Alex Zverev and the state of US Holocaust education
Just over a week ago, at the US Open, the German tennis player Alex Zverev stopped a tennis game to openly protest the shouting out of an antisemitic Hitler slur and call for the removal of the perpetrator from the stands. He chose action over silence. In my book, he is a hero.
The irony of course is that this action came from a German citizen. But is it so ironic? German children are taught from a young age about the Holocaust. It is a mandatory part of their curriculum. They learn about this period of history no less than three times over the course of their education. In Germany, there is no attempt to whitewash the past.
The German penal code also prohibits publicly denying the Holocaust or disseminating Nazi propaganda, sharing images such as swastikas, and making statements in support of Hitler. With excellent education about the Holocaust and clear-cut rules against a pro-Hitler agenda, it’s no wonder that a German was the first to speak out against this hideous public offense.
What is the state of education about the Holocaust in the United States? Sadly, it is a hodgepodge, and it is weak. Currently in the US, only 25 states mandate Holocaust education, while 17 “support a Holocaust education commission or task force.” A few states have permissive legislation or pending legislation. Eleven states have no legislation at all regarding Holocaust education. And even in states where Holocaust education is mandated, there is no uniformly accepted curriculum.
Can it really be that nearly 80 years have passed since the end of World War II, and we still have no consensus in our nation that the Holocaust should be taught, nor any agreement of what our children should be learning? With few survivors alive, and even second-generation survivors approaching (or already at) retirement age, who will teach our children about the Holocaust if it is not part of a set curriculum? Antisemitism ant anti-Jewish hate crimes are on the rise, as is Holocaust denialism. Yet even in my home state of New York, the state with the largest Jewish population, the most recent New York legislation was an Amendment passed in 2022 authorizing the commissioner of education to “conduct a survey regarding instruction on the Holocaust within the state.” We have made it to the survey stage.
It is high time for a curriculum. But it is also time to share stories and include these in the curriculum. Personal stories are the only way to give meaning to the incomprehensible number of people killed in a government mandated genocide. That is why Holocaust memoirs should still be published. And Holocaust movies should still be made. The Holocaust cannot be a black and white documentary of the past, or a list of dates and statistics. It must be a living, breathing event that is alive in everyone’s consciousness. It must be something so heinous, so troubling, so recent, that it is a simple reflex to call out antisemitism the very minute it escapes from someone’s mouth.
