Sixth grade was probably the first time I was exposed to pictures of the holocaust. In religious school, I remember vividly how we watched a movie based on the holocaust and how I was confused as to how that could happen. As I watch my younger sister go through the public school system, it shocks me about how little time is spent learning about the holocaust. That’s why when I read an article last week on how one school in Florida created a Holocaust museum, I felt the need to write about it. At Everglades High School in Miramar, Florida, the Florida Jewish Journal reported that 20 students took four months to create a holocaust museum at their high school.
<br>David Schwartz reported: They [students] walked through exhibits that included a timeline of the holocaust, the story of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” Nazi propaganda with posters reproduced from the era, deportation, the Nuremberg Laws, Kristallnacht, the Warsaw ghetto uprising and a model of the Auschwitz death camp.
A mock cattle car – dark inside, with the sound of a train clattering on the tracks – was a few steps from the “gas chamber.” Two students in striped uniforms stood near its door.
Further into the article, Bruce Klasner, the museum adviser and son of a holocaust survivor, explained how kids need more visual representations today when learning about history rather than solely reading from a textbook.
Mr. Klasner strikes a good point that I think every educator should take to heart. In religious school, we are taught the importance of never forgetting the holocaust. But in the public school system, children are taught to learn the holocaust simply because it is an important part of history. And the way to learn about history, is generally through textbooks. I think more schools need to make the initiative to teach about the holocaust through movies and guest speakers. To take an end of the year field trip to a holocaust musuem instead of Disney World. To learn not from a textbook that sits on a bookshelf covered in dust.
