Bill Would Require That The Holocaust Be Taught In North Carolina Schools

North Carolina lawmakers are considering legislation requiring that the Holocaust be taught in schools. 

House Bill 437 would require the State Board of Education to include instruction of the Holocaust and genocide in English and Social Studies standards used in middle and high schools.

The News and Observer reports the bill is backed by the state House Education Committee, whose members agree that learning about the Holocaust is essential, especially now that remaining survivors are dying off.

Richard Schwartz, vice chairman of the N.C. Council on the Holocaust, told the committee the state needs to ensure “we live up to the mantra of ‘Never again,'” warning that “we're doomed to repeat history if we don't teach it.”

20 other states currently require teaching of the Holocaust.

The North Carolina legislation is named after Gizella Abramson, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor who relocated to Raleigh and died in 2011.

The bill, which has bipartisan sponsorship, now goes to the House Rules Committee.