Language:
English
Year of publication:
2003
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Contemporary History
Angaben zur Quelle:
38,1 (2003) 45-62
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Study and teaching
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
Abstract:
It has taken a long time for German textbooks to come to terms with the Nazi dictatorship and its crimes. Aspects of those crimes were known soon after the war (e.g. the murders carried out by the Einsatzgruppen, the deportation of Jews and their gassing) but were not included in textbooks through the mid-1960s. East German texts reflected an anti-fascist ideology that cared little about the fate of the Jews per se. There was some evolution in West German textbooks with the breakdown of the taboo on discussing persecution of Jews. After 1968 the presentation of the Holocaust improved further. In the post-reunification period, students were encouraged to relate experientially by role-playing and by local research on the Nazi period. Recommends that history books recognize that German children are descended from the "society of perpetrators." Various conceptions of Nazism (e.g. Hitlerism, totalitarianism) affect the way that this topic is presented to students. The "accident" concept, which exonerated the German people, was initially most influential in postwar textbooks.
DOI:
10.1177/0022009403038001963
URL:
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