Why teach about the Holocaust?

The Holocaust is an event that fundamentally challenges the foundations upon which human civilisation rests. It has generated a credibility crisis of major proportions in our most basic assumptions about the nature of humankind and society, and of our responsibilities as citizens of the world to speak up and act to stop the suffering of innocent people everywhere.

At the core of the Holocaust was the decision to murder every single Jewish man, woman and child. Nazism, drawing upon earlier antisemitic traditions, and welding them together with more modern trends such as fascism and racism, developed a total world view that served to raise mass murder to the highest of ideological imperatives.The apparatus of the modern state was systematically and fully enlisted in order to implement this task.The "War Against the Jews" was launched simultaneously with and parallel to World War II, and, in the view of many scholars, was the real motivating force behind the actions of the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler.

The indifference of the governments and peoples of the world to the fate of the Jews and the other victims of the Third Reich is a stain on the collective conscience of mankind. The ease with which they accepted fundamental breaches of human and civil rights by an antisemitic and racist regime should stand as a warning to us all.

The study of this historical event should therefore be a high priority for everyone, everywhere. It is in teaching and learning about the Holocaust that people today may acquire enlightenment, understanding and sensitivity to prejudice and injustice. In general it is hoped that familiarity with the characters and events of the Holocaust may lead young people to a better understanding of human behaviour and human nature.