New recommendations concerning the teaching of contemporary history in West Germany’s school system, aimed at demonstrating “Hitler’s false aims, his extravagance, his criminal methods and the catastrophe which resulted from his system, ” were issued today by the Standing Conference of the State Ministries of Education.
In an introductory statement, the Conference, a consultative body which coordinates the activities of the education departments of the various West German states, stated that “concern with totalitarianism is one of the basic tasks of the political education of our youth. “
By using concrete examples, the statement continued, the curriculum should depict human suffering during the Third Reich, and teachers should present as an “ideal” the attitudes of resistance fighters and victims of the Nazi regime. While previous educational recommendations were merely concerned with specific school grades, the new program is to be applied to all school levels.
According to the recommendations, contemporary history instruction is to be divided into five parts: The destruction of the constitutional order since the Nazis’ seizure of power; the persecution of terror against political opponents and the churches and the racial politics comprising the extermination of Jews and the euthanasia crimes; Hitler’s “politics of conquest” and his deceitful foreign policy and the preparation for the Second World War; the invasion of neutral Poland and other countries and the Nazi terror in occupied countries; and finally, the resistance movement and the role played by the “inner and outer immigration. “
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.
