Abstract
This paper builds on the foundational work of two great humanists who provide transformative lessons from confrontations with violence: Elie Wiesel who confronts the death camps of Nazi Germany and Alice Miller who confronts the ‘poisonous pedagogy’ of childhood discipline. On this foundation, we explore ways to incorporate these humanizing processes and transformative lessons for our students into three classes taught for many years: “Child Welfare”, “Understanding Violence: From Suicide to Genocide” and “Violence in the World of Children: From Corporal Punishment to War.” The central theme of this paper is the critical role of the enlightened witness: one who has knowledge of the realities of violence and speaks of and acts on that knowledge to break the silence and cycle of violence. The enlightened witness demonstrates how directly confronting the dehumanizing experiences that resulted from violence and continues to lead to more violence can change our individual and collective lives. Student comments are analyzed to show the power and validity of Wiesel’s and Miller’s insights into the transformative and re-humanizing power of confronting the truth, testifying to the reality of violence, and moving into the role of activist on behalf of others and ultimately, self.