Holocaust education will soon become compulsory in schools. Our research shows how it can be done well

Australia’s education ministers have actually concurred to upgrade the nationwide curriculum to consist of mentors of the Holocaust, Jewish history and the contributions of Jewish Australians.

It follows issues of increasing antisemitism in the nation, almost a year after the Bondi Beach attack.

Our research studyreleased by Monash University as a report in July, checks out the function of Holocaust education in dealing with antisemitism in Australia.

Our findings provide insights into the present problems with Holocaust education and how it can be taught well.

Our research study

Holocaust education is currently mandated in the high school history curricula in Victoria and New South Wales

In 2025, we spoke with 22 teachers, scholars and museum experts who teach the Holocaust (primarily to non-Jewish audiences) in Australia. The interviews occurred before the Bondi Beach attack on December 14 2025.

We selectively approached these individuals, some who are looking into Holocaust education itself. A lot of the individuals are likewise leading voices in the field.

Individuals were asked to share their point of views on the function of Holocaust education in attending to antisemitism in modern, multicultural societies, such as Australia.

What we discovered

Holocaust education is typically dealt with as a natural reaction to antisemitism. This is due to the fact that the Holocaust highlights the worst circumstances of enabling antisemitism to fester unaddressed.

In our interviews, individuals broadly concurred the Holocaust ought to be taught as a historic topic in schools. Lots of individuals explained Holocaust education as one tool amongst numerous, and inadequate on its own, in countering antisemitism.

Numerous teachers raised issues about the ramifications of depending on teaching the Holocaust as the only window into Jewish life for youths and trainees.

As a Holocaust scholar kept in mind:

Among the difficulties is that– for the majority of trainees– if the very first and just class that they’re ever going to learn more about the Jews is through the lens of the Holocaust, then Holocaust education presents Jews through the lens of Nazi antisemitism and after that provides the Jews on the course to damage and annihilation. I believe that’s extremely troublesome.

What are the difficulties?

School instructors likewise informed us there is a space in between the required to teach the Holocaust, and how it is really taught in the class.

As one NSW instructor kept in mind, there is inadequate assistance about how to teach the Holocaust and what the finding out results are:

[…] at the minute there is no clear expression on whether we’re teaching a crucial historic occasion, whether we’re teaching citizenship, or whether we’re instrumentalising the Holocaust to promote social tolerance, social cohesion and anti-racism programs.

Unpredictability post-October 7

Because the Hamas attacks of October 7 2023, individuals likewise explained growing hesitancy amongst some instructors about teaching the subject at all. This is typically due to unpredictability or stress and anxiety about prospective concerns from trainees about the current dispute in Gaza.

One Jewish teacher at a Holocaust museum observed:

Educators are extremely frightened to teach this. They either have an extremely strong viewpoint and may be bringing that into the class, or actually do not understand adequate about it and are really afraid due to the fact that they understand they’re not expected to bring their own individual views into the class and they do not understand how to discuss it.

This recommends instructors require more assistance to feel more positive about how to approach these concerns in proper methods when they emerge.

How can we do it well?

Educators had a number of concepts about how to enhance Holocaust education in schools.

1. Make connections to trainees’ own lives

Holocaust education ought to make significant connections to trainees’ own lives, experiences and backgrounds.

The addition of wider Jewish history and the contributions of Jewish Australians as part of the curriculum modifications is an action in the best instructions.

This suggests Jewish history will be taught within an Australian context, assisting trainees make much better sense of these histories and their ramifications in today’s world.

Lessons might possibly highlight the Holocaust’s sustaining traditions of Jewish Australians’ injury and displacement. This might then produce chances for discussion with First Nations individuals and other migrant and refugee neighborhoods about how histories of violence and persecution continue to form neighborhoods and identities in Australia.

2. Make connections in between Jewish and non-Jewish Australians

Australia’s Jewish neighborhood tends to be extremely focused in a little number of council locations. Jews make up a small minority of the Australian population in general– less than 0.5%

This can imply most Australians do not communicate with Jewish Australians on a daily basis.

The brand-new curriculum might develop chances for trainees to fulfill Jewish Australians from varied backgrounds and to comprehend them as real-life individuals.

3. Instructor training

If teaching the Holocaust is required, training to teach it must be obligatory, too. For the brand-new resources to make a distinction, instructors will require the time, training and school-wide support to utilize them well.

Educators must likewise be supplied with more direct assistance on how to speak about October 7 and Gaza with trainees in lessons.

Curriculum can’t attend to antisemitism alone

Research study on antisemitism in schools is restrictedWe understand instructors have actually seen numerous events of antisemitic bullying and exemption over the last few years.

Events of antisemitism in schools must be dealt with proactively through schools’ securing policies, not curriculum mentor alone.

We likewise can refrain from doing this well without thinking about the online area. Online product can expose young individuals to big quantities of Holocaust-related material, consisting of Holocaust rejection and distortion. This perpetuates historic errors and antisemitic stories and develops additional difficulties for teachers.

Holocaust education has an essential location in Australian schools. What stays doing not have is assistance on what it can and can refrain from doing, and what it needs to and must refrain from doing.