Europe's teachers face hurdles with Holocaust history

Apr 25, 2006, 16:44 GMT

Prague - Skinheads and so-called 'crypto-fascism' are among the challenges facing European teachers now on the front line of an ideological battle to remember the Holocaust, education experts said at a conference Tuesday.

But teachers assigned to instruct today's grandchildren and great- grandchildren of the Holocaust generation also need proper training, classroom materials, personal motivation and curriculum support from governments, conference participants agreed.

It is not easy for teachers to fight the dark messages of 'skinhead marches around Europe that are certainly ideologically linked to the brown terror' of the Nazis, who killed 6 million Jews and others in the 1930s and '40s,' said Czech Education Minister Petra Buzkova at the Council of Europe (COE) event.

'This is something young people should be aware of and in no way underestimate,' she said.

Nevertheless, in some countries 'the teaching of genocide is not in the curriculum' officially assigned to schools by government ministries, said Gunnar Mandt, a Norwegian educator heading a COE committee on the issue.

In these situations 'it's up to the individual teachers to bring it into the classroom,' he said.

The effort to remember the Holocaust and prevent it from happening again is also hampered by a shortage of classroom materials and 'a lack of competence on the part of teachers' that can only be addressed through training, Mandt said.

The COE, which spent the past three years promoting Holocaust remembrance in schools, has provided some training and books for educators such as a manual called 'Teaching About the Holocaust in the 21st Century.'

However, some countries should do more to support the educational effort, Mandt said.

Indeed the experts at the conference from 48 countries stressed that, unlike most classroom lessons, Holocaust history needs earnest promotion and a vigorous defence.

In addressing the educators, former Czech president and writer Vaclav Havel said Holocaust remembrance is challenged by what he called a movement of 'crypto-fascism' hiding behind a mask of social legitimacy in Europe.

As an example, Havel cited 'tendencies to minimize the significance' of concentration camps by drawing distinctions 'between extremely brutal and less brutal camps.'

'What looks innocent in the beginning might develop into something dangerous,' he warned.

Havel said responsibility for Holocaust education is not limited to a few countries. Genocide 'represents the shame of not only individual nations but of all humanity,' he said.

Now it's up to 'all nations to transmit moral and ethic values to future generations,' he said.

Much has already been accomplished and most European schools emphasize the Holocaust in history lessons, for example, while others personally expose students to its bitter legacy.

Norwegian high school students, for example, take field trips to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. Others meet or learn about Holocaust survivors in their communities.

Mandt said the goal is to provide 'knowledge that creates empathy.'

In some European classes, students discuss current affairs such as race-related crime in their own countries, comparing today's news with events from the years preceding the Holocaust.

Such creative learning methods 'are being used more and more,' said Swiss educator Claude-Alain Clerc.

On another level, the educators said, teachers are encouraged to be personally motivated to focus on Holocaust education.

In the Czech Republic, for example, Buzkova said teachers are 'encouraged to be convinced' that the Holocaust's horror as well as 'reasons behind the events' deserve special attention.

She said such motivational training helps instructors 'teach pupils based on their conviction' so that the Holocaust will not be forgotten.