A bipartisan group of US Congressmen introduced a bill that would order a study on Holocaust education in U.S. public schools to help ensure that future generations are taught about the genocide as the number of Holocaust survivors decreases.
Lawmakers introduced the bill — titled the Holocaust Education and Antisemitism Lessons (HEAL) Act — on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which marks the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
During a press conference in the Capitol, co-sponsors of the bill raised concerns about the lack of Holocaust education in the U.S. and the future of such education as the number of survivors decreases, in addition to the rise of antisemitism across the country.
“As we lose the last remaining survivors of the Holocaust — who are the most elderly in our country and were child survivors at this point — it is more important than ever that we make sure that from the federal government through the state and school districts across this country that we prioritize educating about the most significant atrocity that the world has ever experienced so that it never happens again,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said.
“We cannot and we must not ever ignore the steady rise in antisemitism and Holocaust denial across Europe, across the world and increasingly here in the United States,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) said.
The bill — which has more than 60 co-sponsors — would direct the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to launch a study of Holocaust education in public schools in the U.S. to determine which states and schools require such instruction, identify the materials and approaches used for the education and recognize the standards for the teachings, among other tenets.
