South Carolina Voices: Lessons from the Holocaust

Teaching Lesson Eleven (cont.)

HANDOUT 11B—NAZI EDUCATION

The following selections from Facing History and Ourselves, Holocaust and Human Behavior by Margot Strom and William Parsons offer insight into the curriculum of German schools during the years of Hitler's rule in Germany. The first reading describes the Nazi Minister of Education's goals of education. The second one looks at a math problem, and the third looks at a discussion in a geography.

Nazi Education Goals

The chief purpose of the school is to train human beings to realize that the State is more important than the individual, that individuals must be willing and ready to sacrifice themselves for Nation and Fuehrer....The basic principle to keep in mind is that we are not striving to inculcate as much knowledge as possible into the minds of our students. If students have learned to submit to authority, if they have developed a willingness to fit into that particular [place] chosen for them by the Party, then their education has been successful.

Every girl must learn the duties of a mother before she is 16, so that she can have children. Why should girls bother with higher mathematics or art or drama or literature? They could have babies without that sort of knowledge.

An Arithmetic Lesson

The following word problem appeared in "Germany's Rise and Fall-Arithmetic Instruction in Higher Grades of Elementary School": The Jews are aliens in Germany. In 1933 there were 66,060,000 inhabitants of the German Reich, of whom 499,682 were Jews. What is the percentage of aliens?

A Geography Lesson

In one geography class, the teacher explained that Germany was powerful now because of the doctrine of race purity. He asked his students to name countries that were declining because of racial sins. They mentioned Russia, England, France. The teacher was not satisfied.

"Well, which country has always called itself the 'melting pot' of all nations?"

Then came the chorus, "Amerika."

He explained how during the centuries there had been many men and women who could not get along in Europe. Most of them were criminals and crooks...undesirables. Whenever they tangled with the law in Germany, or any other European country, they got on a boat and went to the United States. There they married each other....Any German boy with intelligence could see what the result would be. The citizens of the United States were sinking lower and lower.

"There are many other weaknesses as a result of this lack of racial purity," he continued. "Their government is corrupt. They have a low type of government, a democracy. What is a democracy?"

"A democracy is a form of government in which people waste much time."

"A democracy is a form of government that will be defeated by the Fuehrer."

HANDOUT 11C: NEWS FROM GERMANY 1992

USA Today, November 23, 1992

"Refugees, Jews Targets of Neo-Nazis"

MARZAHN, Germany. Mention Hitler to 19-year-old skinhead Andre Hanisch and he says, "good man." "We never had these foreigner problems under Hitler," says Hanisch, one of the hundreds of neo-Nazi skinheads who have recently attacked compounds housing people seeking asylum. Race-related violence and anti-Semitism have swept Germany this year and the worst, officials fear, is yet to come.

Many Germans are angry that 500,000 asylum-seekers are expected to pour in by year's end. Some accuse foreigners of stealing jobs by working for cheaper wages, echoing complaints about Jews in the 1930s.

"Our country is hurting, no jobs, no money, no economic growth, and we're paying for these filthy dogs to live," says construction worker Johannes Seibert, 43. "It just doesn't make a bit of sense."

Right-wing groups have committed at least 1,800 acts of violence against foreigners this year, up from 1,500 attacks in 1991 and 130 in 1990.

Daily violence has spread to 40 cities and claimed at least 11 lives, mostly foreigners. Rock bands that sing hate lyrics are also growing in popularity, record store owners say. Band members and fans greet each other with Nazi salutes and openly denounce foreigners. Foreigners aren't the only targets. Anti-Semitism is rising. At least three memorials to Jewish Holocaust victims have been gutted, vandalized, or defaced with swastikas.

"The right-wing trail of death has just begun," says Ernst Uhrlau of Germany's domestic counter intelligence service. Youth in the east have lost all respect for authority. They're turning their anger against refugees like Fernando Torres, who fled war-torn Mozambique six weeks ago only to have his jaw broken and two teeth kicked out by eight German neo-Nazis. The compound which Torres shares with refugees from former Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Vietnam, and several African nations has been firebombed twice.

At least 40,000 Germans belong to extreme right-wing groups, 4,400 in groups that commit violence, investigators say.

"When we hear that 21 Romanians have drowned in a river trying to get here to Germany, we have a party," says neo-Nazi leader Rene Wittman, 24. Two dozen other skinheads surround him, pushing bystanders, flashing the Nazi salute, "Foreigners are leeches." Those like Wittman dress in black military boots and arm themselves with knives, guns, and grenades.

Germany's reunification two years ago is the source of the country's economic problems experts say, not the refugees. "Foreigners are easy targets for their frustrations," says Wolfgang Kuehnel of Berlin's Humbold University. A government official who assists foreigners adds, "With the break down of the socialist system, the entire structure of family, schools, jobs, sport, culture simply disappeared. The young are looking for something to hold onto, some identity. Riots let weak kids think they are strong."

A Berlin city officials warns, "Remove refugees and right-wing youth will simple retarget their anger at homosexuals, successful entrepreneurs, police, Jews...anybody else who is different."

Back to Teaching Lesson Eleven

Back to Overview VII—Remembering and Forgetting

Back to Teaching Lesson Nine

Back to Teaching Lesson Ten