Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
German children tired of the holocaust
German youth are experiencing "Holocaust fatigue," the head of the German delegation to an international organization of Holocaust education and remembrance said Monday.
"German children tend to show Holocaust fatigue," said Dr. Benedikt Haller, the German Foreign Ministry official who serves as special representative for relations with Jewish organizations and issues relating to anti-Semitism.
The remarks came just a day before the official opening in Berlin of the office of the Task Force on International Cooperation on Holocaust Education Remembrance and Research, a group intended to foster cooperation on Holocaust remembrance activities throughout Europe. The organization, which was conceived a decade ago and has thus far operated informally, will comprise 25 countries around the world, including EU states, the US, Argentina and Israel.
In remarks to a group of Israeli journalists, Holocaust instructors and American Jewish leaders, Haller, who will serve as the head of the German delegation to the international Holocaust body, stressed that "Holocaust fatigue" was not a reason to stop teaching the Holocaust in German schools.
"The Holocaust has a very strong place in our national curriculum and it is not going away or [being taken] out," he said. "This is not a reason to take it out of our curriculum."
Haller attributed the "over-infusion" of Holocaust education to a new generation of German educators who revolted against the generation of their parents and grandparents who had kept silent about the mass murder of six million Jews.
"A whole generation of teachers were interested in refuting their parents and telling people the truth," he said.
"It's quite natural that the commitment was not the same with their students [which] for them was a strange and brutal story of [their] grandparents," he said.
The German official suggested that in their zeal to teach the story of the Holocaust, some teachers of the "committed" generation "overdid it a little." Haller made his frank statements after noting the "tremendous amount" of Holocaust literature and research in Germany which, he said, he has long given up trying to keep up with.
He cited a German newspaper caricature published on the 60th anniversary of Hitler's rise to power that depicted a German in a bookstore, surrounded and oversaturated with books about the Holocaust.
The official's remarks were later criticized by American educators as inappropriate.
"As spokesman for such an elite group in Europe as the task force, he has to be at the forefront of encouraging Holocaust remembrance, and not discouraging it," said Bernita M. King, history professor at Miami Dade College. "He should be the biggest cheerleader of Holocaust remembrance," King said.
"This is the wrong message to send out when there is so much more work that needs to be done," said Susan Myers, the executive director of the Holocaust Museum Houston. "With anti-Semitism on the rise, this is not the time to slow down," she said.
Haller's remarks come as the number of elderly Holocaust survivors continues to dwindle.
"This is not the message that you want survivors to hear as they are in their twilight years," Myers said.
"As the child of a survivor, it is perplexing to hear that there is a fatigue not only about the Holocaust but about anti-Semitism," said Sylvia Wygoda, executive director of the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust.
A representative of the New York-based American Jewish Committee, Los Angeles Chapter Executive Director Seth Brysk, said that Haller was "reporting on a phenomenon that exists in the country."
"There is evidence... which indicates that there is Holocaust fatigue in Germany, but it's unclear to what extent," William Shulman, president of the New York-based Association of Holocaust Organizations and a member of the US delegation to the task force, said in a telephone interview.
Other German educators said that German teens were highly informed about the Holocaust, but stopped short of saying they were "oversaturated" with Holocaust education.
"Many come with the attitude 'we know already everything,'" said Dr. Norbert Kampe, director of the Memorial and Educational Site at the House of the Wannsee Conference, a lavish villa in suburban Berlin where top SS officials met in January 1942 to discuss the extermination of the Jews.
The inauguration of the new Holocaust memorial office on Tuesday will be marked by an address by German Federal Foreign Minister Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
"It is quite fitting that the office should open in Berlin, the place where the Holocaust was planned and executed," Haller said. "This is an important step for Holocaust commemoration in the future."
"German children tend to show Holocaust fatigue," said Dr. Benedikt Haller, the German Foreign Ministry official who serves as special representative for relations with Jewish organizations and issues relating to anti-Semitism.
The remarks came just a day before the official opening in Berlin of the office of the Task Force on International Cooperation on Holocaust Education Remembrance and Research, a group intended to foster cooperation on Holocaust remembrance activities throughout Europe. The organization, which was conceived a decade ago and has thus far operated informally, will comprise 25 countries around the world, including EU states, the US, Argentina and Israel.
In remarks to a group of Israeli journalists, Holocaust instructors and American Jewish leaders, Haller, who will serve as the head of the German delegation to the international Holocaust body, stressed that "Holocaust fatigue" was not a reason to stop teaching the Holocaust in German schools.
"The Holocaust has a very strong place in our national curriculum and it is not going away or [being taken] out," he said. "This is not a reason to take it out of our curriculum."
Haller attributed the "over-infusion" of Holocaust education to a new generation of German educators who revolted against the generation of their parents and grandparents who had kept silent about the mass murder of six million Jews.
"A whole generation of teachers were interested in refuting their parents and telling people the truth," he said.
"It's quite natural that the commitment was not the same with their students [which] for them was a strange and brutal story of [their] grandparents," he said.
The German official suggested that in their zeal to teach the story of the Holocaust, some teachers of the "committed" generation "overdid it a little." Haller made his frank statements after noting the "tremendous amount" of Holocaust literature and research in Germany which, he said, he has long given up trying to keep up with.
He cited a German newspaper caricature published on the 60th anniversary of Hitler's rise to power that depicted a German in a bookstore, surrounded and oversaturated with books about the Holocaust.
The official's remarks were later criticized by American educators as inappropriate.
"As spokesman for such an elite group in Europe as the task force, he has to be at the forefront of encouraging Holocaust remembrance, and not discouraging it," said Bernita M. King, history professor at Miami Dade College. "He should be the biggest cheerleader of Holocaust remembrance," King said.
"This is the wrong message to send out when there is so much more work that needs to be done," said Susan Myers, the executive director of the Holocaust Museum Houston. "With anti-Semitism on the rise, this is not the time to slow down," she said.
Haller's remarks come as the number of elderly Holocaust survivors continues to dwindle.
"This is not the message that you want survivors to hear as they are in their twilight years," Myers said.
"As the child of a survivor, it is perplexing to hear that there is a fatigue not only about the Holocaust but about anti-Semitism," said Sylvia Wygoda, executive director of the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust.
A representative of the New York-based American Jewish Committee, Los Angeles Chapter Executive Director Seth Brysk, said that Haller was "reporting on a phenomenon that exists in the country."
"There is evidence... which indicates that there is Holocaust fatigue in Germany, but it's unclear to what extent," William Shulman, president of the New York-based Association of Holocaust Organizations and a member of the US delegation to the task force, said in a telephone interview.
Other German educators said that German teens were highly informed about the Holocaust, but stopped short of saying they were "oversaturated" with Holocaust education.
"Many come with the attitude 'we know already everything,'" said Dr. Norbert Kampe, director of the Memorial and Educational Site at the House of the Wannsee Conference, a lavish villa in suburban Berlin where top SS officials met in January 1942 to discuss the extermination of the Jews.
The inauguration of the new Holocaust memorial office on Tuesday will be marked by an address by German Federal Foreign Minister Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
"It is quite fitting that the office should open in Berlin, the place where the Holocaust was planned and executed," Haller said. "This is an important step for Holocaust commemoration in the future."
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
What Soldiers Are Reading These Days
As many books as I've read, The Devil's Guard may be my all-time favorite. It's interesting seeing the popularity of this book surge after being written so long ago.
The Telegraph U.K.
The top 10 novels supplied to American fighting men by Abe were: The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J. K. Rowling; Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry; Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams; The Collector, John Fowles; Devil's Guard, George Robert Elford; The Unwanted, John Saul; The Alchemist, Ken Goddard; Apollyon: The Destroyer Unleashed, Tim LaHaye; Master of Dragons, Margaret Weis; The Illuminati, Larry Burkett.
There is a strong whiff of the high school curriculum (Salinger, notably) and a lot of fantasy. The presence of LaHaye's vision of Armageddon (and the Second Coming) happening in the Middle East in the first years of the 21st century is slightly troubling. But what is striking is the near-complete absence of male-action, war stories. The descendants of Lee's Miserables obviously get enough of that at work.
Well, most of them do. There is one example of war fiction in this top 10: Elford's Devil's Guard. It's not a work, nor is Elford an author, with wide name-recognition in what used to be called Civvy Street. But it evidently appeals where the bullets fly and the IEDs thump.
First published in 1971, Devil's Guard purports to be the true confessions of a German SS officer, Hans Josef Wagemueller. Presented as fact, the book is generally categorised by merchandisers (Abe, for example) as fiction and by military historians as balderdash.
Elford's hero recounts his exploits - bloody and genocidal - as a soldier in the Waffen SS, fighting on the Eastern Front in the Second World War. The tone is savage and unapologetic. Nazi atrocities are, the narrative asserts (with multiple examples), wholly justified by the inhumanity of the Communist foe.
After the (much lamented) defeat of the Reich, Wagemueller escapes to be recruited into the French Foreign Legion. Under his new flag he fights for France in the Indo-Chinese war against the Communist Viet Minh. More abominable sub-humans, deserving only of extermination.
In the Legion with other former Nazis (some 900 of them) he leads the 'battalion of the damned' in daring, ruthless, guerrilla fighting behind enemy lines. Two sequels followed, in which Wagemueller ends up fighting under the American flag.
Elford is an elusive figure, scarcely more substantial in terms of popular image than his alleged warrior source, Wagemueller. Devil's Guard was, for a long time, an underground bestseller - most reading copies passing from hand to hand. No self-respecting imprint was keen to be associated with what was generally regarded as sickening neo-Nazi pornography.
Costs of pre-owned copies are, consequently, sky high. Any British soldier ordering Devil's Guard from amazon.co.uk could pay as much as £320 a copy.
If Iraq goes on another five years, a mass-market reprint would seem to be in order. But who would be foolhardy enough to write the introduction I wonder?
The Telegraph U.K.
The top 10 novels supplied to American fighting men by Abe were: The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J. K. Rowling; Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry; Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams; The Collector, John Fowles; Devil's Guard, George Robert Elford; The Unwanted, John Saul; The Alchemist, Ken Goddard; Apollyon: The Destroyer Unleashed, Tim LaHaye; Master of Dragons, Margaret Weis; The Illuminati, Larry Burkett.
There is a strong whiff of the high school curriculum (Salinger, notably) and a lot of fantasy. The presence of LaHaye's vision of Armageddon (and the Second Coming) happening in the Middle East in the first years of the 21st century is slightly troubling. But what is striking is the near-complete absence of male-action, war stories. The descendants of Lee's Miserables obviously get enough of that at work.
Well, most of them do. There is one example of war fiction in this top 10: Elford's Devil's Guard. It's not a work, nor is Elford an author, with wide name-recognition in what used to be called Civvy Street. But it evidently appeals where the bullets fly and the IEDs thump.
First published in 1971, Devil's Guard purports to be the true confessions of a German SS officer, Hans Josef Wagemueller. Presented as fact, the book is generally categorised by merchandisers (Abe, for example) as fiction and by military historians as balderdash.
Elford's hero recounts his exploits - bloody and genocidal - as a soldier in the Waffen SS, fighting on the Eastern Front in the Second World War. The tone is savage and unapologetic. Nazi atrocities are, the narrative asserts (with multiple examples), wholly justified by the inhumanity of the Communist foe.
After the (much lamented) defeat of the Reich, Wagemueller escapes to be recruited into the French Foreign Legion. Under his new flag he fights for France in the Indo-Chinese war against the Communist Viet Minh. More abominable sub-humans, deserving only of extermination.
In the Legion with other former Nazis (some 900 of them) he leads the 'battalion of the damned' in daring, ruthless, guerrilla fighting behind enemy lines. Two sequels followed, in which Wagemueller ends up fighting under the American flag.
Elford is an elusive figure, scarcely more substantial in terms of popular image than his alleged warrior source, Wagemueller. Devil's Guard was, for a long time, an underground bestseller - most reading copies passing from hand to hand. No self-respecting imprint was keen to be associated with what was generally regarded as sickening neo-Nazi pornography.
Costs of pre-owned copies are, consequently, sky high. Any British soldier ordering Devil's Guard from amazon.co.uk could pay as much as £320 a copy.
If Iraq goes on another five years, a mass-market reprint would seem to be in order. But who would be foolhardy enough to write the introduction I wonder?
Thursday, January 31, 2008
NPD boycotts Jewish memorial
BERLIN - Members of a far-right German party boycotted a moment of silence at a state parliament held in honor of Nazi victims Wednesday, the 75th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's elevation to German chancellor.
ADVERTISEMENT
The six lawmakers of the far-right National Democratic Party from the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania refused to rise from their seats during a moment of silence.
Lawmakers from other parties said they were disgusted with the boycott, causing the parliamentary session to be temporarily interrupted.
The NPD leader for the state said his party was not willing to participate in a memorial that only honored victims of the Nazis and not Germans who died as well.
Hitler's accession to chancellor on Jan. 30, 1933, gave the Nazi party its "in" to eventually consolidate absolute control over the country in the months soon after, setting it on the path to World War II and the Holocaust that left millions of people dead.
The day is not largely marked in Germany, although schools planned extra lessons on the event nationwide.
ADVERTISEMENT
The six lawmakers of the far-right National Democratic Party from the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania refused to rise from their seats during a moment of silence.
Lawmakers from other parties said they were disgusted with the boycott, causing the parliamentary session to be temporarily interrupted.
The NPD leader for the state said his party was not willing to participate in a memorial that only honored victims of the Nazis and not Germans who died as well.
Hitler's accession to chancellor on Jan. 30, 1933, gave the Nazi party its "in" to eventually consolidate absolute control over the country in the months soon after, setting it on the path to World War II and the Holocaust that left millions of people dead.
The day is not largely marked in Germany, although schools planned extra lessons on the event nationwide.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
