OSCE/ODIHR supports Polish publication on Holocaust education

WARSAW/BERLIN, 27 April 2004 - The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Judaica Foundation in Kracow, Poland, have published a book focusing on the need to teach about the Holocaust.

The book contains 13 essays by Polish authors on how to address Holocaust education today. It comes out on the eve of a major OSCE conference about anti-Semitism and action to combat it, which opens in Berlin tomorrow.

"Not all the authors have ready answers about how to perpetuate the memory of the Holocaust, but all are deeply aware of the need for education about the Holocaust for reconciliation between nations, democracy, and peace," says Professor Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs in her foreword to the book.

"Why should we teach about the Holocaust?" first came out in Polish in 2003, edited by Ms. Ambrosewicz-Jacobs and Leszek Hondo. The editor of the English version is Michael Jacobs. The book contains essays by, among others, a philosopher, a sociologist, a historian, a psychologist, a journalist, and a theologian. It also contains research on the attitudes of Polish adolescents towards the Holocaust and a list of related websites.

"These essays concern everyone," said Ambassador Christian Strohal, Director of the OSCE/ODIHR, one of Europe's main human rights bodies. "They address a fundamental part of the ODIHR's work: promoting tolerance and anti-discrimination in order to fight anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and anti-Islamism. They remind us to do everything in our power to learn from the past and avoid repeating its horrors."