Holocaust Education in New York City

Abstract

When the Holocaust was first introduced into the American public secondary schools, knowledge of the event was mostly limited to areas with large Jewish populations. Therefore, it is no surprise that New York City was the first location where the widespread Holocaust education began. It is difficult to say with any certainty who the first teachers of the Holocaust in American public schools were. There seemed to be several social studies teachers who began teaching a Holocaust unit around 1972–73. Many teachers most likely taught Holocaust literature before that (e.g., Leatrice Rabinsky; see chapter five). In addition, there were likely many Jewish public school teachers throughout the country who would have had more than a superficial knowledge of the event prior to 1973, who may have taught the Holocaust in some manner. Teaching the Diary of Anne Frank would have been the most common example. For this reason, the reader must pay attention to textual distinctions, such as “course,” “unit,” and “mandatory.” The impetus for the first Holocaust units designed for use in public schools can be traced to a large degree to the work of Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel.