Can learning about the Holocaust be spiritual? Reflections on a teaching and learning experience with Primary School children.

Abstract

In April 2017, I spent a week in Poland researching the Holocaust in Europe. Most notably, I visited the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. Following the visit, I facilitated three History lessons with 10- and 11-year-old children on the role of Auschwitz in the Second World War. As the sessions unfolded, the spiritual themes of meaning, identity and remembering emerged from the children’s responses; therefore, this article forms a reflection on how the lessons impacted the children’s spiritual lives. It also considers how the History curriculum might include a critical dimension to pedagogy. In particular, it explores how issues such as theology, morality and the role of representation open up a space for critical questioning. I suggest that such questioning is also spiritual. Thus, the self-awareness and criticality inspired might contribute to transformation – of both the teachers and learners and the world around them.

Keywords:

• Holocaust
• auschwitz
• spirituality
• History
• critical pedagogy

Notes

1. By the term existential I refer to a form of education that allows students to understand the meaning and purpose of their existence (Webster 2004, 9).

2. English translation: Work will set you free.

3. Permission to use this statement has been provided by both the school and the child’s parents.