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international learning about the Holocaust and other genocides while taking into account
‘local narratives’, 5 and the initiative of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
Rights of the OSCE to encourage teachers to demonstrate the humanistic significance of
learning about the Holocaust by ‘building bridges to connect with … students’ backgrounds’. 6
The study differs from previous reports, however, because it does not address Holocaust
education in general. Instead, it documents the contents and concepts of education about the
Holocaust presented in curricula and textbooks, thereby providing a foundation upon which
we may gain understanding of local narratives derived from present-day local perspectives.
It also differs from previous reports insofar as its recommendations for good practices
have a heuristic value, designed as they are to foster knowledge about mechanisms by
which knowledge about the Holocaust and other genocides is de- and recontextualized
worldwide, and to offer a tool with which to promote Holocaust literacy among educators
and learners alike by providing them with the means to acknowledge different points of view
and interpretations, and to learn mutually in an increasingly internationally interconnected
educational environment.
Main Findings
The status of the Holocaust in curricula varies considerably worldwide. Our findings
revealed four main categories of curricula in respect of the Holocaust: 7
1. Direct reference: Countries whose curricula stipulate teaching about the Holocaust
by using the term ‘Holocaust’ or ‘Shoah’, or by using alternative terminologies such
as ‘genocide against the Jews’ or ‘Nazi persecution of minorities’ (in most member
states of the Council of Europe, in North America and by members of the International
Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, but also in countries such as Ethiopia, Namibia,
South Africa, Chile and Trinidad and Tobago);
2. Partial reference: Countries whose curricula stipulate teaching about the Holocaust
in order to achieve a learning aim which is not primarily the history of the Holocaust
(concerning responses to the Holocaust outside Europe, for example) or to illustrate a
topic other than the Holocaust, where the Holocaust is mentioned as one among other
aspects of human rights education (in Argentina, Belize, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico
and the Canadian Provinces of Alberta, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and the
US State of Maryland, for example);
3. Context only: Countries whose curricula refer to the Second World War or to National
Socialism, for example, without referring explicitly to the Holocaust as a term or an
event (in Algeria, Bhutan, India and Japan, for example);
5 From Salzburg Global Seminar and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2013, Global Perspectives on Holocaust
Education. Trends, Patterns and Practices, Washington, Salzburg Global Seminar and United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum, p. 47.
6 From OSCE/ODIHR, 2006, Education on the Holocaust and on Antisemitism, OSCE/ODIHR, p. 8.
7 See the table ‘Conceptualizations of the Holocaust in secondary school curricula’ in chapter 4 for a comprehensive list of
countries corresponding to each of the four catergories.
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