Should the holocaust be taught in schools?

The Holocaust was a terrible event that left millions dead. In total
11 million were killed, 6 million Jews and 5 million of what Hitler
called undesirables. It was a very tragic event and has left a
lasting legacy. Today there is an ongoing argument of whether it
should be taught in schools or not. Personally I believe that it
should be, and here are my reasons for and against:
My first point to back up why the holocaust should be taught
is; survivors of the holocaust are dying out, and it is really
important that we remember them and that their amazing stories
are shared with the world. A great example of a story that needs
to be shared is Oskar Schindlers. He was a German factory
owner, and at first Oskar would exploit the Jews, he would force
them to work in his factories for very little pay, until he saw how
badly they were being treated in the concentration camps. He
decided to make a list of over 1200 Jews and took them into his
factory. He fed them, and gave them work, but most importantly
he saved their lives. Another amazing story is that of Wadysaw
Szpilman. He was a polish Jew that amazingly survived the
Holocaust. He saw his world go from piano concert halls to the
Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw.He then suffered the tragedy of his
family being deported to a German concentration camp, whilst he
was still in hiding. He moved from place to place, being helped by
his non-Jewish friends until he was eventually back in the
abandoned ghetto. He was helped out by a Nazi pianist, given
food and shelter, until eventually it was over and he could come
out. These inspiring stories must be remembered in order for us
not to make foolish mistakes. They help us to realize that of those
11 million that were killed, there are 11 million human stories to
go with them.
Another point is, that it makes us so grateful for the rights
and freedoms and the semi-equality that we have. The Jews living
in Germany in 1933 had most of their liberties taken away from
them. They were restricted with almost everything they did. A few

examples include; Jews could not be married to Germans, Jews

could only sit on benches marked for Jews, and Jews must wear a
J wherever they go. Also Jews had very restrained job options,
they couldnt be lawyers, doctors, judges, teachers musicians or
actors. It was a very harrowing time for them.
My final reason for the Holocaust to be taught in schools is,
that it helps us to learn why prejudice and discrimination are so
wrong, and where they can lead. Most of the non-Jews in Germany
and the surrounding countries (not all of them) at the time
behaved horribly towards the Jews. To start with there were lots of
anti-Semitic views going round, and it didnt help having a mad
leader wanting to slaughter them all. In fact, this just encouraged
people to express their disgusting views, creating an echochamber where it was believed that it was acceptable to conduct
a massacre of the Jews.
On the other side of the argument there is the point that
teaching the holocaust lead to people being against Germany, or
blaming all Germans for the disastrous event. Instead of people
just being against Nazis. Although it wasnt all Germans that
supported Hitler, inaccurate teaching of the subject could lead to
hatred against Germans. And some say that its not really worth
taking the risk that teachers will come across in the right way.
However, teachers are very well trained, they will probably have a
degree in history, and they will know their stuff.
Another reason is that maybe we should focus more on
where Britain went wrong in the past, rather than shaming other
countries downfalls. After all we have done a lot of bad things in
the past, from contributing to the slave trade, to our imperialist
heritage. Some say that despite the fact that we should learn
about the whole world, it may be better just to start nearby,
people could learn about these things for themselves. Granting all
this, we should definitely learn about as much as we can. Why
would you ever want to miss out on a piece of key knowledge,
learning never exhausts the mind.

My final reason for why the holocaust shouldnt be taught in

schools is simply that some people might not be mature enough
to learn about it in detail. These people could ruin it for others
who are keen to learn about the topic. Various difficult aspects for
them to handle could include pictures taken at the time, or even
just the thoughts of how the millions were slaughtered. But
putting this aside, it is such an important issue that everyone
needs to be taught, no matter how immature they are.
To conclude, the Holocaust is not just a word used to
describe something anymore. It is spelled with a capital H and is
known to everyone as tragedy. We should study the Holocaust.
because it teaches us about prejudice. We should learn about the
Holocaust not because we have to, but because we want to. We
should study the Holocaust to learn how cruelly the Jews were
treated for just being themselves. We should study the Holocaust
to prevent tragic events in the future. We should study the
Holocaust to be grateful for the things that we have. We owe it to
the innocent people that died, for the people who were tortured in
concentration camps, and also for the people that escaped, and
who saw their loved ones dying at their feet. We should study the
Holocaust so that people at a young age can learn and not repeat
the mistakes of others when they grow up. The gas chambers,
concentration camps and forced labour are all things one should
know about. And although sadness may be brought when we
remember those that were slaughtered inhumanely, we mustnt
be blinded by our own ignorance. Finally, the crucial lessons have
not been learned, and even today history is repeating itself as the
Israelis are persecuting the Palestinians. We must study the
Holocaust to teach people that this is not ok, and that persecution
against peoples race and religion must stop.