State lawmakers in Raleigh, North Carolina are pushing hard to make Holocaust and Genocide Education mandated curriculum. Back in 2019, House Bill 437, also known as the Gizella Abramson Holocaust Education Act, passed the house 112-0 in 2019.
Lawmakers Trying to get Legislation to Connect with the Omnibus State Budget Proposal
In fact, the bill didn’t get to the Senate floor. Therefore, the proponents negotiating to get it attaching to the omnibus state budget proposal. That would give it the best shot at becoming law. Instead, becoming mired in unrelated political divides over health care and teacher pay, the $24 billion budget bill, wound up leading to a veto from Democratic Governor Roy Cooper.
Refiling Legislation and Lawmakers Hope it will Pass Unanimously
House Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican, said he wanted to see this passed into law. I suspect it will pass unanimously if it gets re-filing, it will get re-heard and then I suspect it will pass. There are so many folks who went through it who are no longer with us. You have kids now who have no idea of the Holocaust. They have some abstract historical references. One of the more touching experiences I’ve had is taking my sons to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. We saw piles of shoes and railroad cars. It’s unreal. To think that people thought it was civil behavior. They thought that was right.”
My aunt’s best friend’s family was in concentration camps. They were torturing and they dying there. The family was traumatized by the horrific events of the Holocaust that have to reverberate for generations within the family.
This past Wednesday, Cooper’s office also vowed to support the General Assembly efforts to re-file the bill.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Teachers in North Carolina continue to wrestle with how to teach the next generation about the infamous event in human history.
David Beller, a Raleigh high school teacher, said the students do have an idea of what the Holocaust is about. In fact, they may have done something maybe with Anne Frank in middle school. They may read Night. However, that is the extent of their education of the Holocaust. That is unless they’re history buffs. They’ve done their own thing and their own research as well.
