Holocaust education

To teach about the particularity of the Holocaust is an opportunity to teach about the nature and dynamics of mass atrocity crimes, i.e. genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The United Nations Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes states "atrocity crimes are considered to be the most serious crimes against humankind. Their status as international crimes is based on the belief that the acts associated with them affect the core dignity of human beings."[4] From a human perspective, but also from social, political and economic perspectives, the costs and consequences of these crimes are immeasurable and extend far beyond the limits of territories where they were perpetrated. Prevention has, therefore, been identified by the international community as a necessity for international peace and stability. Prevention requires continuous efforts and awareness in both the short and long term at the local, national and global levels. Such measures may include institutional initiatives that strengthen the rule of law and protect human rights, ensure a better management of diverse societies and reinforce civil society and independent media.[1]

Education about the Holocaust, as well as education more broadly about genocide and mass atrocities, provides the opportunity to help build critical thinking skills, to augment resilient and effective responses to extreme and exclusionary ideologies, and to illuminate for students how they see themselves in the context of their country's past, present and future.[1]

The Holocaust began with abuses of power and gross human rights violations by Nazi Germany that over time escalated into war and genocide.[5] While not all human rights violations result in genocide, the Holocaust presents an important case to be explored in a human rights context. The discriminatory policies and practices that dehumanized and marginalized Jews and other minority or political groups (such as depriving individuals of their citizenship) illuminate how human rights violations when combined with factors such as the abuse of power and/or exclusionary ideology can become normalized in a society – even one framed by the rule of law. That these policies escalated over time to a state-sponsored system for murder underlines the dangerous environment that can result when human rights are disavowed. In the aftermath of the Second World War and the Holocaust, a number of international norms promoting human rights were formulated, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. Examining this outcome represents a crucial phase in understanding the evolution of human rights concepts.[1]

Still, education about the Holocaust and human rights education are two distinct fields. How educators can create the space for students to examine the history in a manner that respects the tenets of each field requires some thought. A number of organizations have considered these points of intersection, including the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), in partnership with Yad Vashem,[6] and the German Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" (EVZ). Thoughtfully integrating examination of the Holocaust into a human rights framework can be an important dimension of education that promotes critical thinking about the roles and responsibilities of members of society and their leaders in the context of human rights.[7]

Accurate information about Jews, Judaism, Jewish history and Israel in the United States are important to the Jewish community as well as Holocaust survivors and their descendants. Sub-topics related to accurate teaching of Jewish history including addressing myths about Ancient Israel, Jewish claims to the land of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Other related topics include the history of European Antisemitism and why blaming Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is a misrepresentation. Still a minority community worldwide, Jews continue to be attacked by antisemitism in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Educating about the Holocaust is primarily a duty for European countries, in which considerable segments of societies either collaborated with Nazi Germany or stood by. After an initial period of silence and/or minimization, many countries have developed an understanding of the need to educate about the Holocaust and the obligation to investigate and face their national past. Nevertheless, national, professional or individual responsibilities remain heavily debated within and among countries where the Holocaust took place. Even more than 70 years after the events, a self-critical vision of history that accounts for the range of responsibilities in the murder of Jews and other groups such as the Roma and Poles has yet to emerge in many places. Nationalistic ideologies continue to influence the ways in which history is remembered and taught.[1]

In 2017 a Körber Foundation survey found that 40 percent of 14-year-olds in Germany did not know what Auschwitz was.[8] The journalist Alan Posener attributed Germany's "growing historical amnesia" in part to a failure by the German film and television industry to reflect the country's history accurately.[9] The following year a survey organized by the Claims Conference, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and others found that 41 percent of 1,350 American adults surveyed, and 66 percent of millennials, did not know what Auschwitz was, while 22 percent said they had never heard of the Holocaust.[10] In 2021, a survey by Liberation75 and Western University assessed what 3,593 teens across Canada and the United States know and think about the Holocaust. One in three students reported believing that the Holocaust was fabricated or exaggerated, or being unsure if the Holocaust occurred. [11]

Many post-atrocity communities throughout the world struggle with divided societies. Social cohesion remains fractured and progress is blocked by the country's refusal to deal with its national history of genocide and mass atrocities and the long-term trauma such crimes cause. This challenge increases when conflicting parties or survivors and their tormentors must co-exist in the same society in the aftermaths of atrocity crimes. While some societies opt for an approach of silence, others have found that as a society transitions towards non-violent and humane ways to handle conflict, facing the past can become an important element of the national narrative.[1]

Teaching about a contested history involving atrocities that still affect the present is a particularly challenging task, all the more so because history education is one of the most difficult segments of education systems to reform. Moreover, dealing with the history of past abuses through education often requires a minimal consensus within the society, and therefore institutional support, before new historical narratives accounting for crimes perpetrated can be integrated in curricula and textbooks or tackled by teachers in formal education settings.[1] Such a process is happening in Lithuania, where the Holocaust and the history of the Jews in Lithuania has not been taught adequately until fairly recently.[12]