The Rude Pundit: What We Can Learn from Germany on Teaching the Hard Past

[babylonsister]

https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2021/11/what-we-can-learn-from-germany-on.html

The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
11/11/2021
What We Can Learn from Germany on Teaching the Hard Past


While the first history textbooks in postwar Germany were light on the subject of the Nazis, by the early 1960s, less than two decades after the fall of the Third Reich, things changed. In textbooks that were used at different levels comparable to middle and high school in the United States, authors began confronting the real history of recent past. They "engaged the most contentious issues of the recent past: Adolf Hitler's rise to power, German support for the Nazi Party, concentration camps, and the extermination of the Jews. For most of them, the traumas suffered by Germans were part of a larger story of suffering and sacrifice brought about by National Socialism and the war," as an article by Brian Puaca, a scholar of German education history, put it. While at first, textbooks portrayed the German people as victims, as the 1960s progressed, the position changed to one of culpability, too, in the atrocities committed.

How to teach the Holocaust is an ongoing discussion in Germany. But whether to teach the Holocaust is not up for discussion: "High-school students are required to take classes on 20th-century German history, including the Nazi era and the Holocaust," although each state may decide on how to implement that teaching. Obviously, some states do a better job than others, but the lesson itself is mandated. Many students take school trips to concentration camps, and around 2800 schools are part of a program called "Schools Without Racism," where that issue is studied in depth.

Students in Hamburg, for instance, first learn about the Holocaust in 6th grade German class; they read the autobiographical book When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr, about a young Jewish girl in Berlin during the rise of the Nazis. As a report from the U.S. Department of Education described it, "While poignant, the language is simple and graphic imagery is not covered. This book covers the most basic understanding of the Holocaust: that Hitler ‘took away’ the Jews from Berlin." As they progress in their programs, students read more books that do delve more graphically into the actions and the psychology of the Nazis and their victims, especially (but not exclusively) the Jews. The Holocaust is also dealt with in Religious Education class, looking at specific ways in which Jews were targeted for their faith, and it's also part of History classes, obviously.

snip//

You know what you don't see? You don't see a bunch of politicians and parents decrying that teaching the Holocaust and Nazi history is wrong because it makes non-Jewish kids feel sad. That's the point. Make them feel sad. Make them feel regret. Make them understand all the things that happened that led to the Holocaust. If that means German students have to confront that their relatives were evil, well, the truth is more important than maintaining a blatant lie. In a nation that has taken in millions of refugees in recent years, making young people understand the nativism and nationalism and prejudice that led to mass violence is crucial to having a peaceful society. Using the Holocaust as an example of what happens when the worst of humanity gets to run the joint is what that nation (and every nation, frankly) should be doing.

A nation that keeps its horrors hidden, that believes its students are too delicate to handle the truth about history, is damned to keep repeating the same mistakes.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

1. Americans must also become Germans in this area and examine its past of imperialism and

colonialism and racism. Canada has already opened the Study, for example.

Anyone not agreeing with that is a fascist…or too stupid to understand the concept in which case they can go back to their Fascist Facebook research.

[thucythucy]

2. On one of my trips to Germany

Last edited Fri Nov 12, 2021, 04:48 PM - Edit history (1)

I visited the Dachau concentration camp, which is now a museum.

While there a group of German students arrived as part of a school trip. I don't know what ages they were, maybe junior high, maybe early high school.

They arrived like your usual school kids, joking and jostling each other, acting like kids most everywhere.

I saw the same group at the end of their tour, which included a documentary film we all had to watch before entering the camp proper. They looked solemn, thoughtful, sad. No joking, no jostling. Some even looked to have tears in their eyes.

I thought at that time how, as far as I knew, there was no equivalent to this form of education in the States. Certainly not while I was in school. At the time of that visit (the 1980s) I'm not even sure there was an American museum dedicated to the horrors of slavery, or the oppression of First Americans.

For a nation that touts itself as "the home of the brave" we sure do seem to be absolute cowards when it comes to confronting our history.

[jaxexpat]

5. Literally, can't be said too often.

"For a nation that touts itself as "the home of the brave" we sure do seem to be absolute cowards when it comes to confronting our history."

Self worship can lead to no good thing. Unless one considers multiple generations who contend with the results of mass societal self-deception to be a good thing.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

25. Ah, but you should think of American Exceptionalism.

The concept that the United States is inherently different from other nations. Our values, political system, and historical development are unique in human history. I was taught that the country is destined -- indeed, entitled -- to play a distinct and positive role in the world. We are superior to other nations and have a mission to transform the world.

Of course, the whole concept is frankly idolatrous, but it is a solid part of the American mythos. The only way it can be maintained is through denying historical fact, but many people, especially on the right, would prefer to keep their faith in American Exceptionalism than admit that it's historically untenable. Thus, we get students who have never heard of the Trail of Tears, or of race riots, or of Wounded Knee. I recently came across a state legislator from Texas who claimed that slavery benefited the slaves.

As a side note, I am an historian of the Catholic religion. It is an article of faith to many Catholics that Catholic doctrine never changes and never has changed. This idea, like faith in American Exceptionalism, can only be kept by denying history.

in both cases, an idea that can only be supported through lying is wholly worthless.

[bsiebs]

27. Perfectly stated...

“… an idea that can only be supported through lying is wholly worthless.”

[2Gingersnaps]

20. The closest thing we have, and we do have it,

is the Museum of Native Americans and the Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC. (Smithsonian). We also have the Holocaust Museum. I chaperoned my grandson's high school class, and made two trips there outside that experience. And yeah, he was very quiet, thoughtful, and somber particularly for the Holocaust Museum. And also, being Grammy, I was pretty damn proud he was one of the kids paying attention.

Every kid should have this educational experience. We have the information, but it is ignored and downplayed at our own peril.

[thucythucy]

29. I don't know if either of those were open in the mid 1980s.

In fact the Holocaust Museum in DC opened I think in 1993.

I'm glad they're open now, and have been to both. There are other similar museums that have opened and are opening acoss the country, which may explain some of the incessant backlash we face now for simply wanting to acknowledge the actual history.

You have good reason to be proud of your grandson. He sounds like one of the good'uns.

Best wishes.

PS: Looking at my post again, I can see how you might have been confused about that part of it. This was my own fault as my writing was far from clear. I've edited the post to try to minimize the confusion.

Anyway, I apologize. This is what happens when I don't do my daily required minimum of caffeine.

[uponit7771]

3. Germans also didn't give voice to treason

[bullwinkle428]

4. Another great RP post that deserves as many recs as possible.

[niyad]

6. Spot on, RP.

[flying_wahini]

7. The other side doesn't Want Anything to change.

‘A nation that keeps its horrors hidden, that believes its students are too delicate to handle the truth about history, is damned to keep repeating the same mistakes.’

Your last line I agree with but have a feeling that they just want things to stay the same.
It’s their super power, digging in and holding onto dumb ideas that should have been vanquished long ago.

[DBoon]

30. We call it "repeating the same mistakes"

They call it "preserving our heritage"

[KS Toronado]

8. This country could sure use some "Schools Without Racism," classes

We need to nip white supremacy in the bud, as Barney would say.

[OldBaldy1701E]

9. All true but the US problem is not that we are hiding the horrors

It is that we do not see them as 'horrors' at all. Just some specific bad judgement on the part of anyone not rich and white. Also, the right does not believe that their students cannot handle the truth, it is that they do not see it as the truth, but an 'opinion'. Which is hysterical when one has to face that the right has a long history of offering their opinions as the truth. The delusion on that side of the aisle should be moving every American with a brain to stop them at all costs. The fact that this has not happened tells me what I need to know about our future. We repeat the same mistakes because we do not see them as mistakes. We see them as 'Murica!

[2naSalit]

17. +1

[DFW]

10. It is no accident that the biggest suppport for the far right AfD in Germany is in the East

in the former East Germany (DDR, the so-called German Democratic Republic, the truly-existing socialism, as they called themselves), official propaganda didn't deny the Nazis or the Holocaust, but maintained that NOBODY in THEIR part of Germany had anything to do with the NSDAP regime. According to them, ALL former Nazis were in West Germany, and that their socialist paradise had been cleansed of them. There was, therefore, no local right wing extremism to combat.

The predictable result, when the wall fell, was that the pent-up right wing sentiment against the repressive socialist regime burst out into the open. These people had been taught all their lives that THEIR part of Germany had been cleansed of Nazi sentiment long ago, and that therefore whatever similarity they might have to the Nazis was purely coincidental.

The ruling party, the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany) was behind the "no Nazis here" myth. That was quickly dispelled when the wall fell, and rightist extremism bloomed. The Socialist Unity Party changed their name to the PDS--Party of Democratic Socialism. They have now faded as well, as their cosmetic name change fooled no one. They remained pretty much unapologetic about the shootings at the Berlin Wall. It didn't help their popularity any.

In the West, school kids have been taught all along what really happened during the time of their parents' and grandparents' generations' time in power. There is some denial there, but nowhere near as much as in the East. My wife (born in 1952) and our daughters (1983 and 1985) were taught about the Nazi era in detail, and in no uncertain terms. My daughters attended the Anne Frank elementary school, across the street from us. The locals in our town thought it particularly appropriate to name this school thusly. During the war, you see, it used to be the local Gestapo headquarters. It seemed only fitting........

[dalton99a]

11. +1

[FakeNoose]

14. I remember seeing a wonderful German movie "The Nasty Girl" in the early 90's

I believe the German title is "Das schreckliche Mädchen."

It's a great story about a German town that was hiding its ties to the Nazi regime, about 20 years after the war was over. A high school-age girl learns the truth and she protests against their efforts to whitewash their Nazi past. So the entire community turns against her, including the school officials, the newspaper, the town mayor, etc. Eventually she gets the mayor and others to admit that they supported Hitler, and the town has to face its Nazi history.

I think by the time this movie came out, most of the younger generation identified with the girl, played by Lena Stolze. She championed the younger generation of Germans born after the war, in the way they were willing to face what the parents' and grandparents' generations had done.

[DFW]

31. I asked my wife about that film

She said she had heard of it but never seen it. We‘ll try to check it out. From your description, it sounds like it was inspired by Ibsen‘s „Enemy of the People,“ with a bit of Germany‘s best post-war anti-war film, „Die Brücke,“ or „The Bridge.“

[paleotn]

12. As the old saying goes...The truth will set you free.

I've thought for a long time that we should follow Germany's lead in teaching about our own sins. Kids can handle the truth far better than adults it seems. Teach them the unvarnished, unadulterated truth. It's so much easier than constructing elaborate lies our kids will hate us for after the fact.

[malthaussen]

13. That last word is the crux: "Mistakes."

I am absolutely sure that there is a good percentage of the American population who doesn't think genocide is a "mistake" at all.

-- Mal

[2naSalit]

18. +1

[2Gingersnaps]

22. WAY too many see "manifest destiny" or colonialism as the natural order of things,

"slaves were cared for like family" "the natives fought among themselves-unlike the faithful and peace loving Western European pioneers."

[Kaleva]

15. A large portion of today's population didn't have relatives in the US during slavery

Almost all Germans today have relatives who were in Germany during the time of Hitler.

Teaching of the Holocaust shouldn't be limited to just Germany. It should be taught worldwide as should slavery and the genocide of Native Americans.

[2naSalit]

19. +1

[SheltieLover]

16. Yup

Could also learn a great deal by looking at outrageous covid #s there & in UK as well.

[bucolic_frolic]

21. Government secrets of WWII are still being revealed

the interlocked financial support in and outside Nazi Germany, atrocities in eastern Europe, breeding for that State, corporate chemical development, Nazi industrialists who supported the State. And western governments had secrets too ... war mishaps under that category friendly fire, atrocious weapon development that was hidden from parts of the military and whose record remains hidden or destroyed (see "Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat&quot .

[Act_of_Reparation]

23. The problem is this is still very recent history.

World War II is still fresh in the minds of not only Germans, but the broader community of western nations. I wonder how this will play out long term. Will Germany continue to accept responsibility for what it did, or as the war becomes more and more historically remote will we start to see revisionism creeping in?

[plimsoll]

26. Probably not.

They've accepted blame. The former Confederate States started shifting blame almost immediately. We are in the situation we're in now because they didn't and apparently never will acknowledge that slavery was wrong. So they've had essentially 160 years to propagandize everyone. The "lost cause" mythology, Birth of a Nation, States Rights are all part of that propaganda.

If you don't believe that their representation of states right was BS from the second it was uttered, go read the secession documents from South Carolina. It makes it clear that the objection was that other states didn't agree with the South and the Federal government wasn't doing enough to enforce laws enacted for the benefit of slave owners. In other words if it was about states rights, they didn't think other states should have them.

Same as it ever was?

[Marthe48]

24. We mentored a college student from Japan

Once we chanced into a conversation about the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I thought using atomic weapons was wrong, almost from the time I learned about them. While neither of us had been alive during that era, her grandmother survived one of the bombs, and a whole range of emotion and insight weighted the conversation.

I have wondered for a long time if the U.S. would have dropped the bomb on Europe, and sadly, I don't think we would have. Because collectively, we still have a long way to go.

[malthaussen]

28. I frankly think that is nonsense.

It underestimates the ruthlessness with which the US wages its wars. If a weapon had been available, it would have been used. After all, we perfected firebombing at Dresden, which probably killed more immediately than both atomic bombs together. (Longer-term results are a different story, of course)

-- Mal

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

32. Similar program apparently needed to be imposed upon

the South after the Civil War.