“Unless They Have To”: Power, Politics and Institutional Hierarchy in Lithuanian Holocaust Education

Abstract

Teachers working on Holocaust education in Lithuania expressed a desire for more support from their school directors, but they wanted to see less political pressure from the United States and Europe in the international arena. While their desire for less international attention to Holocaust education may seem like a reluctance to engage with the topic at all, many Lithuanian teachers explained their frustrations differently. Supportive teachers said that it would be easier to garner support from colleagues if the expectations for Holocaust education came from a known hierarchy, such as their own schools, rather than through the hierarchy of international geopolitics. Considering the politics surrounding post-Soviet Holocaust education, this chapter explores the role that school directors play in motivating teachers to participate. Based on more than 2 years of fieldwork, this study found that school directors play an important role in motivating teachers, but the overtly political nature of Holocaust education makes many directors hesitate to take on programmes. These findings suggest the need for additional research on the complex and conflicted role of international power relationships in developing culturally sustainable Holocaust education programmes in post-Soviet states.