North Carolina public school students could be required to learn about the Holocaust, when millions of Jews, Roma and other people considered to be undesirable by the Nazis were killed.

The state House Education Committee backed a bill Tuesday that requires the State Board of Education to include instruction of the Holocaust and genocide into the English and social studies standards used in middle schools and high schools. Backers of House Bill 437 say that learning about the Holocaust is essential, especially now that the remaining survivors are dying off.

“The survivors are leaving us and along with their departures, we need to make sure that we live up to the mantra of ‘Never again,’” said Richard Schwartz, vice chairman of the N.C. Council on the Holocaust.