JTA:South African province makes teaching of Holocaust mandatory
By Moira Schneider
October 10, 2006
CAPE TOWN, Oct. 10 (JTA) â South African schools are preparing to make Holocaust studies a mandatory part of the school curriculum.
The Cape Town Holocaust Centre helped out one province with a program it hopes to offer to the rest of the country.
The center recently conducted a four-day workshop for some 50 people in cooperation with Kwazulu-Natal provinceâs Department of Education, training senior teachers, subject advisers and education officials who will provide support for the course.
Holocaust survivor Irene Klass, who lived in the Warsaw Ghetto for two years as a child, flew in for the day from Johannesburg to give a first-hand account of her experiences.
âMost of the people here have never heard or seen a survivor, so to them history began to live,â? she said.
Following her talk, an emotional Ravi Pather, subject adviser for history in the Port Shepstone district, told Klass that he appreciated how difficult it must have been to recount her story. Meeting a survivor will add passion to the teaching of the subject, Pather said.
âWeâve had a longstanding and good relationship with the Department of Education in the Western Cape area, and their need has shown us that thereâs a need throughout the country,â? center director Richard Freedman said. âItâs almost unfair to expect people who donât have the expertise to convey the content. Weâre drawing on years of Holocaust education â not only our own, but that of other Holocaust centers throughout the world.â?
This is the centerâs first national venture, Freedman noted.
Educator Toni Peterson, who took part in the training, called the course âexcellent.â?
âWhen Iâm teaching it Iâll be able to explain it beyond what the text is saying, and thatâs valuable for providing insight into the events,â? she said. âObviously your primary sources will not be as easily accessible as they would be in Europe, so bringing it closer to home makes it that much easier.â?
The course has another aim as well: to impart the values in South Africaâs Constitution.
âWe need to encourage an ethos of activism, to speak out when you see someone being maltreated,â? Marlene Silbert, the centerâs education director, told the educators. âEven if we donât learn from history, we as educators have a moral obligation to teach it and focus on the questions of how and why terrible things happen and how we can prevent them from happening again.â?
Diversity and tolerance educator John Biyase led a session examining the similarities and differences between Nazism and apartheid.
âLet us not be tempted to compare which was the worst atrocity or who suffered more â I believe pain is subjective,â? he cautioned. âWeâre all prejudiced, but when you add power to that, it results in discrimination. The Nazis and the Natsâ? â as South Africaâs apartheid rulers were known â âboth abused their power. Atrocities occurred because they both had the power to act on their prejudices.
âBeing born into the human species doesnât guarantee that youâll be human â we have to learn the path to be human,â? Biyase told the educators. âYouâre in a very critical position. You can help those children to be human beings.â?
Speaking on behalf of the attendees, Gregory Khumalo, chief education specialist in the Sisonke district, said he found the workshop âvery informative.â?
âSome of us have never heard of the Holocaust before,â? he said. âItâs a very depressing subject, but the way you did it with passion, commitment and dedication, weâve learned a lot from you. Your good work will not go to waste.â?
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