Rethinking the humanities through teaching the holocaust in prison

Abstract

This essay documents the experience of teaching a course on the Holocaust to incarcerated men. It asks whether teaching about violence inside an institution that responds to and is rooted in violence can produce something transformative for students and teachers; it also asks what it means to initiate this project as a German raised under communism near the Berlin Wall. Situated in critical discussions of the utopian/rehabilitative role of prison education, the essay insists on grounding in reflective and personal experience. It thus contributes to discussion of the ethics of humanist education and pedagogies of hope in prison and beyond.

Citation

Pinkert, A. (2014), "Rethinking the humanities through teaching the holocaust in prison", Special Issue: The Beautiful Prison (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 64), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 49-66. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-433720140000064004