Teaching about and teaching through the Holocaust: Insights from (social) psychology (original) (raw)

The Effects of Holocaust Education on Students' Level of Anti-Semitism

2004

Since the 1970s Jewish and other religious organizations in the United States and elsewhere in the Western World have made a substantial effort to introduce the Holocaust as a subject for study in the curricula of public secondary schools as well as institutions of higher education.1 The effort has met with considerable success. Hundreds of schools and universities throughout the United States, not to mention secondary and higher education programs in Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands etc. now offer instruction about the Nazi campaign to exterminate the European Jewish community during World War II.2 The format for Holocaust education varies. In some cases it is included on a voluntary basis, but in others school authorities have made it a mandatory part of civics or hi story instruction. In some instances the Holocaust stands by itself while in others it shares attention with the sufferings of other ethnic groups; in some instances, entire programs of study are devoted to...

Emotions in holocaust education - the narrative of a history teacher

Yesterday and today

Emotion is an integral part of Holocaust education and inculcating empathy in learners is a well-used pedagogical tool to encourage learners to connect with the victims. This is necessary because of the vast number of victims who died at the hands of the Nazis and their collaboratorssix million Jews and five million non-Jews. These numbers are generally difficult to comprehend and there can be a tendency to crush thoughts of all the victims together into a single unit, say, the six million, rather than embrace the thought of six million individuals. To help learners relate better to the Jewish victims and survivors, the personal stories of individuals are often told to personalise the Holocaust. This is a tool used in both schools and museums by history teachers and museum educators. Teaching the Holocaust is not a dispassionate, disconnected experience for history teachers. They are often personally affected whether to a greater or lesser degree, and both their teaching and understanding of the Holocaust are often linked to their personal stories. This article is based on the story of one history teacher, whose personal story shaped her Holocaust pedagogy and philosophy when she taught about the Holocaust. The Holocaust is included in the national history curriculum for Grade 9 and 11 learners in the South African school curriculum. Within a qualitative, narrative inquiry framework, the article discusses the personal story of Florence, a Coloured South African history teacher. Along with her family, she did not personally experience apartheid trauma, as many other current South African history teachers did, nor did her family have any personal connections to World War II Europe. Florence simply drew on her personal experiences as a young girl growing up in a lower middle-class family to formulate her own pedagogy with which to teach the Holocaust and engender empathy in her learners. She did this by including techniques such as visualisations to create a certain mood in the classroom before embarking on teaching what, to her, was a horrific, evil event, and to ensure that the learners did not take what they were going to hear lightly. Her methodology was devised to inculcate empathy and enhance depth of understanding.

Holocaust at school: learning from or learning about

Protecting students from it, versus familiarising students with it. And not-forgetting versus not addressing it as subject-matter. The two contradictions complicate the question of how we are to deal with the Holocaust in schools. Ten years ago, I referred to this complexity in terms of four risks: simplification, lack of respect, unpalatable discussion and moralisation (Van der Ploeg 2008). There is in the meantime sufficient empirical evidence to assess these risks as realistic. I now want to focus mainly on the risk mentioned last, moralisation.

The Holocaust and Moral Education

Routledge eBooks, 2017

The Holocaust and Moral Education F""("1he belief that schoo~ hav.e a resp?nsibility t~ teach ~ values is a very old Idea m Amencan education. In recent years, however, the aims and methods of programs in moral education have become a subject of intense debate. Some critics believe that such programs distract schools from their essential academic mission. Religious conservatives, wary of curricula that they perceive as favoring moral relativism, insist that the teaching of values should be left to parents and religious institutions. Their distrust extends to classroom efforts to foster "critical thinking II by inviting students to discuss their personal responses to texts and historical events. One of the most widely adoptedand controversial approaches to moral education addresses the specific issues of prejudice, conformity, and individual responsibility. It does this by examining the rise of Nazism and its culmination in the Holocaust. Facing History and Ourselves, an organization created in 1976, has produced a curriculum and resource book and conducts workshops for teachers. Its materials are now offered, in some form, to 500,000 students-mostly eighth and ninth graders-each year. The program received an unexpected burst of attention last fall, when a political scientist who had criticized it for not presenting the "Nazi point of view" was named historian of the House of Representatives. Once her comments attracted public notice, Christina Jeffrey was abruptly dismissed. But her remarks provoked a spate of articles and letters in national publications concerning the teaching of the Holocaust. Most commentators spent little time refuting the charge that Facing History had fail.ed to aChi.eve "balance or objectivity" in its exploration of NaZIsm. Other, more significant questions about the programits assumptions and moral purposes-engaged them instead. Was the Holocaust a "unique" event in human history? Is it legitimate to compare the Holoca~st to other historical crimes, such as those perpetrated m the Soviet Union in the 1930s, Cambodia in the 1970s, Rwanda and Bosnia in the 1990s? Should the Holocaust be used as a reference point for teaching children about racism and social injustice in general-about scapegoating, intolerance, and prejudice that can occur in any society?

Teaching the Holocaust in kindergarten. Case study: The diary of Anna Frank

Contemporary researches from global literature argue that the historical education could begin from kindergarten. On the occasion of the instructions issued by the Greek Ministry of Education to all elementary schools and public kindergartens regarding the Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27), an educational program was designed and utilized in a Greek kindergarten mentioning the diary and the life of Anna Frank. In the present study, this educational program is presented as a "case study". As the working hypothesis of this study, we argue that the children in the years of preschool education (4 to 6 years old) are able to understand basic elements of the life of Anna Frank, the difficulties she faced and perceive her life as a historical example of resilience, despite her tragic end. Furthermore, this study argues that the Holocaust can be taught in kindergarten in a way appropriate for the age of children. Article published in the Proceedings of the 7th International Conference for the Promotion of Educational Innovation, Volume A', October 2021, pp. 316-324

Constructing Anne Frank: Critical Literacy and the Holocaust in Eighth-Grade English

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 2007

A critical approach to the writings by and about Anne Frank leads to a better understanding of crucial historical events. Misconceptions about Frank's life and death are discussed, leading to greater knowledge. Knowing Anne, she was happy in the concentration camps. She didn't have to be quiet anymore; she could frolic outside. She could be in nature. She loved nature. I think this was a welcome relief for her. (Charlotte, a student in the study) Every generation frames the Holocaust, represents the Holocaust, in ways that suit its mood. (Novick, 1999, p. 120) There are few ambassadors of the Holocaust more deeply embedded in American adolescent consciousness than Anne Frank. Partly because of the uplifting Goodrich and Hackett (1956) play based upon her diary, Anne Frank has become an American icon of optimistic thinking and individual triumph (see Doneson, 1987; Novick, 1999; Ozick, 2000). In keeping with the Americanization of Anne Frank, students in this study liked to think of her as being hopeful, in love, frolicking, and-perhaps most surprising-still alive. Spector teaches at the University of Alabama. She may be contacted there

" What I Have Learned to Feel": The Pedagogical Emotions of Holocaust Education

College Literature, 1996

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