| Since 1957,the term “Holocaust” has been generally used in the United States to describe the Nazi massacre of Jews during the Second World War.In 1980,the United States Holocaust Memorial Council re-defined the Holocaust as the extermination of six million Jews and approximately five million other peoples.This definition made“the Holocaust” more universal and thus more conducive to the dissemination of this historical event in American society.However,in 1994,the Schindler’s List Incident revealed that the connotations defined by the United States Holocaust Memorial Council were not widely recognized.To some extent,this incident proved the failure of “the Americanization of Holocaust Education” in the society.Although the Schindler’s List Incident is only a movie-watching incident in a middle school,and nearly thirty years have passed,this article,through literature reading and case analysis,finds that due to the positive reaction of the media,academia and officials to this incident,the incident has popularized Holocaust education in the United States,and has also unwittingly accelerated the process of “Americanization of the Holocaust”.This paper tries to argue from following three aspects:(1)the mainstream media and other media,though with conflicting views on the incident,promoted Holocaust education in the debate;(2)unlike the media,American academia responded relatively rationally to the incident,and scholars’ discussions ultimately had a positive impact on Holocaust education by increasing the exposure of the incident;(3)the official response to the incident,as the most rapid and effective one,also made contributions to Holocaust education by implementing administrative orders and other means.Therefore,by revealing the trend of “the Americanization of the Holocaust” in this incident and its positive implications for Holocaust education research,this paper hopes to provide some inspiration and enlightenment for Holocaust Studies in China. |
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