Taking German youth on tours of former concentration camps does not increase their awareness of the Holocaust unless there has been a prior educational process, a group of scholars concluded in a study presented in Wiesbaden. In fact, without adequate background the experience can be counterproductive, they warned.
The researchers escorted dozens of German youth groups to various camp sites, including Buchenwald in Thuringia. They found that in many instances the young visitors derived “pleasure from the horrors.”
Arthur Fischer, a Frankfurt psychologist who conducted the study, said many youths were “disappointed” because they did not see “real gas chambers.”
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