Holocaust education is an important topic, officially recognized by almost all European governments and Ministries of Education, especially after Stockholm 2000. A European Task Force has been created and at least 9 countries have joined it, among them Lithuania . There is already a lot of experience available, a lot of books and teaching materials have been published. But it would be a mistake not to recognize that we are facing a new period of Holocaust education because:

• The Holocaust is already history. More than 50 years are separating us from the horrible events. In 10 years time there will be no more witnesses, I mean Holocaust survivors.
• We are already teaching about the Holocaust to a young generation which is far removed from the historical events of the Nazi area and has a completely different life experience.
• There is already a lot of controversy about the Holocaust, just only to mention the Holocaust deniers or the recent statement about “holocaust industry”, as expressed by Finkelstein and discussed by Novak. The growing violence of right-wing young extremists, even if they are still marginal, has to be taken into consideration.
We are now facing holocausts in many parts of the world and our naïve belief that the Nazi horrors would be the last of their kind, – did not come true. It is obvious that if we want to draw lessons from the past for the present and future, we will have to rethink the Holocaust education system and methodology. As the Austrian academic and journalist Anton Pelinka said: “There is too much evidence that racism today in Europe cannot be dissociated from Holocaust”, and therefore we have to find new appropriate ways to teach Holocaust and combat racism. Otherwise we might very well have to face unintended consequences. I would like to mention a few questions which, in my view, a view from Eastern and Central Europe, have been insufficiently developed in the system of contemporary Holocaust education although there is evidence that changes are slowly creeping into our thinking and approach.

1. The Holocaust should be reflected and taught within a very concrete context –historical, political, cultural, social, psychological, approaching not only people, but also countries in a very individual way.
2. Holocaust education cannot be focused only on the Jewish Holocaust, but should give more emphasis to other holocausts and genocides in the past and present.
3. Motivation of teachers. Nothing will work, not even Forums at governmental level, unless we have motivated teachers. Teacher training should be the highest priority if we want, as the Swedish Prime Minister Göran Person said – to go from discussions and statements to action and concrete deeds.
Let me elaborate shortly on the first question. Why do we need context? What does context mean? As the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said yesterday in Stockholm, we are not born with prejudice, we learn it from our parents, school, society…And we, as people, are limited to our own experience. Therefore teaching about the Holocaust in the 21st century with reference only to the Nazi horrors can hardly be effective….
How can we reach the hearts and minds of young people and draw our lessons? We have to bring the events of the past closer to them, build our teaching on their own experience and understanding in spite of the globalization process and maybe even because of it. “All politics are local” and education especially.
The difference of Western and Eastern experience has to be taken into consideration. The nations in East and Central Europe are victims not only of the Nazi terror , but also of the GULAG, where far more people were killed than in the nazi Holocaust.
In our region you can often hear questions such as: Why are you speaking so much about the Holocaust? Our families perished in Siberia. They were also transported in animal wagons and instead of gas they were killed by frost. Holocaust education in East and Central Europe should not avoid showing empathy with the Gulag victims and it should base Holocaust education on the experience of the local people.

Second question.
Holocaust education should not be focused only on the Jewish Holocaust, which is mainly the case. It is necessary to recall and to talk about the victims of the Nazi Holocaust also including Roma people, Jehovah witnesses, homosexuals and others, even if not to such an extent. We have to teach about Armenia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo etc. When we focus too much on Jewish suffering, we often achieve the opposite result. I would like especially to emphasize the Roma Holocaust.

Third question.
Motivation of teachers and Holocaust teachers training. In East and Central Europe we have to be patient when introducing the Holocaust as a subject. You can only go step by step. (Example of Lithuania)

As a Nazi Holocaust survivor myself, I would like to say, that the terrible experience we went through should motivate us not only to concentrate on our own suffering, but be open and especially sensitive to the suffering of our fellow man and do every thing to prevent a new Holocaust in the future. It is a question of the survival of mankind in general.