Creating a youth ambassador: a critical study of a Swedish project on teaching and learning about the Holocaust

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on a project within the government-supported Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism program. To our knowledge, this is the first study to employ full-project interviews and participant observations to explore Swedish study trips to Holocaust memorial sites. It applies the educational concepts of qualification, socialization, and person-formation inspired by educational theorist Gert Biesta. Students acquired qualified concepts regarding the Holocaust's ‘what' and ‘why’ dimensions. However, findings indicate that attention should be paid to how external organizers risk narrowing the potentials of education about the Holocaust due to a lack of preexisting relations among students, and between educators and students.