The Holocaust is exaggerated in pop culture. That makes it hard for educators like me to teach the truth.

(Chalkbeat via JTA) — “Hey, I did have one question …” That was the tentative opening to an email I recently received from a high school teacher. The Ninth Candle, the Holocaust education organization I founded, had led some educational programs for her students, and the teacher and I had been trading emails for a few weeks.

Even teachers at schools with established Holocaust programs can be reluctant to get too close to the big questions about it. I sense a widespread but unspoken fear of being called insensitive or offensive — or worse, antisemitic. She only asked me her “one question” after a relationship had begun to form and she had my repeated reassurance that nothing was off the table.

https://www.jta.org/2021/07/21/opinion/exaggerated-pop-culture-holocaust-stories-make-it-hard-for-educators-like-me-to-teach-the-truth?utm_source=JTA_Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-32462-448488