A global mapping of the Holocaust in textbooks and curricula

Provides an overview of comparative work on Holocaust education curricula and textbook research. The Georg Eckhardt Institute for International Textbook Research and UNESCO examined 272 curricula from 135 countries. From 26 countries they also examined 89 textbooks. Their work reveals patterns of convergence and localisation in how the Holocaust is understood and presented around the world. The work is critical as study of the Holocaust spread to countries less directly connected to its history where the Holocaust may be used instrumentally to accomplish other aims such as teaching about human rights or drawing comparisons with episodes of other nations' suffering. Although different approaches can be found in different countries common challenges remain. By portraying the Jews mostly as voiceless victims, textbooks remain centred on the perpetrators, sometimes using their language and perspective and focusing more on the crime than on the people and cultures that were devastated.