THE INTERNATIONAL STATUS OF EDUCATION OF STATUS INTERNATIONAL THE United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization G EN O Z I D H O L O C How do schools worldwide treat the Holocaust as a subject? In which countries does A U S T A the Holocaust form part of classroom teaching? Are representations of the Holocaust always accurate, balanced and unprejudiced in curricula and textbooks? USC HIW This study, carried out by UNESCO and the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, compares for the first time representations of the Holocaust in ABOUT T Z SOH A school textbooks and national curricula. Drawing on data which includes countries in which there exists no or little information about representations of the Holocaust, the study shows where the Holocaust is established in official guidelines, and contains a close HOLOCAUST THE textbook study, focusing on the comprehensiveness and accuracy of representations and historical narratives. The book highlights evolving practices worldwide and thus provides education THE INTERNATIONAL stakeholders with comprehensive documentation about current trends in curricula directives and textbook representations of the Holocaust. It further formulates recommendations that will help policy-makers provide the educational means by which STATUS OF pupils may develop Holocaust literacy. CURRICULA AND TEXTBOOKS OF MAPPING GLOBAL A EDUCATION ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST A GLOBAL MAPPING OF TEXTBOOKS AND CURRICULA Education Sector United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization THE INTERNATIONAL STATUS OF EDUCATION ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST A GLOBAL MAPPING OF TEXTBOOKS AND CURRICULA Published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 7 place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France, and the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Celler Strasse 3, 38114 Braunschweig, Germany © UNESCO 2015 UNESCO ISBN 978-92-3-100033-1 This publication is available in Open Access under the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO) license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/). By using the content of this publication, the users accept to be bound by the terms of use of the UNESCO Open Access Repository (http://www.unesco.org/open-access/terms-use-ccbysa-en). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors; they are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. Authors: Peter Carrier, principal investigator, Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research Eckhardt Fuchs, project leader, Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research Torben Messinger, project coordinator, Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research Coordination: Karel Fracapane, Education Sector, UNESCO Cover design: Jörg Amonat & Aurélia Mazoyer Designed by Aurélia Mazoyer Printed by UNESCO Printed in France Abstract This publication documents the ways in which the Holocaust is presented in secondary school level history and social studies curricula worldwide, and conceptualized and narrated in textbooks from twenty-six countries, with all continents represented. Historical understandings of the Holocaust are defined in terms of the spatial and temporal scales with which the event is portrayed, the protagonists involved, interpretative patterns (according to definitions, comprehensiveness, causes, relativization or banalization), narrative techniques and viewpoints, didactic methods, and national idiosyncrasies. The study is based on 272 currently valid curricula from 135 countries, and on 89 textbooks published in 26 countries since 2000. The aim of the study is primarily to document information in such a way that it reflects local understandings of the Holocaust, principally by recording concepts and narratives of the Holocaust found in educational media currently in use in schools. The findings show both convergence and divergence in the representations analysed. The Holocaust is subject to shared patterns of representation, which include selectivity, personalization, appropriation, screening and omission. It is also subject to narrative idiosyncrasies. One of the main trends worldwide is domestication, a process whereby countries place emphasis on the local significance of the event or appropriate them in the interests of local populations. Drawing on such national and international patterns of representation, the publication concludes by formulating recommendations for future curricula and textbook narratives about the Holocaust. These recommendations relate to such issues as the use of terms, the comprehensiveness of historical facts, the definition of causes, the combination of universal and local approaches, and the development of historical literacy. 3 Acknowledgements This report was compiled and written in 2014 by Peter Carrier (principal investigator), Eckhardt Fuchs (project leader) and Torben Messinger (project coordinator). The authors owe their profound gratitude to the research group and to all the people who contributed to this project. Our special thanks go (for analysing curricula) to Mariam Chikobava (Tbilisi), Jungsoon Choi (Seoul), Mona Hegazy (Alexandria), Haykaz Hovhanisyan (Yerevan), György Jakab (Budapest), Rimantas Jokimaitis (Vilnius), Antigoni Loukovitou (Braunschweig), Loranda Miletić (Zadar), Eren Ozalay (Istanbul), Karla Cisneros Rosado (Cancún), Sergey Rumyantsev (Baku), Murat Kaskenovič Sembinov (Almaty), Eszter Simongáti (Budapest), Zrinka Stimac (Braunschweig), Mariya Yanchevska (Braunschweig) and Iryna Yermolayeva (Braunschweig); (for providing curriculum materials) to Ruth Creamer and the International Bureau of Education (Geneva); (for carrying out textbook analysis) to Basabi Khan Banerjee (Braunschweig), Denise Bentrovato (Braunschweig), Edgar Blume (Leipzig), Adrian Burgess (London), Ulrike Capdepón Busies (Hamburg), Diana Dumitru (Chisinau), Stuart Foster (London), Eva Hein (Braunschweig), Yoshie Kittaka (Tokyo), Michelle Koekemoer (Pinetown), Mirjam Körner (Braunschweig), Karolina Kubista (Braunschweig), Claudia Lichnofsky (Braunschweig), Zhongjie Meng (Shanghai), Julia Nohn (Wolfenbüttel), Maya Razmadze (Berlin), Dirk Sadowski (Braunschweig), Tatiana Samorodova (Hamburg), Elizandra de Siqueira (Lucas Do Rio Verde), Johan Wassermann (Ashwood), Anna Zadora (Strasbourg) and Stephanie Zloch (Braunschweig). Special thanks go to Karolina Kubista (Braunschweig) for her thoughtful dedication to the bibliography. Textbooks, reading material, reports and advice about curricula were generously provided by the knowledgeable staff of the library of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig. Thanks go also to Thomas Zimmermann (Leipzig) for editing the maps. For critical comments on the penultimate draft of the report, our thanks go to the peer- reviewers, including Werner Dreier (Errinern.at), Peter Fredlake (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), Richard Freedman (South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation), Magdalena Gross (Stanford University), Andy Pearce (University of London), Tracey Petersen (Cape Town Holocaust Centre), and Doyle Stevick (University of South Carolina). This project could have been neither commenced nor successfully completed without the constant commitment of Karel Fracapane and the help of Hannah Marek of the UNESCO Division of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development. This report was made possible through a grant from the Permanent Delegation of the United States of America to UNESCO. 5 CONTENTS Introduction: Origins, concept, aims and main findings of the study 9 PART 1 Background, objectives and methodology of the study 15 1. Background 16 2. Objectives 19 2.1 The effectiveness of curricula and textbooks as measures of state-sanctioned learning 19 2.2 Assessing and comparing representations of the Holocaust in curricula worldwide 21 2.3 Assessing and comparing representations of the Holocaust in textbooks in twenty-six countries 22 2.4 The international status of the Holocaust in educational media 24 3. Methodology 26 3.1 Procedure for the curriculum analysis 28 3.2 Procedure for the textbook analysis 29 PART 2 Curriculum and textbook analysis 33 4. The Holocaust in curricula worldwide 34 4.1 Categories and contexts of the Holocaust in curricula 34 4.2 Spatial distributions of the Holocaust in secondary school curricula (maps) 40 4.3 Conceptualizations of the Holocaust in secondary school curricula 49 5. The Holocaust in the textbooks of twenty-six countries 76 5.1 National narrative patterns 76 5.2 International narrative patterns 160 7 PART 3 Recommendations 171 6. Objectives and scope of the recommendations 172 7. Recommendations 176 7.1 Curricula 176 7.2 Scale 177 7.3 Protagonists 177 7.4 Interpretative paradigms 178 7.5 Narrative structure and point of view 179 7.6 Didactic approach 180 7.7 National idiosyncrasies 181 APPENDIX 182 8. Questionnaire pertaining to curricula 184 8.1 Guidelines for searching for terms in curricula 184 8.2 Questionnaire pertaining to textbooks 187 Bibliography 201 8 Introduction: Origins, concept, aims and main findings of the study Origins This study represents a response to a growing interest