What do they teach students in Germany about WW2?

Answer 1

G'day Warplesnorkel,

Thank you for your question.

Germany actually teaches its students well about World War 2 unlike the Japanese. In Germany, schools are generally the responsibility of the states or lander but there are national curriculum directives.

Teaching about World War II, Nazism and the Holocaust are an integral part of the German curriculum and are taught to students in a number of courses. These include:

* history where students are taught about World War II and Nazism in a German and world context - students finishing the Abitur exam required for University learn about it twice;

* civic studies and current affairs where students learn about German political institutions and values and their failure during the Nazi period.

* religious studies and ethics where students are taught about tolerance and the Holocaust;

* German where they study postwar literature on the war.

Most German students visit a concentration camp at least once during their studies. German school visits are the largest group of visitors to the concentration camps.

I have attached sources for your reference.

Regards

Answer 2

German students get taught very much the same things as in other countries. Recently, there has been a shift in the way that the blame for the war isn't so much put on the Germans as a collectivity but much more on the Nazis and their cronies.
This has allowed to highlight the role of previously ignored German resistants and also that of individual people who tried to break the Nazi regime from within (such as Oscar Shindler, for instance) and the huge amount of German and Austrians living abroad who tried to oppose the Nazis in their own way and also to encourage a different view of Germans and German culture (Marlene Dietricht, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, etc.)
This is much needed as it allows to avoid an overly simplistic and often damaging vision of history as well as to provide the healing much needed by new generations of Germans.
This has also permitted to study better the phenomenon of Nazism not only as a typically German phenomenon but also as a movement that was present in many countries and seduced many people all over the world, from Europe to the US, etc. and also how sympathizing and apologetic political currents that encouraged Nazi Germany pretty much throughout the duration of the war (Henry Ford, Errol Flynn, etc.) Many of these movements somehow survived after the war and are even still present today.
Scary as it may sound, Nazism as we now know it started it on the scale that we know in Germany mainly because of economical factors and dissent with the then German government but could just as well have embrassed other nations.
This broader approach and understanding of history also has the benefit to make student better aware of Nazism as a political movement and to prevent better a potential reoccurence.
Hope this helps,
f.

Answer 3

I think it depends. A girl from Germany came and spent six months here in Canada and said she learned the same things about WWII in her school as we did, but we also had a group of teachers from German come over to study the different Canadian education systems to improve their own, and one of the teachers said that he taught that it was all Germany's fault. Which pretty much shocked my whole class into silence, because we did assignments in my school to assign "blame" for WWII, and Germany never got more than 25%!

Answer 4

Lorin, i wouldn't be sure about that.

My history teacher was from Ireland and showed us a number of differences from the way Americans and the Irish were taught history.

Remember, there are two sides to everything, and it all depends on who is telling it. Think about the founding fathers, were they revolutionaries starting a new country, or a guerrilla force harassing the government of the land?

Its not a right and wrong, but just different ways to view history.

Answer 5

josephlincolnlordstanley has it right.my wife is german and she also told me that that is what they where taught.they blame the nazis and educate the kids in detail on how flawed the ideology was,to prevent future generations from somehow looking up to these warmongers.remember that germany was completely destroyed and the civillians suffered brutal reprisals when the russians swept through eastern germany.i dont think they want to go down that road again.

Answer 6

I think they teach the truth - but "Germany" has the habit to blame themselves sometimes even more than necessary.

Answer 7

That the years 1939 to 1945 do not exsist.

Answer 8

The same things they teach us, for goodness sake.

Answer 9

Very good question. I'd like to know.

Answer 10

That it was all the jews fault. That's where Mel Gibson got that from.