Don't discount the Arts just yet. A trip to the Museum of Modern Art can have profound implications for student learning across disciplines. In fact, it was through my exposure to Art that I became intimately and emmotionally connected to the past and the world around me and found my niche in social studies and science education. As a social studies or science teacher, do not deprive your students of the uniquely personal oppurtunity to be connected emotionally with their learning.
So what is a "synthetical moment"? William Pinar and Madeline Grumet (1976) first referred to a "synthetical moment" as a perception altering experience. A student may never truely understand what it was like to be Jewish in Poland during the Holocaust, but various artistic renditions of the events that capture the intense emmotion of the time can alter a student's perception and capacity for empathy. Art, in many ways, is a reflection of the culture and perception contemporaneous to its creation. Everything from Greek, Renaissance, modern, and post-modern Art has an intended (or unintended) aesthetic that reflects a unique human experience. Knowing how to capture these "synthetical moments" with students and turn them into learning opportunities provides a critically-important dimmension to student's educational experience. Interacting with art can be very personal and not all students will experience synthetical moments, but, in my opinion, we have an obligation to provide students with the opportunity to.
By the way, synthetical moments do not have to be restricted to traditional mediums like canvas or sculpture, they can also be mediated through literature, poetry, music and film.
Why just Tell students that Jews and Gypsies were persecuted during the Holocaust? Why not Show them? Here's an example of how music can teach a concept of how shared experiences can unite diverse groups of people together in shared expressions of sadness and joy.
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