What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

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Considerations and recommendations
young people should know and understand about
the Holocaust both at the end of their compulsory
schooling and at different stages of their school
career (as, for example, is articulated through the
spiral curriculum framework developed by the
UCL Centre for Holocaust Education). In both
cases such guidance should be informed by
robust empirical research.
3. Clear recommendations should be given on
the minimum amount of time required to teach
about the Holocaust within each key stage of the
National Curriculum and better guidance provided
on how the subject can most appropriately be
approached from different curriculum areas. In
particular, clear suggestions should be made as
to how teaching and learning about the Holocaust
can support and enhance current developments
within SMSC.
4. In order that students are provided with adequate
opportunities to develop their knowledge and
understandings beyond compulsory Key Stage 3
history (that is, up to age 14), GCSE and A level
awarding bodies should be required to ensure that
the study of the Holocaust is strongly featured in
relevant subject areas.
5. To ensure the highest quality pedagogical practice,
Ofsted inspection frameworks should include
provision for the inspection of teaching and
learning about the Holocaust and teachers should
be better supported in order to attend quality
assured professional development programmes
in this field.
IV. The aims of Holocaust education
Without question, the most important finding of
this research study is that, too often, secondaryschool
students have both an inappropriately narrow
conception of the Holocaust and limited historical
knowledge. As a result it is very clear that most
students are insufficiently equipped to address
the complexity of the Holocaust and to derive
meaning from it. The implications of these findings
for individuals and organisations that teach young
people about the Holocaust are, of course, profound.
A vital issue that requires attention relates to the
aims of Holocaust education and the ways in which
individuals and organisations translate these into
classroom practice. Accordingly, this section focuses
on some of the most common aims of Holocaust
education and on evaluating the extent to which
the pursuance of these aims either improves or
inhibits students’ knowledge and conception of
the Holocaust.
Investigation into the aims of Holocaust education
immediately reveals a striking contradiction. On
the one hand, there is extensive critical reflection,
scholarship and commentary regarding the aims
of teaching about the Holocaust. A vast array of
academics, critics, philosophers and public figures
has wrestled with the vagaries and idiosyncrasies
of this complex subject (for example, Kaiser 2010;
Pearce 2014; Russell 2006; Salmons 2010;
Schweber and Findling 2007; Stone 2010). On the
other hand, certain exceptions aside, there has
been strikingly little attention paid to the aims of
teaching and learning about the Holocaust among
practitioners and policymakers.
Despite the repeated inclusion of the Holocaust in
the history curriculum in England, at no point in the
last 25 years has a formal rationale been provided for
why the Holocaust should be taught (Russell 2006;
Pearce 2014). Similarly, the Centre’s 2009 research
with teachers revealed that few had seriously
considered the rationale for Holocaust education
and considerable confusion existed about what its
principal aims were (Pettigrew et al. 2009).
In some respects, many of the leading UK
Holocaust education organisations in England
occupy a middle ground. Whereas few engage
in extensive, critical and public debate about the
purpose of Holocaust education most articulate key
aims for teaching and learning about the subject
via their websites, outreach events or informational
materials. Analysis of these aims suggests that two
are particularly dominant. The first centres on the
importance of remembering and/or commemorating
the Holocaust, while the second emphasises the
need to study the Holocaust in order to learn
‘lessons’ from it. It would not be appropriate to enter
into a deep philosophical examination of the aims of
Holocaust education, but it is important to examine
these two core aims in the light of the findings of this
extensive research study.
Holocaust commemoration
Remembrance activities and commemorative
events such as those in which tens of thousands
participate each Holocaust Memorial Day are
undoubtedly important. All societies need spaces in
which to express their values, and it is easy to see
why remembrance of the Holocaust can serve to
articulate those of the liberal-democratic tradition.
Hitler and the Nazis are emblematic of racist, fascist,
totalitarian ideals and their crimes stand as stark
warning of the need to value diversity in society, to
protect minority groups, respect the rule of law
and safeguard human rights. Commemoration also
provides members of society with an opportunity to
acknowledge and reflect on the horrors of the past
and pay their respects both to those who perished