Teaching difference with one message
ZVI CIVINS
TEACHING the Holocaust is, on the one hand, one of the “easiest” subjects to teach, and on the other, one of the most challenging.
This is true for students in Jewish schools, as well as for students in state or non-Jewish schools. Regardless of who we are teaching, the rewards of Holocaust education can be enormous.
For Jewish school students it would appear easy to teach the Holocaust.
So many of our students have at least one grandparent who is a Holocaust survivor. They do their roots projects and often learn a great deal when they interview them. There is often a natural desire to know more than they have learnt at home.
The range of Holocaust texts, films and diaries is enormous. There is no lack of material, and the challenge is to choose the best material and not overwhelm the students.
And of course, we have our most precious survivors. There is nothing that can match hearing about the Holocaust from a survivor, as occurs in our centre every day. When facts become faces, and numbers become names, the Holocaust takes on an entirely new dimension.
For Jewish students, however, we have to be careful not to link our children’s Jewish identity to the Holocaust at the expense of many other positive aspects of Jewish identity.
We need to focus not only on the experience of being victims, but also on the experience of courageous resistance, whether active or passive. We need to consider the Holocaust in the context of Jewish history, and world history.
I have known students who were reluctant to learn about the Holocaust because they know other peoples have suffered, and they have felt that we focus on our own tragedy and ignore others’ tragedies. They experience ‘Jewish tragedy fatigue’, and literally feel they have had enough.
We need to overcome this, while remembering the imperative of zachor, remember, and the need to not only teach the facts, but to also sanctify the memory of the victims.
For non-Jewish students, who represent 99 per cent of the more than 18,000 students who visited the Jewish Holocaust Centre in 2010, the Holocaust presents different challenges.
The first challenge is that, unlike our Jewish students, they and their teachers do not have a connection to the Holocaust.
They may never have heard of it before their teacher introduced the topic in English or history class, and they may have all of two weeks to study it. For the teacher, the challenge is enormous.
HOW can a teacher possibly “teach the Holocaust” in such a short period of time? What will the teachers choose from the huge range of films and novels? Furthermore, they spend two hours with us at the Jewish Holocaust Centre. How can we best use this incredibly short time?
These students may never have met a Jew before. They don’t understand the Jewish experience over history, nor why Jews were identified and victimised during the Holocaust.
On the other hand, coming from many different countries and backgrounds, some know of the suffering of others or of their own families.
Many students have experienced persecution within the past few years. How can we relate the Holocaust to a 15-year-old refugee who has fled genocide in Africa? Some students are influenced by their parents’ or community’s perspective on Jews, which is coloured by the Israeli-Palestinian relations. How do we address this?
Holocaust knowledge can ultimately become a collection of facts, and many of these facts are numbers: How many Jews were murdered? How many children?
The challenge is to ensure that there is the personal connection to
the Holocaust, whether by meeting a survivor or reading a diary extract.
We will never feel what the victims felt, but we need to know what they felt and experienced. At the same time we also need to avoid traumatising students, and remain aware of their intellectual and emotional development.
And what are the rewards? Whether Jewish students or not, the lessons of the Holocaust are universal and enduring. Learning about the Holocaust opens their eyes to the danger of racism, hatred and intolerance.
It shows what happens when one minority, and other so-called inferior groups, are dehumanised. It shows courageous individuals who can provide a positive example of how to care for others that makes today’s media and sporting “heroes” pale in comparison. It fosters an understanding that we are all of one race – the human race – and we all are entitled to mutual respect and acceptance. It is a reminder to not take life for granted.
Learning about the Holocaust empowers our students to make the future better than the past was. It can also have a profound effect on a very deep and personal level. In the words of two of our thousands of students who wrote before departing the Jewish Holocaust Centre:
“I’ve reevaluated my life. Maybe I won’t waste my days.”
“Thanks for showing us the mistakes others have made to help us make a better future.”
May all students of the Holocaust in all schools reap such rewards.
Zvi Civins is the director of education at the Jewish Holocaust Centre, Melbourne.
comments