Chapter 2: Why We Teach Holocaust Education

Holocaust education starts with a set of purposes. Why should we raise this subject? Why should we teach about the Holocaust in particular? There are many good answers to this question, but some are related to a second question: Why not teach about more universal or global concerns, using many or other examples of persecution or genocides? A simple and useful answer is that many of us do teach about both Holocaust and genocide, supporting Holocaust education with human rights education. The combination of Holocaust and human rights education has grown since the 1990s. While curricula and context do and must vary depending on our educational contexts, many of us need not select either one or another topic and purpose. As we will elaborate in our next chapter, learning from the Holocaust involves finding and applying its lessons to other abuses of human rights, particularly genocides. Educators need not rank one goal or one group over or above others; we can and often do teach about the interrelated topics of the Holocaust, human rights, and genocide (Levy & Sznaider, 2006).