Holocaust in Education – Culling The Diary of Anne Frank from the Curriculum for Slovene Language (2019)

Abstract

The article presents the topic of the Holocaust in the curricula for Slovene language in three social systems (1984, 1998, 2019). Based on a literary analysis of children’s writing (diaries, songbooks, and commemorative books) during the Holocaust, special attention is paid to the The Diary of a Young Girl, written by twelve-year-old Anne Frank (1942–1944). The U.S. Holocaust Museum keeps about 70 digitized children’s diaries (manuscripts and translations into English). The Children in the Holocaust exhibition is on display at the Yad Vashem Memorial Center in Israel, featuring albums, diaries, toys, books, personal items, letters, postcards, drawings and commemorative books. The Museum of Recent History Celje contains diaries and commemorative books, written by the so-called ‘stolen children’ (Slavko Preložnik's Diary, Pepca Medved’s Memorial Book and Justine Marolt's Songbook). The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2009, alongside the Bible and Grimm’s Fairy Tales. In the conclusion, we state that, due to all the above, the exclusion of the The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank from the curriculum for Slovene (2018/2019) is unacceptable.

Keywords

• anne frank
• the holocaust
• education
• unesco
• world heritage list
• slovene language
• curriculum 2019