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Introduction to the Open File

Holocaust education—International perspectives: Challenges, opportunities and research

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Abstract

Sixty-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz, Holocaust education is at a critical juncture. Societies including Germany and Israel have moved through several discrete stages both in their relationships to the Holocaust, and in education about it. Those shifts will surely continue as the generation of survivors is progressively lost to the passage of time, taking with them our most powerful links to history, memory, and understanding. This special issue explores Holocaust education research, and locates it within our evolving understanding of the Holocaust itself, particularly in light of what is being learned within Central and Eastern Europe, where so many of the atrocities were committed. This introduction considers the potential of Holocaust education as well as its limitations, and the risks of its failure. It also considers the contexts in which Holocaust education takes place, and the meanings that are at work in those contexts. While many goals and visions animate Holocaust education, here we explore the notion of a culture of peace and remembrance. We close with a review of the contributions to this issue.

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Notes

  1. This material can be viewed here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

    Zehavit Gross

  2. College of Education, University of South Carolina, 318 Wardlaw Hall, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    E. Doyle Stevick

Authors
  1. Zehavit Gross
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  2. E. Doyle Stevick
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Correspondence to Zehavit Gross.

Additional information

Note from Zehavit Gross: I would like to dedicate my contributions towards this special issue to my father, Zvi Brenner, a Holocaust survivor from the Transnistria concentration camp. I also want to thank him for choosing to live, and for choosing to lead a meaningful, spiritual-religious life.

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Gross, Z., Stevick, E.D. Introduction to the Open File. Prospects 40, 17–33 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-010-9145-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-010-9145-7

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