Chapter 10- Great White North?

How is the Holocaust taken up in the curriculum? How does teaching about the Holocaust compare to teaching about Israel? About Palestinians and the Middle East? About other Genocides?

My only experience "learning" about the Holocaust in school was in my grade 10 Canadian History course. We spent three periods watching "Schindler's List". It had to be explained to my teacher that the "snow" falling in Auschwitz was not actual snow, but ashes from the cremated bodies. Obviously, she was not very knowledgeable on the subject. Other than that, the topic of the Holocaust, or Genocide, was never bridged. Instead, I have had to do my own reading and research on the topic. My general feeling is that the Holocaust is thought of as an independent, historical event. Few books that I have read on the subject relate it to anything but the Second World War, even though the correlation between the Holocaust and other Genocides such as Rwanda are very clear. Also, much more attention is given to the Holocaust than to teachings about Israel, Palestine or the Middle East.

Why is this?

Although Judaism is prominent in the Middle East, and is an important factor in Israel/Palestinian conflicts, most Jewish people living in Canada, unlike the Middle East, are White. Jewish communities in Canada relate more, and have a closer personal history to the Holocaust, than in the conflicts affecting non-white Jews in other parts of the world. White society in general is more concerned with itself than any other ethnic group, but it's interesting to see, when it comes to important watersheds in Jewish history, that most Canadian Jews put more importance in their ethnicity (White) than in their religion. This aspect of Whiteness also lends to the comparatively small amount of attention paid to the Rwandan Genocide. As White people are concerned with themselves, it makes sense that our society would find the Holocaust more pertinent and worthy of attention than a Genocide that does not affect White Canada personally. More attention to these conflicts should be payed, but it is not until our society realizes that we have to make a conscious effort that anything will be done.