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Transcending Moral and Emotional Engagement: The Use of Holocaust Heritage in Primary Education

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Holocaust Education in Primary Schools in the Twenty-First Century

Part of the book series: The Holocaust and its Contexts ((HOLC))

Abstract

This chapter reflects on the tension between the aims of stimulating knowledge, remembrance and moral development that are often ascribed to Holocaust education through an analysis of the educational resources for primary education of the Westerbork Memorial Centre and the Junior Resistance Museum in the Netherlands. Using an analytical framework on the effects of different narrative and display strategies, de Bruijn identifies the various ways in which these resources foster emotional and moral engagement and how that impacts the opportunities for acquainting pupils with multiple perspectives. He argues that it would be useful to encourage pupils to study processes of cultural memory in order for Holocaust education to contribute both to a stronger knowledge of this history and to skills of democratic citizenship.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Stephan Klein, Maria Grever and Carla van Boxtel, ‘“Zie, denk, voel, vraag, spreek, hoor en verwonder”. Afstand en nabijheid bij geschiedenisonderwijs en erfgoededucatie in Nederland’, Tijdschrift voor geschiedenis 124(3) (2011), pp. 380–395.

  2. 2.

    Pieter de Bruijn, Bridges to the Past: Historical Distance and Multiperspectivity in English and Dutch Heritage Educational Resources (PhD dissertation, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 2014), pp. 201–211.

  3. 3.

    Anja Mihr, ‘Why Holocaust education is not always human rights education’, Journal of Human Rights 14(4) (2015), pp. 525–544.

  4. 4.

    Paula Cowan and Henry Maitles, ‘Does addressing prejudice and discrimination through Holocaust education produce better citizens?’, Educational Review 59(2) (2007), pp. 115–130, here p. 128; Bruce Carrington and Geoffrey Short, ‘Holocaust education, anti-racism and citizenship’, Educational Review 49 (3) (1997), pp. 271–282, here p. 280.

  5. 5.

    Laura Johnson and Paul Morris, ‘Towards a framework for critical citizenship education’, The Curriculum Journal 21(1) (2010), pp. 77–96; 84; Peter Seixas and Tom Morton, The Big Six: Historical Thinking Concepts (Toronto, 2013).

  6. 6.

    Pieter de Bruijn, ‘The Holocaust and historical distance: an analysis of heritage educational resources’ in: Jan Hodel, Monika Waldis and Béatrice Ziegler (eds.), Forschungswerkstatt Geschichtsdidaktik 12 (Bern, 2013), pp. 204–213, here p. 212 f.

  7. 7.

    Mihr, ‘Why Holocaust education is not always human rights education’, pp. 530–531.

  8. 8.

    Karel van Nieuwenhuyse and Kaat Wils, ‘Remembrance education between history teaching and citizenship education’, Citizenship Teaching & Learning 7(2) (2012), pp. 157–171, here p. 159.

  9. 9.

    Dienke Hondius, Oorlogslessen: onderwijs over de oorlog sinds 194 5 (Amsterdam, 2010), pp. 286–287.

  10. 10.

    Pieter de Bruijn, Oorlogsvorming: burgerschapsonderwijs en geschiedenis (Amsterdam, 2015), pp. 5–6.

  11. 11.

    http://holocaustremembrance.com/node/318 (accessed 15 February 2017).

  12. 12.

    http://holocaustremembrance.com/node/319 (accessed 15 February 2017).

  13. 13.

    Ozro Luke Davis, Elizabeth Anne Yeager and Stuart J. Foster (eds.), Historical Empathy and Perspective Taking in the Social Studies (Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield, 2001); Robert Stradling, Multiperspectivity in History Teaching: A Guide for Teachers (Strasbourg Cedex, 2003); Peter Seixas and Tom Morton, The Big Six: Historical Thinking Concepts (Toronto, 2013).

  14. 14.

    Johnson and Morris, ‘Towards a framework for critical citizenship education’, p. 84.

  15. 15.

    Paul Salmons, ‘Teaching or preaching? The Holocaust and intercultural education in the UK’, Intercultural Education 14(2) (2003), pp. 139–149, here pp. 143–144; Alice Pettigrew, ‘Limited lessons from the Holocaust? Critically considering the ‘anti-racist’ and citizenship potential’, Teaching History 141 (2010), pp. 50–56; 50; Paul Salmons, ‘Universal meaning or historical understanding? The Holocaust in history and history in the curriculum’, Teaching History 141 (2010), pp. 57–63; 59.

  16. 16.

    De Bruijn, Bridges to the Past, pp. 201–211.

  17. 17.

    De Bruijn, Bridges to the Past; Eviatar Zerubavel, Time Maps: Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past (Chicago and London, 2003).

  18. 18.

    Jan Kolen, De biografie van het landschap: drie essays over landschap, geschiedenis en erfgoed (Amsterdam, 2005), pp. 275–277.

  19. 19.

    http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0018844/2012-12-01 (accessed 15 February 2017).

  20. 20.

    Roel Hijink, Voormalige concentratiekampen: de monumentalisering van de Duitse kampen in Nederland (Hilversum, 2011), pp. 199–202.

  21. 21.

    Zerubavel, Time Maps, 11–25.

  22. 22.

    Mieke Bal, Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative (Toronto, Buffalo and London, 2009), pp. 147–153.

  23. 23.

    Zerubavel, Time Maps, 37–46.

  24. 24.

    Roel Hijink, ‘De musealisering van de kampen. Tussen werkelijkheid en verbeelding’, in Frank van Vree and Rob van der Laarse (eds.), De dynamiek van de herinnering: Nederland en de Tweede Wereldoorlog in een internationale context (Amsterdam 2009), pp. 128–147, here pp. 135–136.

  25. 25.

    Hijink, Voormalige concentratiekampen, pp. 199–202.

  26. 26.

    De Bruijn, Bridges to the Past, p. 205.

  27. 27.

    Interview Christel Tijenk (Hooghalen, January 29, 2014).

  28. 28.

    Kees Ribbens, ‘World War II in European comics: National representations of global conflict in popular historical culture’, International Journal of Comic Art 12(1) (2010), pp. 1–33, here pp. 5–8.

  29. 29.

    Frank van Vree, ‘De dynamiek van de herinnering: Nederland in een internationale context’, in Frank van Vree and Rob van der Laarse (eds.), De dynamiek van de herinnering: Nederland en de Tweede Wereldoorlog in een internationale context (Amsterdam, 2009), pp. 17–40, here pp. 32–35.

  30. 30.

    Laurajane Smith, ‘Changing views? Emotional intelligence, registers of engagement and the museum visit’, in Viviane Gosselin and Phaedra Livingstone (eds.), Museums and the Past: Constructing Historical Consciousness (Vancouver, 2016), pp. 101–121; Geerte M. Savenije and Pieter de Bruijn, ‘Historical empathy in a museum: uniting contextualisation and emotional engagement’, International Journal of Heritage Studies 23(9) (2017), pp. 832–845, here p. 838.

  31. 31.

    Interview Christel Tijenk (Hooghalen, 29 January 2014).

  32. 32.

    Ibid.

  33. 33.

    Kees Ribbens and Esther Captain, Tonen van de oorlog: toekomst voor het museale erfgoed van de Tweede Wereldoorlog (Amsterdam, 2011), p. 15.

  34. 34.

    Van Vree, ‘De dynamiek van de herinnering’, pp. 22–25.

  35. 35.

    Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage (Berkeley, 1998), pp. 19–23; Henrietta Lidchi, ‘The poetics and the politics of exhibiting other cultures’, in Stuart Hall (ed.), Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (London, 1997), pp. 151–222, here p. 174.

  36. 36.

    Bal, Narratology, pp. 147–153.

  37. 37.

    Interview Gerard Mensink (Amsterdam, 1 December 2014).

  38. 38.

    Frosoulla Kofterou, ‘Mickey mouse gas masks and wonderlands: constructing ideas of trauma within exhibitions about children and war’, Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures 5 (2) (2013), pp. 60–79, here p. 60; De Bruijn, Bridges to the Past, pp. 197–198.

  39. 39.

    Keith Barton and Linda Levstik, Teaching History for the Common Good (Mahwah, New York and London, 2004), pp. 210–212; Peter Brett, ‘Citizenship through history – What is good practice?’, International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research 5(2) (2005), pp. 10–26; here pp. 10f.

  40. 40.

    Alan Sears, ‘Historical thinking and citizenship education: It’s time to end the war’, in Penney Clark (ed.), New Possibilities for the Past: Shaping History Education in Canada (Vancouver & Toronto 2011), pp. 344–364, here p. 357f.

  41. 41.

    Karen L. Riley, ‘The Holocaust and historical empathy: The politics of understanding’, in Ozro Luke Davis, Elizabeth Anne Yeager and Stuart J. Foster (eds.), Historical Empathy and Perspective Taking in the Social Studies (Lanham, 2001), pp. 139–166, here pp. 140f, 161.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Humanities and Law, Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, The Netherlands

    Pieter de Bruijn

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  1. Pieter de Bruijn
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom

    Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann

  2. University of the West of Scotland, Ayr, United Kingdom

    Paula Cowan

  3. National Holocaust Centre and Museum, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    James Griffiths

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de Bruijn, P. (2018). Transcending Moral and Emotional Engagement: The Use of Holocaust Heritage in Primary Education. In: Szejnmann, CC., Cowan, P., Griffiths, J. (eds) Holocaust Education in Primary Schools in the Twenty-First Century. The Holocaust and its Contexts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73099-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73099-8_8

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73098-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73099-8

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