Holocaust education in Polish public schools: Between remembrance and civic education

Abstract

This article analyzes the historical and political context of Holocaust education, and its implementation in Polish schools. Perceptions of the Holocaust continue to change, influenced by Poland’s social and political situation. The Polish historical context is quite specific; it includes the long history of Poles and Jews as neighbours, with local resentments and animosities, and the Polish sense of being special victims of World War II and observers of the Nazis’ “final solution to the Jewish question”. These different types of social awareness have neutralized the remembrance of the Holocaust and its presence in school education. Similarly, the perception of the Holocaust in Polish schools has changed. Initially seen as just one element in the Nazis’ crimes against everyone in Poland, it is now understood as a singular phenomenon, the unparalleled mass extermination of the Jewish nation. From this perspective, I analyze Holocaust education, and its status in the curriculum and in pedagogical practice. I also report on my own research on the practice and meanings of Holocaust education in Polish public schools. Holocaust education should not be limited to the pedagogical transfer of remembrance but should also be associated with transforming social awareness and modern civic education.