Moderators Of Change In The Attitudes Toward Holocaust Moral Dilemmas

Abstract

The Jewish Holocaust was the premeditated and systematic murder of more than six million Jews perpetrated by the Nazis under the leadership and vision of their leader, the Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler. This paper presents significant results regarding the influence of certain moderators on the evolution of Israeli high-school students moral attitudes towards the different strategies employed by Jews to cope with Holocaust and post-Holocaust moral dilemmas through three research stages. The aim of this research was to test whether changes in the participants moral attitudes during their Holocaust Learning Program was moderated by gender, having Holocaust victims as relatives and participation in the journey to Holocaust memorial sites in Poland.102 male and female participants, students in three Israeli high-schools, responded to Moral Attitudes Questionnaire administered at three timepoints over a period of a one-year Holocaust Learning Program. The results revealed that for the moderator "having Holocaust victims or survivors as relatives “in dilemmas category -"The perception of Jewish behaviour towards the Nazis", the agreement with the acceptance moral solution among the relatives group decreased significantly over time. The results also revealed that for the moderator "gender" in dilemmas category- "Consideration of revenge and compromise", the level of agreement with the affective-intuitive moral solution among the female group decreased significantly over time and changed from "agreement" to "disagreement".