The author's eighth-grade ELA curriculum is rich with opportunities for students to bear witness to a variety of experiences. Besides the Holocaust unit, they read "Ghost Boys" by Jewell Parker Rhodes (2018) while exploring police brutality and segregation; "The Giver" by Lois Lowry (1993) while investigating government structures' effect on personal choice; and "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson (1999), bearing witness to a story of sexual assault and loss of voice due to trauma. Beginning the year by looking back at the atrocity of the Holocaust gives students a way to think critically about other injustices and human rights violations during the rest of the school year. Although this task is seemingly daunting, the author's class begins each topic--the Holocaust included--with human experiences. This article outlines the rationale for teaching the Holocaust in the secondary English language arts classroom and provides examples from a middle school classroom.