Greek welcome for Holocaust studies
The Australian Hellenic Educators’ Association in New South Wales, the ACT and Queensland has welcomed the decision to make mandatory Holocaust education compulsory.
In a recently released media statement the association said:
“The Australian Hellenic Educators’ Association welcome the announcement of the NSW Board of Studies that study of the Holocaust will be mandatory for Year 10 students from 2014.
According to history teacher and AHEA President Dr Panayiotis Diamadis, ‘this decision provides scope for Australian students to learn about the Hellenic, Armenian and Assyrian Genocide as a precursor to the Jewish Genocide two decades later’.
The Hellenic and Jewish Genocides are a part of Australian history and deserve a place in the Australian History Curriculum. ANZACs witnessed the Hellenic, Armenian and Assyrian Genocides during World War One. ANZACs rescued survivors across the Middle East in 1917 and 1918. When they returned home, a number of ANZACs assisted in the humanitarian relief effort.
Leading members of the Australian Jewish community such as Sir Samuel Sidney Cohen were involved in the Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic relief effort in the 1920s. When the Nazis seized power in Germany, these same people set about getting German and Austrian Jews to safety.
Between the 1910s and the 1960s, tens of thousands of genocide survivors found safe haven in Australia: Hellenes, Armenians, Assyrians, and Jews.
The Australian Hellenic Educators’ Association NSW-ACT-QLD will be working with the Federation of Pontian Associations of Australia, the Armenian National Committee, the Assyrian Universal Alliance as well as the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and the Sydney Jewish Museum on this exciting initiative. The effort will be to produce appropriate classroom resources and activities highlighting the role genocide has played in the Australian story in the last century.
This effort will not be restricted to the history classrοom – it will be extended across the curriculum to languages, visual arts and English.
Education is the best way to prevent future genocides. This is why the recent NSW Board of Studies announcement is of such importance: by studying genocide and its impacts, we learn about the forces that shaped Australia and the world.
