Challenging Myths and Misconceptions: Understanding the Nazi Camps and the Holocaust

Leading historians discuss the challenges and future of Holocaust education

Speakers: Sir Richard J. Evans, Wolfson College, Cambridge; Tom Haward, UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, London; Yiftach Meiri, International School for Holocaust Studies in Yad Vashem, Jerusalem and Dr. Kim Wünschmann, Sussex University. This panel will be chaired by Prof. David Feldman, Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London and Prof. Nikolaus Wachsmann, Birkbeck, University of London.

Is Holocaust education failing? Many children currently leave school without a clear understanding of the Holocaust: they are confused about the perpetrators, about the concentration camps and their function. A major national student survey, carried out last year by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, concluded that ‘despite the Holocaust being a staple in the curriculum for almost 25 years, student knowledge and conceptual understanding is often limited and based on inaccuracies and misconceptions’. These gaps in knowledge are forcing us to reflect on how we teach young people at school and university about the camps and the Holocaust. To draw lessons from Nazi camps, we first have to understand their history.

The event will also see the unveiling of a major new website on the history of the Nazi camps. The website, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and directed by Professor Nikolaus Wachsmann (author of prize-winning book KL. A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps), is the first major authoritative online resource about the camps, featuring original documents, video testimonies, lesson plans and more.

The website The Nazi Concentration Camps has been developed in collaboration with UCL Centre for Holocaust Studies and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. This event is supported by the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London and The Wiener Library.