The Global Prevention of Genocide: Learning From the Holocaust

Today, many states have recognized the importance of teaching about the Holocaust and using it as a mechanism for preventing racism, ethnic conflict, and genocide. There are a growing number of state mandates, as well as impressive private initiatives, that seek to achieve this. Nevertheless, at the classroom level few schools or universities have actually succeeded in implementing Holocaust education programs that link the history of the Holocaust with the contemporary prevention of racism and genocide. This failure is exacerbated by the continuing divide and lack of communication between individuals and organizations working in the fields of Holocaust studies, and those working in the area of genocide prevention. The aim of the Salzburg Global Seminar's project is, therefore, to make the prevention of genocide a central part of Holocaust education curricula.

The project has an advisory board whose members include:

• Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations (Honorary President)
• Yehuda Bauer, Professor of Holocaust Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Francis Deng, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide
• David Hamburg, President Emeritus, Carnegie Corporation of New York
• Yehudit Inbar, Director, Museums Division, Yad Vashem
• Klaus Mueller, Representative for Europe, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Gregory Stanton, Founder and President, Genocide Watch

The project was launched in June 2010 with an international conference, made possible by a generous grant from the Austrian Future Fund, which brought together educators, NGOs, policy makers and other experts working in the fields of both Holocaust studies and genocide prevention to consider the root causes of modern genocides and explore the ways in which Holocaust education programs can be developed to effectively combat contemporary expressions of racism, anti-Semitism, and ethnic conflict in different regions of the world.

Panel discussions included: The Social and Ideological Context of Becoming a Perpetrator, The Role of States in Fomenting Racism, Genocide Prevention: A Blueprint for the Future, The Challenges and Successes of Holocaust and Genocide Education, and Training "Upstanders" not Bystanders.

The findings and recommendations of the conference were published in a report on "Best Practices" for linking Holocaust education with the prevention of contemporary ethnic conflicts, which is informing the development of the program in 2011, at which time we will begin working with educators from targeted regions in order to develop new tools and curricula that link Holocaust and genocide education with prevention.

Participants in the conferences include representatives from the following institutions:

• Documentation Centre of Cambodia
• European Fundamental Rights Agency
• Human Rights Watch
• Imperial War Museum
• London School of Economics  
• United Nations
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• University of Salzburg
• Voices of Rwanda
• Yad Vashem

 For more information, please contact info@salzburgglobal.org.