Never Forget: March of the Living and Place-Based Holocaust Storytelling

Abstract

As twenty-first-century Jewish educators, we have repeatedly seen Jewish teens look upon the systematic murder of six million of their people by Nazi Germany-a historical event that occurred more than seventy years ago-almost as they would another one of those ancient stories that they commemorate during the holidays of Passover, Chanukah, Purim, or Tisha B'Av. The narrative around these holidays is often described as Once upon a time [...]. They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat (e.g., see Abramson).And yet the story of the Holocaust, or Shoah, never seems to end, and neither do its political implications. This is due in large part to the fact that in a post-Holocaust world, Jewish educators have endeavored to provide teens with an experience that will imbed the conceptual framework of the Holocaust-and Jewish identity-into their very beings, turning an intellectual study of history into an emotional, memorable, and meaningful experience that will positively influence their moral, spiritual, and political lives. They have done this most effectively, we believe, through place-based storytelling.This essay provides a brief background of early Holocaust education, along with a description and analysis of one response to concerns about those educational experiences, March of the Living (MOL). It endeavors to answer the questions: (a) What are some difficulties associated with efforts to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust? (b) What are the political agendas of those wishing to keep that memory alive? and (c) How is March of the Living's place-based storytelling approach more effective than were previous attempts to further those political agendas?BackgroundIn the years following the Second World War, Holocaust education relied on black-and-white, graphic documentary films such as Night and Fog (Resnais) to express the full horror of the events that befell European Jews during World War II. Because these highly disturbing films were subsequently deemed inappropriate for children (e.g., see Futterman), educators then resorted to inviting survivors who were ready to share their accounts of their experiences. This second approach proved to be more stimulating and uplifting than were the films, and the teens were able to connect with the survivors, ask questions, and write gracious and meaningful thank-you letters. Unfortunately, what we found as educators in subsequent conversations with students was that, just a few days later, the impact often seemed to fade.In 1988, a new modality for teaching the Holocaust was developed. Rather than relying on films or survivors who were, with the passing years, beginning to lose their ability to tell their stories, this program took teens to the sites of the Holocaust in Poland. The experience became known as the March of the Living. Youngsters would travel to Poland and visit the sites of Jewish incarceration, torture, and extermination over the course of a week and then fly to Israel and spend a second week celebrating Israel's Memorial Day and Independence Day. In most communities, the teens are obligated to take a course of study prior to the trip to gain insight into the historical elements of the Holocaust and of the subsequent establishment of the State of Israel. In many instances, these classes range from six to fourteen sessions, at about two hours per session.The Difficulties of Holocaust CommemorationEarly on, many Jewish educators, rabbis, and survivors strongly opposed instituting a program that was so dramatically connected to the second greatest tragedy in Jewish history. (The first was the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem). The Jewish Education Bureau in Boston led much of the opposition, not wanting Jewish money spent in Poland, thereby giving what they considered to be the world's most anti-Semitic country an economic windfall. In addition, many rebuked the use of the Holocaust as a vehicle for teaching Jewish identity, calling it contrary to Jewish philosophy and ideology (e. …