Critiquing Holocaust Education

Abstract

If the 1978 NBC Holocaust miniseries helped spark mainstream interest in the event, then 1993—the year in which Stephen Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) opened to critical acclaim—represented the culmination of this interest. During the years leading up to 1993 there was a steady rise in educational interest in the Holocaust across the country. This was accompanied by a proliferation of Holocaust educational material. By 1993, Holocaust education was so established that the national Museum did not feel the need to create an “official” Holocaust curriculum. Instead, under the leadership of William Parsons and Samuel Totten, the USHMM issued a set of teaching guidelines meant to direct teachers in the selection and refinement of existing curricula. Many of these guidelines were critical in nature, indirectly attacking the quality and effectiveness of many of the units covered in this study. The guidelines suggested that Holocaust education, as a movement, had moved beyond justification and implementation to all-out critique. The continued rise in interest about teaching the event was underscored by the educational campaign launched in coordination with the screening of Schindler’s List.