WJC calls on Congress to make Holocaust education mandatory in US schools
Half of millennials are unable to name a Nazi death camp
By ILANIT CHERNICKThe site of the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau(photo credit: REUTERS/KACPER PEMPEL)
The World Jewish Congress has called on the US Congress to make Holocaust education mandatory in schools. The WJC started a petition late last week following recently released statistics that found 49% of millennials polled are unable to name one Nazi death camp, while 41% believed that the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust was significantly less than six million.“The horrors of the Holocaust are fading from our collective memory, especially among millennials,” WJC explained, adding that there has also been an “alarming rise” in antisemitism in the US over the last few years.Dubbed the “Never Again Education Act,” WJC explained that it would “create a new grant program within the US Department of Education to provide teachers across the country the relevant resources, tools and training to teach school children about the Holocaust and the repercussions that hate and intolerance can have on our society.”Since its inception late last week, the petition has garnered over 8,300 signatures.The petition also calls for Congress to take proactive steps to make sure that students are equipped to take up the challenge of remembering the Holocaust, continuing its legacy, and fighting antisemitism as the number of Holocaust survivors continues to dwindle across the globe.“The responsibility to keep the memory and the legacy and the lessons of the Holocaust alive will fall to us and to our younger generations,” the WJC continued. The organization said that the younger generations can only take up this responsibility “if their teachers have the resources and the tools to empower younger generations with the knowledge that decisions and actions have consequences.”to sign the WJC petition.
