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Getting the Message
Across:
International
Conference on Teaching the Holocaust to Future Generations
By Zvi Newman and
Estee Yaari
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Participants in a
discussion group at the Fourth International Conference for
Educators at Yad Vashem |
“How do I teach about the Holocaust to
hostile audiences?” “I have only four hours to teach about the
Shoah – on what should I focus?” “Where can I make contact
with survivors so that my students can hear their testimonies
first hand?”
Questions like these were raised,
discussed and resolved at the Fourth International Conference for
Educators, “Teaching the Holocaust to Future Generations” at Yad
Vashem this August. The four-day conference, sponsored by the
Asper International Holocaust Studies Program, opened at Yad
Vashem in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
Industry, Trade and Labor Ehud Olmert, Chairman of the Yad Vashem
Directorate Avner Shalev and President of Oranim Educational
Initiatives—co-organizers of the conference—Shlomo (Momo) Lifshitz.
The conference focused on
interdisciplinary approaches to teaching the Holocaust, Holocaust
education in different parts of the world, and current
antisemitism. Over 220 educators from 31 countries—including
China, Turkey, Croatia, Sweden, Romania, Russia, South Africa,
Poland, Germany and the United States—heard lectures in plenary
sessions, joined discussion groups and participated in workshops
that explored new and varied approaches to Holocaust education in
the 21st century. The program was led by experts on
the Holocaust and education from leading institutions around the
world, including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,
Centre Documentation Juive Contemporaine (Paris), the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, the Imperial War Museum (London), the
Living History Forum (Stockholm) and the Holocaust Foundation
(Moscow).
The conference focused on the future,
with participants exposed to new areas of research and a wide
range of pedagogical material, curricula, movies, educational
websites and more. At the heart of the conference were discussion
groups on teacher training, pedagogical approaches, and antisemitism and Holocaust
denial. These groups demonstrated the value of bringing together
professionals from around the world—each with a unique perspective
and professional context—to discuss difficult and practical
issues.
One major focus was how to approach unwilling and sometimes
hostile audiences, as well as how to make the subject more
approachable for those who have had very little exposure to it. A
Hebrew Union College teacher emphasized the effectiveness of using
survivor testimonies from within the students’ local community,
and when the director of youth programs at an informal Jewish
educational institution sought assistance in effectively teaching
the Holocaust on a limited time budget, a fellow Californian
offered to help based on her own experience.
Dr. Werner Dreier of the Austrian Ministry of Education and
Culture noted the difficulty many of his countrymen confront in
facing the actions of their own ancestors. Solutions suggested
included using victims’ personal stories, employing art and other
unconventional tools, or discussing the accomplishments of local
Jews who were murdered—particularly those who played a role in
shaping Austrian and German life. This approach is slowly being
implemented in Austrian textbooks.
Dealing with today’s antisemitism and
Holocaust denial in the context of Holocaust education was another
topic. A representative of the Simon Wiesenthal Center reported on
the ‘hijacking’ of a major international teachers’ forum by
antisemitic elements rooted in extremist anti-globalization and
anti-Zionist organizations, as well as their calls to introduce
revisionist history into educational frameworks worldwide.
Sophisticated forms of antisemitism on the Internet were reported
by the manager of a Holocaust education website. An American
participant reinforced the importance of grassroots education
efforts in Europe, noting several run by graduates of Yad Vashem’s
teacher training programs.
Scores of workshops were held on a
myriad of topics, including teaching the Holocaust to Israeli
Arabs, using film to teach the Holocaust, and use of the Internet
in Holocaust education. Questions such as the right age to begin
Holocaust education, the role of survivor testimonies in the
classroom, and women in concentration camps were also considered.
A deaf Jewish doctoral student at the University of Hamburg led a
workshop on deaf Jews in the Holocaust.
“Teaching the Holocaust is not only
presenting historical facts. It is also conveying the Holocaust as
a human, societal and Jewish event,” said the School’s Director
Dr. Motti Shalem. “The main focus of the International School’s
educational approach is identification with the individual, and
from that point to move on to the broader story. We believe that
an interdisciplinary approach to Holocaust education will lead to
a deeper and more extensive knowledge of the Shoah.”
Copyright ©2004 Yad Vashem The Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority |
