It distresses me how long it has taken for us to realize what Emanuel Ringelblum recognized in 1940 at the very inception of the Warsaw ghetto: unless we Jews tell our story, the story of the Holocaust will be told by the perpetrators. In the experiences of many of us, the story of the Holocaust has been dominated by Nazi propaganda and Nazi thinking. [redirects to the Times of Israel.]
“Mom, what do you know about the Holocaust?” You swallow, take a deep breath, play for time, your mind racing. “They’re not old enough to know about this,” you think to yourself frantically. “Can’t I hold on to their innocence just a little bit longer?” They’ll never be old enough. No one is old enough to really deal with the atrocities of the world. I know I’m not. But ignoring evil does not make it go away. Ignoring evil gives it space to grow. We must face evil, and we must help our children to face it. [redirects to the Times of Israel.]
Storytelling is an ancient art that gives voice to our values and our history. Through our stories, we build our communities. But we can only appreciate the depth of these communities when we tell the stories of the individual people who make up the community. [Redirects to the Times of Israel.]
Discussing the Holocaust with young children is important but takes careful planning. How we present Holocaust stories makes a big difference to whether the lessons feel traumatic to them. [Redirects to the Times of Israel]
Done carefully, Holocaust education should start in kindergarten and continue with progressively deeper layers into adulthood. [Redirects to the Times of Israel]
Role play is a traditional learning tool, but in Holocaust education, it only leads to tears and to a lack of learning. [Redirects to the Times of Israel]
When we teach the Holocaust, we want our students to ask questions like “How could this happen?” and “What can we do to prevent this from happening again?” Too often, what students ask about the Holocaust is “Why do I have to learn this?” [Redirects to the Times of Israel]
How we teach the Holocaust to our children is critically important. If we truly want our children to learn the lessons of the Holocaust, we must go beyond talking about ourselves as “helpless victims of unspeakable horrors.” [Redirects to the Times of Israel]
What do you think of when you hear the word “Holocaust”? I bet you think of helpless Jews wiped away by evil monsters while the world watched and did nothing. Every word in that sentence is wrong. [Redirects to the Times of Israel]
I used to dread the very idea of talking to my kids about the Holocaust. The story of the Holocaust was a burden. I did not look forward to having to pass that burden on to my children. But I had only heard half the story. [Redirects to Kveller.com]
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