Holocaust Education Research Articles

Countering Holocaust Trivialization: How Educational Resources Support Teachers in the Context of Political Extremism

In this study, we used Terrance L. Furin’s concept of transformational countering to examine six Holocaust education resources designed to address Holocaust trivialization and antisemitism. While academic comparisons are useful to helping students understand challenging content, superficial Holocaust analogies for political purposes are identified as Holocaust trivialization. Given that the current context consists of a growing white nationalist movement characterized by authoritarianism, antisemitism, and conspiracy theories, we enter the study understanding that Holocaust trivialization and far-right extremism must be understood together. We, therefore, examined the type of support teachers receive from Holocaust and human rights organizations in countering extremism and Holocaust trivialization. After analyzing the six resources, our findings demonstrate that resources produced to counter Holocaust trivialization become quickly outdated given the rapid evolution of extremism. Also, findings indicate that teachers receive stronger support in countering extremism and Holocaust trivialization from organizations that focus broadly on supporting human rights compared to the organizations that focus exclusively on Holocaust education.

Postgenocide and decolonizing approaches to peace education in the Anthropocene

ABSTRACT This article addresses the intersection of genocide studies, climate change, and peace education. It does so by examining the state of these connections, and proposes a fresh concept for considering the entanglements of contemporary violence in the Anthropocene. A notion of postgenocide sees the elements of geopolitical order, warlordism, climate change and resource exploitation. Postgenocide is an approach to mass violence occurring beyond the usual framing of state violence and intent. It aims to enrich the ongoing decolonization of peace education, as well as empower peace educators in conveying these often-complex relations in a violence-prone and climate changing world. Thinking outside of legal constraints of genocide or emotive fuzziness of climate change, educators can broaden their appeals and promote decolonized thinking of how violence works, its agents, and who it impacts in the Anthropocene. Postgenocide offers a transformative research and praxis link frame beyond globalizing Holocaust education as a stand-in for human rights education. Peace educators can leverage global concepts like postgenocide to cut through and examine the complexity of such entanglements.

Bearing witness: Medical education and reflecting on the Holocaust then and now.

Despite advocacy from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and The Lancet Commission on medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust, Holocaust education is lacking in medical education. To address this gap, students at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (GCSOM) viewed an Association of American Medical College (AAMC) webinar about medicine during the Holocaust as part of the required curriculum for first year medical students introduced in 2022. As part of their doctoring course, Physician and Patient Centered Care (PPCC), students viewed the AAMC webinar "The legacy of the role of medicine during the Holocaust and its contemporary relevance" and participated in two structured reflections: a written reflection on how webinar topics inform students' professional development and a verbal reflection on learning from the Holocaust to develop a sense of moral courage, advocacy, and activism in medicine. Researchers conducted qualitative analysis of written reflections and analyzed session surveys to determine key themes and impact of the session. Of the 108 enrolled in PPCC, 59 (54.6%) completed a post session Likert scale survey assessing the impact of the webinar on their personal and professional development. As an average, respondents moderately agreed that the webinar impacted their personal and professional development, with 91% slightly, moderately, or strongly agreeing. Additionally, thematic analysis of required written reflections indicated a majority of students (62.5%) identified the need for additional medical humanities education about the Holocaust and its relevance to medicine. Holocaust education encourages medical students to bear witness to past medical atrocities and critically assess the profession and their personal-professional growth. Continued structured integration of the Holocaust in medical education supports critical self-reflection and the development of morally courageous physicians who endorse and practice social accountability in medicine.

LeDiT – Learning with digital testimonies: Holocaust education 2.0

The decline in knowledge about World War II and the Holocaust, coupled with increasing discrimination and populism, highlights the urgent need for innovative educational approaches. Abba Naor, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, has devoted his life to sharing his experiences, emphasizing the significance of historical learning to prevent future atrocities. The project "Learning with digital testimonies" (LeDiT) seeks to preserve Naor's memories and broaden their accessibility through interactive digital testimonies.Naor's interactive digital testimony offers an immersive and easily accessible means of engaging with a Holocaust survivor, vital for future generations who will not have the opportunity for in-person interactions. Originally recorded in German, the international version with English subtitles now allows users from around the world to ask a Holocaust survivor questions and learn about their personal stories. Implications of the project extend beyond educational settings in schools, with potential applications in museums, memorials, and online platforms dedicated to Holocaust education. Ongoing research aims to understand cross-cultural and generational perspectives on Holocaust education. Thus, interactive digital testimonies not only preserve the memories of survivors but also facilitate meaningful connections to historical events, fostering empathy and collective action against discrimination. Keywords 0Holocaust, memory, testimony, chatbot, Holocaust education, audiovisual translation, subtitling, interactive digital testimony

In the shoes of the other: an educational trip to Auschwitz Birkenau increases high-school students’ perspective taking and identification with Jews

ABSTRACT We investigated whether empathy and identification with Jews as a group is affected by a Holocaust education trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Data was collected before and after the trip and compared with a control group. The mean level of both perspective taking and identification with Jews as a group increased in the educational-trip group. Increased closeness to Jews as a group was related to increased perspective taking. We discuss the role for Holocaust education in fostering an understanding of Jewish life and culture and for stimulating perspective taking by providing an opportunity to put oneself in the shoes of the other.

On teaching Holocaust geographies: supporting inquiry into space, persecution and civic action

PurposeIn this article, the authors – a social studies methods professor and geography research associate – make the case for considering the integration of Holocaust geographies into the middle and secondary curriculum, potential challenges that teachers may have in teaching Holocaust geographies are addressed.Design/methodology/approachUsing an experience in delivering professional development on Holocaust geographies to teachers to frame the discourse within the article, the authors contend that a study of Holocaust geographies tests geography as a discipline, addresses current problems and supports student inquiry. Therefore, the inclusion of the Holocaust in the geography curriculum is both needed and valuable.FindingsExamining the Holocaust spatially using geographical skills moves students away from the potential limits of studying the Holocaust temporally using only historical skills. Thus, the distance between past and present, although not ignored, is narrowed through the inquiry into spatial patterns and characteristics, providing the potential to bring greater focus on present-day antisemitism, persecution, genocide and authoritarianism.Originality/valueEducators are encouraged to take up work that intersects the civic goals of both geography and Holocaust education, yet literature on these intersections is sparse. We call upon Holocaust education and geography education organizations to develop and provide support for teachers around Holocaust geographies.

Using Holocaust Education as a “Bridge” to Learning about Apartheid in a South African History Classroom: The Development of “Interpretive Frames” through Comparative Histories

Abstract The Grade 9 South African history curriculum teaches the history of the Holocaust as an introduction to the study of apartheid. Students are taught how racial identities are constructed, codified into law, and weaponized for the purposes of discrimination and genocide. They are taught that racialized discrimination can happen anywhere—not only in South Africa—and that we must be vigilant lest it happens again. Curriculum developers—supported by international literature (e.g., UNESCO publications)—believe that learning about the Holocaust will act as a “bridge” to learning about apartheid.1 By teaching young South Africans difficult history that is emotionally, geographically, and temporally removed from their own country, educators believed that students will be better prepared to study the complex history of apartheid. Yet what is the impact of this comparative approach?2 The author’s ten-month ethnographic study explores how Grade 9 students in one majority-White history classroom in Cape Town learned about the Holocaust and apartheid. Developing Epstein’s idea of an “interpretive frame,”3 this empirical study contributes to ongoing debates on whether and how genocides and other atrocities can be meaningfully compared in the history classroom.4 Furthermore, it questions whether using Holocaust education as a “bridge”5 to domestic injustices and persecution will significantly improve historical understanding, tolerance, and moral reasoning.

Building a Network of Holocaust Educators in Poland (DOS)

Building a Network of Holocaust Educators in Poland (DOS)

“Only memories:” place-based holocaust education in contemporary Poland

PurposeThe purpose of this self-study is to analyze my experiences learning in Poland, the country where Nazis imprisoned and murdered my family. I share findings from multiple museum locations, including implications for history teachers, teacher educators and visitors to Holocaust museums.Design/methodology/approachI participated in a ten-day professional development seminar designed for American teachers to visit Poland. To allow for self-study after the trip, I maintained a reflexive journal and photographic records of each day I was in Poland. I analyze these data in conjunction with publicly available data from the museums and historical sites I visited in Poland.FindingsThe findings suggest that teachers can face many challenges when learning in a land of traumatic absences. Many challenges stem from the absences of buildings and survivors, as those may be integral to place-based learning. Testimonies and first-person accounts may ameliorate these challenges for teachers engaging in place-based learning. Additionally, teachers may use these accounts to bring a pedagogy of remembrance from Poland to their classrooms.Originality/valueThis study is not under review with another journal.

The making of Holocaust education in Britain, 1945–1991

ABSTRACT Despite the prevalence of research in Holocaust memory and Holocaust education, the historical development of British Holocaust education remains understudied. This paper reconstructs this history, presenting Anglo-Jewish efforts to teach about the Holocaust in the 1970s for the first time and using the concept of ‘cosmopolitan memory’ to explain its proliferation in the early 1980s. This article argues that the origins of contemporary Holocaust education should not be found in the increase of its teaching with the National Curriculum of 1991 but in the changing culture of memory and history teaching in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

German teachers' pilgrimage to an Israeli Holocaust Memorial: Emotions, encounters, and contested visions

AbstractDrawing on anthropological conceptions of pilgrimage, our ethnography of professional development at an Israeli Holocaust Memorial follows German teachers on journeys to Israel. Seeking transformative and transferable experiences to combat anti‐Semitism in schools, teachers experienced the voyage as a secular pilgrimage rooted in Christian traditions of guilt, confession, and absolution. As teachers' emotional encounters in Israel simultaneously forged communitas and challenged official historical–pedagogical visions, their practices abroad elucidate prevalent Holocaust education discourses in contemporary Germany.

The harsh side of history: a comparative analysis of teaching about national shame in the United States and around the World

ABSTRACT As the debate over Critical Race Theory (CRT) rages on in the U.S., it is important to revist the different ways other controversial topics have been covered both domestically and internationally. In this article, we posit that there are successful and unsuccessful pathways for teaching about issues of national shame such as slavery, colonialism, and other difficult issues. We use comparative analysis to review how other countries have taught students about their own issues (e.g., Holocaust education in Germany, climate change education in Italy) and how the American education system (s) compare. Ultimately, we argue that the most successful and comprehensive way to teach about painful histories is with honesty, transparency, and empathy, with the opposite route (denial, shame, diversion) only deepening the wounds.

Countering antisemitism through Holocaust education. A comparative perspective on Scotland and Austria

Countering antisemitism through Holocaust education. A comparative perspective on Scotland and Austria

Educational Autonomy and the Holocaust: A Comparative Study of Teachers’ Freedom in European Narratives

ABSTRACT While Holocaust memory underscores the significance of freedom, the actual enactment of freedom varies across different countries, posing a vital question for educating about the Holocaust. How do educators navigate this dissonance? Do they serve as conduits for government perspectives, or do they exercise their teacher autonomy? As part of a comparative study examining shifts in Holocaust memory in Europe from 2020 to 2022, my colleagues and I conducted in-depth interviews with 75 Holocaust educators from Poland, Hungary, Germany, and England, inviting them to share their life stories and professional experiences. This article delves into a recurring theme found within these educators’ narratives: the appreciation of freedom and choice. To interpret the significance of this theme, I integrate educational theories on ‘difficult history’ and teacher autonomy with theories of psychological reactance and the freedom quotient (FQ). I draw on Isaiah Berlin's concepts of negative and positive liberty to bridge the personal and societal dimensions. The resulting model provides a framework for the study's findings. As expected, teachers from Poland and Hungary felt their negative liberty was constrained, while those from Germany and England reported a greater degree of autonomy. More surprisingly, limited negative liberty led many interviewees from Poland and Hungary to find powerful ways to express their inner freedom. These included resistance to authority, activism within and beyond the classroom, and the application of diverse and creative pedagogical approaches in EaH. The interviews also pointed to a connection between higher levels of negative liberty in Germany and England, and a plurality of content and goals in EaH within these countries. In light of these findings, I offer policy and educational recommendations.

The Challenges of Doing Multidirectionality. Co-Researching the Own Practice on Holocaust Education in the City Museum of Linz

ABSTRACT Models of education that we find in city museums in Austria bear the danger of avoiding discussing the Nazi past. But on the other hand, there is potential in the freedom of being about to skirt it. The lack of pressure to address the topic can lead to a more open approach in discussions, but the ease with which the topic can be avoided is dangerous. Museum spaces between leisure and learning bear the potential to implement open learning models that are, similar to social research, oriented more towards processes and the development of questions than the transmission of already fixed content. Following the approach of research-oriented learning in my own practice at the City Museum of Linz (the city where Hitler and Eichmann grew up), I discuss its challenges, especially in regard to experiences of antisemitism and racism-based forms of exclusions. I use my own learning process as research to suggest methodological developments that allow addressing the issues of antisemitism and the experiences of exclusions in a multidirectional, open, and sensitive way.

Testimony in context

ABSTRACT The article explores how video-testimony can be effectively harnessed for education in various contexts: classroom, and public remembrance spaces including museums, in a localized manner to develop empathy, critical thinking, and civic engagement in students and the methodological culture of educators. The article focuses on the testimonies of the USC Shoah Foundation and the possibilities testimony-based materials offer for education in general and Holocaust education in particular, based on educational evaluation research results and decades of practice. Localization and student-engagement are approached through Hungarian case studies via the work of local educational NGO Zachor Foundation. The article argues for the importance of local contexts and localized educational materials and underscores the power of video testimonies as multimedia sources in delving into and dissecting historical, social, and psychological processes, revealing their intricate nuances and how they can be used by to educate youth toward a more informed and compassionate global citizenry.

A Few Thoughts on Holocaust Education, Post October 7, 2023

A Few Thoughts on Holocaust Education, Post October 7, 2023

Research Protocol: A Transdisciplinary Multi-Case Study Research Design Using Mixed Methods to Evaluate the Long-Term Impact of Holocaust Museum Education in Australia

Holocaust museums around the world are distinctive in their emphasis on educational missions premised on the idea of “never again”, a deep belief that increasing public awareness of the history and contemporary significance of the Holocaust – the mass murder of six million European Jews by the Nazi regime during World War Two – can prevent the future recurrence of such events. In the Australian context, tens of thousands of school students visit Holocaust museums every year to participate in learning programs designed to impart powerful historical and moral lessons about the Holocaust, its antecedent conditions, and its ongoing relevance. The aspirations attached to these programs and the scale at which they are delivered stand in stark contrast to the lack of empirical evidence to support their efficacy. This research protocol describes an extensive four-year research study designed to evaluate the presumed linear relationship between Holocaust education programs and ethical, moral, and affective learning that leads to durable attitudinal and behavioural change. Funded through the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Projects scheme, the study will assess the impact of Holocaust museums’ education programs on high school students from diverse demographics, including the extent to which participation influences the views and actions of young people in relation to racial and identity-based discrimination. The research design is longitudinal and transdisciplinary, integrating qualitative, quantitative, and participatory techniques across three case studies. By strategically employing rapid ethnographic assessment procedures, archival research, analysis of museum representational practices, surveys, and visual research methods, we will examine both the educational intent behind Holocaust education programs and their actual impacts on a large sample of Australian Year 10 students. We expect the results of the research to be used by our project partners to develop Holocaust education programs that effectively engage students on cognitive and affective levels.

Australian Holocaust Museums: From Particular to Universal

ABSTRACT Australian Holocaust museums are at a crossroads regarding their exhibitions and educational programming. Originally survivor driven initiatives, they now face the dual challenge of negotiating the loss of the survivor generation and interpreting the goals of Holocaust education in light of their absence. To do so, they must confront the question of what Holocaust education seeks to achieve and, most poignantly, whether it can continue to speak to succeeding generations of Australian student and general visitors, now far removed from the event both historically and geographically. This article examines how this moment of intergenerational change has and is being negotiated at the Sydney Jewish Museum through reflection on the development and implementation of its newest permanent exhibition, The Holocaust and Human Rights. An explicit attempt to bring the intimate histories of the survivors into dialogue with broader, more universalistic concerns, the exhibition provides a microcosm of both the potential and problematics such ventures entail.

Holocaust education as experiential encounters focused on human rights

Holocaust education as experiential encounters focused on human rights