The complexities of teaching aims in Holocaust education

Educators’ clarity on their teaching aims is the crucial pedagogical topic when dealing with the past. Therefore, the Holocaust educational aims are at the forefront of curricular decisions to be made for approaching the complexity and sensitivity of the topic. Considering their overall importance, this paper will consider in some depth four of the crucial aims of teaching the Holocaust: combating antisemitism, dealing with prejudices and stereotyping in society, genocide prevention and developing cognitive knowledge about an unprecedented historical event. The second part of the paper will examine some of the academic and practical challenges which are linked to each of the discussed aims.