In this detailed account of the first stages of a lesson sequence for Year 9 (13-14 year-olds), Kate Hammond sets out the tensions that must be examined and resolved when planning and teaching this most demanding of topics. How can young teenagers be helped to develop a mature response to devastating atrocity? How can they swiftly gain enough knowledge to place the Holocaust in a variety of broader contexts? What is the relationship between serious, detached, historical analysis and moral, human or emotional response? What kinds of big historical concepts can support that analysis? What kinds of moral reasoning can develop understanding of those concepts? Kate draws these ideas together with a tight conception of subject rigour. She takes a different line from some other contributors to this journal, reconciling contrasting approaches and rationales. She also links her teaching to the new ‘Strand’ of the British government’s current ‘Strategy’ for transforming Key Stage 3 in England: Teaching and Learning in the Foundation Subjects (TLF) . She offers both inspiring solutions and words of caution.