01/30/2023
Only 18 states require Holocaust education
If you ask millennials and Gen Z about the Holocaust, odds are they might not know what you're talking about. A study found only 44% said they could identify Auschwitz as a Nazi death camp and 63% didn't know 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Most U.S. states do not have laws requiring public schools to teach about the genocide and the World War II Holocaust. Racist and antisemitic social media posts are rising, while antisemitic and racial violence has jumped across the country.
■Class discussion: Have you learned about the systematic execution of Jewish adults and children by Nazi Germany during World War II? Can you define genocide? Were there genocides before the Holocaust? Have there been genocides since the Holocaust? How have political leaders used lies to stir up racial, religious or ethnic hatred so they could seize power? Does blaming some group of “others” for your problems lead to violence and genocide? Could learning about the causes of genocide make it less likely to happen?
