Do German schools teach about the Holocaust, or skim over it?

Question

It seems like for decades the subject was barely touched on, if at all, in German schools... as if it never happened.
I don't understand why they'd do that, as Germans born after the Holocaust are no more responsible for it than you or me. Young Germans have nothing to be guilty over. And for the few Germans still alive who took part in 'things', well, that's something they have to live with.

Such a profoundly hateful, destructive movement must be taught in schools, so people never forget, and I hope that German kids today learn about the Holocaust along with every other era of their and other history.

I'm not a Jew, Black Hole Gravity. But I'm also not a little anti-Semitic goblin like you are.
Y'know, back up your words with actions.
I know a few really big, strong Israeli guys who would love for you to spout your anti-Jew crap to them in person!

Answer 1

We learn about the Holocaust at school. I'm German, born in 1981, and went to school in Germany. But I think we should have learned more about it. We had lessons about it in 6th grade and then again in 10th grade in history lessons, and also read some things related to the topic in German lessons. Usually German students have to visit some former concentration camp, but it is the choice of the teachers what they do. I know one girl who had to go to Auschwitz with her class in 6th grade, but with my class we only went to a place named Moringen which was a concentration camp for young Germans who had opposed the regime in some way, and was an almost "harmless" place compared to most other concentration camps and had a death toll under 100. There were many things about the Holocaust that I didn't learn at school but read about myself. We learned that six million Jews were killed, and that Gypsies, handicapped people, political opponents, homosexuals and others were killed and that there were concentration camps and gas chambers and crematoriums and all this, but there is still more to read about it, like the accounts of survivors and also the research about the perpetrators which are things I studied myself and not at school. But there are also teachers who invite Holocaust survivors to speak to their students. It really very much depends on the teacher.

Yes, young Germans are not guilty, but many feel blamed when the topic is remembered and they don't want to hear about it. Some Germans complain that the topic were studied too much at schools and that there were too many documentaries on TV about it etc. This is really a shame. Sometimes when I see the German version of these Y! Answers I almost go crazy about what some people write there like "It has to be enough now, 62 years are a long time, why are we still reminded and why can't the Jews forget that...."

And yes, the topic was very much kept silent after the war for a long time. We have an encyclopedia from 1957 at home and I tried to look up all possible entries that could contain information about the Holocaust, like "Jews", "Hitler", "Auschwitz", and it was not possible to get any other information about the Holocaust out of it than "There was a mass murder of Jews." If only 100 Jews had been killed I would already call that a mass murder, so what kind of information is that. The only description of Auschwitz was "infamous concentration camp", no further explanation about what happened there. This is also really a shame.

And you are right that it has to be taught at school and everyone has to know about it esp. in Germany.

I wrote a very long answer, but still have more in my mind about this. If you have any questions or would like me to write more, e-mail me.

Answer 2

It's true that immediately following the war, not much was taught about the war and the Holocaust, although i would argue that today, Germany is much more open about the Holocaust than nation's such as France, who have not opened up their archives to the public (for fear that they were SO involved in the war and don't want the world to know). The education of history varies by state in Germany, but while I lived there, they went through different periods depending on the school grade: So grade 11 covered Charlemagne until the French Revolution, grade 12/13 covered Enlightenment until present day.

Answer 3

This is the same reason that the MK ULTRA experiments are not taught in the US.

By the same token, you hardly ever hear about the Japanese Army Medical experiments on the captured prisoners of World War II.

Virtually every country has their dark side, and they are loathe to reveal it to the masses, since this is how revolutions begin.

Such a profoundly hateful, destructive movement will rise again, because nationalism is the foundation of 20th century politics (carried into this century) and xenophobia is a result of human evolution.

We of this Earth will not have long until the days when the world's countries are involved in genocide because of religion, and politics.

Answer 4

Good question!

I don't know the answer (I live in Canada), but I'll be checking back to see some of the answers.

Unfortunately, many people still believe that the holocaust is a myth, that it never happened. It's mind-boggling how incredibly ignorant people can be.

Answer 5

I hope they do. If not, they may be doomed to repeating themselves!

Answer 6

What the hell is up your /-\ss?

You jews are so evil and wicked, trying to play the poor victims while you kill Palestinians and destroy Islamic holy grounds.
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Now you're threatening me? I'm not surprised of your evil nature, anyone who doesn't want the world to move on is probably as evil as you.

The holocaust is your holy weapon, you want the world to cry over the victims forever while they completely ignore the new genocide Israel is committing in the name of Zionism.

PS: you probably think that anti-Semetic and anti-Jewish is the same.