Third-generation Adolescents’ Journeys to Poland: Differential Effects on Emotions, Attitudes and Values Toward the Holocaust of Israeli and Canadian Adolescent

This chapter will present some of the findings from a broad-scale comparison of Jewish adolescents from Israel and Canada who took the journey to Poland. The study addressed the cognitive and emotional effects of the journey on values related to the Holocaust and attitudes toward it, and aimed to examine the journeys differential effect on adolescents from Israel and from Canada. The examination focused on three main issues: (1) feelings toward the Holocaust, (2) attitudes toward the Holocaust, and (3) Jewish and universal values. The assumption was that because adolescents in Israel and in North America are exposed to different degrees of knowledge of the Holocaust, and because students in the two groups also differ in the support and social recognition they receive, as well as in their awareness of their Judaism, the journey would yield different changes. These differences are also affected by whether the adolescents are part of a national majority or minority in their country of origin.