An online partner for Holocaust remembrance education: students approaching the Yahoo! Answers community

Holocaust education has gained increased importance in recent decades and attention has latterly been directed to the role of the Internet within the field. Of major importance within the virtual space are Question and Answer communities. We investigated the interactions taking place within the Yahoo! Answers community following questions posted by students seeking help with their homework assignments, which required dealing with questions to ask a Holocaust survivor and writing an essay about Holocaust remembrance. The overall findings indicate that the majority of answerers responded willingly; however their answers are in most cases based upon their own views and reflect common notions, and are rarely accepted by askers. Yet several factors, among them the immense popularity of these communities, call for educators and scholars engaged in Holocaust remembrance education to develop closer acquaintance with this medium, which might play a considerable role in shaping the ways students approach Holocaust-related issues.