Using Holocaust Education as a “Bridge” to Learning about Apartheid in a South African History Classroom: The Development of “Interpretive Frames” through Comparative Histories

The Grade 9 South African history curriculum teaches the history of the Holocaust as an introduction to the study of apartheid. Students are taught how racial identities are constructed, codified into law, and weaponized for the purposes of discrimination and genocide. They are taught that racialized discrimination can happen anywhere—not only in South Africa—and that we must be vigilant lest it happens again. Curriculum developers—supported by international literature (e.g., UNESCO publications)—believe that learning about the Holocaust will act as a “bridge” to learning about apartheid. By teaching young South Africans difficult history that is emotionally, geographically, and temporally removed from their own country, educators believed that students will be better prepared to study the complex history of apartheid. Yet what is the impact of this comparative approach? The author’s ten-month ethnographic study explores how Grade 9 students in one majority-White history classroom in Cape Town learned about the Holocaust and apartheid. Developing Epstein’s idea of an “interpretive frame,”this empirical study contributes to ongoing debates on whether and how genocides and other atrocities can be meaningfully compared in the history classroom. Furthermore, it questions whether using Holocaust education as a “bridge”5 to domestic injustices and persecution will significantly improve historical understanding, tolerance, and moral reasoning.