The Holocaust at School, between Remembrance and Oblivion (original) (raw)
Related papers
Versus 119: Traces of Terror, Signs of Trauma. Practices of (Re)Presentation of Collective Memories in Space in Contemporary Europe.
This essay aims to suggest a hypothesis for research in order to investigate the link between the public memorialization process, the concept of clash of different memories (individual, collective, public) it can create and the presumed educational function of remembrance. The essay will be based on a particular case study concerning the memory of the Monte Sole massacres which took place in 1944. Starting with a short historical reconstruction, we will attempt to briefly explore the key points of the different narratives and forms of remembrance, as well as focusing on how this research can be applied in an educational context which aims to foster democratic values, respect of human rights and a culture of peace.
Sites of memory' of the Holocaust: shaping national memory in the education system in Israel
Nations and Nationalism, 2003
This article attempts to understand the development of the national memory in Israel and the stress on the Holocaust as the constitutive representation of the national identity in the last decades. In the first three decades of the existence of the state, at a time Israeli society was embedded in an 'environment of memory' due to the presence of a big proportion of Holocaust survivors, the subject of the Holocaust was almost neglected in schools. On the other hand, since the 1980s, when the 'environment of memory' of the Holocaust started to fade naturally, 'sites of memories' of the Holocaust started to blossom in the education system. The national memory is meant to support political and social arrangements in the present; thus, in order to shape national subjects, the education system has to adapt the official memory accordingly. While in the past, the memory of the Holocaust was counterproductive to the formation of the 'new Jew', it became an appropriate response to the crisis of the national subjectivity unleashed after the Yom Kippur War.
Images. The International Journal of European Film, Performing Arts and Audiovisual Communication, 2011
Holocaust instruction at schools in Israel is the adolescents' encounter with a phenomenon that is unique in the history of mankind, i.e. the destruction of the Jews during World War II as a coordinated attempt to annihilate the Jewish "race". Adolescents are introduced to curricula that include formal instruction of disciplines such as history and literature, as well as informal instruction involving planning and participating in ceremonies, eld trips, study days at Holocaust institutes, the journey to Poland, and volunteer activity on behalf of Holocaust survivors. Holocaust instruction, despite its complexity, o ers the opportunity to encounter the systematic attempt to murder everyone who had Jewish blood owing in his veins. is is an encounter with the world's rst attempted genocide based on racist ideology, rather than religious ideology. Its singularity lies in the all-encompassing intention of its designers and initiators to achieve the complete destruction of all Jews. Despite the long history of persecution of the Jewish people (Graetz, 1954; Hendel, 1950), the act of annihilation by the Nazis was unique in its characteristics-the planning, implementation, scope, execution, and results. All these had never before been seen and therefore had a profound e ect on the Jewish people. e human community as a whole and the Jewish community in particular, have assumed the educational and moral duty to preserve the memory and instill the lessons and values of this inconceivable story, to prevent history from repeating itself. One of the most important means for passing on this memory is by teaching the Holocaust to the younger generation, as this is manifested in curricula in Israel and abroad. e principal hypothesis of this study is that Holocaust instruction in Israel and abroad has the potential to bring about a moral change, and the question is, what is the desired moral change and how is this to be accomplished? e didactic models at schools in Israel and abroad maintain, to varying degrees, formal curricula that impart historical and literary knowledge, alongside informal curricula that constitute a scholastic
MEMORY AND HISTORY AT SCHOOL: SAVING RELEVANCE AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
2018
This text responds to a request concerning the Lasallian school of the 21st century and the relevance of memory and history in the construction of a new citizenship, aiming at fostering universal peace and justice. To enter into this debate, it is necessary to clarify its terms. First of all, "21st century": this term defines our century, our time, our present and our future. Then, "Lasallian school": this is about education in general and pedagogy in particular, but, more than that, it is the adjective Lasallian which is important here: what is the Lasallian tradition, if not an educational dynamic rooted in the fraternity and values of Christian humanism? In this case, the one who speaks of tradition, implies the past. It is exactly by looking at the relationship between the past, the present and the future that we can introduce memory and history at school and in our life in society.
Memory, History, and the Holocaust: Notes on the Problem of Representation of the Past
Redescriptions, 2004
Notes on the Problem of Representation of the Past La maggior parte dei testimoni, di difesa e di accusa, sono ormai scomparsi, e quelli che rimangono, e che ancora (superando i loro rimorsi, o rispettivamente le loro ferite) acconsentono a testimoniare, dispongono di ricordi sempre più sfuocati e stilizzati; spesso, a loro insaputa, influenzati da notizie che essi hanno appreso più tardi, da letture o da racconti altrui. In alcuni casi, naturalmente, la smemoratezza è simulata, ma i molti anni trascorsi la rendono credibile, anche in giudizio: i 'non so' o 'non sapevo', detti oggi da molti tedeschi, non scandalizzano più, mentre scandalizzavano, o avrebbero dovuto scandalizzare, quando i fatti erano recenti.
Revista TransVersos, 2020
We try to think the relationship between memory, historical cultures, and history teaching in the contemporary world. First, we discuss the analysis of the contemporary world developed by Jörn Rüsen, Christian Laville, François Hartog, and Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht. Therefore, we describe the historical horizon within which the history teaching - as a part of historical culture - is challenged to answer several historical demands, such as the tension democratization/ethnocentrism and the relationship sense/presence in production and orientation of historical statements. Key-words: Memory; historical culture; history teaching; historical justice; presence
Martor, 2018
In the last decade, several initiatives to build a state-of-the-art Holocaust museum in Rome have been proposed only to subsequently fail to materialize—primarily due to fund cuts. Instead, today, the Museo della Fondazione della Shoah consists of a small, self-sufficient project with very limited display space (one floor), often dependent on travelling collections. The museum’s development and its current status are relevant for memorial discourses in Italy. The memories of Fascism and Italy’s role in the Holocaust sit uneasily in public discourses: from the post-war era, there has been a tendency to defer national responsibility through circulation of the brava gente myth and the focus on Nazi occupiers rather than Italian collaborators and the ideology of fascism that preceded Hitler. While such initiatives as the creation of the Day of Memory have generated a platform for debate, this apologetic attitude has persisted in public circles, leading to a divided memory scape. As a material and symbolic entity, the Museo makes a conscious attempt to intervene in this divided memory. In this paper, I will engage with two of the Museo’s past exhibitions to analyse its discursive framing of Italy’s role in the Holocaust, incorporating a multi-scalar analysis and drawing on the concept of “cosmopolitan memory.” I will argue that the Museo is a local site of memory that establishes a dialogue with transnational memorial discourses. This is reflected in both the Museo’s contents as well as its setup: due to its small size, the Museo is often dependent on travelling collections. In its exhibitions, the Museo provides interrelational descriptions of the socio-political climate in the 1930s and focuses on multiple ethnic and national groups. However, it does not reflect on individual perpetrators, which would further aid its desired—and necessary—pedagogical function of contextualising its historical subject matter from the framing of the present.