Rochelle Wilner President	Frank Dimant Chief Executive Officer	Prof. Stephen Scheinberg National Chair

Holocaust Education in Canada

A Review and Analysis of Curriculum, Policies,
Programs and Teacher Training

Introduction

¤ PURPOSE OF PROJECT

Many countries that participated in the 2000 Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, A Conference on Education, Remembrance and Research mounted expensive displays of state and community sponsored resources and curricula on the topic. However, as Canada prepared to send a delgegation to the conference it became clear that very little was known about the nature and extent of Holocaust education in this country. Therefore, with the assistance of a grant from the Multiculturalism Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada embarked on a national study to enhance Canada’s contribution to further national and international meetings, as well as to identify gaps in the area that need to be filled.

The purpose of this research project is to contribute to international information and cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research. The first step was to conduct a Canada-wide survey to gather information about the current state of Holocaust Education in Canada. The survey covered policies in provincial Ministries and Departments of Education, curricula in school boards, teacher training opportunities in colleges and universities, programs in Holocaust Memorial and Education Centres and community-based organizations across the country, as well as individual teacher efforts to enhance Holocaust studies in their boards and schools. A compendium of resources and resource people is included in Results: Part III.

¤ BACKGROUND

TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST IN NORTH AMERICA

The teaching of the Holocaust as a subject in the public school curriculum is a relatively recent development. As described by Carole Ann Reed and Geoffrey Short in their forthcoming book, Issues in Holocaust Education, Holocaust consciousness in North America began in the late 1960s and some individuals were doing occasional courses at the university level. The publication of a number of scholarly books and memoirs helped to begin a significant body of literary work about the Holocaust and focused attention on the Holocaust "as a concept." In the 1970s media study guides and other educational materials accompanied productions; the Holocaust, as a distinct concept, became part of North American popular culture.

Throughout the 1970s, the Holocaust was a focus of discussion in the academic community in both Canada and the United States. Courses on the Holocaust resulted from the motivation of individual teachers and professors rather than the university, community or departmental policy. The first teachers’ conference on "Teaching the Holocaust" was held in the United States in part as a result of survivors and survivor organizations that began to play a role in founding museums and teaching centres. Teacher training programs started in the United States in the 1980s .

According to Reed and Short (2001), Canada’s multicultural policies were particularly “receptive to Holocaust education as a way to reduce discrimination and to encourage respect for cultural diversity.” The establishment of the National Holocaust Remembrance Committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress and education committees in smaller local communities took place during the 1970s. In 1978 the Toronto Jewish Congress (Ontario), organized the first Holocaust education conference in Canada. In 1991, the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada held the first National Holocaust Education Conference, bringing together past "Holocaust and Hope" participants and senior Board and Ministry officials from across the country.

In 1982, the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada published The Treatment of the Holocaust in Canadian History and Social Science Textbooks. The review of Canadian History and Social Studies textbooks, conducted by Glickman and Bardikoff, revealed that texts used in high schools either did not mention the Holocaust at all, or devoted only a few sentences ‘embedded’ in the history of World War II. It was up to the individual teacher's discretion whether or not the Holocaust would be taught. In classrooms where the Holocaust was mentioned, teachers often presented only historical information, and many were ill-prepared to deal with the emotional impact and challenging questions and contentious issues that arose. They would either avoid the topic altogether or deal only with facts, failing to handle the tougher underlying issues or drawing relevance to the lives of their students. The challenge facing teachers was how to teach in such a way as to draw out the moral lessons and to counter the influence that the Holocaust deniers were beginning to have on students. Commenting on the importance of including the Holocaust as an essential part of the curriculum the authors wrote:

… ignorance of the plight of one oppressed minority breeds insensitivity to the predicament of others, and the destruction of European Jewry has been the one most blatant case of such an oppression… The vulnerability of the educational system is most pronounced because of the instrumental role it plays in teaching the youngster to either assume or abdicate adult responsibilities. And it is the cultivation of the physical and spiritual survival of all people as a basic human right as well as the awareness of where this right has been abused that measures the success or failure of the educational process in the formation of such responsibilities.

Glickman and Bardikoff concluded that in the authorized texts for classroom use the treatment of the Holocaust was inadequate. Even where the topic of the Holocaust was included in the text, the study revealed that the topic often glossed over or short changed. Their report also noted that there were significant variations among the provinces, the boards and from school to school. Almost twenty years later, the present study has shown there have been notable strides made in Holocaust Education in Canada. However, the topic is not a mandatory part of the school curriculum, and it still remains largely at the discretion of the individual teacher whether and how it will be included.

¤ INTERNATIONAL SCENE

In the early 1980s, Israel made the Holocaust a compulsory subject in the high school history curriculum. A new textbook was created to meet national Ministry of Education requirements. Israeli Holocaust memorials, such as Yad Vashem and the Ghetto Fighter’s House, were called upon to help teachers deal with this subject that was now required in the curriculum. Materials that existed in the extensive collections of these two centres were adapted for use by students. University education departments began to offer in-service training courses on the Holocaust for high school teachers. The first International conference on Holocaust education was held in 1999 at Yad Vashem, Israel.

In 1997 in Germany, where education under provincial or state jurisdiction is similar to Canada, the Secretariat of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany produced a report entitled On the Treatment of the Holocaust at School. In the report, the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs were unanimous in their belief that one of the obligations facing schools was to deal with the National Socialist reign of violence of which the memory of the Holocaust was of central importance. They committed themselves to making the whole area a firm component of school syllabuses and actual classroom teaching. For example, the German Free State of Saxony in the Federal Republic of Germany provides in-service training programs for teachers in developing methodologies and teaching techniques needed for Holocaust education. The curriculum in the Free State of Saxony covers modern antisemitism, racism and the persecution and extermination of political opponents, Jewish citizens and other minorities during the National Socialist period. “By dealing with the Holocaust it can be illustrated what unimaginable crimes humankind is capable of both committing and tolerating whenever the principles of the basic order and the respect of human dignity, the most important principle, are abused by the state.” Described as one of the most pressing tasks facing schools in Germany, discussion on National Socialism requires grappling with contemporary German history. It is part of coming to terms with the past. (“Vergangenheitsbewältigung”).

The Task Force for International Co-operation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research started at the initiative of Sweden’s Prime Minister Persson in 1998, and currently consists of nine member nations: Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland. The objectives of the Task Force are to assist countries to develop or upgrade Holocaust education and remembrance. Commitment to national education programs such as teacher training, the continuing development of educational materials and a national day of Holocaust commemoration, require close co-operation between government agencies.

Increasing knowledge and awareness of the Holocaust was the focus of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, A Conference on Education, Remembrance and Research, 26-28 January 2000. The Canadian delegation to the conference was led by Deputy Prime Minister Herb Gray, and seconded by Member of Parliament, Professor Irwin Cotler. The other members of the Canadian delegation included Rochelle Wilner and Dr. Karen Mock of B’nai Brith Canada, Moshe Ronen and Nate Leipciger of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Greg Schmidt and Peter Dimitroff of Mr. Gray’s staff, Rosine Gerhard of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and David Matas, who has conducted research on the fate of Raoul Wallenberg for the Canadian government. Professor Michael Marrus of the University of Toronto, and the recently appointed Chair of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto, was a guest scholar at the Forum, and R.J. van Pelt of the University of Waterloo was also a presenter.

In the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust the members of the Forum recognized the profound significance of the Holocaust as an unprecedented event that has “fundamentally challenged the foundations of civilization.” Reflecting on the international community’s experiences of genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, xenophobia and antisemitism, the Declaration of the Stockholm Forum on the Holocaust, included the following:

Together, we must uphold the terrible truth of the Holocaust against those who deny it. We must strengthen the moral commitment of our peoples, and the political commitment of our governments, to ensure future generations can understand the causes of the Holocaust and reflect upon its consequences.

The 37 page Report to the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust by the Task Force for International Co-operation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research also clarified the parameters of the period of the Holocaust and issues relating to Holocaust Remembrance as described below:

The Canadian Delegation’s written statement to the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust states unequivocally Canada's commitment to Holocaust education:

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