You are here: 2000 / Workshops, Panels and Seminars / Workshops on Education / Workshop 2 on Education, "Teaching in the Contemporary Context" / Presentation by Dr. Ilya Altman
	Participants Countries and organizations Conference documentation Conference programme				Report from Workshop 2 on Education: "Teaching in the contemporary context" Presentation by Dr. Ilya Altman Presentation by Professor Dan Bar-On presentation by Mr. Stephen Feinberg Presentation by Mrs. Myra Osrin Presentation by Dr. Carol Rittner Presentation by Dr. Ilya Altman Altman, Ilya Presentation by Dr. Ilya Altman Mr. Chairman / Madam Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, dear Colleagues and Friends, I’ve prepared this report in conjunction with Professor Alexander Asmolov of the Moscow State University, one of the followers of Lev Vygotsky’s and Alexander Lurie’s scientific schools of cultural and historical psychology, who is scientific supervisor of the project “Lessons of the Holocaust and Modern Russia“. Regrettably Professor Asmolov isn’t able to attend our Conference. It has become customary in the world to speak of the Holocaust as one of the most terrible tragedies in the history of the 20th century. However, both addressing the Holocaust and the barriers on the way of its comprehension, bear witness to the fact that the Holocaust is not just history, but a diagnosis of the modern state of man’s consciousness, a syndrome of inadequate instruction and knowledge. It is to be stated with bitterness that knowledge alone about the Holocaust, as is evidenced by world practice, is not sufficient to change the directions of the mass consciousness in the different countries. Thus, Germany, France and the USA that have made great efforts for the understanding and retaining the Holocaust tragedy in the historical memory, see ever intensifying neo-nazi movements in which teenagers and young people are actively involved. Hence it follows that information on the Holocaust offered in the way of “cold“, indifferent knowledge hardly contributes to directions of tolerant consciousness being formed, nor does it present an effective antidote guaranteeing immunity of personality’s consciousness from the sweeping epidemic of political extremism. In this connection it is obvious that a pedagogical syllabus on the Holocaust is to envisage, first and foremost, a number of modern communicational and behavioral technologies to change the directions of mass consciousness on the basis of integration of the approaches, disunited for the time being, in the different social and behavioral sciences, to the formation of consciousness directions in individual personalities, big and small social groups. The elaboration of a similar syllabus is to be founded on conceptions, methods, communicational and behavioral technologies (including role and imitation methods, group social-psychological training, psycho-drama technology and social-drama of crisis and post-stress situations, “art therapy“ of traumatic experiences etc.) that exist in ethnology, sociology, personality psychology and social psychology, history, semiotics -psychology, culture science and pedagogy, and which can be adapted and used for the formation of directions of tolerant consciousness in a wide pedagogical environment, and in teenagers and young people. In our view teaching the Holocaust on the basis of the above-mentioned methods requires the emergence of a new pedagogy, a pedagogy of tolerance, a pedagogy of experiences, a pedagogy which like psycho-analysis will be capable of curing mankind of Holocausts as a sign of global misanthropy. We insist that this way of teaching the Holocaust challenges the traditional rational pedagogy founded on imparting knowledge and not on conveying motives, directions, emotions and experiences of the personality. Our emphasis on the need for a new pedagogical paradigm in the teaching of the Holocaust is to be explained by the fact that in Russia we must learn not to repeat pedagogical mistakes and refrain from using ineffective pedagogical technologies in the teaching of the Holocaust. The point is that the tragic experience of the Holocaust as a world catastrophe of all mankind that caused the physical extermination of six million Jews in the middle of the seemingly civilized twentieth century, does not actually figure in the mass consciousness of Russia’s population. The modern secondary school and university curricula contain no direct mention of the Holocaust, and the very term Holocaust widespread in the countries of Western Europe and in the USA, is inadequately used in Russia. This dissonance between the comprehension of the Holocaust in the leading countries of the modern world and Russia testifies not only to the political blindness, “scotoma“ in the Russian consciousness to this event of world history, but it constitutes an original background for the formation of ethnic prejudices which are a prerequisite for political extremism, primarily political anti-Semitism. It is necessary to show through the lessons of the Holocaust in Russia that in historical and psychological terms the Holocaust is first and foremost a symptom of a lethal social disease of dehumanization of all mankind, and is not only national genocide as a world catastrophe. Mass consciousness constantly mixes up two phenomena genocide and war, primarily Holocaust and war, which are different,, in principle, by their psychological and historical essence. In any wars however dramatic they may be, killing another man is executed as a means of achieving political, religious, economic or territorial purposes. Genocide is of a different nature. The manifest or hidden aim of genocide is the transformation of killing another man who somehow differs by ethnic, religious or other features, into a usual social norm of everyday behavior. To put it more rigidly, genocide is lawful permission in mass consciousness to kill, to exterminate another man. As a result in the general evolutionary aspect “genocide is not directed against one, genocide is always directed against all“. This passionate formula of M. Gefter reveals the essence of genocide as auto-aggression which in an evolutionary context will bring about the extermination of all mankind. Thus, fundamentalism, nationalism, fascism, anti-Semitism emerge as a philosophy and ideology of misanthropy, and not only ethnophobia, which threatens by their historical consequences with a Holocaust of all mankind. In this connection it must be particularly emphasized that catastrophe of genocide must in on circumstances be confused with catastrophes of war. Genocide including the Holocaust hides, paradoxically as it may seem, under the mask of war. The Holocaust hides under the mask of World War 2, but in reality it has by its temporal borders and social-psychological consequences, a much wider radius of affecting human civilization. It is the creation in mass consciousness of an image of the Holocaust which answers to the social, psychological and historical scale of this manifestation of misanthropy that is the purpose of the innovatory syllabus “Pedagogy of Tolerance: Lessons of the Holocaust and Modern Russia . The Holocaust on the territory of the USSR is a component and unfortunately little known page of the catastrophe of European Jews. It is impossible without a complex approach to fully estimate the meaning and scale of the Holocaust in Russia and the post- Soviet states. This subject contains, in our opinion, a huge potential for the search for new methods in the studying and teaching of the history of the Holocaust in the 21st Century. We’ll enumerate the basic peculiarities of the Holocaust in the USSR. The most bloody period of the mass extermination of Jews began only after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The Holocaust became the most important part of the “total war“ doctrine, and for the first time one of the war aims against any state. From the first days of the war Nazi propaganda proclaimed its main idea: we are killing Jews as real or potential Communists and Bolsheviks. So, it was not only the result of the race theory, as is usually considered, but the result of some political ideas and interests. About 3,000,000 out of the 6,000,000 victims of the Holocaust were Soviet Jews. They were not killed in the gas chambers of the death camps or crematoria, but before the eyes of millions of by-standers. Noteworthy is also the scale of participation of the local collaborationists in the Holocaust; awareness of the Holocaust and the inadequate reaction of the Soviet government to the fate of the Jews citizens of their country. The history of the Holocaust education in Russia is inextricably linked with the level of Russian scholarship in this field and the possibility of international scholarly contacts as well as with political factors, namely: state anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and the modern political situation. From the mid-1940s until the late 1980s the Holocaust did not figure in school or university text-books, encyclopedias or monographs, exclusively for political reasons. The psycho-historical and ideological mechanisms of “forgetting the memory“ assumed different forms: hushing it up, distortion of historical facts and deliberatet falsification. The specific “Holocaust of the memory of the Holocaust“ was initiated during World War 2. The Soviet version of denying the Holocaust manifested itself with particular vividness in the late 1960s - early 1980s. The thesis of the cooperation of the Nazis with the Zionists who were alleged to be interested in the persecution of the Jews, became a component part of the so-called anti-Zionist propaganda.. The consequences of these falsifications and hushing ups have, unfortunately, affected the attitude of modern Russian science to the subject of the Holocaust. There are some specific reasons for it: in the USSR and modern Russia a lot was written and is being written about the Slavs who fell victim to the Nazis, but no special monuments were erected in places where Jews were exterminated. The word Jew could not be mentioned even on the monuments erected in Jewish cemeteries. We have presented this brief review of the Soviet versions of the denial of the Holocaust (or, rather, denial of its uniqueness) to demonstrate the problems and difficulties encountered by teachers in our country After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the early 90s attempts were undertaken in Russia to introduce the subject of the Holocaust in the context of the civil society in the country that was coming into being. The “Holocaust“ Center created, in 1992, under the leadership of the well-known historian and philosopher Dr. Michael Gefter, initiated the establishment in Moscow of a State Holocaust Museum, holds annual Remembrance Days of Jews Nazi-victims and Heroes of the Resistance, published 12 books in the “Holocaust Russian Library“ series including several teaching aids on the history and literature of the Holocaust. Incidentally, the latest book in the series “Before and after Auschwitz“ was just published a week ago. It contains the reminiscences of Division Commander General Vasili Petrenko who liberated Auschwitz. We wish to find an answer to the question: what are the best ways and methods, in our situation, of introducing the subject of the Holocaust in school and university curricula. These problems were discussed at the three International Teaching Conferences held in Moscow. Co-sponsors of the last conference were: the “Holocaust“ Center, the Ministry of education, Russian Federation, the Council of Europe and “Yad Vashem“. Great interest is displayed by teachers and students in the Holocaust Museum, the first one on the territory of CIS , established by the Russian Jewish Congress. The subject of the Holocaust is extensively represented in the project “Lessons of the Holocaust and Modern Russia“ of the Center of Social Innovations, Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation. It is important to consider the attitude to the subject of the Holocaust in the context of the modern political situation in Russia. The negative factors in the social consciousness have until now prevented the perception of the history of the Holocaust as a component part of the history of Russia on the eve and during World War 2. The inadequate, in our opinion, attention to this subject in the educational process in Russia of the 90s is to be accounted for by the combination of two factors: conscious refusal to deal with it by a significant part of administrators and teachers as well as the absence of the necessary information. The reluctance to introduce the subject of the Holocaust in the educational curricula was based on its being perceived as a subject and problem exclusively “Jewish“. It is to be pointed out that teachers and education organizers held the partial view that the subject of “Jewish Victims“ is allegedly dangerous for international education. These fears are based on the stereotype mentioned above: the millions exterminated peaceful citizens on the USSR occupied territory were all equally nazi victims. It is obvious that the subject of the Holocaust is vital for Russia not only as an educational project. This is remembrance and warning against the background of the ever growing ultra-nationalist, anti-Caucasian and anti-Semitic sentiments of the society. The national question in Post-Soviet Russia is of tremendous acuteness. The Russian version of fundamentalism against the background of the continuing war in Chechnya and the absence of progress in the economy are able to destabilize the society. It is for this reason that the subject of tolerance (and the history of the Holocaust as its component part) must be embraced by the Russian doctrine of national education a which is now under discussion. Which are, to our mind, the basic directions of teaching the subject of the Holocaust in Russia? It is its inclusion in the state and regional educational standards, syllabuses of the humanities, texts in school and university text-books. Individual syllabuses and courses (special courses) are currently taught in several Russian universities, secondary schools, gymnasiums, lyceums, and in the Jewish educational establishments. It is important that this subject be integrated in the existing syllabuses of the humanities and in the newly created courses (“Rights of man“, “Tolerance“, etc.). The most difficult problem is that of training teachers on this subject. It can be solved within the entire country by including the subject of the Holocaust in the curricula of courses to train and re-train secondary school- and university teachers. The Russian “Holocaust“ Center with the help of Yad Vashem established, last autumn, an International School to train teachers in the subject of the Holocaust. Its day department is attended by 45 school and university teachers of Moscow. By the distance teaching method about 100 teachers of Russia and CIS are to be trained this academic year. In 1999, the first competition ever held in Russia took place of secondary school and university students’ compositions on the subject of the Holocaust. This year also teachers are invited to participate in the competition for the best methods guide. Another question suggests itself: What action is to be taken in this connection by our potential foreign partners? The importance of international cooperation for the success of the project in Russia and other post-Soviet states is not to be overestimated. The Swedish project “Living History“ and the book “Tell your Children about it“ which is with our participation, being now published in Russian, is a fruitful example of possible ways of cooperation. We consider expedient bi-lateral and multi-lateral projects on the subject, special courses and exchange of experience of teachers of different countries, meeting of students in memorable places of the Holocaust on the territory of the former USSR, publication of joint teaching aids. A European competition of students’ compositions and an international students’ conference on the Holocaust could become an effective method of involving students of different countries including Russia, in the study of this subject. We’ve just laconically outlined the strategy of teaching the Holocaust in Russia, which can rid mankind of the syndrome of ignorance, deafness and blindness to tragedies. And who knows, had pedagogy of tolerance earlier emerged in the world, in Europe, and in our native Russia, mankind wouldn’t have known the genocide in Kosovo, the catastrophe in Chechnya, recurrence of terrorism, fascism and fundamentalism in the second half of the 20th century, We trust that teachers who have mastered the new pedagogy, will change the directions of the generations to succeed us. We trust that through pedagogy as an art of healing the trauma of consciousness teachers will save the world from moving down the path to new Holocausts. We wish to hope that this Conference will serve as a powerful incentive for Russia’s comprehending the lessons of the Holocaust. We must make every effort in order that this subject should not just be a lesson of history in our country, but should become a barrier on the way of any attempts to propagandize national hatred and intolerance >> Back to top				Introduction Opening Session: Messages and speeches Plenary Sessions: Messages and speeches Workshops, Panels and Seminars Summary Report on Panels and Workshops Panel 1: Holocaust Education - Where Are We Going? Panel 2: Remembering the Holocaust - The challenges of Memory Panel 3: Holocaust Research - From the Archives to the Classroom Workshops on Education Workshops on Remembrance and Representation Workshops on Research Closing Session and Declaration Other Activities
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