Countering Holocaust Denial and Distortion: A Guide for Teachers

Co-author: Nathalie Rücker

Published: 27 January

Antisemitic hate speech, disinformation and conspiracy theories thrive during crises, making it vital for teachers to address these issues in school curricula. Social media has significantly amplified the spread of such harmful content, including Holocaust denial and distortion. These falsehoods, rooted in antisemitic prejudice and conspiratorial thinking, threaten our shared historical memory and promote hatred.

To effectively combat these issues, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of the Holocaust —how and why the genocide of the Jewish people occurred. This knowledge helps us recognize the causes and risk factors, contributing to the prevention of future atrocity crimes and the fight against antisemitism. In the digital age, it is also imperative to be able to decipher the manipulation of history, and the misrepresentation of the past.

The guide provides teachers with the necessary tools and guidance to prevent the spread of Holocaust denial and distortion. It equips teachers with knowledge, teaching principles, and strategies to foster digital literacy, historical understanding, and critical thinking in learners. Aimed primarily at history and social sciences teachers, it outlines key concepts, teaching methods, and approaches to counter Holocaust denial and distortion.

This is a UNESCO publication in partnership with the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, and the Institute of Strategic Dialogue. The publication was developed and edited by Heather Mann, Associate Project Officer, under the supervision of Karel Fracapane, Programme Specailist and Cecilia Barbieri, Chief of Section, Section for Global Citizenship and Peace Education, Education Sector, UNESCO. UNESCO would like to warmly acknowledge the work of Werner Dreier, former Director of ERINNERN:AT (Austria), Susanne Popp, Professor of History Didactics, University of Augsburg (Germany), and Nathalie Rücker, Senior Manager, Capacity Building and Civic Action, Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD Global), in drafting the document, as well as the coordination and inputs from Moritz Wein from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. Thanks also to Michał Bilewicz, Professor of Psychology at the University of Warsaw (Poland), Mykola Makhortykh, Alfred Landecker lecturer at the Institute of Communication and Media Science, University of Bern (Switzerland/Ukraine), and Johannes Strasser, former Member of Austria’s delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (Austria), who drafted specialist texts for the guide.