I am the senior historian for Facing History and Ourselves, an international teacher training organization that works with teachers to show connections between the past and the present. Facing History deals with difficult issues in the classroom, including the Holocaust, modern genocide, the legacy of apartheid, immigration, the changing global demography and the implications of the war on terror.
As an historian with Facing History and Ourselves, I have visited Poland four times: 1990, 1995, 2005 and 2010. Each time I have been amazed at the changes of a country moving from Communism into a self-sufficient democratic and capitalist society. Along with economic changes and the differences in architecture, modern roads and technology, Poland has become increasingly interested in encouraging foreign exchange of teachers and students. As part of this effort to take an active role in the global community, Poland has begun carefully sifting through its past, in particular the era of the Holocaust and the tradition of antisemitism. In this quest to understand the past, Poland has taken a lead in holding conferences and workshops for teachers and has encouraged Polish students to consider Jewish Studies an integral part of understanding Polish culture and history.
During 2005, for example, I accompanied the 21,000 students and teachers on a tour of Auschwitz for its 60th anniversary. Throughout the day at Auschwitz and on different days of the trip, we met Polish students seriously studying the Jewish history of Poland. On several occasions we shared our impressions of what the Holocaust meant as part of the past in Poland and how Poland as a country was dealing with this complex legacy.
Five years later in the spring of 2010 when I visited Poland at the request of the United States State Department and worked with the American Embassy in Warsaw, I witnessed even deeper commitment among Poles to learn about the past and consider how to move on as a modern nation-state. Four organizations that I met with helped me understand just how committed Poles were to understanding their history and using this understanding to building present day Poland. Interestingly enough, some of the participants in meetings in Warsaw and Lodz were uncomfortable with the Facing History approach that I described: they did not care for the Facing History effort to connect the past and present and resented the use of art and memoirs instead of graphic photos to describe the conditions of death in the death camps. This was fascinating for me because American teachers tend to veer away from using so many graphics that might titillate students more than educate them in the dangers of persecution and hatred and intolerance. This whole question of how much should be shown of the brutality and inhumanity of the Holocaust to students without it becoming just one more horror story which they see all the time in movies and on television.
I had intended to leave Warsaw right after the conference of the Center for Citizenship Education. However, Mother Nature extended my stay for almost a week while the volcanic ash of Iceland covered the skies of Europe.
The first organization I visited with a representative of the U.S. Embassy was the Institute of Jewish History which has meticulously preserved the Ringelblum papers and artifacts as well as thousands of Polish and Jewish testimonies from immediately after World War II. This Institute is crucial in providing the evidence of the past and carrying on the unending task of sifting through the papers of the Ringelblum group—papers that are invaluable for knowing what the Jewish experience was like in the Warsaw ghetto. The postwar testimonies intrigue me and I am hoping that they will be translated so we can compare the immediate postwar testimonies with testimonies taken several decades after the war and the Holocaust.
The second organization I visited was the City of Lodz which has developed an elaborate project to restore the history of the Lodz Ghetto and develop its memorials. Critical to the plans of Lodz is the creation of a Dialogue Center for teachers and students from all parts of the world to gather and share information on the Holocaust and more recent instances of genocide and mass atrocity. Since my visit to the city and teaching classes at the University of Lodz, I have kept in touch with the mayor’s office to learn more about the timeline for the Dialogue Center and to consider how Facing History and Ourselves could contribute to the center.
A third organization I visited was the Museum on Polish and Jewish History being built in the area of the former Warsaw Ghetto. Meeting with the education staff proved a productive and exciting afternoon as we shared ways to engage Polish students of all ages in the study of the Polish past and to give them an understanding of the roles Jews played in the evolution of Poland and their current position as a very small minority in a modernizing state freed from the yoke of Communism. This museum will provide an important place for dialogue about Polish-Jewish relations in Poland and how different groups can coexist with mutual respect and tolerance. Much of what the educators are planning revolves around discussion and interactive activities. The Facing History and Ourselves methodology that I described for them seemed very appropriate for what they want to do.
The fourth organization I worked with was the Center for Citizenship Education. I was a keynote at their conference and had an opportunity to share Facing History approaches to teaching about the Holocaust with Polish educators and members of the American Embassy in Warsaw. One of the most amazing presentations which followed my discussion of Facing History was an examination of statistics indicating that the study of the Holocaust in Polish schools did improve students’ acceptance of the “other” and willingness to help others in need. This is the kind of information that could provide an important point of departure for examining how different countries teach about the Holocaust and assess the impact of this education. Also significant at the conference were the presentations by Polish teachers who had visited American schools in the winter and early spring of 2010. Their presentations reminded me of how important it is for educators to witness what goes on in other countries.
Each time I visit Poland, I am amazed to see what has been accomplished in the post Communist era. I am also amazed at how much has been done to integrate Jewish history into the overall history of Poland and the number of university students actively engaged in the study of Jewish history and culture. During the 2010 visit I was reminded how much has happened in Poland since my first visit in 1990. Poland has rapidly modernized but at the same time it has begun confronting its difficult history of the World War II era. Museums and memorials throughout the country, especially in Warsaw and Lodz will help Poles and visitors understand more about the past and begin thinking about how present and future generations can know of the past and move on to create a modern democratic society where different ethnic and religious groups can coexist and where centers for study can promote tolerance and mutual respect among all groups.
