Teaching About The Holocaust And The History Of Genocide In The 21st Century

This publication contains the reports of a number of expert contributors to a conference, held in Germany in November 2000, to discuss the project which aims to produce teaching packs about the Holocaust. Topics discussed at the conference include: the reasons for teaching about the Holocaust and the mechanisms which lead to genocide; a review of German history during 1933-1945, as reflected in Anglo-American literature of the present; visits of memorial sites; the use of oral testimonies concerning the Holocaust; modern technology and archives; and the Kristallnacht pogrom.

Given the rise of anti-Semitism in parts of Europe, the accessibility of "denial" Internet sites and the isolationist stand taken by certain European political leaders today, Holocaust teaching was given an important place in Council of Europe's history project. Although some countries have high standards for Holocaust teaching, others are lacking in material. This teaching resource is based on the work of such widely recognised authors as Raul Hilberg, Sir Martin Gilbert, Saul Friedlander and Christopher Browning, plus first-hand accounts, including those of Primo Levi, Hermann Langbein and Claude Lanzmann's interviewees. It offers teachers a body of knowledge for use in course planning and brings to the forefront facts and figures on victims often "overlooked", Roma/Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses. What emerges from the succinct descriptions of how and where this genocide was carried out is the comprehensiveness of the Nazi enterprise.

This volume represents the most comprehensive collection ever produced of empirical research on Holocaust education around the world. It comes at a critical time, as the world observes the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. We are now at a turning point, as the generations that witnessed and survived the Shoah are slowly passing on. Governments are charged with ensuring that this defining event of the 20th century takes its rightful place in the schooling and the historical consciousness of their peoples. The policies and practices of Holocaust education around the world are as diverse as the countries that grapple with its history and its meaning. Educators around the globe struggle to reconcile national histories and memories with the international realities of the Holocaust and its implications for the present. These efforts take place at a time when scholarship about the Holocaust itself has made great strides. In this book, these issues are framed by some of the leading voices in the field, including Elie Wiesel and Yehuda Bauer, and then explored by many distinguished scholars who represent a wide range of expertise. Holocaust education is of such significance, so rich in meaning, so powerful in content, and so diverse in practice that the need for extensive, high-quality empirical research is critical. Th is book provides exactly that.

Few topics in modern history draw the attention that the Holocaust does. The Shoah has become synonymous with unspeakable atrocity and unbearable suffering. Yet it has also been used to teach tolerance, empathy, resistance, and hope. Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust provides a starting point for teachers in many disciplines to illuminate this crucial event in world history for students. Using a vast array of source materials—from literature and film to survivor testimonies and interviews—the contributors demonstrate how to guide students through these sensitive and painful subjects within their specific historical and social contexts. Each chapter provides pedagogical case studies for teaching content such as antisemitism, resistance and rescue, and the postwar lives of displaced persons. It will transform how students learn about the Holocaust and the circumstances surrounding it.

(Originally Published in 2000 by Allyn & Bacon) Teaching and Studying the Holocaust is comprised of thirteen chapters by some of the most noted Holocaust educators in the United States. In addition to chapters on establishing clear rationales for teaching this history and Holocaust historiography, the book includes individual chapters on incorporating primary documents, first person accounts, film, literature, art, drama, music, and technology into a study of the Holocaust. It concludes with an extensive and valuable annotated bibliography especially designed for educators. Chapter Ten instructs how to make effective use of technology in teaching and learning about the Holocaust. The final section of the book includes a bibliography especially developed for teachers that lists invaluable resources. From the Back Cover: Holocaust scholars from around the world offer critical acclaim for Totten and Feinberg's Teaching and Studying the Holocaust: Michael Berenbaum; Ida E. King Distinguished Visitor Professor of Holocaust Studies, Richard Stockton College and Former Director of Research at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: "There are many scholars who are wont to criticize the teaching of the Holocaust. Many journalists critique what they regard as kitsch or trendiness. All critics of contemporary Holocaust education would do well to read this book. One cannot fail to be impressed by the quality of its learning and the seriousness of its purpose. It is a wonderful place for teachers to turn as they contemplate teaching the Holocaust, an open invitation to learn more and teach more effectively." Barry van Driel; Coordinator International Teacher Education, Anne Frank House, Amsterdam: "Teaching and Studying the Holocaust is an invaluable resource for any teacher wanting to address the complex and sometimes overwhelming history of the Holocaust in the classroom. The book offers a multitude of sensitive and responsible ways of dealing with the issue of the Holocaust. It succeeds in showing teachers very clearly how the study of the Holocaust is not just a topic for history teachers, but for teachers across the curriculum." Dr. Nili Keren; Kibbutzim College of Education, Tel Aviv, Israel "Teaching about the Shoah is one of the most complicated tasks for educators. Indeed, teaching and studying this history raises unprecedented questions concerning modern civilization, and presents teachers and students with tremendous challenges. Samuel Totten and Stephen Feinberg have created a volume that provides educators with essential information and new insights regarding the teaching of this history, and, in doing so, they assist educators to face the aforementioned challenges head-on. Teaching and Studying the Holocaust does not make the task easier, but it does make it possible." Samuel Totten is currently professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Prior to entering academia, he was an English and social studies teacher in Australia, Israel, California, and at the U.S. House of Representatives Page School in Washington, D.C. Totten is also editor of Teaching Holocaust Literature published by Allyn & Bacon. Stephen Feinberg is currently the Special Assistant for Education Programs in the National Institute for Holocaust Education at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. With Samuel Totten, he was co-editor of a special issue (Teaching the Holocaust) of Social Education, the official journal of the National Council for the Social Studies. For eighteen years, he was a history and social studies teacher in the public schools of Wayland, MA.

"Collected voices make clear why Holocaust, genocide, and human rights education are more crucial than ever. After the Holocaust brings together scholarship, activism, poetry, and personal narratives from some of the last living survivors of the Holocaust to tackle the changing face of genocide and human rights education in the 21st century. The collected voices draw on decades of research on the Holocaust and discuss how it can help us understand and educate about a range of human rights issues throughout history, and, in turn, that local histories of other human rights atrocities can shed light on the way the Holocaust is represented and taught. Advancing the dialogue between civic advocacy, public remembrance, and research, the contributors of this edited collection discuss Holocaust education's broad relevance in a human rights framework. 'The first- and second-generation survivor accounts are treasures--invaluable reflections that anchor this collection.'--David MacDonald, author of The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Genocide, Indian Residential Schools, and the Challenge of Conciliation"--

Over the last seventy years, memories and narratives of the Holocaust have played a significant role in constructing Jewish communities. The author explores one field where these narratives are disseminated: Holocaust pedagogy in Jewish schools in Melbourne and New York. Bringing together a diverse range of critical approaches, including memory studies, gender studies, diaspora theory, and settler colonial studies, Anxious Histories complicates the stories being told about the Holocaust in these Jewish schools and their broader communities. It demonstrates that an anxious thread runs throughout these historical narratives, as the pedagogy negotiates feelings of simultaneous belonging and not-belonging in the West and in Zionism. In locating that anxiety, the possibilities and the limitations of narrating histories of the Holocaust are opened up once again for analysis, critique, discussion, and development.