Hannah Arendt and ‘Holocaust education’: rethinking the political educationally

Situating her argument in the context of ‘Holocaust education’ Marie Morgan seeks an understanding of Arendt’s political theory that is fundamentally educational. Morgan explores the vulnerability of the human condition in relation to the threat of totalitarianism to argue that the educational essence of Arendt’s political thought is rooted in her desire to move against totality and its consequences wherever and whenever its threat arises. Through a consideration of the curriculum focused understandings of ‘Holocaust education’ that have recently developed in the UK, Morgan encompasses themes such as natality, responsibility, authority and renewal to retrieve an understanding of ‘Holocaust education’ in Arendt. Morgan’s aim is to demonstrate the educational import of Arendt’s political thought for teachers and intending teachers who, according to Arendt, must assume responsibility for representing the inherited world, ruptured and characterised by the travesties of totalitarian regimes, accurately, meaningfully and educationally to those in their charge.