Netlore Archive: Email chain letter urges remembrance of the Holocaust, claiming the University of Kentucky has removed all mention of the event from its school curriculum for fear of offending Muslims.
Description: Email rumor / Chain letter
Circulating since: November 2007
Status: False
Email example contributed by M. Stotenburg, 10 November 2007:
IN MEMORIAM -- This week the University of Kentucky removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it "offended" the Muslim population which claims it never occurred.
This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it. It is now more than 60 years since the Second World War in Europe ended.
This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russian peoples looking the other way!
Now more than ever, with Iran among others claiming the Holocaust to be "a myth," it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.
This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide! Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world.
Please send this e-mail to 10 people you know and ask them to continue the memorial chain.
Please don't just delete it. It will only take you a minute to pass this along - Thanks!
Comments: This rumor is completely false. The University of Kentucky has neither removed Holocaust courses from its curriculum nor even considered doing so. In a statement released November 8, 2007, assistant provost Richard Greissman said, "The academic administration of the University of Kentucky would never permit such a grotesque lapse in its commitment to the principle of academic freedom." The University of Kentucky currently offers an intermediate-level history course on the Holocaust and allows students to minor in Judaic studies.
The rumor originated, interestingly enough, in allegations to the effect that the "U.K." -- meaning "United Kingdom" -- had banned lessons about the Holocaust from its school curriculum in early 2007 for fear of offending Muslim citizens. That, too, was false and widely debunked at the time, though the rumor continued to circulate and was eventually misunderstood to apply to a different "U.K." -- the University of Kentucky.
The British version of the rumor was evidently inspired by April 2007 news coverage of a government-funded study which found that a few British schools and individual teachers had avoided presenting "emotive" subject matter like the history of the Holocaust to their students for fear of giving offense or generating controversy in the classroom. According to the government officials who commissioned the study, the Holocaust was and still is a required subject in U.K. schools.
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Sources and further reading:
University Dispels Rumor Spread Online
Jewish Daily Forward. 5 December 2007University of Kentucky Upset Over False Email Claim
LEX18-TV News, 9 November 2007University Debunks Holocaust Email Rumor
University of Kentucky News, 8 November 2007U.K. Removing Holocaust from School Curriculum?
Netlore Archive, 15 April 2007Schools 'Avoid Holocaust Lessons'
BBC News, 2 April 2007A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust: Victims
Florida Center for Instructional TechnologyThe Holocaust
U.S. Holocaust Memorial MuseumHaunted by History's Horrors
Time, 10 April 1989Iranian Leader: Holocaust a 'Myth'
CNN, 14 December 2005
Last updated: 12/06/07
