From the Scandal to the Holocaust in Israeli Education

This article follows the changing representation of the Holocaust in Israeli history education from the 1950s to the 1990s. Up until the late 1960s the representation of the Holocaust in Israeli education was marginalized. Contrary to the widely-held assumption that the Holocaust became a central topic of teaching following the 1961 Eichmann trial, this article argues that as a result of the Eichmann trial Israeli educationalists actively resisted the incorporation of the Holocaust into the teaching of history. The major change in Holocaust representation came with the rise of the Likud to power in the late 1970s. Since the 1980s, the Holocaust has become a key topic of identification in Israeli education.