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10 Isn’t the Holocaust really an example
of bullying in the extreme?
Asked by: Tiffany, public school, Grade 8
Variations of this exist as in “Hitler was the biggest bully of all time” or “Left unchecked, bullying leads to
the Holocaust.” Such claims contribute to trivialisation of the Holocaust. To deconstruct this myth, review
the definition of the Holocaust. Although various museums and education centres have minor variations in
the definition they use, all agree that definition includes the the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored
persecution and murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany and their collaborators. As harmful as bullying
is, it is not helpful to liken it to the Holocaust. Simply put, the Holocaust was not a severe form of bullying. The
Holocaust was a systematic attempt to annihilate the Jewish people. Equating these two issues contributes
to trivialisation of a complex, historical event. This is a viewpoint shared by many leading educators and
Holocaust education institutions, and is covered by Dr. Michael Gray in his book Contemporary Debates in
Holocaust Education (2014).
This is important to know and teach because: Although literature on bullying uses the same language
of “bystander”, “victim”, and perpetrator/bully, these terms do not have the same meaning when discussing
playground bullying and the Holocaust. Educators must be proactive and discuss these misconceptions
with their students.
11 How could one man,
Adolf Hitler, murder six million Jews?
Asked by: Jamal, public school, Grade 11
133 HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN PEDAGOGY, HISTORY, AND PRACTICE
Adolf Hitler was the leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (in German, Nationalsozialistische
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), the Nazi party. He was not the only Nazi who murdered Jews. He was the
mastermind. It took a great number of people to achieve Hitler’s and Nazism’s goals of re-ordering German
society and eliminating elements deemed “undesirable.” National Socialism built a personality cult around
Hitler, and he ruled Germany in an autocratic manner. Central to this was the Führerprinzip (leader principle),