Treatment of the Holocaust in Western and World Civilization Textbooks: An Update

64 SHOFAR Winter 1997 Vol. 15, No.2 TREATMENT OF THE HOLOCAUST IN WESTERN AND WORLD CIVILIZATION TEXTBOOKS: AN UPDATE by Joel Epstein Joel Epstein is Professor of History at Olivet College in Michigan, where he has taught since 1968. He has published in English history (Francis Bacon: A Political Biography and several articles on Bacon) as well as several articles dealing with Holocaust education. His first work on the subject of the treatment of the Holocaust in college texts, "The Holocaust as Non-History: Coverage in College Western Civilization Textbooks" appeared as a chapter in Methodology in the Academic Teaching of the Holocaust. Dr. Epstein holds a doctorate in history from Rutgers University and has taught a course on the Holocaust regularly at Olivet since 1979. I write as a European historian who directs a World Civilization program as well as someone who has taught a course on the Holocaust regularly since 1979. I have been concerned for some time about the overall inadequate treatment of the subject in standard Western and World Civilization textbooks. I first addressed the problem in "The Holocaust as Non-History: Coverage in College Western Civilization Textbooks."' While many texts had upgraded their treatment of the Holocaust and some even dealt with it with intelligence and sensitivity, even the best accounts failed to recognize it as a major historical event. It was still considered something that took place during World War II and given significantly less attention than the military history of the war. Some texts 'Published as Chapter 14 in Zev Garber, ed., Methodology in the Acadernic Teaching of the Holocaust (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1988), pp. 263-275. Treatment of the Holocaust in Textbooks 65 discussed Nazi antisemitism in the 1930s more thoroughly than they treated the "Final Solution." It was also true that many historians did not realize that antisemitism was at the very core of Nazism itself. My "realistic prescription for change" was to suggest that general texts devote a chapter to the subject of genocidal violence in the twentieth century. Such a chapter would focus on the Holocaust as the ultimate example of violence clearly emphasizing its uniqueness, while also discussing other classic examples of systematic mass murder. While the Holocaust would not be diluted in importance; students would clearly see how genocidal violence has permeated our country. The legacy of the Holocaust would be conveyed all the more potently if updated to include the several examples ofgenocidal violence since 1945. Such examples give potency to the question ofwhether the world has learned sufficiently from Auschwitz.2 It is important to analyze treatment ofthe subject in the latest editions of texts studied in the first article as well as coverage in newer texts. Questions such as whether standard texts have strengthened their accounts of the Holocaust and whether new texts treat the issue more carefully will be addressed. One must also be interested in learning whether specific texts address the question of the Holocaust's uniqueness, as well as its centrality in Nazi policy. The question of whether text coverage has been affected by more recent examples ofgenocide also needs to be addressed. Finally, if in fact there are still significant problems with how general college texts deal with this subject, then serious thought must be given to once again looking at a realistic and constructive solution to these problems. The advances made in Holocaust education have positively impacted on general textbook treatment of the subject. While inadequacy in some accounts is still a problem, one can legitimately expect more sophisticated approaches to the topic.. Texts should no longer merely refer ~o Hitler's annihilation of six million Jews as one component of the overall tragedy ofWorld War II. The deliberate intent to murder Europe's Jews as a central (if not the central) element in German policy should be briefly discussed. In addition, the uniqueness of the Holocaust in' history needs to be explained. These important concepts should be articulated at the outset of the few pages allocated in a text for discussion of the Holocaust. In this way the student is made aware of the importance of the Holocaust in "The Bosnian example and other...