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Should Holocaust education be mandatory? This 9th-grader tries to make it so.

Just 10 states have laws requiring grade school Holocaust education, but a Lake Oswego, Oregon, high school student is hoping to make her state the 11th.

On Sept. 25, Lakeridge High School student Claire Sarnowski and concentration camp survivor Alter Wiener will testify before the Oregon State Senate Education Committee in favor of a law requiring that K-12 students receive education on genocide in general and the Holocaust — which claimed millions of victims, including Jews, Roma, prisoners of war, people with disabilities and gay men — in specific.

There are 10 states where Holocaust education is mandatory: California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, according to Rhonda Fink-Whitman, who helped spearhead the law in Pennsylvania and now coordinates a nationwide effort through her Facebook group Campaign to Make Holocaust Education Mandatory in All 50 States.


Read entire article at The Kansas City Star