I'll start this one off. The following report shows Pakistanis are taught little or nothing about it: Pakistan is rated, "context only" - Pakistan's curricula includes the Nazis or WWII but nothing specifically about the Holocaust.
How the world teaches the Holocaust - or ignores it
Research comparing high school textbooks in 139 countries and territories shows that just 57 countries describe Holocaust directly.
By
Haaretz | Jan. 27, 2015 |
Mentions of the Holocaust in high school textbooks in [Europe]. Screenshot from Georg Eckert Institute's report,
'The international status of education about the Holocaust.'
High school textbooks in China apply the language and imagery of the
Holocaust to Japan's Nanjing massacres of 1937, while Japanese textbooks use similar language to depict the devastation caused by atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, according to a recent
study comparing the way textbooks in 139 countries and territories teach the Holocaust – or ignore it.
Twenty-eight countries make no reference to the Holocaust in their curricula, including Western countries like New Zealand and Iceland as well as Bolivia, Thailand and Muslim areas including the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Iraq, the study found. In some of these countries, curricula do not stipulate specific content for history education.
The research, conducted by Germany's Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research and published by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, was released ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday, which commemorates the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The study found that the curricula in countries like China and India show that historians "'tragedize' their own pasts by conspicuously re-contextualizing vocabulary customarily used to describe the Holocaust, including 'terrible massacres,' 'killings,' 'mass murders,' 'atrocities' and 'extermination,'"
writesEckhardt Fuchs, the deputy director of the Georg Eckert Institute.
Another country that uses typical Holocaust terminology to describe local atrocities is Rwanda, in textbook descriptions of the genocide of 1994. In India, references to the Holocaust vary widely, depending on the political context in which the textbooks were published.
For instance, a textbook published when the federal government was under the control of the Left Front, an alliance of leftist parties, associates Germany's territorial expansion with European colonialism in Asia, while one that reveals sympathies with the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its attempts to establish an undivided India through militarization, industrialization and the "sons of the land" – ideals that echo those of the Nazis – doesn't mention the Holocaust at all.
The textbooks in 57 countries, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Poland, France and Turkey, describe the Holocaust directly, using the words "Holocaust" or "Shoah."
Fifty-four countries, including Norway, Algeria and Peru, provide only the context in which the Holocaust may be taught (for instance, by referring to World War II or National Socialism) or address the Holocaust only to achieve an educational objective that is not specifically related to the Holocaust, as Mexico, Colombia and Argentina do.
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Why Teach about the Holocaust?
Because the objective of teaching any subject is to engage the intellectual curiosity of students in order to inspire critical thought and personal growth, it is helpful to structure your lesson plan on the Holocaust by keeping questions of rationale, or purpose, in mind. Teachers rarely have enough time to teach these complicated topics, though they may be required to do so by state standards. Lessons must be developed and difficult content choices must be made.
A well-thought-out rationale helps with these difficult curricular decisions. In addition, people within and outside the school community may question the use of valuable classroom time to study the Holocaust. Again, a well-formed rationale will help address these questions and concerns. Before deciding what and how to teach, we recommend that you think about why you are teaching this history.
Here are three key questions to consider:
- Why should students learn this history?
- What are the most significant lessons students should learn from studying the Holocaust?
- Why is a particular reading, image, document, or film an appropriate medium for conveying the topics that you wish to teach?
The Holocaust provides one of the most effective subjects for examining basic moral issues. A structured inquiry into this history yields critical lessons for an investigation into human behavior. It also addresses one of the central mandates of education in the United States, which is to examine what it means to be a responsible citizen.
By studying these topics, students come to realize that:
- Democratic institutions and values are not automatically sustained, but need to be appreciated, nurtured, and protected.
- Silence and indifference to the suffering of others, or to the infringement of civil rights in any society, can—however unintentionally—perpetuate these problems.
- The Holocaust was not an accident in history; it occurred because individuals, organizations, and governments made choices that not only legalized discrimination but also allowed prejudice, hatred, and ultimately mass murder to occur.
- The Holocaust was a watershed event, not only in the 20th century but also in the entire course of human history.
Studying the Holocaust also helps students to:
- Understand the roots and ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping in any society.
- Develop an awareness of the value of pluralism and an acceptance of diversity.
- Explore the dangers of remaining silent, apathetic, and indifferent to the oppression of others.
- Think about the use and abuse of power as well as the roles and responsibilities of individuals, organizations, and nations when confronted with civil rights violations and/or policies of genocide.
- Understand how a modern nation can utilize its technological expertise and bureaucratic infrastructure to implement destructive policies ranging from social engineering to genocide.
As students gain insight into the many historical, social, religious, political, and economic factors that cumulatively resulted in the Holocaust, they gain awareness of the complexity of the subject and a perspective on how a convergence of factors can contribute to the disintegration of democratic values. Students come to understand that it is the responsibility of citizens in any society to learn to identify danger signals and to know when to react.
When you as an educator take the time to consider the rationale for your lessons on the Holocaust, you will be more likely to select content that speaks to your students’ interests and provides them with a clearer understanding of a complex history. Most students demonstrate a high level of interest in studying this history precisely because the subject raises questions of fairness, justice, individual identity, peer pressure, conformity, indifference, and obedience—issues that adolescents confront in their daily lives. Students are also affected by and challenged to comprehend the magnitude of the Holocaust; they are often particularly struck by the fact that so many people allowed this genocide to occur by failing either to resist or to protest.
Educators should avoid tailoring their Holocaust course or lesson in any way to the particular makeup of their student population. Failing to contextualize the groups targeted by the Nazis as well as the actions of those who resisted can result in the misunderstanding or trivializing of this history. Relevant connections for all learners often surface as the history is analyzed.
but the twisted Nazis corrupted our Hindu holy Swastika.
