Instead of a Blog Post

An excerpt from my book Hatred of Jews-A Failure of Holocaust Education?  on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.

On January 27, we commemorate the victims of the Holocaust worldwide. This day not only recalls the unprecedented crimes of National Socialism, but also our responsibility to pass on knowledge, protect historical truth, and empower people to recognize and confront hatred of Jews and exclusion.

On this occasion, I am making an excerpt from my book Hatred of Jews-A Failure of Holocaust Education?  available as a PDF. The excerpt illustrates why Holocaust education today has reached its limits and why new approaches are urgently needed. It is therefore not only about identifying possible shortcomings or failures, but above all about pointing toward new paths forward.

Can Holocaust education truly change minds?

Although the Holocaust is among the best-documented crimes in human history, the way we talk about it today has stalled. Many young people are familiar with individual terms, but lack a deeper understanding of contexts and connections. Others feel emotionally overwhelmed or even repelled by the topic. At the same time, public discourse is increasingly challenged by conspiracy narratives and forms of relativization.

Holocaust education is therefore under greater pressure today than ever before.

In Chapter 5 of my book, I address precisely this question: Holocaust Education to Change Minds? Drawing on current studies and pedagogical debates, the chapter examines whether—and under what conditions—Holocaust education can influence attitudes, or whether it encounters clear limits in an increasingly hostile social environment.

At the center is an analysis of the present conditions of Holocaust education: overload, resistance, guilt defense, the simplification of historical complexity, and a growing fatigue with the topic shape both schools and society. Narratives such as the personalization of National Socialism in the figure of Adolf Hitler, perpetrator–victim reversal, postcolonial interpretive frameworks, and problematic comparisons relativize the uniqueness of the Holocaust and open the door to new forms of delegitimizing Jewish experience.

The chapter demonstrates how well-intentioned pedagogical approaches can become counterproductive. Visits to memorial sites, empathy-oriented teaching, or ritualized remembrance do not automatically lead to critical self-reflection; instead, they can reinforce guilt defense, devaluation, or even hatred of Jews. Particular attention is paid to the roles of teachers, educational materials, parents, and classmates, as well as to structural deficits in curricula and teacher training.

Holocaust education does not appear here as a failed endeavor, but as a highly complex field with clearly defined limits.

This chapter is for all those who are not satisfied with easy answers and who want to understand why remembrance alone does not guarantee learning. The challenges of hatred of Jews and historical amnesia are not only pedagogical—they are societal. Those who understand where the problems lie are also better equipped to recognize them and to effect change.

In this chapter, I argue that Holocaust education must be fundamentally rethought.

If you would like to receive a free excerpt from my book directly in your mailbox, please write to me!

What this can look like in practice—what methods, pedagogical approaches, and perspectives may be helpful—I address in the following chapter of my book.

I hope this excerpt encourages reflection and invites further reading.

Yours Melanie Carina Schmoll