Holocaust education and current conflicts

Winnipeg Free Press

18 hours ago

Opinion
John R. Wiens's recent op-ed (We must teach the Holocaust — but that won't be easy, Think Tank, June 6) raises important concerns about the challenges of teaching the Holocaust amid the Israel-Hamas war.
Best practices in Holocaust education continue to evolve along with present-day realities and challenges. Available in more than a dozen languages, the 2019 IHRA Recommendations on Teaching and Learning About the Holocaust was crafted by international scholars in the field to help curriculum developers and educators teach about the complex and nuanced history of the Holocaust. We are working on a new edition for 2026.
In November of 2023, I approached the Manitoba government about a mandated curriculum on Holocaust education and was delighted by the positive response from the province, which subsequently announced its partnership with the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada to introduce mandatory Holocaust education in schools. 'This includes developing new curriculum guidance, implementation tools, and resources for educators. The partnership aims to ensure all students in Manitoba are educated about the Holocaust and its impact, and to combat antisemitism.' Kelly Hiebert, an award-winning educator, was then selected by the Manitoba government to help develop a new Holocaust curriculum for the province's students.
Wiens claims that 'today's politics of difference' inform him that a non-Jew cannot understand or appreciate the injustices of antisemitism and that one must choose between being a Zionist and pro-Palestinian. Many respected scholars on antisemitism are in fact not Jewish. Zionism is simply the right of Jews to self-determination in our ancestral homeland. Support for Palestinians is not anathema to that belief.
As for criticism of the policies of the Israeli government, we have been clear that criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.
I respectfully challenge a central claim of Wien's argument — that Holocaust education today must be inextricably linked with current events in Gaza, and that such teaching risks doing more harm than good in the current political climate. This approach risks weakening both the effectiveness of Holocaust education and the clarity students need when learning about mass atrocities.
To begin, the Holocaust was a defining event in the history of humanity that shook the foundations of Western civilization and transformed international politics and justice. It was a singular, systematic genocide: the industrialized murder of six million Jews alongside the targeted killing of millions of others. Teaching about the Holocaust requires careful attention to historical specificity, rooted in facts, survivor testimony, and the ideological machinery of antisemitism that enabled it.
To connect Holocaust education directly with the Gaza conflict — however pressing and tragic — risks distorting both topics. These are not interchangeable events, nor are they parallel in scope, intent, or execution. Conflating them, even in the spirit of contemporary relevance, invites students to draw inappropriate moral equivalencies and may unintentionally reinforce antisemitic tropes — including the idea that Jews are collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
Wiens expresses concern that teachers are unprepared for the political backlash they may face when tackling such topics. But the answer is not to sideline Holocaust education or to dilute it with present-day disputes. The answer is to better support educators: with training, curriculum resources, and clear guidance on how to engage students in both historical thinking and ethical reflection. We have already begun that process with a Manitoba-wide professional development day a few weeks ago, that included the participation of recognized national experts in the field, and we will be offering many more opportunities next year.
It is entirely possible — and necessary — to teach the Holocaust without turning the classroom into a battleground over modern geopolitics. Teachers should not be asked to resolve the Israeli-Hamas conflict in real time. Nor should Holocaust instruction be framed as contingent on 'cleaning up' adult failures in the political sphere. Our students deserve a focused space to learn about antisemitism — both past and present — and to understand how hatred and conspiracy theories fuel violence.
Let us be clear: we must also teach about human rights violations wherever they occur. Manitoba offers a curriculum on global issues that addresses these concerns. These discussions matter, and they belong in our classrooms — but not at the cost of obscuring or distorting the Holocaust's historical reality.
In this time of polarization, clarity is a moral necessity. At a time when Holocaust denial and distortion both online and offline is increasing dramatically, accompanied by an exponential rise in antisemitism, Holocaust education remains a key tool for countering prejudice and cultivating inclusion. We must ensure that this important subject is taught with the depth, care, and context it deserves.
Belle Jarniewski is the executive director of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada and serves on the Education Working Group of Canada's federally appointed delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the only intergovernmental organization with a mandate focused on addressing contemporary challenges related to the Holocaust and the genocide of the Roma.