BEITRÄGE ZUR HISTORISCHEN SOZIALKUNDE • 1 Whereas in analysis and discussion adults predominantly concentrated on the diffe ren­ Introduction ces in the national perspectives of the Holo­ caust, the limitations of each respective in­ terpretation, the political interests and pe da­ gogical objectives, which flow into these, and contributed comparisons with other examples of genocide; pupils, as a rule, very directly hit The statements and opinions could hardly upon the inhumane core of the politically be more contradictory, which have been generated mass murder, which appears so dis cussed in the media and on specialist con­ overwhelmingly repulsive that further que­ ferences in the past months. The demands stions sometimes are not possible anymore. on the topic are mounting as well as critical One academic asked a group of pupils that voices warning of asking too much of both told about a visit to Auschwitz: “Has anything pupils and teachers. What would, therefore, caused you particular dis tress?” A schoolgirl be more obvious than bring together the then replied: “I just kept asking myself how participants in the learning process? something like this could happen.” And to the question about reapprai sal, about comparison and parallels to the present, whether the Pupils are tired of constantly dealing with the Third Reich, Kosovo would have also played a role, there Pupils hardly have secured knowledge about National Socialism, followed an astonished shake of the head and Pupils show great interest in the subject and want to know more; the answer of a female guide that a transfer Teaching about the murderous racism of the Nazis offers a com- had explicitly not taken place. pelling approach to prevent right-wing extremism and xenophobia As monstrous as the crime has been as as well as foster individual moral competence to judge, considerably different from one another are the adherents of Holocaust Education are consumers of the the methodical approaches, the selection Holocaust industry and serve the legitimation of political interests. as regards content, the time devoted to the topic during teaching in international com­ parison. Hardly anyone who places the topic To capture the reality of teaching, mutually in the history of our time fails to mention to inform each other of the diversity of the the universal importance of the National pedagogical situation and the materials at dis­ Socialist genocide; in contrast, the standing posal for teaching was the aim of a conference, it oc cupies in teaching, as is swiftly evinced which the Georg Eckert Institute for Interna­ by a comparative, matter­of­fact analysis, is tional Textbook Research in Braunschweig rather marginal. Special courses or project staged in the Buchenwald memorial. It took weeks are still the exception, not only in place as part of the German presidency of Ger man­speaking countries. Many teachers the international “Task Force on Holocaust fol low the guidelines whose precepts or re­ Remembrance” last year. Of the many con­ commendations on this teaching subject are tributions we include above all those, which extraordinarily different within Europe alone. concerned themselves with teaching projects In most countries they designate between and teaching experiences as well as with four and sixteen hours for the treat ment of critical reflections and conclusions for the National Socialism and/or the Holo caust. methodical­didactic modus operandi on the Yet – as Volkhard Knigge has pointed out part of memorials in the context of National in his critical reflections on the “imperative Socialist crimes and the integration of ey­ of memory” on the Buchenwald Conference – ewitnesses. Some contri butions have been the perpetrators’/ victims’ background is newly included, for in stance the one about the still essential on the one hand for the way of Jewish Museum Hohenems and the Museum appraisal in the various countries. However, of Con tem porary History in the memorial of this raises – in the context of countries like the former concentration camp in Ebensee, Germany and Austria – the question at the both of which relatively recent institutions in same time whether “prescribed negative Austria, which break new ground in dealing memory could make a lasting contribution with the National Socialist past, and thereby to democratisation and humanisation”. The increasingly place to the fore independent multi­ethnic composition of many school work of young addressees. classes necessitates a differentiated, inter­ 2 • BEITRÄGE ZUR HISTORISCHEN SOZIALKUNDE cultural approach, when one takes the Natio­ most of all, a self­imposition of limits are in nal Socialist crimes as the theme, today more a direct, proportionate relation to pedagogical than ever – a fact Angelika Rieber de voted success”. special attention to in her obser va tions. In Germany and Austria many of those, Teaching guidelines and schoolbooks as who bear responsibility in the educational well as teachers’ attitudes are shaped by the system today, have formed their attitude experiences of the respective adult gene­ towards National Socialism in the confron­ ration. Decrees of the ministries of education ta tion with the generation of parents and perhaps too little reflect the ways of percep­ grandparents, who have themselves still been tion of the young. Recurrent interventions witnesses and participants. This approach and attempts on the part of politics and the has become obsolete for the generation of media to make teachers and young people pupils today. The new generation is freer. discharge their duties – be it on account of It can thematically address resistance and current political events or the publication of colla bo ration, standing by or looking on in survey results about a lack of knowledge or the same way without touching taboos. This awareness – seem questionable in this light new open ness of the situation, which, how­ and counterproductive in their effect; Rein­ ever, at one and the same time gives National hard Krammer has referred to some Austrian Socialism its place in history, must be taken examples in his contribution, which has al­ into gro wing account in the future, in both ready been published before the Buchenwald training institutions as well as memo rials and Conference. mu seums, which adopt this theme. Memorials cannot spurn this situation, eit­ her, if they do not want, as Günter Morsch has Falk Pingel/Eduard Fuchs Oktober 2001 explained on the basis of results from visitor research at the KZ memorial Sachsenhausen, English Version: Stefan Menhofer, 2001 to “animate active dozing”; and he summa­ rises in the face of exhibition con cepts that “clarity, structuredness, graphicness and, Authors BÜRO DENKINGER UND FELBER, Wien EHMANN ANNEGRET, Regionale Arbeitsstellen für Ausländerfragen, Jugendarbeit und Schule e.V., Potsdam. FUCHS EDUARD, Verein für Geschichte und Sozialkunde, Univ. Wien JENTJENS JULIAN, Youth exchange with Poland, Krefeld. JORDAN LUTZ­W., VW­Coaching Company, Wolfsburg. KEREN NILLI, Kibbutzim College of Education, Tel Aviv, Israel. KHOURINE DIMITRI, Youth exchange with Poland, Wuppertal. KNIGGE VOLKHARD, Buchenwald Memorial, Weimar. KÖSSLER GOTTFRIED, Fritz­Bauer­Institut, Frankfurt a.M. LUTZ HANNELORE, Verein wider das Vergessen e.V., Düsseldorf MORSCH GÜNTER, Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg. PINGEL FALK, Georg­Eckert­Institut, Braunschweig. QUATEMBER WOLFGANG, Zeitgeschichte Museum, Ebensee RIEBER ANGELIKA, Ernst­Reuter­Schule I, Frankfurt a.M. SCHLATTER HELMUT, Jüdisches Museum Hohenems. SEDLACEK DIETMAR, KZ­Memorial Im Torhaus Moringen, Moringen. THOMSEN DIRKO, VW­Coaching Company, Wolfsburg. TYCH FELIX, Zydowski Instytut Hystoryczny, Warsaw, Poland. WINKLER BRUNO, Jüdisches Museum Hohenems. Falk Pingel threat finding expression therein? To us born much later who have not lived through the Holocaust, Teaching the Holocaust in its own right – memory thereof is not possible. A Reassessment of current Pedagogical Orientations We reconstruct, piece together and assi milate history on the basis of the sources at our hands. Even for the eyewitnesses the past experience will soon be accessible solely through remembering; the present fuses with a past, which seemed as un ap­ The forming of a collective memory precedence. In view of the different proach able as it seemed indelible. If of the Holocaust or the Shoah, as standing, which the genocide of I do not recall the past it eludes me, is the Hebrew­Jewish term, or the the Jews occupies in the curricula if I do re call it, I transform it. genocide of the Jews, as is the ade­ of various different countries, and “It is April, 12th, 1945, the day quate German term, has been a labo­ con sidering the great variety of pe­ after the liberation of Buchenwald. rious and lengthy process. How ever da gogical methods of teaching it, we History is still fresh. There is no terrible the murder of the Jewish should remain conscious of the fact need particularly to strain the population under National Socialist that the respective level of instruc­ memory. Nor of credible, checked rule appears to us in retro spect, tion we have attained in our coun­ documents. Death is still in the however central its impor tance is try, in our school, is but the result present tense … regarded today for an un derstanding of a development in which many And yet doubt comes over me wh- of the National Socia list regime and factors have played a part: political ether it is possible to tell the story. genocide in the 20th century, it all balances and shifts of power and Not that the experience would be but went without saying that this ideologies, scientific research con­ unutterable. It has been un bear able, event attained a prominent place tri butions, the collected memories which is something entirely diffe- in historical tradition as well as of survivors, above all victims, and rent, as one will easily understand. historical­political edu cation. not least the pedagogical will and Something different, which does insights displayed by teachers. The not concern the form of a possible Memory – Remembrance – Lear­ compulsory institution school pos­ account but its substance.