does 
not happen again.”
As part of their Holocaust education, 
West Bloomfield High School students 
(among many others) visit the Holocaust 
Memorial Center to hear survivor testi-
monies and face the Holocaust head-on.

Brennden Bernard, HMC education associate, 
leading a Virtual Museum Experience. He 
is playing a video of a Holocaust survivor 
while he prepares to show his PowerPoint 
presentation. During the lesson, he is 
providing context to survivor videos and 
artifacts, etc., shared during the session.

continued on page 16

Jennifer 
Sepetys

