(This article, reprinted with permission, featuring a new high school seminar class, appeared in The Columbus Dispatch on February 10, 2006)  2/13/06

Class examines the Holocaust
Bexley course shines fresh academic light on Nazi atrocities

Friday, February 10, 2006
Charlie Roduta
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Brooks Clensy had a choice for the spring semester: interior design or a new class on the Holocaust.

After two weeks into the latter course, the Bexley High School senior knows he made the right decision.

"Once I started with the class, I found out there were some things I didn’t know about the Holocaust," said Clensy, 18. "I thought it would be a good experience."

In the new seminar class, "Inquiries Into Historical Issues — The Holocaust," social-studies teacher Ben Trotter hopes to give students an in-depth understanding of the Holocaust that goes beyond a study of World War II.

"A lot of times the Holocaust is taught as a side component of World War II," he said. "It’s really, in many ways, at the core of it."

The Holocaust, the persecution and murder of about 6 million Jews and other groups deemed "inferior" by the Nazis, is typically introduced as early as elementary school and covered in middle- and high-school language-arts and social-studies courses.

The subject is listed as a state academic requirement for Ohio freshmen and sophomores, but there are few school districts with classes devoted solely to the Holocaust.

Educators say it makes sense to teach it now.

"The Holocaust is not merely some ancient nightmare that has come from our past," Trotter said.

"There’s some elements of it being a future nightmare that we’ve had a peek at."

Take for example the genocide in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and, more recently, Darfur, he said.

"The Holocaust confronts us with an issue of evil that we can’t afford to sidestep."

Interest in a Holocaust class at Bexley started in the late 1980s when a community member approached Trotter with the idea.

Trotter continued researching the subject. He attended a summer workshop on Holocaust education at Ohio State University in 2001.

In 2004, Trotter piloted a semester-long class with three students who participated in discussions, read memoirs from Holocaust survivors and worked on a research paper related to the subject.

Trotter uses a similar approach with his new class.

Starting in May, high-school students will welcome their first Holocaust scholar-in-residence.

Robin Judd, assistant professor of history at Ohio State, will serve in the two-day post by hosting various class discussions at the school and a presentation to the public.

Trotter said part of the course’s popularity stems from the higher percentage of Jews living in Bexley, but he said he doesn’t want people to think that prompted the class.

"I really believe, in many ways, the Holocaust stands at the center of the 20 th century," he said.

Manne Aronovsky, 72, a Holocaust survivor who lives in Columbus, was excited to hear about Trotter’s class. Aronovsky, whose family escaped the Nazi regime by fleeing Belgium to Portugal, has shared her story with students throughout the area.

"Most of the survivors are dying off," said Aronovsky, who spoke to teachers at a Holocaust education workshop sponsored by the Holocaust Education Committee in Columbus.

"Once the survivors die off, the deniers will be very popular. They are uniting and becoming strong and no one will be there to argue with them.

"It’s important for children to hear our stories while we’re still alive," she said.

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