The Holocaust, Human Rights, and Democratic Citizenship Education

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The Holocaust, Human Rights, and Democratic Citizenship Education DAVlD A. SHIMAN WILLIAM R. FERNEKES

n 1962, the Soviet composer Dmitri I Shostakovich attended the premiere of his Symphony No. 13 at the Moscow Conservatory. That five-movement work, containing the text of five poems, including the poem “Babi Yar,” by the Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, was acclaimed by the audience, despite the absence of the vocal text in the program. Surrounding the conservatory that evening were dozens of police, per- haps an omen of the “official” reaction to the work’s premiere. The day after the premiere, the newspaper Pruvda confined its response to the work to one sentence, and the Soviet authorities pressured both Yevtushenko and Shos- takovitch to modify the first movement text of the poem “Babi Yar.” The artists did so reluctantly, changing the text to downplay its emphasis on remem- brance of the over 33,000 Jews killed at the hands of the Nazi Einzatsgruppen at Babi Yar ravine outside Kiev, in Sep- tember 194 I , and including a broader, more inclusive statement about the sac- rifice of Soviet citizens. The text alter-

DAVID A . SHIMAN teaches at the Universi- ty of Vermont, and WILLIAM R. FERNEKES teuches ut Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flernington, New Jersey.

ations specified that not only had Jews died at Babi Yar, but also the Russian people with great solidarity had strug- gled against the fascist invaders (Ledin in Russian Disc 1993). The poem re- tained its indictment of anti-Semitism in Soviet and Russian history and its affirmation of human dignity in the face of oppression.

The case of Shostakovich’s Thir- teenth Symphony illustrates not only the power of art in expressing the fears and hopes of humankind but also the in- exorable connections between the study of the Holocaust and core concepts and themes of universal human rights. Forged in a society that faced the unre- lenting fury of the Holocaust, a racial war designed to eradicate Jews, Gyp- sies, Bolsheviks, and any who resisted the thousand-year Reich, Shostako- vich’s music was a courageous outcry against the human rights violations of the Soviet regime. The “Babi Yar” symphony is an anguished protest against the centuries-old burden of anti-Semi- tism in Russia and a heroic stand against state-sponsored oppression of human rights.

As the most devastating consequence of anti-Semitism in modem times, the Holocaust is one of the most significant periods for the study of human rights in

our century. In this article, we show how studies of the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights are inseparable and offer suggestions to educators for designing classroom instruction around themes that support a broadly defined vision of democratic citizenship, with human rights at the center of that vision. Although most examples in thih article are drawn from the Holocaust, teachers can draw on other cases of‘ genocide in the twentieth century, such as those of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during the period 1915-1923, in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge Regime in the 1970s, and more recently in the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia) and in Rwanda, both during the 1990s.

Defining the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights

The United States Holocaust Memo- rial Museum defines the Holocaust as

the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims; six million were murdered. Jews, the handicapped, and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum 19943)

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The Holocaust is a specific genocide, one of many that have transpired in history. The term genocide was origi- nally coined by the scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943 in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. The United Na- tions adopted the following definition of genocide:

any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in

Rights (UDHR), adopted unanimously in 1948 by the UN General Assembly, was the first major step to establish a set of human rights standards to serve as a legal structure and a moral code to hold governments accountable for the ways in which they might violate or deny the human rights of those living within their borders.

The UDHR asserted in its preamble

Worldwide revulsion at the crimes of the Holocaust served as a major impetus for the adoption by the United Nations of documents declaring certain rights to be universal human rights.

paiz, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e ) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. (United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Geno- cide, 1948)

Although there is scholarly debate regarding the UN genocide definition, notably about its scope and whether it encompasses all cases of systematic mass killing in the post-World War I1 period, there is consensus that the Holocaust was a genocide of almost unparalleled scale during the twentieth century.

Worldwide revulsion at the crimes of the Holocaust served as a major impetus for the adoption by the United Na- tions of documents declaring certain rights to be universal human rights. These are fundamental and inalienable rights to which all people are is entitled, regardless of who they are or where they happened to be born. Although the concept of human rights transcends any particular international document, it is generally associated with the initiatives and documents of the United Nations. The Universal Declaration of Human

that “the recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world (UDHR 1948). The declaration contains thirty articles that address basic political, civil, social, economic and cultural rights, including, but not restricted to, rights to life, speech, religion, equality before the law, asylum, food, shelter, nationality, assembly, social security, and education. Its creators declared the UDHR to be a “common standard of achievement for all people and all nations,” a moral measure of the behavior of governments toward their people.

The creators of the Universal Decla- ration wanted human rights to have the force of international law. Elaborating the rights’ guarantees stated in the UDHR are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (and the Optional Protocol) and the Interna- tional Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, both of which were drafted and opened for signature by UN member states in the 1960s. These binding international treaties seek to establish clear guidelines and monitoring procedures for measuring the progress of the world community in safeguarding human rights. The UDHR and the two international cov-

enants are known as the International Bill of Rights.

The Holocaust was unprecedented in its ferocity and scope, and its impact on European society was devastating. From the emergence of Nazi rule in Germany in 1933 to the liberation of the Nazi camp system by the victorious Allied armies in 1944-45, Nazi Germany abro- gated rights guaranteed to both its own citizens and those Europeans who fell under its rule through the use of state- sponsored terror and violence. That “assault on human rights,” aptly labeled by the British historian Ian Kershaw (1995), combined with the League of Nations’ failure to stem Fascist aggres- sion in the 1930s, strengthened the determination of the Allied powers to develop a more stable and peaceful world order after World War 11. To do so, they sought to create a system of international law and regulation that would eliminate the violations of human rights em- bodied in the Holocaust.

Heightening this concern were the postwar trials of Nazi and Japanese war criminals, the most famous of which occurred in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1945-46. Evidence presented in subse- quent trials held in European countries sustained the concern that future gener- ations would need to be vigilant and re- sponsible in their protection of human rights.

The significance of the Nuremberg trials was their establishment of a charter that included precedent-setting standards for the conduct of individuals and governments. The four crimes enumerated in the charter of the International Military Tribunal-crimes against peace, war crimes. crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to commit those crimes- served as the basis for indictments against leaders, organizers, instigators, accomplices, and perpetrators. The rule of law, not summary justice or ill-con- ceived efforts at prompt retribution, served as the guiding principle for the conduct of the trials of the twenty-four major criminals and those tried else- where in Europe.

The development of the UN Conven- tion for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide attempted to

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hold individuals and governments accountable for massive human rights violations and criminal acts. The UN General Assembly began drafting the convention in 1946, and after much debate concerning the definition of victim groups (particularly the definition of “political group”), adopted the convention on December 9, 1948. In 1994, the UN Security Council established the lntemational Criminal Tribunals to deal with rights violations in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Although not specifically considering genocide, the tribunals strive to hold individuals accountable for “crimes against humanity” and “war crimes,’’ in one of the first instances of the world community at- tempting to monitor the conduct of individuals and governments regarding human rights, as intended by the framers of the Genocide Convention and the Charter of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (Fer- encz 1996).

Why Teach Human Rights?

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) proclaims “that every individual and every organ of society . . . shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures . . . to ensure their universal and effective recognition” (UDHR 1948). By the 1980s school systems in the United States, particularly in California and New York, had incorporated human rights education into cumculum guidelines, and Amnesty International launched a substantial educational effort aimed at schoolchildren. In 1994, the United Nations approved the Decade for Human Rights Education 1995-2004 and its goal of programs educating for human rights in every nation.

Interwoven with the traditions of moral, global, multicultural, and peace education, human rights education is fundamental to citizenship education in a democracy. Human rights education, particularly when informed by study of the Holocaust and other genocides, requires students to grapple with questions related to ethnocentrism, rela-

tivism, universalism, responsibility, conflict, and justice. Although tradi- tionally considered social studies concepts, the topics can be extended across the curriculum to literature, science, foreign languages, and the arts. Human rights themes particularly related to genocide include the violation of scientific and medical ethics by the use of torture and experimentation on prison- ers, human survival in concentration camps and prison, the meaning of conscience, ethnic cleansing, and efforts to limit or eradicate cultural or national identities through state-sponsored violence or oppression.

Human rights education also requires that students examine perspectives other than their own and recognize that human rights problems occur not only in foreign lands but also within their own country and community. It challenges them to become more competent at understanding the complex world before them and to see themselves as participants in a global community. It calls on them to develop greater empathy for the suffering of their neighbors and be “courageous enough to act on behalf of the common good” (Wood 1992, 81).

Studying the Holocaust in Public Schools: Some State Initiatives

Individual teachers throughout the nation have been teaching about the Holocaust since the 1960s. The first state-level recommendation for the inclusion of Holocaust education occurred in New Jersey in 1973. By 1995, five states had mandated the study of the Holocaust, and ten others recom- mended its study (Fernekes 1995). In some cases, the Holocaust and human rights are specifically linked, as in Cal- ifornia’s history-social science framework (State of California 1987)

Four rationales for Holocaust education, three of which were offered by Friedlander nearly two decades ago, still dominate the curriculum policy documents of state departments of education. These are (a) explaining the pre- sent through the study of the past, fo- cusing on historical inquiry and debate

and employing aspects of the Holocaust to “symbolize the problems and dilem- mas of the contemporary world (Fried- lander 1979, 522); ( b ) understanding human behavior and society, employing an interdisciplinary approach incorporating literature and psychiatrylpsy- chology as well as the traditional social studies disciplines to examine themes such as the nature of prejudice, stereotyping, and scapegoating, and the roles of ideology and technology (Friedlan- der 1979,533); and (c) developing civic virtue for participation in a democracy. Interrelated with the latter rationale is (d) preparing students for responsibilities of global citizenship through a common concern about the universal attributes of the Holocaust and other genocides and their implications for behavior of future adult citizens (Fried- lander 1979; State of New York 19851, with a global rather than a more national focus.

The continuing debate about examining the Holocaust as a unique case study or as one with more universal attributes and legacies is of particular significance for these rationales. Because democratic citizenship education requires that civic virtue embody behaviors, attitudes, and values that address the quality of life in the society as a whole (i.e., the public good), study of the Holocaust and genocides can raise questions of moral and ethical responsibility that have national and global implications. When citizenship education is constrained within a national orientation, foreign policy issues often emerge in the study of the Holocaust (e.g., How should the U.S. have re- sponded to the persecution of Jews in Europe?). When broadened to encompass the global interdependence that is central to realizing the responsibilities of global citizenship, studying the Holocaust and genocides raises different questions, such as, What can we learn from this study that might enable us to prevent, and if need be, respond effectively to, genocidal policies and practices by governments?

Rationales for Holocaust and genocide education in curriculum resource guides or policy documents fmm New Jersey,


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Virginia, Ohio, and California reveal clear connections to the philosophical basis for human rights education articulated in this essay (see sidebar).

New Jersey, a pioneer in Holocaust education, published a curriculum resource guide written by faculty teams from the Vineland and Teaneck public schools in 1983. It stated that

the quest for a world society based upon justice and human dignity will be hin- dered and delayed until people recognize and move actively to eliminate those factors which create a climate in which genocide in any form can occur.

LITERATURE RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS

An extensive literature exists on the study of genocides, with particu- Im emphasis on those of the twentieth century. Consulting the works of thesc authi)rcs is B good starting point for further research: Samuel Totten, William S. Parsons, and Israel Chumy, editors, Century of Geno- Liik: Eytwiinrss Testimony urid Criticul E,s.sqvs (New York: Garland, 1997); William S. Parsons and Samuel Totten, editors, “Teaching About Genocide.” Special Issue of Socid Education, vol. 55 , no. 2, February 1991; Helen Fein, editor, Gtwoc~idr Wurch, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992); Frank Chiilk and Kurt Jonassohn, The His- tory und Sociology of Genocide: Aiiulyses mid Cave Studies, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990); Saniitcl Totten, editor, theme issue on Teaching about Genocide, Soriul Scieiicv Record, vol. 24, no, 2, Fall 1987; and Holocuust und Genocide Siudies, the leading journal in the field, published jointly by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Oxford University Press. Subscrip- tion information is available from Oxford University Presfi at (800) 852-7323, Facing History and Our- selves is a teacher-training organiza- t ion and educational publisher that since the 1970s has influenced educational practice on the study of the Holocaust and genocides in selected IJ.S. school districts. For further inforniation about Facing History programs, write the organization at 16 Hurd Road, Brookline, M A 02 146, or call (6 17) 232-1 595.

Knowledge and awareness of those factors will lead to that elimination. The factors are most clearly seen in a study of the Nazi Holocaust. (Flaim and Reynolds 1983, V)

The curriculum has clear linkages to the protection and empowerment goals for human rights education. By viewing the Holocaust as a case of massive human rights violations, teachers can help students become aware of the extent to which suffering was the out- growth of individual and group decisions made in a totalitarian society whose goals were antithetical to the protection of individual rights and the safeguarding of human dignity. Ac- cording to this rationale, students are empowered to act only when they ac- quire knowledge of the factors that contributed to the development of the Nazi Holocaust.

Virginia prepared a curriculum resource guide in 1987 that contained a broad focus on patterns of human behavior and the means to effect changes in behavior and attitudes through a study of the Holocaust. The guide states that

One of the most significant and divisive issues of modern times is prejudice, which affects not only the way people live but also, in some cases, whether they live at all. Secondary social studies and English teachers . . . can tackle prejudice in its worst possible scenario as a crucial lesson in human nature and as an example of the interrelationships of the actions of citizens and governments leading to the destruction of human rights. (State of Virginia 1987, 1)

Emphasizing the protection, infor- matiodinstruction, and reconstruction goals of human rights education, the Virginia guide emphasizes reduction of prejudice, viewing it as the root of Nazi policies during the Holocaust. According to that guide, informing students about the ways in which prejudice was the basis for racist and genocidal policies directed against not only Jews, but Gypsies and other groups increases their ability to envi- sion a society in which human relationships are interconnected and protecting the rights of others becomes a fundamental citizenship responsibility.

Ohio’s 1994 curriculum guide con-

tained this statement to support its Holocaust education focus, “The program will enable students to become knowledgeable, sensitive, and respon- sive to the consequences of apathy” (Rabinsky and Danks 1994, 2). Educa- tors using that guide emphasize that virtuous citizens are actively committed to the defense of the rights of others and recognize the direct relationship between the triumph of tyranny and the failure of citizens to act in defense of fundamental human rights. Mobiliza- tion of citizen groups opposed to Nazi terror and oppression and collective action to protect and support human rights were not forthcoming during the dismantling of the Weimar Republic’s democratic institutions or during the hegemony of Nazi Germany in Europe. Their absence made it easier for the Nazis to carry out their policies of persecution and ultimately genocide. Keeping in mind the history of the Holocaust, when bystanders outnum- bered perpetrators, victims, and rescuers in every society where Nazi Ger- many implemented its genocidal policies, the Ohio guide encourages youth to assume the moral responsibility to sustain fundamental rights and freedoms (Rabinsky and Danks 1994). That orientation stresses the protection. informationhnstruction, and mobilization goals of human rights education.

The California history-social science framework brings human rights, the Holocaust, and genocide together with powerful and compelling rationale.

There is no more urgent task for educators in the field of history and social science than to teach students about the importance of human rights and to analyze with them the actual instances i n which genocide-the ultimate violation of human rights-has been committed. We study the atrocities of the past not only to preserve their significance as historical events but also to help identify ways to prevent the atrocities from ever happening again. (State of California 1987, 1)

California’s broadly defined rationale for the study of these issues is placed in a global context. It articulates a commitment to all of the goals of human rights education: protection, reconstruction,


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information/instruction, mobilization, and empowerment. The California guide also connects human rights to the survival of a democratic state:

History demonstrates that the strongest protection for the rights of minorities and individuals is to be found in a democratic system of government where due process and equal rights are guaranteed to all and where citizens have an informed commitment to the improvement and preservation of a just and democratic society. The goal of the history-social science curriculum is to educate today’s young people so that they know the history of human rights and of the efforts to protect these rights and so that they understand the democratic process, respect the rights of others and willingly accept their obligations as citizens. (State of California 1987, 5)

To protect the rights of minorities and individuals, young people need to be knowledgeable about the history of human rights; the Holocaust is a central case of just how fragile the survival of democracy really is. Young people can apply their understanding of history to become empowered as citizens to respect the rights of others. That requires a broad perspective on the problem of human rights, one not limited to the United States but encompassing issues of human rights throughout world history.

Other states have also created a curricular bridge between the Holocaust and human rights education. New York, for example, relates genocide to human rights in its curriculum guide but does not make the Holocaust a central focus. New York places the Holocaust within a study of genocide that includes case studies on the man-made famine in the llkraine, the Ottoman Turkish genocide of the Armenians, and the Cambodian genocide. Whatever the rationale adopted, there are some themes and instructional principles that are common to almost any curriculum that tries to weave together human rights, the Holo- caust, and genocide.

Seizing the Moment: Human Rights Education through the Study of the Holocaust and Genocides

Systematic instruction about the Holocaust and other genocides creates

bridges to the examination of the relationships between protecting human rights and ensuring the continuity and vibrancy of democracy. It teaches that we must be prepared to act against injustice and be willing to assume responsibility for the well-being of our fellow humans. Living in a democracy requires that we be constantly on guard against the emergence of a social climate accepting of human rights violations, for the seeds of genocide are planted long before the acts are evident. Schools have an important part to play in maintaining a social climate that makes genocidal policies difficult, if not impossible, to put into practice.

The study of the Holocaust and other genocides calls on us to ask moral questions about our responsibilities in an interdependent world. The following poem, created from a statement by Pas- tor Martin Niemoeller, starkly poses the consequences of apathy and a rejection of assuming moral responsibility for fellow citizens.

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me. (Niemoeller 1995)

In the same tradition, John Donne’s famous sermon of the seventeenth century had affirmed that “no man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main” (Donne 1970). The Holocaust challenges teachers to help youth to recognize that, paraphrasing Donne, the bell tolls for all of us. We are tied to each other in almost every way-envi- ronmentally, economically, technologi- cally, and socially. This interdependence presents the moral challenge to care and take action.

Responsibility and caring are core themes for the design of human rights education programs, as well as being essential dispositions for global citizenship. Their significance, however, de-

pends on the development of the following capacities, which encompass both reactive and proactive efforts:

1. Critically analyze social conditions that nurture human rights violations and those that impede such violations.

2. Identify social conditions that make the realization of human rights guarantees difficult, if not impossible, to realize.

3. Identify and publicize human rights violations or assaults on human rights in society. 4. Propose actions to redress human

rights violations and to protect against future violations.

5. Organize and act on behalf of human rights, both as individuals and as part of groups.

Not all human rights violations are steps toward genocide. To make too tight a fit between specific violations and genocide might encourage our students to dismiss as farfetched the relationships being considered. Neverthe- less, the damage done to those whose rights are being violated is very real and must be halted. We must find effective ways of communicating this to our students and encouraging their efforts o n behalf of the victims and the principles of human rights.

The following themes help to organize lessons and units that develop the aforementioned five capacities. The Holocaust, with its extensive and systematic record of human rights violations, invites careful study of how decisions made by victims, perpetrators, bystanders, and rescuers facilitated the implementation of genocide or the struggle against it.

Key Themes for Instruction: The Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights

The three themes of this section are entry points for the study of human rights issues. Table 1 contains example\ of relevant content from Holocaust hi+ tory organized by theme and linked to core concepts of human rights education. Many examples could be celectecl

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for such study. Similar tables could be developed for other genocides.

Thome 1: Constructing the Other

The devaluation and dehumanization of targeted groups have been character- istics of almost all instances of genocide and many of the violations of human rights in the twentieth century (Stimb 1989, Kuper 1981). The process of constructing “the other” in the minds of people is facilitated when certain social, cultural, economic, and political conditions exist. Among these are difficult economic times, dominance of totalitarian political institutions and a popular tendency to defer to authority, development of ethnic cleavages in society where minority groups are vulner- able. and widespread public feelings of being ”under siege” or of having been humiliated. Within such contexts, the labeling of minority groups as “others” enables the dominant groups to imple- ment and justify policies and practices

that violate the human rights of minority groups. Schools, youth organizations, the arts, religious institutions, and the mass media have been important instruments for the development and dissemination of the images of the devalued “other” in the society.

During the Holocaust, Nazi Ger- many built upon a foundation of centuries-old anti-Semitism in Europe and articulated a world view dominated by a form of racial anti-Semitism that had no place for those they deemed “unwor- thy of life.” By denying Jews full participation in the community, stripping them of citizenship, and systematically reinforcing negative stereotypes of Jews embedded in the popular con- sciousness, the Third Reich marginal- ized Jews as a targeted group within German society and extended that policy to occupied Europe during World War 11. Employing a definition of “the Jew” that prohibited their inclusion within a racially pure Germany or Europe, Nazi Germany sought to free

TABLE 1-Curricular Design for the Study of the Holocaust and Human Rights

Holocaust/Human Rights Core Human Holocaust Curricular Theme Rights Concern Content Examples

Constructing the Other

Rationalizing injustice

Courage and resistance lo patterns of oppression

Sustaining inclusive bonds to a wide universe of people.

Caring and empathy

Maintaining concrete, loving attachments to a broad range of social contacts

Exhibiting moral courage

Assuming responsibility for ethical decision making that addresses issues and groups within an extensive orientation

Nazi racial ideology, education, propaganda; death camp experiences and euthanasia program

Nuremberg laws as instrument of national purpose; “Kristallnacht” expropriation activities; international response to refugee crisis of the post- 1933 period (Evian conference, Voyage of the St. Louis)

Group resistance (Sur Le Chambon, Italian military, Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Danish rescue, Jewish partisans); individual resistance (Sempo Sugihara, Oskar Schindler, many other individuals in occupied Europe)

both perpetrators and bystanders from moral qualms about their participation in the treatment of “the other.” The Third Reich extended similar policies to the disabled in Germany, Sinti, and Romani, viewing them as outside the boundaries of a racially pure continent. A study of the complex bureaucratic mechanisms, the enthusiastic involve- ment of the German scientific and medical establishment in the euthanasia program, and the use of medical experimentation on camp inmates would reveal many examples of how effectively human beings were transformed from outcasts to corpses.

Theme 2: Rationalizing Injustice

Study of the construction and charac- terization of “the other” leads to con- sideration of the ways in which violations of their rights and even their physical destruction were rationalized. In most cases, longstanding and pervasive societal tensions and cleavages based on race, ethnicity, and religion provide the structural basis for highly destructive conflict (Kuper 68). Often, those in privileged positions within societal hierarchies of power and influence “view their privilege as in the nat- ural order of things, and the social arrangements that maintain it as just” (Staub 1989, 235). The racial ideology of Nazi Germany legitimized so-called Aryan superiority at the expense of targeted groups that were characterized through stereotyping in the mass media, education, and other government initiatives as threats to the survival of the Aryan race. Once such ra- tionalizations were accepted or viewed with indifference by the majority of the population in Germany, it was a small step for the state to initiate policies to destroy the targeted groups, whose very existence was seen as a threat to the survival of the majority.

This sort of ‘‘just world hypothesis” allows people, particularly those in the dominant groups, to believe that one gets what one deserves. A variation of “blaming the victim” operates in this case, thus making it much easier for the privileged to accept the “others”’ suf-


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ferings without feeling and to endorse or ignore their destruction without inter- vening to save them (Staub 1989, 82). Poliakov’s point is well taken: “If only a minority hated the Jew to the point of wanting to kill him, the majority that was not fundamentally antisemitic could stand by and let the Jew be killed because of the general disrespect in which he was held” (Poliakov 1979, 8).

Besides exploiting deep seated prejudice, the legitimization for treatment of ”the others” in Nazi Germany was interwoven with the government’s assertion of Its national purpose and lofty goals. Hitler had declared in Mein Kampj

What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may ma- ture for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe. (quoted in Dawidowicz 1975,44)

This appeal for the resurrection of Ger- many justified human rights violations of all sorts, from denial of work to the denial of life, coopting the bystander and impelling the perpetrator. Acquies- cence and participation in exploitative, destructive policies was easier when presented as serving the national good and when the devaluation and dehumanization of the victimized groups had deep roots in national history.

Examination of the responses to Nazi genocidal policies in different areas of occupied Europe offers important material for study. Why did over 80 percent of the Jews in France and Hol- land perish, whereas in Italy and Den- mark over 80 percent of the Jews sur- vived’? What took place in France and Holland that appears to have facilitated h e rationalization of injustice and its extension into mass murder? What other processes occurred in Italy and Denmark that blunted such rationalization processes and facilitated the survival of Jews in those societies, despite the fact that Denmark was seen as a prototype Aryan state by Nazi Germany and Italy was its closest ally among the Axis powers? In particular, the extent to which democratic values and other cul-

tural norms limited the power of Nazi Germany’s dehumanizing policies and practices in certain states in occupied Europe can help educators understand why the commitment to human rights was more prominent in some societies than in others.

Theme 3: Courage and Resistance to Patterns of Oppression.

Despite the limited percentage of the population in occupied Europe that

ment (family and Jewish friends) and to concepts that forged linkages to the wider world (broad social conimit- ments and egalitarianism) (Oliner and Oliner, 1992).

Examples abound that highlight such extensive commitments and assertion of responsibility. Le Chambon- sur-Lignon, a Huguenot community in southern France that sheltered and facilitated the rescue of over 5,000 Jewish youth during the Holocaust, is an oft-cited example. The network of

From studies, researchers learned that those who rescued Jews during the Holocaust tended to have a sense of commitment toward other people and had strong attachments to the people in their immediate environment.

actually took steps to resist Nazi policies of genocide and offer assistance to victims, stories of those individuals shed light on important qualities of defenders of human rights. Findings from a research study based on interviews with over 600 rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust suggest that “extensivity,” defined as “the tendency to assume commitments and responsibilities towards other people,” is an important concept for understanding why some people risked their lives to save persecuted people (Oliner and Oliner 1992).

Extensivity can be examined along two dimensions: attachment, which ranges from extreme alienation to love, and inclusiveness, which spans the spectrum from exclusion of all others to inclusion of the universe. The study of rescuers and nonrescuers found that when four major factor groupings among the study’s 150 vari- ables were analyzed-family attachments, Jewish friends, broad social commitments, and egalitarianism- rescuers scored higher than nonrescuers in all four areas. The researchers concluded that rescuers were more likely to have strong attachments to the people in their immediate environ-

small mountain villages was led by the Protestant minister Andre Trocme, and the shared commitment to providing shelter and refuge for Jews appears to have been based not only on a belief in the common humanity and dignity of all people, but also on a determination to sustain the values and moral principles that were at the core of community life. Another example emerges from the activities of the Italian military in sheltering Jews from German deporta- tions during the period 1940-43 in areas administered by the Italian military in France, Yugoslavia, Greece, and North Africa. The extensive bond\ displayed by the Italian military toward Jews represented a mixture of Italian national pride, a disregard for Italian Fascist ideology, the rejection of biological racism as a world view, and the continuity of core value commitments emphasizing support for thc persecuted and universal concern for those in need. Jews of all backgrounds, including those from Yugo- slavia, France, Greece, North Africa, and even Eastern Europe received the same treatment from Italian military and diplomatic officials until the Sep- tember 1943 armistice with the Allie\, which precipitated the Nazi occupa-


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lion of central and northern Italy and facilitated the deportation and eventu- al killing of over 8,000 Italian and foreign Jews living on Italian soil. Fol- lowing the German occupation, Italians of all backgrounds, with the exception of a small minority of Ital- ian anti-Semites, who worked for the Fascist puppet government from November 1943 to the end of World

the power that state authorities could use to restrict artistic freedom, Shostakovich’s steadfast refusal to alter his symphony did have consequences. The symphony received very few performances after its premiere, despite the triumphant acclaim it received from audiences that heard it.

Cases such as that illustrate important guidelines for instruction about

Students need to be exposed to Holocaust literature that deals with rescuers and resistance as well as those stories that deal with human rights violations.

War 11, actively harbored Jews and resisted the efforts of Nazi Germany to exterminate them (Fernekes 1996; Steinberg 1990).

Students need to encounter stories from the Holocaust dealing with rescuers and resistance as well as those of human rights violations imposed by the state and its supporters. Combining those studies with instructional strategies that incorporate moral decision making, collaborative learning, and dis- cussion of ethical concerns supports some of the major tenets of human rights education, notably those of responsibility and caring. In this way, educators can contribute to the development of informed and empathic learners who might act on behalf of others when the need arises.

Guidelines for Instructional Strategies

We opened this article with a description of the dilemma faced by Shostakovich and Yevtushenko. Yev- tushenko succumbed to pressure from the state and altered the text of his poetry that was employed in the first movement of the symphony; Shostako- vitch resisted and did not alter a note of his music (Wilson 1994,362). Because of the overwhelming weight of official opinion in the former Soviet Union and

human rights and genocide. First, understanding of context is critical. The complexity of historical or contemporary cases involving human rights and genocide must be acknowl- edged so that students and teachers develop conclusions that are grounded in accurate knowledge about each case. In the study of specific cases of resistance and rescue during the Holo- caust, it would be improper to make comparisons between countries such as Italy, Poland, and Denmark, without recognizing the important varia- tions in the policies of Nazi Germany during the period of occupation. Whereas Denmark was able to retain its own king and governmental structure from 1940 through September 1943, Poland was subdivided into re- gions and placed under direct German control from September 1939 until its liberation by the Soviet military in 1944-45. The nature of the occupation in Poland was far more harsh and severe than in Denmark, a factor that must be recognized and accounted for when considering the nature of resistance in both societies. Similarly, human rights violations carried out in Germany prior to 1939 must be viewed in the context of a climate of international disinterest and an unwill- ingness to take action against state- sponsored violence that virtually per-

mitted Hitler and the Nazis a free hand in oppressing their victims. It would be informative for students to compare and contrast the influence of international concern and condemnation at that cril with contemporary efforts. Today persecution and attempted genocides are condemned and resisted by international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and independent states. Evaluating antigenocide efforts in regard to Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia would, no doubt, help to identify effective responses and those that need to be changed.

Second, reducing the distance between the learner and the objects of study should be a central focus of human rights and genocide education. Examination of the personal dilemnins that individuals faced establishes such ;I connection. It is difficult for learners to understand the scale of genocidal policies when they are rendered as statisli- cal abstractions; teachers should trans- late statistics into people by introducing personal lives and stories through mem- oirs, autobiographies, fiction, testimony, and other means. Study of the diffcul- ties faced by human rights activists in Guatemala or Czechoslovakia can be facilitated by interviews and encounters with their real-life problems in the tilm Out of the Silence: Fighting f.r Humuti Rights ( O h 1991). Studying those cases serves as an entry point for the larger issue of state-sponsored violence and repression, so that the decisions made by political dissidents in Czecho- slovakia during the 1970s and 1980s are seen as small but significant steps toward the achievement of fundamental human rights guarantees. The ongoing repression of human rights in Guate- mala is seen in the context of decisions by activists to educate peasants and trade unionists about the UDHR. Their empowerment is a slow and arduous process in a society dominated by an elite that has long employed terror and repression to crush human rights. By fo- cusing on the values, beliefs, and decisions made by ordinary people (including oppressors, victims, activists, and bystanders), students see that the struggle for human rights is truly the out-

(50 MARCWAPRIL 1999 THE SOCIAL STUDIES

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come of everyday decisions, often made in difficult circumstances but always linked to context and long-standing value commitments.

Third, learners should be trained in social action strategies to apply their understanding to contemporary and future life situations. Although Nazi Holocaust policies ceased in 1945, the tragedy continues to influence contemporary society in ways ranging from in- vestigations into the diversion of expro- priated funds and property by neutral nations, to the influence of the Nurem- berg trials on the question of creating a permanent international criminal court by the United Nations. Students should he encouraged to make careful and grounded judgments about the Holo- caust’s legacy for human rights work. One such opportunity is the development of public forums in which students can share their insights with adults in their own communities or electronically, through the Internet, with communities worldwide.

Recognizing that the concept of universal human rights is far better known today than in 1948 when the UDHR was introduced to the UN General As- sembly, students can return to the vio- lalions of human rights in Nazi Ger- many and investigate whether they are pervasive in their own world. To what degree has citizen action led to changes in the defense and support of human rights since the end of World War II? In what ways are the ideals of the UDHR being realized in the United States and other societies? By examining disso- nance between the ideals of universal human rights and the practices of governments today, students can identify conditions in need of change and offer suggestions for action to improve the quality of life of people in communities near and far.

Conclusion: Encouraging Dispositions of Caring and Responsibility

On the first day of the new school year, all the teachers in one private school received the following note from their principal:

Dear Teacher: I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should wit- ness. Gas chambers built by learned engineers Children poisoned by educated physi- cians Infants killed by trained nurses Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates So. I am suspicious of education My request is: Help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psy- chopaths, educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more humane. (Ginott 1972, 317)

That letter, coupled with the indictment of apathy and indifference offered ear- lier in Pastor Niemoller’s poem, challenges educators to create school communities that foster caring for others and engagement on their behalf (Nod- ding 1995). We must understand the dynamics of participation in acts of genocide and other human rights violations if we are to empower youth for humane, active, and morally engaged participation in a democracy.

As educators, we must challenge “we-they” dichotomies and the por- trayal of “the other” that feed ethnocentrism and the devaluation of others. In the spirit of multicultural and global education, Staub, who has analyzed the roots of genocide in various countries, argues for the need “to teach children about the shared humanity of all people” (Staub 1992,405).

In the educational realm, children can learn about the differences in customs, beliefs. and values of different groups of individuals while coming to appreciate commonalties in desires, yearnings, feelings of joy and sorrow, and physical and other needs. (405)

Such an orientation not only provides opportunity for all children to be recognized and valued but also connects them with others different from themselves. This is essential; however, it is only a small part of what is needed.

To challenge we-they dichotomies and ethnocentric thinking requires the development of a critical, though not

hostile, stance toward authority, consis- tent with democratic principles. Using the experience in Nazi Germany as a point of comparison, students should be encouraged to raise ethical/moral questions about local (school and community) and national policies and practices. They need to consider the legitimacy of the demands for obedience and begin to develop their own criteria, ethical and otherwise, for obeying.

Creating caring communities through the establishment of “cross-cutting rela- tions” among society’s subgroups (Staub 1989, 174) can be done within the classroom and through action learning projects within the community. Co- operating connects, and doing for/with others builds bridges between the ”we” and “they.” Rather than being just students of (and, by definition bystanders to) social justice, students can identify projects that enable them to act on behalf of those whose human rights have been violated or are in danger of being violated. They might engage in action-learning projects by working with Amnesty International’s Urgent Action campaigns that are specifically designed for school children, on human rights campaigns against hunger or homelessness, or on local actions about prejudice and discrimination within their school. (For information about joining the A1 Urgent Action network, contact Amnesty International’s Urgent Action Program Office, P.O. Box 1270, Nederland, CO 80466- 1270, or tele- phone (303) 258- 1 170; fax, (303) 258- 788 1 ; e-mail: <[email protected] >)

Schools can model a commitment to caring by incorporating community ser- vice into school graduation require- ments. They might also make Decem- ber 10, the anniversary of the signing at the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a day of celebration and an affirmation of commitment to justice. A celebration of the day might include honoring students. teachers, and community members who acted on behalf of others, who did not stand by while rights were violated, and who served as a conscience for the community. Communities of caring are constructed through mutual valuing and


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providing advocacy and protection for everyone’s rights.

With institutional support, teachers can, as one educator writes, “model caring behaviors, offer students oppor- tunities to practice caring, support a widening circle of relationships in which caring is more is more likely to he meaningful, and regularly reward and affirm caring behavior” (Bosworth 1995, 693). The systematic development of caring, empathic environments in schools linked to the reflective study of democratic citizenship with a global orientation, and the inclusion in curric- ula of the complex history of the Holo- caust and other genocides can help young people develop the skills, attitudes, and knowledge to act decisively in defense of universal human rights. In such ways can we employ our learning from the Holocaust and other genocides in the construction of communities that advance the human rights of all.

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