ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses whether it is possible to teach the Holocaust meaningfully in the primary school and, in so far as it is possible, whether it should be undertaken. Some literature on the Holocaust recommended for children of elementary school age confronts the vexed issue of Jewish identity by equating it with religious conviction. According to Samuel Totten, Holocaust education, when applied to the teaching of very young children, is often a misnomer, for it implies nothing more than an attempt to develop personal qualities like tolerance and respect for difference, or social skills such as peaceful conflict resolution. All the younger children attended a socially-mixed, non-denominational school in an area of south-east England adjacent to a substantial Jewish community. The northern school had a working-class catchment and was located within a few miles of both a mainstream Jewish community and a Chassidic one. The southern schools were predominantly middle-class and rather closer to mainstream Jewish communities.
