This for me is one the most important reasons for young people to learn about the Holocaust. However, what do we really mean when we say this? Is this what students really learn when they study the Holocaust? And what connections do they make between the Holocaust and contemporary Jewish identity?
My interest in the Holocaust came through two different converging journeys. My first was personal. I married a Jewish man and integrated into his family. I never converted but I gained an even deeper understanding of the everlasting relevance of the Holocaust on modern Jewish identity.
The second was professional. As an educator I have a commitment to ensuring students engage in deep, existential learning.
I was first inspired to creative teaching resources to teach the Holocaust by a professional playwright, who was commissioned to write a play relating to the story of one of the scrolls in Nottingham Liberal Synagogue and from which children read at their bar/bat mitzvah. This play gave me more of understanding the significance of places outside of Germany and Poland, in which the Holocaust has taken place. I was keen as an educator that these places and stories relating to them needed to be communicated to wider and more diverse audiences.
I work as a Freelance Educator in schools and universities, as well as at The National Holocaust Centre and Museum in Nottinghamshire. I also work as an Educator for The Holocaust Educational Trust, both on their outreach programmes as well as The Lessons from Auschwitz programme. I have regularly accompanied young people on trips to authentic sites of the Holocaust, including Auschwitz.
