A book about the failure of Holocaust education gives more insight

by Irena Karshenbaum

(AJNews) – Over a Zoom call in late January of 2025, from her home in Hamburg, Germany, independent historian, author and speaker, Dr. Melanie Carina Schmoll, explained that antisemitism is “rooted in hate” and “an emotional thing, which is why it makes it so hard to fight.”

Not deterred, Schmoll has dedicated her life to fighting the “hatred of Jews,” as she said it should be called, and not antisemitism, by researching and writing about Holocaust education, work that she described as “a matter of my heart.”

Schmoll’s work is even more impressive considering she is not Jewish. Born in Hamburg, Schmoll’s maternal line, “The important one” as she jokingly stated, is Latvian and she found church records dating back to 1871 showing that all of her ancestors were baptized. Her paternal line, being German, has no Nazi ancestors or anyone who worked in the camps. She said that she always had a fascination with Judaism and recalled a story when, as a teenager, she learned about what is a Sukkah she wanted to have one because she thought it would be nice to eat outside.

Schmoll, of course, is not the first non-Jewish person in history to be fascinated by Judaism, after learning more about it, but dedicating her life’s work to Holocaust education speaks to her innate ability to think about the world at a deeper level. Her parents “who were very much into politics and history” nurtured this inclination. She recalled one incident when they gave her books to read and talked to her about Israel after she told them about a teacher who brought out a map in class and questioned the existence of one country, Israel, then stated, “It’s an artificial state.”

In May of 2024, being true to her nature, Schmoll was observing the rise of antisemitism since October 7, 2023, and decided to write a book in response to media articles that were stating fifty years of investment into Holocaust education was a failure given the rise of antisemitism.

Schmoll felt the wrong questions were being asked and producing a population free of the hatred of Jews was not only the responsibility of Holocaust educators, but society as a whole, “I tried to find answers for my own questions.” The result being, Hatred of Jews, A Failure of Holocaust Education? which will be published in February of 2025.

Schmoll explained that Holocaust education originated in North America, is mandatory in Germany, but admitted, “We can prepare the best curriculum and the best books, but we don’t know what is going on in the classroom and if teachers really do teach the topic.” She explained that the critical historical period from 1933 to 1945 — which includes the Nuremberg Laws, the Second World War and the Holocaust — is taught in just nine hours in Germany.

She explained, “Even in Germany, teachers are not required to cover this topic to become a teacher. You can be a history teacher in Germany and never do anything on an academic level about the Holocaust, but in the end you will have to teach it.” The situation is similar in Israel and Canada, where Schmoll did a study, and where teachers revealed they did not feel prepared to teach the subject. Schmoll added, “Teachers need more support.”

Schmoll proposes that if the school system is unable to provide more support to the teachers because of lack of time or money, then it needs “experts.”

She added that if teachers are unable to teach the Holocaust, “It’s not a sign of weakness to say this is too complicated for me because people spend years studying the subject and it’s not getting easier. The more you deal with this topic, the more it’s getting complicated.”

Schmoll explained, “There is so much literature, so many studies, we know so much, and it’s overwhelming.” She said the average teacher might not be interested in the topic and might have a different area of interest, “We cannot force these people to go into this topic area and know all this stuff and know how to deal with students who are not so open minded, so it needs experts to teach the subject.”

Schmoll’s proposal is that the experts would be found, for example, in Canada by the Jewish communities, “The people who would teach this subject would be an educator, a historian or a person with a social studies background. They would become an expert on the subject.”

Schmoll envisions having a pool of Holocaust education experts that would then be brought into the schools. She admits this is an easier proposition in Germany, which is geographically smaller, than in geographically dispersed Canada.

There is an added benefit to having experts teach the subject, she explained, in that studies show that older students in Germany, those in grades 11 to 13, take school books more seriously if they know there is an expert talking.

Schmoll who has spoken widely on the topic, including in Calgary at the first city-wide Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2020 and at the MRU Holocaust Education Symposium, explained that Hatred of Jews, A Failure of Holocaust Education? is written for teachers, academics who are not familiar with the topic, authors of texts books, people who create resource materials and historians. “The book is based on studies, but also my own experience as a teacher in the classroom in the academic world and in public schools.”

She concluded, “We need more to combat the hatred of Jews than just Holocaust education. It is not like a pill you get and you talk to kids for two hours and they come out as better persons, less hating, that is certainly wrong. The entire story of the hatred of Jews is such a long story and the Holocaust is the more horrific thing, but it’s just one thing in this entire story. This idea that it’s all on our shoulders, the shoulders of the educators to make it better, and that’s a little bit too much. The story of the hatred of Jews is so complex and Holocaust education can be just one part of it.”

 Irena Karshenbaum is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter. She writes in Calgary. irenakarshenbaum.com