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do Germans talk about the Holocaust what
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do they teach about World War II in
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school and is it okay to make a Hitler
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joke around a German
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[Applause]
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hello servos and welcome back to my
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YouTube channel my name is Philly I'm
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originally from Munich Germany but I've
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been living here in Cincinnati Ohio on
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and off since 2016.
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if you think of Germany especially in a
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historical context what comes to your
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mind I bet at least 99 of you are
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thinking of Nazis World War II the Third
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Reich Hitler and the Holocaust and
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rightly so it's one of the darkest
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chapters in history I know that you know
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that yet a lot of people are unsure if
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this is something they can bring up
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around me and other Germans some people
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assume that it's a total taboo Topic in
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Germany something that isn't really
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discussed in society but how much of
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that is actually true how does Germany
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deal with its dark past what is taught
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about it in school and is it okay to
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bring the topic up around Germans now I
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have answered this question in different
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contexts before like in this q a video
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for example where I gave a quick
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two-minute summary but today I would
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like to dive a little deeper I'd like to
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talk about how this topic has been dealt
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with publicly in Germany over the last
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78 years since the end of World War II
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I'd like to share my personal experience
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of how it was approached in my school
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and my personal environment and I'd also
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like to share how other Germans from
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different regions and of different
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Generations have experienced this to do
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so I asked my German viewers to fill out
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a survey about the topic and I received
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over 230 responses that will give you
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guys and myself a pretty good idea of
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how Germans in general think about the
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curriculums and the overall approach of
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how we deal with our country's dark past
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after the end of the war in Germany in
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May of 1945 the Allied Powers France UK
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USA and the Soviet Union divided Germany
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into four occupation zones and started
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the process of denodification
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demilitarization
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decentralization and democratization
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also referred to as the 4ds to denastify
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the country the nsdap so the Nazi party
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and all sub-organizations were banned
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and its laws were abolished and all
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signs of the third eye were erased from
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everyday life including books uniforms
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medals and street names Germany also had
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to make reparation payments to the
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Victorious powers and other affected
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countries that were mainly paid in
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Machinery manufacturing plants and
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forced labor most Germans were also
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subject to investigations by the
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international Military Tribunal that was
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looking to identify the different roles
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people played in the Holocaust and in
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committing war crimes Germans were
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divided into five categories from major
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offender to exonerated individuals major
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offenders were tried in the first
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Nuremberg Trial from November 1945 to
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October 1946 and in 12 subsequent
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nurburg trials that were solely held by
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the U.S all in all 36 defendants were
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sentenced to death 125 received prison
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sentences 23 of them for life not all of
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these verdicts were actually executed
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though a lot of the convicts ended up
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being released after just a few years
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and pardoned from the death penalty as
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the denotification process became more
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and more lenient in the western zones
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due to the extremely high number of
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cases less severe offenders were soon
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handed over to civilian tribunals under
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German Administration and it became
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increasingly difficult to find a balance
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between punishment and rebuilding the
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country for which the occupying Powers
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needed to fill a lot of important
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positions and having hundreds of
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thousands of Germans in internment camps
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didn't exactly make that easy now
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together with the development of the
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Cold War during which West Germany was
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considered an important Ally the focus
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quickly started shifting away from
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strict denotification and more towards
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Rehabilitation by 1948 countless trials
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were seized or never started and as I
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said lots of people were pardoned which
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to this day is heavily criticized as it
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meant that people that used to be active
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members of the Nazi party ended up
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keeping their high-ranking jobs and
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remained in positions of power in the
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newly founded West German Republic in
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the Soviet occupation Zone
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denotification was followed through a
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lot more strictly and quickly by Spring
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of 1948 they had fired and replaced over
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500 000 people but how did the Germans
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themselves deal with the war in the
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Stark chapter moving forward well for
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the first two decades after the war it
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pretty much just wasn't talked about at
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all the country was full of people who
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were actively involved in the crimes of
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the Third Reich and most common way of
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dealing with it was silence most of of
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them weren't willing to face their own
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guilt let alone take responsibility for
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their actions and their families often
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preferred staying in the dark about how
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badly their own spouses parents and
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Grandparents were really involved in it
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all same thing applied to schools many
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of the teachers were formally involved
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with the Nazis and the details of the
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third eye were barely part of the
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curriculum it wasn't really until the
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1960s that young adults in Germany
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started demanding from their Elders to
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take responsibility for their past and
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to start an open public dialogue some of
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this was part of the 1968 student
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movements in West Germany that arose
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parallel to protests all over the world
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at the time the outrage was partly
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triggered by different events that had
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taken place throughout the 60s including
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the so-called swastika epidemic the
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Eichmann trial the Frankfurt Auschwitz
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trial the debate about the imminent
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statute of limitations of NS crimes and
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the election of a former Nazi party
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member quote using up as Chancellor as a
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result West Germans finally started
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owning up to their country's past more
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intensely in the 70s and 80s Nazi
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Germany and the Holocaust became a
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mandatory part of school curriculums and
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TV shows like the American mini-series
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Holocaust that about a third of the
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population watched on German TV prompted
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people to reflect on the brutality of
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the genocide of 6 million European Jews
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and the emotional stories of the victims
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other notable Productions of the time
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are the German war film dashboard as
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well as the French documentary sure
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among others today Germany practices a
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very active culture of remembrance it's
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all about taking responsibility for our
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country's devastating actions of the
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past and making sure that something like
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that can and will never happen again
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this includes that it's actually illegal
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in Germany to deny or downplay the
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Holocaust 17 other European countries
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have similar laws by the way it's also
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illegal to do the Hitler salute or use
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Nazi Insignia unless it's part of art
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science research or teaching and the
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topic is a visible part of public life
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many former concentration camps have
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been turned into Memorial sites that can
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be visited today to learn from the past
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and understand the scale of the Nazis
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crimes in addition to that street names
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memorials museums and stumbling Stones
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commemorate the victims of the Nazi
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regime all over Germany The Stumbling
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stone or stoibashtime project was
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started in the 90s by German artist
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Kunta demnik and entails brass plates
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inscribed with the names and life dates
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of victims that are set into the
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pavement outside of their last known
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address or workplace you'll never know
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when and where you'll quite literally
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stumble over one which shows that
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deportation took place anywhere and
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everywhere and by bending down to read
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the victims names you're pretty much
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bowing down to them to pay them respect
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to this day over 75 000 of those
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stumbling stones have been laid all over
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Europe making it the world's law largest
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decentralized Memorial and of course
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there are countless movies documentaries
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and books that critically deal with the
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third eye and the post-war era and that
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ensure that the victims of the NS regime
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aren't forgotten to this day the
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historical responsibilities that Germany
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carries are deeply ingrained in German
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culture and politics Germany has a very
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unique relationship to Israel for
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example and in the late 50s and early
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60s they signed contracts with Israel
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with the Jewish claims conference and 12
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European countries regarding
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compensation to victims of the NS regime
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some of which are being paid up to today
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you'll also notice that most Germans
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don't really have a very pronounced
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sense of patriotism with the exception
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of sporting events like the soccer World
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Cup you won't see a lot of German flags
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for example not even in schools and
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other public buildings unless they're
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government institutions there's no such
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thing as the American Pledge of
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Allegiance and the German National
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Anthem is only sung on a small number of
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occasions whether that goes back to an
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ongoing feeling of guilt and shame and
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whether or not that's still called for
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is actually a much discussed question
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among Germans by the way you won't find
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any Nazi statues in Germany Hitler
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himself actually banned any kind of
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Memorials of him from the beginning and
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other statues were either taken down by
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the Nazis themselves to repurpose their
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medal for the war effort they were
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destroyed by bombings or at the latest
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taken down by the Allied Powers after
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the war
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now what do German students learn about
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World War II and the Holocaust in school
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let me start by sharing my own
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experience as you guys know I'm from
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Munich which is in the state of Bavaria
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and I went to elementary school and then
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to a gymnasium there that's important to
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note because the school system and the
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curriculums in Germany actually differ
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from state to state now I'm 29 years old
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so it's been a while and I don't
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remember every single detail but I do
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know that we started talking about the
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topic relatively early I think in fifth
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or sixth grade and then we pretty much
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talked about it all the way until
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graduation and it wasn't just in history
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class but in a lot of different subjects
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it was a very present Topic in German
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class for example in sixth grade we read
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a book called
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which is about the friendship between a
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non-jewish boy and his Jewish neighbor
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throughout the Third Reich then later on
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we read books like develop originally
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the wave which is about school
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experiment about the third eye and then
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we also read the shark Novella by Stefan
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Spike as well as
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by the Swiss author Max Frisch we also
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talked about it in religion ethics class
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A lot because yes that's a mandatory
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subject in Bavarian schools in arts
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class we learned about what the Nazis
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classified as degenerate art and arts de
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kunst and the topic also came up in the
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context of Arts interpretations and even
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a music class we analyzed the musical
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and lyrical features of Nazi propaganda
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songs and from what I remember the topic
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was also touched upon here and there in
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classes like English sociology and
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geology in History Class the main focus
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on the topic was in ninth grade I think
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we spent pretty much the whole year
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learning about the Weimar Republic World
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War II and post-war Germany and that's
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also the year where we went to the
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Concentration Camp Dachau which is right
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outside of Munich that's something that
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was mandatory at my school and I think
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the same goes for most schools in the
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area and then the topic was one of the
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main focuses again in history class in
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11th and 12th grade since I grew up in
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make we also learned a lot about the
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resistance group of the white rose vice
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since they were located in Munich I know
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that Germans in other regions don't
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learn about them as much but they were
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all students at the University of Munich
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same University I went to and they were
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arrested and killed in their early 20s
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by the Nazis for Distributing leaflets
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criticizing the Nazi regime and their
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names are very present in Munich to the
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state especially the siblings Hans and
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Sophie Scholl but also
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Villa and Alexander overall I feel like
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there was a lot of focus on the
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suffering of the Jews and how cruel and
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inhumane things were we also learned a
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lot about Nazi propaganda and about the
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political economic and cultural factors
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that made World War II and the Holocaust
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even possible and that led people to
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believe in such an awful ideology I
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don't really remember learning a lot
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about who Hitler was as a person and I
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don't remember talking a lot about the
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details of the war and warfare we
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definitely covered the timeline of the
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important events of the war but I don't
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remember talking about single battles or
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which weapons and strategies were used
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Etc and I'm mentioning this because a
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lot of Americans here actually know way
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more about all of that than I do and I
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think Warfare in general is just a more
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popular Topic in the US now there's
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probably a lot for my school days that I
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forgot to mention but I do remember that
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by like 8th or 9th Grade A lot of us
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were honestly getting a little tired of
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the topic and we were sometimes just
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like Ugh not again but of course looking
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back it's definitely better to talk
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about it too much than not talking about
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it enough and I definitely say that by
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the time we graduated we walked out of
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there with a strong awareness for racism
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discrimination and identifying populist
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and nationalistic tendencies and
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propaganda now of course World War II is
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something that you'll also be confronted
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with in real life outside of school and
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that can be a very individual experience
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because depending on your family
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environment your friends the field work
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in you'll be exposed to it in very
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different ways in my case I definitely
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always felt relatively close to the
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topic because unlike most other people
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my age it's not my great grandparents
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that lived through the war but my
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grandparents everyone just had children
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very late in my family so all four of my
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grandparents lived through the war as
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teenagers and adults and therefore were
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affected or even involved in it in
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different ways one side of my family is
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from upper selesia for example which was
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German territory at the time but now
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belongs to Poland so when the Eastern
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Front got there they lost their home and
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became refugees they were actually part
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of the winter treks of January of 1945
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which was historically cold and they
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fled partly by foot and then started
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from zero after the war like so many
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people in Germany one of my grandfathers
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was also imprisoned in the gdr for a few
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years now only one of my grandparents
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was still alive when I was born my
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grandma but I did hear a lot of
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first-hand stories from her and of
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course I heard a lot of stories about my
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other Grand parents from relatives and I
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read about it in their Memoirs so that's
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my personal connection to the topic and
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maybe that's also the reason why I feel
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extra passionate about fighting
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discrimination of minorities and why I
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believe that war is the worst thing
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humans have ever invented
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now since I'm not the only one of 84
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million people in Germany and as I said
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earlier curriculums vary a lot
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throughout the country I wanted to make
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sure that the experiences and opinions
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of other Germans are included in this
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video as well I've actually received
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over 230 submissions to my survey that I
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sent out so thank you guys so much to
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everyone who took the time to fill that
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out I will say it was a lot of work to
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go through at all and I won't be able to
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mention every single answer here but it
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was fascinating to read and I'm going to
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summarize it as best as I can and I'll
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also be sharing quotes from the survey
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with you guys in German because I wanted
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people to be able to answer this in
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their native language but I'll add
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English subtitles to give you guys a
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general Overview at first I did get
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answers from people of all ages from 13
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to 65 and from all over Germany and even
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a couple responses from Austria and to
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my question how well would you say
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School educated you about World War II
00:15:38
the Holocaust and the third right nobody
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selected not at all about two percent
00:15:43
said insufficiently fourteen percent
00:15:45
said Basics were covered but it could
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have been more 47 said very well and
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about 38 even selected almost too well
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the topic was hashed and rehashed over
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and over again so I think that shows
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that most people definitely felt like
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the topic was taught about it very
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intensely all other questions were
00:16:04
open-ended questions by the way so I
00:16:06
can't tell you the exact percentages but
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I'd say the overall consensus was that
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the topic was taught in a rather
00:16:12
objective but also serious and very
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respectful way while being brutally
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honest and most people said that it was
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always age-appropriate still and was
00:16:21
slowly building up throughout the grades
00:16:23
Karina from Dortmund wrote for example
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in that sentence foreign
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house
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[Music]
00:18:30
by the way most people mentioned that
00:18:32
they started talking about the topic
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sometime between 5th and 9th grade but a
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few even said it was brought up as early
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as third grade and lining up with my own
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experience throughout all kinds of of
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subjects Ani from northern was failure
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even shared her experience in a video I
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think I think we talked about almost
00:18:49
every subject let's see history class
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for sure German class where we would
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read important literature like Anna
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Frank religion which is also part of the
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curriculum in most German schools where
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we would not only learn about our
00:19:03
religion but also about others and then
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English class because we also learned
00:19:09
about history French same thing French
00:19:12
history why we talked about the Normandy
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and D-Day and you name it zilke from
00:19:16
Oldenburg said about this
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is
00:19:38
one person said that they watched The
00:19:40
Boy in the Striped Pajamas in English
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class for example and a German class
00:19:44
people mentioned reading the books I
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mentioned earlier but also books like
00:19:48
like The Diary of Anne Frank let's hit
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letters
00:19:53
and movies such as Schindler's List a
00:19:56
few people also mentioned analyzing
00:19:57
Hitler's rhetoric as well as his speech
00:19:59
and writing style to better understand
00:20:01
his propaganda techniques Hitler's own
00:20:03
book man Kampf however was only
00:20:05
mentioned by one person in the whole
00:20:07
survey which probably has to do with the
00:20:09
fact that up until 2016 it wasn't
00:20:12
actually allowed to be printed in
00:20:14
Germany due to copyright issues so if
00:20:17
the book was discussed in school it was
00:20:19
usually just in the form of extracts in
00:20:21
addition to learning about personal
00:20:22
Destinies from books and movies a lot of
00:20:25
people also mentioned visiting
00:20:26
concentration camps I was actually a
00:20:28
little surprised by how many people
00:20:30
mentioned that especially since not
00:20:31
every school is close to a former
00:20:33
concentration camp so for many this
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included an overnight trip some people
00:20:37
even traveled to Poland to visit
00:20:39
Auschwitz Charlotte from nidazakhstan
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said that is
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in addition to that a lot of people
00:21:36
mentioned visiting museums memorials
00:21:39
synagogues Jewish cemeteries and things
00:21:42
like the rice padai tax collender and
00:21:44
Nuremberg or the home of klausenberg
00:21:47
even a lot of schools also organized a
00:21:49
trip to Berlin which is actually
00:21:50
something we did too in 10th Grade and
00:21:52
that certainly included visiting the
00:21:55
memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe
00:21:57
among other things and a lot of people
00:21:59
also said that they had historical
00:22:00
Witnesses talk at their schools like we
00:22:02
heard in one of the quotes earlier which
00:22:04
I think is one of the most valuable
00:22:06
experiences you could have especially
00:22:08
since today most of them aren't around
00:22:10
anymore one thing that I could
00:22:12
definitely tell from the survey was how
00:22:14
heavily people's experiences were
00:22:15
dependent on the teachers they had I
00:22:17
think that's always the case in school
00:22:18
of course but I think specifically with
00:22:20
this topic not everyone had a good
00:22:22
experience Sabina wrote for example
00:22:24
Manila
00:22:26
Generations foreign
00:22:52
[Music]
00:23:06
and a person from Mainz shared another
00:23:09
pretty negative experience responding to
00:23:11
the question in what Manner it was
00:23:13
taught they said
00:23:24
foreign
00:23:37
I do want to say that this experience
00:23:39
was definitely an exception but I wanted
00:23:41
to include it to show a few different
00:23:43
aspects here other people were very
00:23:45
lucky with their teachers though like
00:23:46
lava from duisburg
00:23:57
and there were also a few people that
00:23:59
still experienced the time when the
00:24:00
topic wasn't talked about a lot in
00:24:02
school like Catherine from northern was
00:24:04
failure
00:24:27
one question that I personally found
00:24:29
extremely interesting and that might
00:24:31
even be useful for any teachers out
00:24:33
there is which topics were covered
00:24:35
repeatedly and which ones people felt
00:24:37
like weren't covered enough the vast
00:24:39
majority of these over 230 people that
00:24:42
answered the survey agreed that the main
00:24:44
focus was clearly on the Holocaust so
00:24:47
the persecution of Jewish people while
00:24:49
the persecution of other minorities like
00:24:52
cinti and Romani homosexuals political
00:24:55
opponents people of color and the
00:24:58
euthanization of disabled people Etc
00:25:00
were barely covered other aspects that
00:25:02
people said weren't covered enough
00:25:04
included World War II outside of Germany
00:25:07
including the Pacific War but even the
00:25:09
actions of Germany's allies or the
00:25:12
German invasion in Greece or Yugoslavia
00:25:14
those are all things that I personally
00:25:16
agree with too I don't remember any of
00:25:18
those things being part of the
00:25:19
curriculum and a lot of people also said
00:25:21
they would have liked to learn more
00:25:22
about post-war Germany and the
00:25:24
denotification process also about the
00:25:27
history of anti-Semitism and that it
00:25:29
wasn't something that the Nazis just
00:25:31
came out with themselves about German
00:25:33
refugees and I also saw quite a lot of
00:25:35
people sharing my experience that they
00:25:37
didn't learn a lot about the details of
00:25:39
the war in terms of tactics different
00:25:41
battles Etc and about Hitler as a person
00:25:44
I think no one is born evil and I cannot
00:25:48
recall that we talked about what
00:25:51
had happened to him why he became that
00:25:54
kind of person so yeah I think this
00:25:56
would have been also important to
00:25:58
understand one thing that was very
00:25:59
interesting was that about half of the
00:26:01
people said that they really focused on
00:26:04
how the Nazis seized power and how the
00:26:06
weaknesses of the Weimar Republic led to
00:26:08
that which is what I mentioned too that
00:26:10
that was focused on a lot in my school
00:26:11
but then the other half listed this
00:26:14
under things that weren't covered enough
00:26:15
and many also said it should have been
00:26:17
talked about more how we can recognize
00:26:19
warning signs and parallels of similar
00:26:22
developments in society today and last
00:26:24
but not least this was a common point of
00:26:26
criticism as well
00:26:33
which I would generally agree with we
00:26:36
really didn't get to cover a whole lot
00:26:37
of other topics of recent history but at
00:26:40
the same time I also think that it was
00:26:42
important that we covered the topic so
00:26:44
intensely like Marcus from hildesheim
00:26:46
says too
00:26:48
this is
00:27:26
who became a history teacher said this a
00:27:30
truly habited
00:27:34
this is
00:27:45
in terms of how present the topic is
00:27:47
outside of school in Germany today
00:27:49
people shared a lot of different friends
00:27:51
opinions and experiences and I won't be
00:27:54
able to include all of them in this
00:27:55
video but many mentioned for example
00:27:57
that some German TV channels pretty much
00:27:59
show Nazi documentaries 24 7 which is
00:28:02
definitely true and I know that that can
00:28:04
be pretty surprising for people visiting
00:28:05
Germany some people said that the
00:28:07
current political developments all
00:28:09
around the world worry them and that
00:28:11
they feel like German politicians should
00:28:13
be more actively fighting that some
00:28:15
mentioned how this whole topic of
00:28:17
inherited guilt app should is still
00:28:20
Weighing on us as a country but most
00:28:22
people said that they think that Germany
00:28:24
is doing a rather good job dealing with
00:28:26
this topic even though it's not perfect
00:28:27
and that it's important that the German
00:28:29
government commemorates the victims of
00:28:31
the NS regime on days like the
00:28:34
international Holocaust Remembrance Day
00:28:35
or on German fox attack and other
00:28:38
Memorial days and some people also
00:28:40
shared how difficult it can still be
00:28:42
within their own families I'm just going
00:28:44
to read one quote from a young German
00:28:45
that represents that pretty well this is
00:28:48
from vv18 from Luna book
00:28:51
foreign
00:29:38
last but not least is it okay to ask a
00:29:41
German about World War II the Holocaust
00:29:44
and Nazis or is that offensive coming
00:29:46
from a foreigner now I didn't include
00:29:48
this in my survey but based on my
00:29:50
experience I can say yes you can
00:29:53
absolutely talk to us Germans about
00:29:55
World War II I even feel like a lot of
00:29:56
Germans appreciate talking about it with
00:29:59
Outsiders from another country
00:30:00
especially when they find that they're
00:30:02
educated on the topic however it's
00:30:04
definitely important to us to stay
00:30:05
respectful I found that Germans can be a
00:30:07
little more sensitive to jokes about the
00:30:09
whole topic for example and not every
00:30:12
German is going to be in the mood to
00:30:13
talk about it especially if people are
00:30:15
still in school or just graduated it
00:30:17
might be a little tired of the topic but
00:30:20
generally this is something that we're
00:30:21
very open about in Germany and most of
00:30:23
us will not feel personally offended
00:30:25
just because you bring up our dark past
00:30:27
let me know if you guys agree with me on
00:30:29
that or not in the comments but I
00:30:31
recently came across this video by
00:30:33
radical living hey Hans I was wondering
00:30:36
since you're German and all do Germans
00:30:39
still feel like guilty about World War
00:30:41
II how do you feel about it um
00:30:44
um are you hungry you look hungry I'm
00:30:47
gonna make us some sandwiches okay
00:30:51
foreign
00:30:52
[Music]
00:30:54
must have fought in the War right do you
00:30:58
ever talk to him about how it was being
00:31:00
on the evil side and everything oh God I
00:31:03
I think I forgot the sausages in the car
00:31:05
I'm gonna go grab them okay and then he
00:31:08
just ends up making up more and more
00:31:09
excuses and ends up driving away because
00:31:11
he really wants to avoid talking about
00:31:12
the topic and even though I know it's
00:31:14
satire of course and I'm not trying to
00:31:16
deny that that's his reality I just
00:31:19
wholeheartedly disagree with the message
00:31:20
of this that's just never been my
00:31:23
experience at all by the way just in
00:31:24
general it's a lot more common in
00:31:26
Germany to talk about politics and
00:31:28
difficult topics even with strangers and
00:31:31
that's also why Germans often ask
00:31:33
Americans very directly about
00:31:34
controversial topics in the US and how
00:31:37
they feel about them
00:31:40
again thank you to everyone who took the
00:31:42
time to fill out the survey and to Ani
00:31:44
for recording a whole video you can find
00:31:46
her entire response on her YouTube
00:31:48
channel by the way if you went to school
00:31:49
in Germany what are your experiences
00:31:51
with the topic which aspects would you
00:31:53
like to add and if you're not from
00:31:54
Germany how does your country teach
00:31:56
about World War II or their own
00:31:58
difficult past and was there anything
00:32:00
that surprised you in this video let me
00:32:03
know in the comments below I hope you
00:32:04
found this interesting thank you guys so
00:32:06
much for watching if you enjoy my
00:32:08
content it would be great if you hit
00:32:09
that subscribe button you can also send
00:32:11
me your super things underneath or
00:32:12
support my channel via patreon or by
00:32:15
buying me a coffee this is where you can
00:32:17
find me outside of YouTube and with that
00:32:19
I hope I'll see you next time cheers
00:32:22
[Music]
00:32:24
foreign
