{"id":76858,"date":"2026-01-26T13:03:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T20:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=76858"},"modified":"2026-01-26T13:03:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T20:03:46","slug":"holocaust-remembrance-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/holocaust-remembrance-day\/","title":{"rendered":"International Holocaust Remembrance Day: How to prepare ourselves for the future"},"content":{"rendered":"

*Editor\u2019s Note: The \u201cViews from NAU\u201d blog series highlights the thoughts of different people affiliated with NAU, including faculty members sharing opinions or research in their areas of expertise. The views expressed reflect the authors\u2019 own personal perspectives.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

By<\/strong> Bj\u00f6rn\u00a0Krondorfer<\/h3>\n

Krondorfer is a Regents’ professor of religious studies and director of the Martin-Springer Institute<\/a>. <\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In October 2025, I was invited\u00a0by\u00a0Milan\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation<\/span> (CDEC) to participate in a one-day gathering of Italian educators and students in Rome. The day marked the beginning of a one-year program for these Italian high school students to learn about the Holocaust. The program includes a journey into the history of the dictatorships of Mussolini (Italy) and Hitler (Germany) as well as travel to sites in Berlin related to Germany\u2019s attempt at annihilating all the Jews in Europe and beyond. The educational aim, as I understood from the organizers, would be historical knowledge but also, and importantly, engaging the students in reconciliatory memory work, awareness of human rights and interreligious dialogue.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"we<\/a>
Krondorfer, second from left, visited the Museo della Shoah in Rome with educators and leaders who helped organize a one-year Holocaust curriculum for Italian high school students.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The religious dimension is a core element of this initiative, spearheaded by CDEC\u2019s director Gadi Luzzatto Voghera. Working with students belonging to Italy\u2019s Protestant minority (Baptist and Waldensian traditions) and Jewish students from the only Jewish high school in Rome, I was asked to present on the challenges of teaching and processing the history of the Holocaust through the lens of memory, trauma and justice. In the morning, I shared my ideas in the official library of Rome\u2019s Senate in the presence of students, teachers and representatives of various Italian institutions; in the afternoon, I led an interactive teacher workshop at the <\/span>Museo della Shoah*<\/span>, Rome\u2019s small\u00a0Holocaust museum\u00a0in the ancient Jewish quarter.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In my talk, I emphasized that reflecting on the tragic and deadly impact of the Holocaust\u2014the genocidal killing of Jews and the mass murder of other groups declared undesirable\u2014is challenging in today\u2019s contested political environments. With the attending high school students in mind, I said, \u201cThe history of the Holocaust cannot be taught in the same way as, say, the history of Roman emperors. We may learn that Nero or Caligula might have been the cruelest Roman emperors, but we don\u2019t really care that much. We don\u2019t overburden these facts with moral value. It is different for the Holocaust because we are still affected by it. It is not enough to look only backward; we also need to be aware about our situation today and imagine what tomorrow might bring.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bjorn<\/a>
Krondorfer, center, spoke with Italian teachers at the Museo della Shoah.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I aimed at opening the minds of the students and teachers to the issue that the Holocaust is not merely a historical subject; teaching it today comes with moral and ethical expectations. Hence, Holocaust education, especially when it moves outside the classroom and includes field trips and meeting other people, ought to include questions about memory, trauma and justice and engage communal differences. We need not only <\/span>look at how the history and memory of the Holocaust has been taught in the past, but how we want Holocaust education to look like in 2045. Why 2045? Because this would mark 100 years since the end of the Holocaust. It is a question we need to ask ourselves seriously and in a global context. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Turning to the\u00a0assembled\u00a0students, I said:\u00a0\u201cYou\u00a0are embarking on a yearlong project on learning about the Holocaust in relationship to surviving, resisting\u00a0and justice, and it will connect you to the cities of Rome and Berlin, cities which symbolize the unholy political alliance between Hitler and Mussolini. What are\u00a0<\/span>your<\/span><\/i>\u00a0questions given that the world is rapidly changing? What will\u00a0<\/span>you<\/span><\/i>\u00a0tell new generations about the Holocaust\u00a010\u00a0or\u00a020\u00a0years\u00a0from now?\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It would behoove\u00a0us to listen to and invite our students on this journey.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

*<\/span><\/i>Read here<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0about\u00a0the Hebrew term\u00a0Sho\u2019ah\u00a0and why some Jews prefer to use it over the term Holocaust.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*Editor\u2019s Note: The \u201cViews from NAU\u201d blog series highlights the thoughts of different people affiliated with NAU, including faculty members sharing opinions or research in their areas of expertise. The views expressed reflect the authors\u2019 own personal perspectives. By Bj\u00f6rn\u00a0Krondorfer Krondorfer is a Regents’ professor of religious studies and director of the Martin-Springer Institute. \u00a0…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":76860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-views-from-nau"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}