A Journey to the Holocaust: Modes of understanding among Israeli adolescents who visited Poland

Alon Lazar, Julia Chaitin, Tamar Gross, Dan Bar-On

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Considering the immense efforts invested in Holocaust education in Israel and around the world, there is very little published research which looks at the impact of this education on teenagers' modes of understanding. This qualitative study addressed two questions: When adolescents learn about the Holocaust, what are the themes they see as central to an understanding of it? And, do these issues remain stable during the learning period? Forty-seven Jewish-Israeli teenagers (33 girls, 14 boys) were asked to write about their thoughts, feelings and attitudes about the Holocaust, both before and after participation in a Holocaust seminar that included a trip to Poland. The most salient themes that they wrote about at both time periods were: learning about the Holocaust, the evaluative theme, emotions, the link between the Holocaust and Israel and the Holocaust as the most horrific world event. We found little stability of thematic frequency and some stability in thematic meaning. Our results also show that the students reached cognitive, emotional, universal and culturally specific understandings from their Holocaust education.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)13-31
Number of pages19
JournalEducational Review
Volume56
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2004
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A Journey to the Holocaust: Modes of understanding among Israeli adolescents who visited Poland'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this