'Everyone is looking for safety and security’

A week after Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, I received an email from my Jewish-Israeli colleague David*. He asked me if there would ever be a place where he and his children could be safe. Four weeks later, I got an email from my Palestinian colleague Amina*. “Does Western Europe have no sense of morality at all?” she asked me rhetorically. “How can you stand by and watch as Gaza is completely destroyed?”

Both colleagues are searching for safety and security. David is traumatised and connected to the Shoah, in which approximately six million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Amina carries the trauma of the Nakba and decades of oppression; her parents were driven from their own home and land.

Both traumas are existential: Is there a place for my children and me to be able to exist and be accepted? Who has a right to land, education, and life, and who does not? These deep emotions can be easily manipulated and lead to collective hatred towards the other, trapping us in cycles where hatred only grows. This can lead to both terrorist attacks and genocidal violence.

Bjorn Wansink. Foto: Pim Geerts voor TerInfo, Universiteit Utrecht

The past as a mirror for the present
The role of education is to combat all forms of dehumanisation. What do we, as schools and the academic community, set against these cycles of hatred? What do we learn together from our past? With whom do we engage in dialogue, and when do we draw the line?

Our academic community asked similar questions in the 1940s. The past thus offers us a mirror through which to reflect on the present, a rear-view mirror that helps us navigate. There are no ready-made answers, as our future is open and the past is no longer.

What have we, as a community, done for the 169 victims commemorated on the monument at the entrance to this auditorium? It is easy to judge people from the past, such as those who remained silent during the Second World War or our colleagues who collaborated with the Nazis. It is far more difficult to look at oneself.

When you look in the mirror tomorrow, you might ask yourself: "What am I doing, and what responsibility am I taking to work towards peace and justice for everyone in this world?" You probably, like me, talk morality to yourself.

It is interesting to consider who will be giving this lecture in fifty years and how that person will look back on our moral compass today. What would that person say about government policy, the university, and the students who are protesting, for example?

TerInfo
It is hard to shield children and young people from everything that happens in the world. This violent world intrudes into their lives through social media, but also through what is said in the school playground. The university programme TerInfo, founded by History Professor Beatrice de Graaf, helps teachers teach about terrorism, war, and crisis. For ten years, I have been involved in it as an educationalist and teaching specialist, and unfortunately the challenges seem to be growing.

In times of crisis, young people and adults are particularly susceptible to misinformation and simplistic explanations. We seek certainty and predictability, and feel safe within our own group. TerInfo tries to introduce some complexity, swimming against the tide. For example, we try to outline a historical context, with possible causes and explanations. By looking at longer time horizons, you also distance yourself from the often emotional present, which can reduce the sense of urgency and create space for reflection.

To help teachers get to grips with complex topics, we work with broader questions, such as Is American democracy in danger? or Are student protests a new phenomenon at university?. Historical knowledge is important for forming opinions. After all, our moral compass is partly guided by what we know; it is no coincidence that we have the word "conscience".

An example: some pupils do not know that Israel did not yet exist during the Holocaust, or are unaware that opinions about Israel vary enormously within the Dutch Jewish community. At the same time, they are all affected by antisemitism. We see that pupils and adults do not know the difference between criticising the Netanyahu government, anti-Zionism, and antisemitism.

But I also see that little is said in school classrooms about the Nakba and the oppression of Palestinians. This raises the question: which stories are told and which are not? Which voices are allowed to speak and which are not? This applies to school classrooms as well as to the university.

Multiperspectivity
The concept of multiperspectivity has long played a major role in my work. It is not a complicated concept. Put simply, we all have our own perspective on the world. Multiperspectivity can be enriching: we can learn from one another, provided we accept that we also share a common reality. Due to the influence of social media, we are seeing that some groups no longer share even the most basic facts, which makes conversations very difficult.

Multiperspectivity is not unlimited, either. First of all, not all knowledge is equally reliable, and pupils must learn to evaluate information critically. Education also requires moral boundaries and standards. For TerInfo, this means the democratic rule of law and, consequently, international law and children’s rights. In practice, im the classroom, this means that Article 1 of the Constitution, which establishes the principle of equality, takes precedence over Article 7, which establishes the freedom of expression. There are limits to what we can say, certainly in an educational context.

Hope
Like everyone else, pupils need a sense of purpose for the future – in short, hope. Eight weeks ago, when Israeli bombs were falling on Beirut, I spoke to my Lebanese colleague Yara*. She did not want to leave the city to escape the terror. Yara told me how she had grown up during the civil war, but still had hope back then. She looked to the United States and Western Europe and thought of them as hopeful democracies.

This time, however, she said, “Who are young people supposed to look up to now?” She also said: “It’s not just about the bombs in Lebanon, it’s about the whole world. An entire international system of human rights is on the brink of collapse.”

What do you say to someone in the midst of war? I spoke about hope with my ten-year-old son. He said, “Perhaps hope is a tiny light, and if we all focus on it together, it grows bigger. And that’s how we can change the world.” There is much to learn from children. Together, we can have a voice, indeed. Perhaps hope means that every day you have the choice to do the right thing.

Children also want to contribute to a better world. They often feel powerless when they watch the world news, so let's actively give children the opportunity to take small actions to contribute to peace.

However, the greatest responsibility for the future lies with us, adults, and those in power. We cannot pin our hopes solely on children or students. We must do it ourselves and take responsibility.

Remembrance
Remembrance means pausing in a fast-moving world. We reflect on the past. We commemorate the lives of our academic colleagues and students who fell victim to an inhumane regime.

Some in the academic community resisted during the Second World War, but others turned a blind eye, while still others collaborated with the regime. The Dutch Fascist Party (NSB) held meetings here during the war. In this very place where we are sitting now, the auditorium of Utrecht University. Would you have been allowed to sit here, or would you have been arrested?

Remembrance means pausing in a fast-moving world. It is also something we do together. It is good that we are here together, but how diverse is this group? Should we not also allow different voices to be heard here? What does diversity mean for the way in which the university wishes to remember?

Finally, the world seems to be moving ever faster, and we sometimes feel as if we're losing our grip. Wars, AI, climate change, and a constant stream of content on social media. In times of uncertainty, people are quick to blame others: asylum seekers, Jews, Muslims or the queer community. This pattern often repeats itself throughout history.

The early 20th century was also a time of rapid developments: yet another rear-view mirror from which to learn. That past is behind us, and we know how it ended, but we can still take action.

In my view, history can help us with this. By learning about history, you can also learn from history. There are many examples of people in the past who have fought collectively for humanity and justice, even in a changing world. Let us draw active hope from this and the courage to act accordingly, for the sake of all children.

This is a condensed version of the lecture "Everyone is Looking for a Safe Place: Talking to Young People and Children about Crisis and Conflict," delivered by Bjorn Wansink as part of the 4 May (Remembrance Day) commemorations at Utrecht University. *The names in this lecture are pseudonyms; the author knows their real names.

Sources
deGraaf, B. A. (2024)..Wij zijn de tijden. Geschiedenis in crisistijd: Huizinga-Lezing 2024 EW.TerInfo
deWinter, M. (2023). Medemenselijk opvoeden. Samenlevingspedagogiek voor een hoopvolle en daadkrachtige generatie. SWP.
Dorsman, L. (2025). https://www.uu.nl/achtergrond/de-universiteit-in-de-oorlog-nooit-verleden-tijd
Kowalak, A., Wansink, B., & Akkerman, S. (2026). Hope in Conflict: History Teachers Balancing Personal Hope and Professional Responsibility. Peace and Conflict. 
Wansink, B., Akkerman, S., Zuiker, I., & Wubbels, T. (2018). Where Does Teaching Multiperspectivity in History Education Begin and End? An Analysis of the Uses of Temporality. Theory and Research in Social Education, 46(4), 495-527. 
Wansink, B., Herinx, M., van der Werf, M., & de Graaf, B. A. (2024). Leerlingen weerbaar maken: Lessen uit het verleden helpen bij ontwrichtende momenten. Kleio, 65, 14-17.
Wansink, B., de Graaf, B., & Berghuis, E. (2021). Teaching under attack: The dilemmas, goals, and practices of upper-elementary school teachers when dealing with terrorism in class. Theory and Research in Social Education, 49(4), 489-509.

DUB is publishing this excerpt as part of its Deep Dive series. We asked our readers to choose among three questions for DUB's journalists to cover in depth over several months. The winning question was "How can young people stay hopeful about the future?" You can find all stories in the Deep Dive series here.