On Board Online • October 13, 2025
By Merri Rosenberg
Special Correspondent
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
- George Santayana, Spanish philosopher (1863-1952)
In 2021, a Jewish congregation in Batavia closed the physical location of Temple Emanu-El. Temple member Art Goldstein, a former social studies teacher, persuaded the congregation to leave a legacy by endowing a fund for Holocaust education in collaboration with Genesee Valley BOCES.
The result is an annual program of free professional development in which teachers interact with experts, discuss curriculum and hear the personal stories of Holocaust survivors, as well as their children and grandchildren (called second- and third-generation survivors). So far, 43 teachers from 24 districts have participated.
"It's sustained professional development," said Nick D'Amuro, coordinator of school improvement at Genesee Valley BOCES and chair of Holocaust Educator Network (HEN). "We offer continuous support."
He added: "We want to inspire educators because the stakes are too high."
"There's definitely a sense of urgency," said Tara DeVay, assistant principal at Albion High School in the Albion Central School District in Orleans County and the networking and fundraising point person for HEN.
What's urgent? For one thing, Holocaust survivors are dying off. About 95% of living survivors were "child survivors," meaning they were born between 1928 and 1946.
Also, there are concerns about elements of the global political climate that are hostile to human rights. Holocaust educators note the prevalence of antisemitic incidents, political extremism and incidents of ethnic cleansing.
Moreover, words such as "Nazi," "fascist" and "authoritarian" have become common in American political rhetoric. Are those terms being used properly?
So, arguably, Holocaust education has never been more relevant. And it's required by section 801 of the state Education Law, which also requires attention in middle and high schools to human rights, genocide, slavery and starvation in 19th century Ireland.
HEN is in the second year of a five-year training program, with each year focusing on a different theme. Those topics include:
- 2024-25: Roots of Nazi Antisemitism. What conditions in Germany led to the rise of Adolf Hitler? While students might assume that Nazism was a unique, one-of-a-kind form of political thought, Holocaust educators need to be prepared to compare and contrast it with other political movements. There is a widespread consensus that Nazism is an example of an ideology based on prejudice and pseudoscience, as well as a political movement that can be traced to economic problems and a cultivated form of nationalism.
- 2025-26: The Holocaust through Primary Sources & Resistance. What happened during the Holocaust, and what documentation exists? Students need to learn how to use primary sources, such as eyewitness accounts, to understand how individuals experienced the Holocaust. Students tend to be highly interested in knowing where and how people resisted.
- 2026-27: The Holocaust, The United States, and the World: What Was Known? In this unit, teachers will explore the Holocaust from the perspective of the United States and its Allies. Students tend to be highly interested in the stateside perspective. What did we know about what was happening in the concentration camps, and when did we know it?
- 2027-28: The Final Solution & Liberation. Some of the most compelling narratives and photographic documentation came from soldiers who liberated the camps. How did the world process the news?
- 2028-29: Nuremberg & Human Rights. The curriculum for this unit has yet to be developed, but it is expected to cover the topic of war crimes and prosecution of Nazi leaders in the Nuremberg trials. In his opening statement, the chief U.S. prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson, said: "The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated."
Very few of the teachers in the network are Jewish, D'Amuro noted. "The Jewish community is so grateful people who are not Jewish are doing this."
"It's wonderful to be part of HEN," agreed Lauren Bloomberg of the Jewish Federation of Buffalo, a third-generation survivor. "It helps expand our resources." The Jewish Federation of Rochester also supports HEN.
For teachers, HEN has offered new ways to teach the Holocaust.
"Don't start with Jews as victims," advised Megan Wright, a resource specialist for HEN. "Don't put up images of swastikas, yellow Stars of David, or Hitler." Instead, she recommended starting off using what educators call microhistory, focusing on the stories of individuals living in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.
Wright has taught Holocaust literature in the Alexander Central School District in Genesee County for the past 16 years, but she said she is learning new material from her participation in HEN. "I felt so inspired and rejuvenated by putting together like-minded people who care so much about a topic," she said. "We're our own little island."
What about a student who makes an ignorant or insensitive comment? How should that be handled?
"See it as an opportunity," D'Amuro said. "You never want to judge a student on his worst day. It's a call-it moment, not a call-out moment."
In Albion, DeVay recalled the mother of a 10th grader was concerned about a teacher showing clips of what she considered a violent movie - Schindler's List. She was unaware that teaching about the Holocaust and other human rights violations, including other genocides, is part of the 10th grade global studies curriculum.
DeVay tells that story to illustrate that it's good practice for teachers to share their syllabus in advance with parents. That gives parents "a chance to know what's going on and offer an alternate assignment" if needed, she said.
Before becoming assistant principal, DeVay had been a social studies teacher for 22 years, focusing on genocide and human rights. "Central to my teaching is how you learn from the mistakes of the past," she said.
One student question that teachers say they must be prepared for is: Could a Holocaust happen again?
"When you look at the levels of antisemitism around the country and around the world skyrocketing, you see how it very easily could happen again," said Justin Loeber, a classroom support specialist for HEN. Since 1945, genocides and atrocities have taken place in nations including Cambodia, Darfur, Rwanda and the former Yugosalvia.
Loeber, who has taught about genocide at Pembroke High School for nearly 20 years, said one cannot undertake a serious study of the Holocaust without a sense of awe - both at the cruelty that people are capable of and the resilience they can display in the face of persecution and injustice.
Cultivating empathy and a sense of global citizenship is another goal of Holocaust education. Students need to develop a view of political, social and religious conflicts that is more sophisticated than "'us' vs. 'them,'" Loeber said. "We're all in this together."
Editor's note: The State Education Department has a new website on teaching about genocides at https://considerthesourceny.org/holocaust . Also, see a state report, "Holocaust Instruction in NYS Public School Districts," at bit.ly/48HV4K4 .