Teaching the Shoah

VGiven the increasing pressures that senior secondary students (and their teachers) are under, I was not surprised to read the UCL findings that the Holocaust is being taught to younger secondary students (Young children should not learn about the Shoah, 2 July).

I was however surprised to read that this trend is considered to be “worrying”, on the grounds that students “at the lower end of Key Stage Three” (1113 year olds), lack emotional and intellectual maturity to learn about the Holocaust.

While the ‘Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust’ published by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (2019) do not specify the pedagogical appropriate ages for learning in this area, they acknowledge that “learners of different ages can be introduced to the history of the Holocaust when method and content is ageappropriate”.

This resource recommends the use of individual stories concerning victims and rescuers for younger learners and more challenging material with primary sources for older learners. Websites of the Anne Frank Trust, The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, and the National Holocaust Centre and Museum contain materials for students in the 11-13 age group and younger.

In Scotland, where there is no requirement to teach the Holocaust in the secondary curriculum, the Holocaust is frequently taught to students from 13 years. However, school applications to the Vision Schools Scotland programme, demonstrate that Holocaust education is embedded in secondary schools in a range of ways and one of these includes teaching 11-13 year olds.

Such embedding involves teaching the Holocaust in History to this age group, building on this initial learning in the following and later senior stages, and includes 11-13 year olds in the school’s Holocaust education leadership programme.

Feedback from these schools is that this approach leads to meaningful student engagement in Holocaust Memorial Day, an increase in student interest in Lessons From Auschwitz Programme participation and a deeper understanding of the Holocaust.

So, with regards to the recent UCL findings, rather than restrict and compartmentalise Holocaust teaching, perhaps it would be wiser to promote flexibility and professional learning of new effective and age-appropriate approaches.

Paula Cowan

Reader in Education, University of the West of Scotland

VAge appropriate aspects of the Shoah are taught very successfully to lower secondary and upper primary students.

These lessons are often complemented by visits to the National Holocaust Centre, the Jewish Museum, synagogue Holocaust Memorial Day projects, or by sessions facilitated or resourced by the Holocaust Educational Trust or the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

Students can be given the opportunity to meet and listen to a survivor, particularly of the Kindertransport.

They will usually have been given some introductory lessons by a class teacher who knows them well and with whom they feel comfortable to discuss this most difficult of subjects.

What the UCL’s research has shown is that, as the current GCSE history curriculum about the Holocaust has been devised for a minimum age of 15 or 16, it needs to be modified if it is to be taught to younger students. Some of the abovementioned resources might be useful for this.

Angela Goldstein

Fellow in Holocaust Education London N14