Holocaust Education in Primary Schools in the Twenty-First Century

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxii

   PDF

2. Impact

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Curricular Imprints or the Presence of Curricular Pasts: A Study of One Third Grader’s Holocaust Education 12 Years Later

      • Simone Schweber, Irene Ann Resenly

      Pages 3-18

3. Pedagogy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19

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   2. Using Holocaust Testimony in Primary Education: An Initial Inquiry

      • Amy M. Carnes, Kori Street, Claudia Ramirez Wiedeman

      Pages 21-40

   3. There’s No ‘J’ in (the) Holocaust: Perceptions and Practice of Holocaust Education

      • Paula Cowan

      Pages 41-56

   4. Poetry, Charcoal and a Requiem: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching the Holocaust to Primary Students

      • Graham Duffy, Paula Cowan

      Pages 57-73

   5. Transformative Transition: The Case for Religious Education in Cross-Curricular Holocaust Education Across the Primary/Secondary Divide in English Schools

      • Alasdair Richardson

      Pages 75-94

   6. Holocaust Education in Austrian Primary Schools: A Plea for Teaching the History of National Socialism to 9- and 10-Year-Olds

      • Philipp Mittnik

      Pages 95-108

   7. Teaching About Trauma Without Traumatizing: Yad Vashem’s Spiral Pedagogical Approach in Light of Developmental Psychology

      • Yael Richler-Friedman

      Pages 109-125

4. Museum Education

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 127-127

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   2. Transcending Moral and Emotional Engagement: The Use of Holocaust Heritage in Primary Education

      • Pieter de Bruijn

      Pages 129-144

   3. Diversity and Difference. Changing People’s Attitudes and Behaviours Through a School and Community Based Holocaust Education Project

      • Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann, Gary Mills, James Griffiths, Bill Niven

      Pages 145-164

   4. Holocaust Education in the Museum Space: An Israeli Perspective

      • Madene Shachar

      Pages 165-179

   5. Teachers’ Use of Montreal Holocaust Museum’s Pedagogical Material Aiming at Primary School Students’ Engagement Through Human Stories

      • Cornélia Strickler, Sabrina Moisan

      Pages 181-197

   6. ‘Hide and Seek: Stories of Survival’: Solving the Problem of the Pencil

      • Lisa Phillips

      Pages 199-218

5. Student Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 219-219

      PDF

   2. Reflections on What Year 7 Students Know and Understand About the Holocaust: An Argument for Empirical Research in English Primary Schools

      • Rebecca Hale

      Pages 221-237

   3. ‘… They Locked Them Up in Houses and Let Gas in’: Swiss Primary School Pupils’ Conceptions of the Holocaust

      • Christian Mathis

      Pages 239-253

   4. What Do Children Ask? What Do Children Know?: Awareness, Knowledge and Contemporary History

      • Detlef Pech, Christine Achenbach

      Pages 255-268

This collection is the first of its kind, bringing together Holocaust educational researchers as well as school and museum educators from across the globe, to discuss the potentials of Holocaust education in relation to primary school children. Its contributors are from countries that have a unique relationship with the Holocaust, such as Germany, Israel, neutral Switzerland, and Allied countries outside the UK. Their research provides new insight into the diverse ways in which primary aged students engage with Holocaust education. Chapters explore the impact of teaching the Holocaust to this age group, school and museum teaching pedagogies, and primary students’ perspectives of the Holocaust. This book will appeal to school and museum educators of primary aged students whose work requires them to teach the Holocaust, Citizenship (or Civics) or Human Rights Education. Since the turn of the twenty-first century there has been a transformation in school and museum-based Holocaust education. This book clearly demonstrates that primary education has been included in this transformation.

• Shoah
• Final Solution
• pedagogy
• human rights
• citizenship

• Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom

  Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann

• University of the West of Scotland, Ayr, United Kingdom

  Paula Cowan

• National Holocaust Centre and Museum, Nottingham, United Kingdom

  James Griffiths

Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann is Professor of Modern History at Loughborough University, UK. His research considers how contemporaries responded to Nazism and genocide. Major publications include two monographs, four edited books, and one edited special journal. He recently co-edited A Companion to the Third Reich (2018).


Paula Cowan is Reader in Education at the University of the West of Scotland, UK.  Her research focuses on school-based citizenship and Holocaust education. She is the joint editor of Teaching Controversial Issues in the Classroom (2012), and the leading author of Understanding and Teaching Holocaust Education (2017).



James Griffiths is Director of Learning at the UK National Holocaust Centre and Museum. He defines and implements the Centre’s learning strategy and quality assures its learning programmes. He speaks regularly at national and international events about the period 1933-45, and how it can be taught successfully to primary-aged pupils

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