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Combating
Antisemitism
Teaching the Holocaust to Future
Generations
Through Our
Eyes
Recent Highlights at the
International School for Holocaust Studies
From
Crisis to Hope
Combating
Antisemitism
A Call to
Action:
Fostering
Holocaust Education in Europe
by Richelle Budd Caplan
In recent years, we have witnessed a
rise in antisemitic expression worldwide, unprecedented since the
end of the Shoah. The Holocaust has become an integral part
of antisemitic slurs hurled against Jews, such as “Jews to the gas
chambers” or “We’ll finish Hitler’s job.” Banners declaring
“Auschwitz is your country and the ovens are your homes” have been
waved at sports events. Violent antisemitic attacks have been
launched against Jewish students and their schools, synagogues
burned, Jewish cemeteries desecrated with swastikas, and Jewish
neighborhoods defaced with graffiti calling for “Death to Jews.”
But it is not just skinheads,
neo-Nazis or radical Islamic activists who have declared
“open-season” on the Jews. Artists, intellectuals, educators and
politicians connect their disapproval of Israeli government policy
to accusing the Jewish people of being “the root of all evil” and
perpetrating a Holocaust against the Palestinians. In effect, we
are now witnessing a complete “Shoah reversal”: Judaism is
equated with Nazism, and Jews are accused of exaggerating—or even
fabricating—the Shoah to their own benefit. Holocaust
remembrance is under attack, and “Holocaust fatigue” is growing.
A number of European nations, such as
France and Italy, have begun to recognize the severity of this
anti-Jewish hatred. Policy-makers argue that by commemorating and
educating about the Holocaust, the younger generation will become
less antisemitic, less xenophobic, and more tolerant. In recent
years, some 20 European countries, (including Croatia, the Czech
Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Italy, Norway, Romania, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom),
have legislated 27 January—the anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz-Birkenau—as their national Holocaust Remembrance
Day. (In Israel, beginning this year, Minister for Jerusalem and
Diaspora Affairs Natan Sharansky initiated 27 January as the
national day for combating antisemitism.)
Yet some Holocaust educators now
believe traditional Holocaust education is no longer enough
overcome contemporary antisemitism. As such, the International
School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem is committed to finding
new ways to foster Holocaust awareness around the world, and to
impart its lessons using a variety of tools and concrete
guidelines. According to Pedagogical Director Shulamit Imber,
“Until now, we have taught about the Holocaust only through
historical accounts. Today we must continue to teach the subject
with its unique factual-historical components, but also integrate
its relevance to the present, and to antisemitism today.”
To assist educators in preparing
effective activities for 27 January, the School now provides
guidelines for Holocaust remembrance ceremonies, lesson plans,
online exhibitions, a photograph library and lists of victims’
names for memorial readings, (available on Yad Vashem’s website
www1.yadvashem.org/education/ceremonies/auschwitz).
On 26 January this year, a new one-hour lesson plan for junior and
senior high school students, Remembering the Holocaust and
Combating Xenophobia on January 27th, was presented
to some 30 ambassadors and diplomatic representatives at Yad
Vashem, in the presence of Minister Sharansky.
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Minister for Jerusalem and
Diaspora Affairs Natan Sharansky addresses European
Ambassadors and diplomatic representatives at the presentation
of a new lesson plan on the Holocaust and current antisemitism,
at Yad Vashem |
Already translated
into five languages (English, French, German, Italian and
Swedish), this classroom activity explores the teaching of Nazi
racist ideology in German schools following Hitler’s rise to
power, and examines key moral questions raised by the Holocaust.
The lesson plan features authentic source material from the Nazi
period, including visual aids and testimonies of Jewish
schoolchildren, as well as questions for discussion and a section
on the resurgence of antisemitism
including examples from recent times.
At the presentation, Minister
Sharansky said, “There is a deep connection between remembering
the Holocaust and meeting the challenge posed by antisemitism
today. Antisemitism must not be allowed to stain legitimately
expressed criticism of Israel, as this is a dangerous abuse of
free speech and democracy. Schools, community centers, and other
institutions around the world would do well to utilize Yad
Vashem’s lesson plan, which combines learning about the Holocaust,
remembrance, and insight into today’s antisemitism.”
Chairman of the Directorate Avner
Shalev added, “Seething Jew-hatred has made a very dangerous
incursion into all facets of public life in Europe. As the
Holocaust taught us, demonization of Jews is dangerous first to
the Jews, and then to the societies in which they live—even those
in the very cradle of democratic civilization. The only remedy is
education.”
The lesson plan was also featured at a
teacher-training seminar held in Milan on the same day, in
conjunction with the organization Figli della Shoah
(Children of the Shoah) and attended by 60 Italian
teachers. The School’s Dr. Irit Abramsky-Bligh outlined
pedagogical techniques in teaching the Holocaust and distributed
copies of the lesson plan to all the participants. As a result of
the successful workshops held during the seminar, the School and
Figli della Shoah is planning more seminars for Italian
teachers later this year.
In addition to the lesson plan, the
School has also prepared a reader, in Hebrew and English,
featuring articles on the current rise of antisemitism for
participants in its programs. Director Dr. Motti Shalem is
convinced that the Holocaust remains central to any educational
activity aiming to combat antisemitism today. Further, he adds,
“by fighting contemporary antisemitism and other forms of
xenophobia, we safeguard Holocaust memory and put its universal
lessons into practice.”
The author is
Director of the Asper International Holocaust Studies Program, The
International School for Holocaust Studies
Copyright ©2004 Yad Vashem The Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority |
