Fear of charges of censorship emerged today as one of the reasons why the Philadelphia Board of Education will not ask publishers to revise textbooks found to give inadequate reports on the Hitler era, particularly the Nazi atrocities against European Jewry.
A Philadelphia Fellowship Commission survey, which presented documented evidence that social studies and history textbooks were lacking in such material, was made public at the Commission headquarters. David A. Horowitz, associate superintendent of Philadelphia public schools, said the survey was “accurate and fair.” However, he added that the Board would merely transmit the findings to textbook publishers without recommendations for revisions.
Mr. Horowitz said that the public school teachers here cover the issues involved in Commission criticisms “probably better than in most of the United States.” He added that the Board of Education would not make any recommendations to avoid becoming involved in what might be considered censorship.
He said two steps would be taken to improve the situation. One will be meetings next fall with social studies department heads in all senior and junior high schools with the Commission for a discussion on ways of handling the Hitler era in classroom teaching. Regular annual meetings will be held by the Board for its social studies department heads and possibly teachers.
Maurice B. Fagan, Commission executive director, said the Commission would send a report to all textbook publishers and to the National Education Association. Educators, he declared, had an “obligation” to say what they wanted in books “to overcome the bland treatment” by publishers. “In some books, you don’t know whether the authors are for or against Hitler,” he pointed out.
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.
