Gains currently being made in West German education for democracy “must be multiplied many times over” to beat back and eliminate the resurging challenge of neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism, Dr. John Slawson, of New York, executive vice-president of the American Jewish Committee and guest of the Berlin Senate, urged here today.
“The Berlin Wall is a dramatic, tragic, frontier of democracy. The home dining-room table and the school-room bench are much less prominent terrain, but the critical conflicts for the minds of youth take place there daily, ” he said. It is an illusion to believe that one can win the long-range struggle symbolized by the Berlin Wall unless, at the same time, democracy becomes visceral and not just verbal among German youth.”
Dr. Slawson addressed a conference here of West German educators for promotion of political and civic education and international understanding. The parley brought together about 60 German teachers, school administrators and experts from the 11 leander(states) who, since 1960, have participated in 10 missions to the United States for study of American outlook and methods of civic education.
The educators found that, as perturbing as the right-radical advance recently reported by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and neo-Nazi election gains in Bavaria, is the evidence that only 20 percent of West German youth intensively desire the democratic system and are ready to resist danger to it; 40 percent are in favor of democratic form; while another 20 percent desire autocracy, and 4 percent even prefer dictatorship.
“If you can succeed in overcoming such skepticism to democracy among the younger generation and win its commitment, then neo-Nazism and ultra-nationalism will be taken care of automatically, ” Dr. Slawson told the conference. “For this to happen, however, German teaching about democracy has to become the living of democracy, for it is the living situation that counts. Fundamental to this and to genuine inter-group understanding is the concept of the sanctity of the human person. This is basic; all the rest is commentary,” Dr. Slawson affirmed.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
