Elementary school children in West Berlin’s schools, from the age of 10 up, are going to be taught the dangers of nazism and anti-Semitism, and will be given a complete history of the Hitlerian atrocities against Jews, according to a new curriculum announced here today.
The curriculum, which will go into effect at the beginning of the new school year in the fall, will, according to the official plan, “attempt to get down to the very roots of Hitlerism, show up anti-Semitism and other persecutions, and tear down the false glorification of Hitler and his regime, “
On the 10-year-old level, teachers will explain to the children the meaning of various symbols like the Star of David, the Soviet star, the swastika and the Red Cross, They will be told about the mass murder of Jewish children in Nazi concentration camps.
Later, the history of persecutions against Jews will be led back to Roman times and forward again to the anti-Jewish atrocities committed by the Nazis. In higher grades, pupils will be told about the Nuremberg Laws, the events of Crystal Night of 1938 when every Synagogue in Germany was attacked by the Nazis, and the campaign for systematic extermination of all Jews, first in Germany then in Europe.
In higher grades, teachers will go into today’s laws in West Germany calling for restitution, indemnification and compensation to Jewish victims of Nazi persecutions.
“The children will be taught to realize, ” said an Education Ministry official, “that there is a new order now which condemns the past atrocities and injustices, puts an end to the Nazi cruelties, and strives for the equal treatment of all men, “
(A group of 20 young Germans from West Berlin arrived in Israel today for a 16-day visit. Members of a non-political youth organization, they are the first organized group from West Berlin to visit Israel. The visitors, aged between 16 and 23, are secondary school pupils, university students and trade apprentices. Half of the cost of their trip is being financed by the West Berlin Senate.)
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