At the
last Midwest Center for Holocaust Education cadre meeting I attended, one of
our members mentioned that she had heard a Holocaust scholar say The Diary of Anne Frank should not be
taught anymore. At first, I was as
surprised as anyone might be. But, as I
was thinking about what I could write for this month, I was perusing Teaching Holocaust Literature, edited by
Samuel Totten, and there was an entire chapter devoted to this same topic. So, I felt compelled to re-read the chapter
and weigh the reasons behind the rationale to stop teaching Anne Frank.
In the
chapter by Elaine Culbertson, she explains that Anne Frank’s story is not the
usual story of a victim of the Holocaust.
Most victims were not in hiding, nor were there rescuers helping them as
there are in Anne Frank’s story. In
fact, less than one percent of non-Jewish Europeans rescued anyone during the
Holocaust, and some of the people who did rescue did so for monetary gain
rather than out of the goodness of his/her heart.
While I
definitely understand that it may be difficult to go through the process of
finding a replacement and having it approved in the curriculum, there are many
resources that could replace Anne Frank if a teacher was willing to use smaller
pieces, which would perhaps be even better because smaller pieces fit the
common core requirements. A teacher
could implement several excerpts from memoirs, poetry and other Holocaust
literature, such as diaries, letters, and more.
A great resource for this would be the Echoes and Reflections curriculum that is packed with
excerpts. Another resource might be web
sites such as www.mchekc.org or www.ushmm.org and the Midwest Center for
Holocaust Education’s resource library.
Culbertson also has several recommendations in Teaching Holocaust Literature.
Whatever resource a teacher chooses, hopefully he/she will reconsider
teaching The Diary of Anne Frank.
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