Rethinking Never Again

Theodor Adorno’s call – Never Again – stemmed from a sense of unease; Auschwitz served as an example to show how educational institutes could be mobilized to enable genocide. Unless education were able to address this, it was meaningless. This was not only a chilling reminder for Europe but a lesson for the world. A growing sense of national ethnos makes Adorno’s statements more poignant as ethnic cleansing repeats itself against minority communities, taking the shape of genocides (in the plural). What has created this geography of hatred and more importantly what should we do to address it? History (with a capital H) has stood accomplice to this violence, or more boldly perhaps, participated in the violence as its comrade in arms; does history only serve to archive what has happened? In pedagogic space, how can History be punctuated by many histories and pave the path towards a more inclusive and empathetic future?

We would love to hear your thoughts on this. How do you engage with Holocaust education? How does the present factor into your classrooms? Share your thoughts and experiences.