According to today's Jerusalem Post, a Holocaust survivor sacrificed his life to save his students in the Virginia massacre:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1176152812105&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
And this is the story in the Times:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas//article1664913.ece?Submitted=true
To think that this massacre happened on Holocaust Memorial Day.
Which brings me to an e-mail I've just received from the CEO of the UK Council of Christians and Jews. I was surprised to receive - in the last few days - a number of chain letters and e-mails originating in Israel, stating as fact that Holocaust Education had now been banned, or withdrawn, in the UK school system because of Muslim sensibilities.
Apparently, as I had thought, this isn't the case - yet. And the Council of Christians and Jews have asked me to put the record straight.
However, I should add that whatever the government says and despite the best intentions of worthy organisations, on the ground things are very different. Unfortunately, I myself have experience of being censored in the British school and university systems. In one school, for instance, the word 'Israel' was verboten and, on another occasion, a Muslim male objected to me lecturing about the Koran at university level, as I was both Jewish and female. And the authorities did nothing about it. Naturally, I carried on regardless, and lived to tell the tale.
So, with the best will in the world, if bullies want to have their way and are appeased, the truth certainly will not out and the day might yet come when teaching about the Holocaust will be altered to suit politically correct sensibilities, just as true teaching about Israel is very hard to find in today's Britain.
And please don't forget what happened at Leeds University slightly over a month ago.
http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/03/is_germany_now_.html
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