The Holocaust in curricula discusses the ways in which the Holocaust is presented in secondary school level history and social studies curricula worldwide. It is a key component of education about the Holocaust. The status of the Holocaust in curricula varies considerably worldwide. A leading publication on the subject, The International status of education about the Holocaust: a global mapping of textbooks and curricula, reveals four main categories of curricula in respect of the Holocaust: Direct Reference, Partial Reference, Context Only, and No Reference.
Direct reference
"Direct reference" refers to countries whose curricula stipulate teaching about the Holocaust by using the term "Holocaust" or "Shoah", or by using alternative terminologies such as "genocide against the Jews", or "Nazi persecution of minorities": The terms "Holocaust" and "Shoah" are used explicitly. While most curricula employ the term "Holocaust" (in Albania, Australia, Denmark, Ethiopia and Poland, for example), some use "Shoah" (Belgium (Flanders), Côte d'Ivoire, Italy and Luxembourg); or the two terms are used as synonyms (in Switzerland (canton of Bern), in Germany (Saxony) and in Argentina). In many countries, the two terms appear within the context of the Second World War (this is the most frequent category found in the majority of European countries, in Australia, in several US states, in Chile, Ethiopia, Singapore, South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago). Additionally, in some cases, the Holocaust is mentioned in teaching units devoted to genocidal crimes (in Canada (Ontario), in Panama and in the US (Arkansas)). The Holocaust is referred to directly, but using alternative terms such as "the singularity of the Jewish genocide" in Spain, the "Nazi policy of extermination" in Andorra, the "extermination of Jews" (Belgium (Wallonia)), "genocide of the Jews" (France, Germany (Lower Saxony)), "mass murder of [...] Jews" (Trinidad and Tobago), "persecution of Jews" (Singapore) and "Final Solution" (Namibia). Another country in which there is no direct reference to the Holocaust, but where the contextualization of themes related to the Holocaust or local terminological usage makes it clear that the Holocaust is in fact stipulated, is Turkey, where soykırım (genocide) is the standard term used to refer to the Holocaust, and where terms analogous to "Holocaust" or "Shoah" are strictly avoided to emphasize the uniqueness of the genocide against the Jews in contradistinction to the massacre of Armenians in 1915 and 1916, which occurred at a time before the term genocide came into use.
Partial reference
"Partial reference" refers to countries whose curricula stipulate teaching about the Holocaust indirectly to achieve a learning aim which is not primarily the history of the Holocaust (concerning responses to the Holocaust outside Europe, for example) or to illustrate a topic other than the Holocaust (where the Holocaust is mentioned as one among other aspects of human rights education, for example). Most commonly, the Holocaust is named in the curriculum as a means to other ends, such that its historical meaning and complexity are not addressed. For example, in Argentina, Belize, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Slovenia, the Holocaust appears as an example of violations of human rights, and is sometimes relegated to footnotes. Similarly, in the US (Maryland), pupils are required to "explain the events that led to the beginning of the Second World War", and to "investigate the response of the United States government to the discovery of the Holocaust and immigration policies with respect to refugees"; in Canada (Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia), pupils are required only to study responses to the Holocaust in Canada.