African Teachers Gather in South Africa for Holocaust Education Training Amid Rising Antisemitism

By Ailin Vilches Arguello

A weeklong training program in South Africa brought together teachers from across the African continent to learn how to teach World War II and the Holocaust, an initiative aimed at promoting understanding amid rising antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment around the world. Last month, South Africa’s Cape Town Holocaust and Genocide Center (CTHGC) held its program for African high school history teachers on teaching one of the darkest chapters of human history in the context of today’s world. In partnership with Yahad–In Unum, a French Jewish nonprofit that documents mass executions of Jews and Roma during the Holocaust, the program brought together 40 teachers from South Africa, Nigeria, Namibia, Botswana, and Eswatini. Michal Chojak, director of Yahad–In Unum’s Research Center, explained that the initiative provides teachers with essential resources on the Holocaust and how to relate its lessons to the experiences of their local communities. “While Holocaust education is important everywhere, in South Africa it takes on added significance,” Chojak told The Algemeiner in an exclusive interview.