The purpose of this blog is to explore the use of survivor testimony in Holocaust education. It is part of a term project for the UBC course HIST441, History of the Holocaust taught by Dr. Eidelman.

First, I delve into the history of Holocaust survivor testimony, its reception by the public after World War II and the transformations that have occurred since in incorporating survivor memories and stories into the way the Holocaust is taught. Then, I review a range of  best practices and issues educators face when including survivor testimony in their teaching of the Holocaust in the classroom. I also include my own reflections on survivor testimony and Holocaust education during my experiences in the HIST441 classroom. The last part of this blog covers some useful online resources for Holocaust education and the works cited throughout the blog.

In this blog, I endeavor to explore some key questions in Holocaust education. How did people who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust transition from victims to survivors and how did these people navigate their role as witnesses in the post-war world? How can the efforts of both victims and survivors to tell their stories be best used in the classroom context? Should these testimonies be used simply as forms of memorialization or to advance other educational goals such as human rights or genocide education?

I argue that survivor testimony has a significant role to play in Holocaust education because of its ability to connect wider themes and historical knowledge to individual experiences that can better rouse an emphatic response from students. Throughout this blog, I hope to express why this is the case and why it is an important aspect of Holocaust education in the modern context.