The Ministry of Education has released its draft Social Sciences curriculum for Year 10. On the face of it, the Holocaust content looks solid: Nazi antisemitism, Kristallnacht, ghettos, mass shootings, extermination camps, resistance, liberation — the usual landmarks.
And yet, something isn’t adding up. Around the world, Holocaust education has expanded dramatically over the past two decades, but antisemitism hasn’t gone away. In many places, it’s getting worse. That’s not just an overseas problem. Jewish New Zealanders are being shouted at, pushed around, and occasionally assaulted simply for being Jewish. You don’t need a PhD in history to see that something isn’t working.
So what’s going on? And what might we need to think about here in Aotearoa?
What the experts keep saying
If you look at the work of people who’ve spent their lives studying this — Yehuda Bauer, Deborah Lipstadt, Matti Friedman, the teams at UNESCO, IHRA, Yad Vashem — a pattern emerges.
They’re not arguing over details. Their concern is that we teach the history, but we don’t teach students how to recognise the same patterns when they appear today.
Students often get the events, but not the underlying logic. They learn the horror, but not the warning. They learn what happened, but not how to recognise the same currents when they appear in their own world — in jokes, in slogans, in conspiracy theories, in the way people talk about “them.” Students learn Jewish death, not Jewish life. Jews are often presented as victims, not as a living people with culture, agency, and continuity.
These gaps matter.
The Holocaust was meant to destroy the Jews
One point the experts are almost unanimous on: the Holocaust needs to be taught with clarity. It was the Nazi project to annihilate the Jewish people. That’s the core of it.
Other groups suffered terribly under Nazism — Roma, disabled people, political dissidents, LGBTQ+ people, and others — and their stories deserve to be taught properly, in their own right. But when everything gets folded into one big, blurred narrative, students lose the ability to understand why Jews were targeted then, and why antisemitism still has such a long half‑life now.
Clarity isn’t exclusion. It’s accuracy. And accuracy is what lets students make sense of the present.
The missing skill: what to do when you see antisemitism
One thing that rarely appears in any curriculum — here or overseas — is the practical side. Students need to know what to do when they encounter antisemitism.
Not confrontation. Not speeches. Just the basics:
- spotting harmful stereotypes
- understanding why they’re dangerous
- knowing how to challenge misinformation
- knowing when to get help
- knowing how to support someone who’s being targeted
This isn’t a political agenda. It’s the same logic behind anti‑bullying programmes and digital citizenship. If we want young people to recognise injustice, they need tools, not just stories.
A thought for New Zealand: what about senior Civics?
The Ministry’s draft curriculum stops at Year 10, but it also says Year 10 Social Sciences prepares students for senior subjects. That opens a door.
By Years 11–13, students are ready for the deeper questions:
- how democracies fail
- how propaganda works
- how prejudice becomes policy
- how extremism spreads
- how human rights frameworks were built
- how to participate meaningfully in civic life
This is where Holocaust education becomes more than history. It becomes civic literacy — the kind that helps young adults understand the world they’re about to vote in, work in, and live in.
Young people want meaning. They have a thirst for justice. A senior Civics course isn’t a radical idea. It’s a practical one.
Some ideas that might be worth considering
After looking at the international research, the Ministry’s draft, and the reality facing Jewish New Zealanders today, a few ideas seem worth putting on the table:
- Strengthen the Holocaust content already in Year 10 by making the purpose clearer, not just the events.
- Teach the persecution of other groups distinctly, so their experiences aren’t lost in generalisation.
- Make the link between historical antisemitism and contemporary antisemitism explicit.
- Connect students to living Jewish communities.
- Give students practical tools for responding safely when they encounter prejudice.
- Explore a senior Civics course where these themes can be taught with the depth and maturity they require.
None of this requires tearing up the curriculum. It’s about sharpening the focus so the history does what it’s meant to do: help young people understand the world they’re stepping into — and their responsibility to stand up for justice and ensure that no community is left to face intimidation, harassment, or violence because of antisemitism.
Tony Kan
President
NZ Friends of Israel Association Inc
