In the early 1970s, I completed my doctoral thesis at an American university, on a subject that was a breakthrough in research – higher education in Nazi Germany. Upon my return to Israel, I developed, with the assistance of David For, then chairman of the Pedagogical Secretariat in the Ministry of Education, two experimental textbooks for teaching the Holocaust to school students.
The idea, which was ahead of its time, was to base the extraction of lessons from the extraordinary human phenomenon in history on a consideration of both the victims of the Holocaust and the murderers as human beings who lived in a unique historical reality full of dilemmas. Even then, this approach stood in contrast to the conventional and alienated view that saw the victims of the Holocaust as "other" figures: exiled and distant who went, according to the conventional stereotype, "like sheep to the slaughter," while seeing the murderers as demonic figures from "another planet," cut off from all human connection, and thus blocking the ability to develop a moral judgment of their actions.
Later, in the 1980s, I worked with colleagues at the School of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles, including educational psychologists and curriculum writers, on developing principles for a comprehensive educational program for teaching the Holocaust, from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Together, we developed pedagogical and psychological tools for dealing with the Holocaust as a human phenomenon from which universal humane lessons should be drawn, from cultivating the meanings of human dignity to the need for a moral struggle against turning the "other" – whether individual or collective – into a victim.
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
Enough with the simplicity.
I believed then, and I believe even more strongly these days (when my granddaughter writes to me from her class's trip to Poland, about her feelings as an Israeli girl facing the mountains of shoes in Auschwitz), that it is possible, desirable, and even obligatory to engage with the Holocaust, in an informed manner, from a young age.
Against this background, I was pleased to accept the invitation of Education Minister Shai Piron to participate in a discussion held a few months ago in his office, with the heads of Yad Vashem, which dealt with the principles of an educational program for dealing with the lessons of the Holocaust starting in kindergarten.
In the discussion, I explained the main points of my study, according to which the study of this complex subject cannot be artificially (and therefore not always educationally) confined to Holocaust Remembrance Day. It must be woven into the educational curriculum, layer by layer, emotional and cognitive, throughout the stages of students' development during their school years. The overall curriculum should be based on two overarching goals:
The first goal relates to the victim, and according to which one must strive to understand the meaning of the destruction of the cradle of Jewish culture in Europe and to understand the proper place of the feeling of orphanhood that accompanies us to this day.
The second goal relates to the murderer, and according to which one must strive to internalize the foundations of the human phenomenon of the "deteriorating continuum of evil," starting with the stereotypical attitude towards others ("the other is not me," to paraphrase the central theme of the education system today - "the other is me"), through turning him into an object of hatred in the mind, and ending with his collective destruction.
An unfortunate mistake.
The recent media reports about the new program to address the Holocaust starting at a young age give me cause for concern. On the surface, it seems that this program is not based on clear goals and a pedagogical outline derived from them. It seems that the starting point of the program is the desire to deal with the potential consequences of exposing children to the helplessness of the Jewish victim, on the one hand, and to Nazi evil, on the other, on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
If this is indeed the case, then we are facing a regrettable failure of worthy educational goals. Worse still: we seem to be returning to the trap of "macabre symmetry," created by a sense of alienation toward the inhuman murderers on the one hand, and toward the helpless victims on the other.
Evil in itself must not be the focus of educational consideration, certainly not at an early age. It is precisely the Jewish life that flourished in Europe that holds inexhaustible wealth, the knowledge and study of which over the years may establish an understanding of the meanings of the destruction and feelings of orphanhood, at more advanced stages of cognitive development. Similarly, the recognition of the dangerous human tendencies to generalize and highlight the "otherness" of those who are different may awaken the appropriate moral sensitivity towards the attempt to turn other human beings into victims.
The diverse Jewish life, the experiences of Jewish children, the manifestations of our culture, and more – all of these are part of the diverse possible content, which does not need to be "attached" to Holocaust Remembrance Day. We should strive to get to know the Jews "over there" as people similar to us "here." This should be addressed at a young age, and not through intimidation, not through the helplessness of the victim, and certainly not through exposure to atrocities.
Freeing the educational process from the artificial shackles of Holocaust Memorial Day ceremonies is the right way to engage in a deep, ongoing, and continuous educational engagement, through long-term processes, with the human and Jewish lessons of the Holocaust. It is also the way to remove from the Holocaust discourse the simplistic elements expressed in slogans such as "never again," "from a beacon to resurrection," "the Nazi beast," or "they went like sheep to the slaughter," and to move to a mature, sober, in-depth, and therefore more relevant discourse.
• Dr. Arik Carmon – Founding President of the Israel Democracy Institute, and holder of a doctorate dealing with the education system in Germany during World War II
