While the focus has been on teaching the dangers of racism, many students are left in the dark about the history and motivations for this troubling period

Research showed few students understood the different roles played by collaborating regimes and ordinary people in the development of the Holocaust. Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

Many people argue that it is crucially important for young people to learn about the Holocaust to prevent racism and prejudice in the present day. But in a focus group interview exploring secondary school students’ attitudes to the Holocaust, Ella, a year 12 student from Peterborough turned that idea on its head.

“I didn’t stop being racist because of learning about the Holocaust … I’ve always not been racist,” she said.

Ella is one of more than 9,500 students consulted by University College London (UCL) researchers as part of a three year-long national study looking at secondary school students’ knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust. This study (launched by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education) drew primarily on survey responses from almost 8,000 young people and interviews of nearly 250 students. It aimed to find out what young people should know about the Holocaust and why.

The effectiveness of these teaching aims is questioned even more in the centre’s most recent study, which shows that students share some of their teachers’ appreciation for broad, ethical aims but also highly rated the importance of historical knowledge and a moral duty towards the victims. In fact, 83% of those surveyed agreed that they should be taught about this history in school to understand where racism can lead, respect the memory of the victims, stop something similar happening again, deepen their historical knowledge and learn about what caused the Holocaust .

Critically, while the majority of students knew Jews were the primary victims, they had little understanding of why they were persecuted. Their explanations often relied on misconceptions and stereotypes. For example, in interviews, a number of students alluded to the Jews as a single group being “rich” or “having power” and therefore being perceived as a threat. In fact, 68% of students appeared unaware of what antisemitism means.

None of these findings are intended as a criticism of students or teachers. Rather, they are likely to reflect significant curriculum constraints and the problematic manner in which the Holocaust is often framed in popular discourse. The eminent historian professor Yehuda Bauer, honorary chairman of the 31 nation stateInternational Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, summed up the problem when he said: “The Holocaust is too often turned into vague lessons of the danger of hatred or prejudice at the expense of really trying to understand the reasons and motivations for the genocide.”

Educators and organisations must distinguish between commemoration and education. Effective teaching about the Holocaust must provide young people with substantive knowledge and understanding, challenge popular misconceptions and confront difficult and profound questions. This requires developing students’ criticality, independent thinking, reflexivity and emotional literacy.

But to achieve that, teachers need to be given clearer recommendations on the minimum amount of time required to teach about the Holocaust and explicit educational aims of the work. Better guidance on the most appropriate approach in different curriculum areas would allow a deeper and more meaningful exploration of this complex history.

Greater priority should be given to releasing teachers who wish to attend quality assured professional development programmes. That would increase the quality of their teaching and address areas identified by this research as vulnerable, such as progression in students’ learning at different stages of schooling and appropriate assessment framework. Continuing professional development that is university-led, research-informed and empirically tested has the potential to provide the best impact on improving teaching and learning about the Holocaust, and it is important that the government continues to invest in such programmes.

Originally published HERE.