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"Children of the Holocaust who said, `I want to run around' — kids understand that."

Although parents and teachers often want to protect children from such horrors, Imber encourages Jewish educators to talk to their students about the Holocaust at a young age.

"Begin in elementary school. High school is too late. It's just a paragraph in history then," Imber said last week to a group of Jewish educators. The Holocaust, she said, "is there, and it has to have its place in history."

Imber's seminar, and similar ones led by Yad Vashem educators Richelle Budd Caplan and Ephraim Kaye, was sponsored by the Holocaust Center of Northern California.

"If something horrible happens in society, you talk about it. It's OK to teach it," Imber said. "It's like sex. You don't have to teach it all. You don't have to teach all of the Holocaust either.

"Tell students the basics so they're not ignorant."

According to Imber, about 60 percent of American kindergarten students have some knowledge of the Holocaust.

Although some of their facts may be confused, the students know about survivors, concentration camps and Germany. It is better for them to learn authentic facts from trusted teachers than from the media, she said.

She suggests that educators teach the subject through the experiences of an individual child — preferably a survivor, one who was saved by a Righteous Gentile.

"It's an introduction to rescuers and a positive spin on building a new life," Imber said. "Children will learn later that most people were not saved."

By teaching the Holocaust through the life of one child, "we teach how they lived, not just how they died," Imber said. "If we don't give them profiles of the people, we participate in the dehumanization of the Holocaust."

Imber speaks to her students about life in the ghetto, about life before trains trundled Jews off to work camps and death camps. She teaches about the Jewish world between two wars — who was lost, what traditions vanished — and creates empathy.

"We're talking about teaching kids in kindergarten to third grade. These are the ages of the kids who smuggled in food. Most of them died. But in between, there is a story I want my children to know," Imber said.

She suggests that the primary educator teach this information rather than bringing in a specialist or a survivor to speak to the class. Students are most at ease with their own teacher, she said. Also, the instructor is a consistent source to whom students can bring any questions as they arise.

Imber also urges students and teachers to sit in a circle in the classroom rather than in a museum or library.

"Do this in a place where you all feel most comfortable, in a protective environment," she said. "If a child is upset by the stories of the Holocaust, the teacher is there. The educator is there to protect the children. And it's OK."

Once children have learned about the Holocaust, many write letters to what Imber calls "their child": the survivor whose story they have learned. Often the survivor is brought to visit the class.

"It's important that children get the facts right from a young age. Don't make up stories. The stories are there already," Imber said. The Holocaust "isn't a happy story. The world isn't happy either.

"Paradise would be that I wouldn't have to talk to children about anything bad until they are 20. It's just not that way."