The question of how to deal with the legacy of the National Socialist dictatorship and how to teach the period in West German schools has been and continues to be a controversial issue in the Federal Republic of Germany. During the 1950s and early 1960s history textbooks were severely criticized for their inadequate coverage of National Socialism, particularly regarding the persecution of the Jews and the Holocaust. Such criticism combined with a number of anti-Semitic incidents in 1959 led authorities to initiate major reforms on how schools should teach the Nazi period and consequently brought about major textbook revisions.The objective of this study was to determine how adequately textbooks used in the 1980s cover this period and whether what they are teaching is accurate and sufficient to deal with the enormity of the events and policies of that time. The study in four chapters analyzes textbooks regarding their coverage of such topics: I, Hitler's early life, his beginnings in politics to his nomination as chancellor; II, the consolidation of power and of social and political control; III, the treatment of the Jews; and IV, National Socialist foreign policy before and during World War II. Each chapter was divided into two parts, with the first part recommending material textbooks should include, and the second part analyzing this coverage based on criteria established in the first part.Findings showed that textbooks satisfactorily covered the majority of the topics examined and found them to be much improved, especially concerning the treatment of the Jews and the Holocaust.Despite marked improvements, areas of concern nevertheless remain, and coverage of some topics needs to be corrected and/or expanded in future textbook editions. Most topics on which coverage was weak or nonexistent concerned issues which are painful and embarrassing for German people to deal with. Among these issues were the German treatment of prisoners of war, German occupation policies in western Europe, forced relocations from areas such as Alsace and Lorraine, Nazi reprisal actions and the killing of hostages, activities of the SS Einsatz units, documentation concerning deportations and ghettos, medical experiments, and the role German industry played in the mass murder of innocent people.One of the more disturbing findings was that no changes had been made between the 1966 and 1978 (1983 printing) editions of one text and between the 1968 and later undated [1983?] editions of another text. It is strongly recommended that those responsible for the publication of German history textbooks take the necessary steps to correct these still existing errors and omissions before a new wave of criticism at home or from abroad forces them once again to do so.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/175393 |
| Date | 03 June 2011 |
| Creators | Calvert, Hildegund M. |
| Contributors | Wires, Richard |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | xiv, 214 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
| Coverage | e-gx--- |
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