Personalizacija žrtve kao didaktička strategija obrazovanјa o Holokaustu

Abstract

Rad je posvećen jednom važnom aspektu pedagoške filozofije Međunarodne škole za izučavanje Holokausta, "Jad Vašema": preporuci da se o žrtvama ne govori kao o brojevima, izlažući hronologiju i statistiku zločina, već da im se daju /vrate imena, lica, identitet. U suprotnom, opasno se približava upravo nacističkoj percepciji Jevreja, gde je žrtva depersonalizovana, dehumanizovana, spalјena, zaboravlјena. Rad takođe tematizuje i pojam preživele žrtve. Lične priče, portreti i sećanja neophodan su prvi korak učenja, ali je ostajanje samo na njima nedovolјno. Nјih valјa staviti u istorijski kontekst Drugog svetskog rata, uz korišćenje istoriografskih podataka i uvida istorijske nauke.

The paper deals with an important aspect of the pedagogical philosophy of the International School for Holocaust Studies ‘Yad Vashem’: placing the individual at the center of the comprehension of history. We do not speak of victims in terms of numbers but give them names and faces, read the letters from the concentration camps, the diaries, and authentic testimonies, and learn about the victims as human beings. This path differs from the previous approach to teaching, which was mainly limited to the chronology of historical, political, and military events, interspersed with occasional descriptions and brief explanations of the phenomena of mass murders and Nazi policies, accompanied by death statistics. This approach is fundamentally opposed to presenting numbers exclusively and to reducing victims to statistical data. Numbers alone cannot foster identification or empathy, which is essential when it comes to learning about the Holocaust: the educational goals in this regard can only be achieved through connecting cognitive and emotional levels of learning. The paper emphasizes the importance of reconstructing the identities, faces, and lives of the victims, which is in direct contrast to the Nazi perception of Jews, where the victim was depersonalized, dehumanized, incinerated, missing, and forgotten. It also highlights the significance of the concept of survivor victims because without the testimonies of the survivors, teaching about the Holocaust would expose students to nothing but tragedy and death. However, personal stories, portraits, and memories are just the necessary first step in the process of learning and it is not sufficient to rely solely on them. In this paper, we emphasize the importance of combining facts and data with personal stories, which, with the help of historiographical information and insights from historical science, are placed in the context of World War II. Finally, attention is drawn to the Holocaust victims belonging to other suffering groups, which also helps understand the full scope of the tragedy of World War II, as well as the dangers threatening our present and the future.