Educators see need to expand schools’ lessons on Holocaust

FAYETTEVILLE— Northwest Arkansas educators are working to overcome knowledge gaps that may exist for students about the Holocaust, the Nazi genocide that killed 6 million Jews during World War II, administrators said.

A recent survey showed Arkansans ages 18-39 have the lowest knowledge in the nation about the Holocaust, with 56% being unable to name a concentration camp or ghetto, 37% believing that 2 million or fewer Jews were killed, and 12% believing Jews caused the Holocaust.

The “Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Study of Millennials and Generation Z” was released in mid-September. The survey was commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Study data was collected and analyzed by Schoen Cooperman Research, with a representative sample of 1,000 interviews nationwide and 200 interviews in each state, according to the study.

Educators, legislators and members of the Jewish community are working to make teaching about the Holocaust mandatory in Arkansas.

Barry Brown ,77, of Springdale said Northwest Arkansas residents are receptive to learning more about the genocide. Brown said he helped begin the Arkansas Holocaust Education Committee. The nonprofit began in 1994, according to Grace Donoho, committee founder.

Brown’s mother and first cousin are survivors, he said.

“My mother escaped from Poland at 14 just before Hitler came to power; otherwise, I wouldn’t be here now,” Brown said.

The Jews have a history of being misunderstood, a situation that persists today when it comes to appreciating the effect on people who lived during the Holocaust, he said.

“Not just the Jews, but the other 5 million people that were also exterminated in Germany and Poland and the other occupied countries,” Brown said.

Understanding the circumstances that allowed the Holocaust to occur is vital for Arkansas students, he said.

“The Nazis perpetuated it, but it could not have happened without the bystanders who sat by in the community who said and did nothing,” Brown said. “This could be an example of what happens when you know something is wrong, but you fail to stand up.”

History runs in cycles and has a tendency to be repeated, said Ricky Manes, history department chairman at Fulbright Junior High in Bentonville.

Manes said teaching about the Holocaust is as relevant now as ever amid global conversations about equality.

“Students need to hear this lesson to know that there are better things out there and better ways to treat people,” he said.

The Claims Conference, which commissioned the survey, is based in New York and recovers unclaimed East German Jewish property and allocates sale proceeds to organizations that engage in Holocaust research, education and documentation, according to the conference website.

Wisconsin scored highest in Holocaust awareness with 42%, followed by Minnesota at 37% and Massachusetts at 35%, according to the study. Arkansas has the lowest Holocaust knowledge score of 17%, below Mississippi at 18% and Florida at 20%.

The awareness score was calculated using the percentage of respondents who had definitively heard about the Holocaust; could name at least one concentration camp, death camp or ghetto; and knew that 6 million Jews died.

ARKANSAS STANDARDS

Teaching about the Holocaust is required in 15 states, but Arkansas is not one of them, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Kimberly Mundell, Arkansas Department of Education communications director, said that can be addressed in several required social studies classes in middle and high school.

The Holocaust is within the context of the Arkansas academic standards in “Arkansas History” for middle school students and “World History 1450-Present” and “U.S. History 1890-Present” for high school students, she said.

There’s always value in studying ethnicity as a motivator in world conflict and politics, said Nathanael Magre, Fayetteville High School social studies teacher.

“It’s ever-present, and the Holocaust is an excellent study in the methodical process of creating a state that uses racial ideology as one of its foundations,” Magre said.

Shayla Holder, 31, lives in Fayetteville and graduated in 2007 from Springdale High School. Holder said she remembers the Holocaust was taught in one social studies class.

“All the other teachers outside of that essentially ignored it or denied its value,” she said.

Much of what she learned was through her efforts to read more about oppression as it applied to the Holocaust, Holder said.

Gordon Junior, 26, of Fayetteville graduated from Fayetteville High School in 2013 and took U.S., World and European history Advanced Placement classes that he felt offered a comprehensive overview of the Holocaust.

Junior said educators may find it difficult to discuss the topic with students.

“People don’t like talking about the harsh realities that occurred and the sinister realities that occurred at that time,” he said.

Teaching about the Holocaust has lost some of its emphasis as Arkansas curriculum standards have shifted toward studying globalization and placing a greater emphasis on regions such as India, China and sub-Saharan Africa and their role in the formation of the modern world, Magre said.

“Instead of that Western narrative, which would include a heavy dose of the Holocaust and kind of what its role was in creating the West and the Middle East, you have this broader spectrum,” he said.

The Holocaust isn’t included in the ACT, a test that measures students’ readiness for college, said Sarah DeWitt, Bentonville social studies instructional specialist.

“It’s a challenge that all social studies teachers fight often when our courses don’t have a state exam that’s necessarily tied to it,” DeWitt said. “I think the importance sometimes falls away when you’re not measured on the ACT.”

IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS

Educators in Springdale are taking steps to enhance students’ knowledge by incorporating the Holocaust into Springdale High School’s International Baccalaureate Program, said Carol Turley, teacher and program coordinator.

About 35 students are enrolled in the program, which allows juniors and seniors to earn a second high school diploma that’s recognized internationally, she said.

“In the ‘Theory of Knowledge’ course that all diploma candidates must take, there’s a study of ethics and there’s a study of perspective and scope,” Turley said. It allows students to discuss ideas of propaganda and misinformation as they apply to the Holocaust.

Additional classes like “World War II: The Move to Global War” and “History of the Americas” allow students to explore the Holocaust from multiple perspectives.

The Arkansas Holocaust Education Conference has been a means of educating the region’s students since 1994, said Donoho, 76, of Fayetteville. The conference is featured every fall at the Jones Center by the Arkansas Holocaust Education Committee, which Donoho said she founded.

“We have it in the fall so that teachers can then take information and implement it in their classrooms,” she said.

About 19,000 people have attended the conference since it began in 1994, she said, noting there will be no event this year because of the covid-19 pandemic.

The event is open to students from middle school through college and to teachers and community members, Donoho said. Some two-thirds of the participants are students,

she said, many of whom are learning alongside their teachers.

The conference features guest speakers, first-hand accounts by Holocaust survivors and breakout sessions so participants can dig deeper into specific Holocaust topics, Donoho said.

Survivors visiting the region to speak at the conference often share their stories at area schools, universities and jails as well, she said.

Donoho said there are a handful of survivors living in Northwest Arkansas, noting she knows of just three currently living in Fayetteville.

Manes said he’s taken students to the conference or has invited a Holocaust survivor from the event to speak at Fulbright Junior High for the past several years. There are few better ways to help students understand the magnitude of the Holocaust than first-hand accounts, he said.

“It becomes a subject that’s not just in a book,” he said. “It becomes a subject that impacts your life.”

EDUCATION LEGISLATION

Steve Ronnel of Little Rock, who is Jewish, said the conference is a good start.

“It’s unfortunately too regionalized and too limited in scope and reach to effectively spread knowledge statewide about the Holocaust to our students,” he said.

About 80% to 90% of conference participants are from Northwest Arkansas, Donoho said.

Ronnel serves as a member of the Holocaust Education Living Proposal Committee, which seeks to make teaching about the Holocaust mandatory in Arkansas. A Holocaust education bill sponsored by Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, will be introduced to the Arkansas General Assembly in January, Ronnel said.

If approved, the legislation would make Holocaust education required in public schools statewide, he said.

“There are no states bordering Arkansas who require Holocaust education statewide,” Ronnel said.

Hester said he hopes to receive bipartisan support.

“When you put together a bill with the right issue that’s put together well and thought through, which is what we’re doing, you tend to find yourself in a really good spot,” he said.

The legislation would direct the Arkansas Department of Education to develop a curriculum in consultation with experts and begin distributing that to school districts to add to lesson plans, Ronnel said.

The legislation has garnered support from state school administrators, including Debbie Jones, Bentonville superintendent, Ronnel said.

“All students need an understanding of the causes, course and effects of the Holocaust so they can better understand the implications of bullying, bigotry and discrimination,” Jones said in a September letter of support for the legislation.

Manes said the legislation could factor into long-term change for Arkansas.

“We want to open the eyes of students,” he said. “History really did happen, and you can do something that will impact not only your life, but the lives of others.”