As the last generation of Holocaust survivors passes away, educators and authors are urgently calling for Holocaust education to begin earlier in schools, arguing that waiting until middle school allows prejudice to form before children learn the historical facts. Eva Mozes Kor, an Auschwitz survivor who died in 2019, spent her final years advocating for this shift, insisting that children encounter antisemitic content online long before formal education begins.
Kor collaborated with author Danica Davidson on the 2022 book I Will Protect You: A True Story of Twins Who Survived Auschwitz, which has become a bestseller and is now used in classrooms nationwide. The book tells the story of Kor and her twin sister Miriam's survival of Dr. Josef Mengele's medical experiments at Auschwitz, framed for upper elementary and middle school readers. Davidson, who first met Kor at a lecture at Western Michigan University, noted the survivor's specific goal: to reach young people quickly with a children's book that makes history legible without simplifying it.
The urgency stems from alarming trends. Antisemitic incidents have surged in recent years, and polls show many young Americans lack basic knowledge about the Holocaust, with some believing it is exaggerated or fabricated. Davidson argues this is not due to a lack of empathy but a failure to teach children to recognize dehumanization early. In her Holocaust Remembrance Day article "Holocaust Education Should Start in Elementary School" at Aish, she writes that Holocaust education can teach critical thinking, the patterns of history, and the harm of us-versus-them mentalities.
Davidson has continued this work with other survivors, including Eva Schloss, with whom she co-wrote the graphic novel What Lies Hidden, focusing on paintings made by Schloss's brother Heinz while in hiding. Schloss, known posthumously as Anne Frank's stepsister, died recently, underscoring the disappearing witness generation. In an op-ed "Working with survivors to tell their stories, before it's too late" at the Jewish News Syndicate, Davidson notes that both Kor and Schloss understood how their books fit into the broader framework of Holocaust education.
The implication is clear: without early education, memory risks being lost or distorted. Kor's book, available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093ZQ3LBX, serves as a tool to meet children when their moral formation is still underway, presenting history through the lived experience of children like themselves. As Davidson emphasizes, the goal is not just to preserve facts but to equip young people to recognize and resist hate, ensuring that once survivors are gone, the world remembers what it has been taught.
