As a German, I totally agree with your point: "Teach it brutally honestly, without sugar coating." Become sensitive to any propaganda - do not blindly trust politicians - think for yourself - vote - demonstrate against wrong ways. We can´t change the past, but we can build the future.
But also don't punish the people of modern day for the actions of their ancestors/countrymen. This is something that many Germans are tired of. Being told that you suck and don't deserve respect because of the actions of your grandfather(s) is harmful to society.
@@Geralt_harvey3784 that isnt happening in reality though. I was always Open about my german familys side involvement ( Great Grand father was a big wig) never caught any flak because people in general judge you for who you are and how you express yourself rather than your ancestors actions.
@@I31R0 Depens how much indoctrination happend from gand and parents met a couple of pople that were way more radical against me as a german in North America and Europe
Thank you for understanding the point on denying the holocaust. So many Americans, immediately say that this would be against their freedom of speech. By denying or down playing the horrors of that time, one takes away the dignity and the honor of those who survived and of the families of the victims. I like that in Germany, your right of freedom (of speech, opinion, etc.) is restricted the moment, the rights and dignity of other people is infringed by one's actions or speech. Therefore denial or disrespect is not an opinion that can be published without consequences.
Don't say sorry about compairing that topic with your experiences. That is what history and/or learning about other cultures is about. When we don't ask what these things have to do with ourselves, learning about that is useless. When history is just a strange story from far away, it has not much more to it, than reading lord of the rings, or watching star wars. Only the connection of history or other cultures with our own reality let us really learn. Not just the facts, but also the meaning behind the facts. And than we can agree or disagree and find our path to the future
About the term brown teacher:Brown was the color of the uniforms of the NSDAP and the SA. That is why contemporaries at the time described the ideology and supporters of National Socialism as brown. In today's language, brown sentiment means a right-wing extremist, mostly neo-Nazi attitude.
just another fact: did you know that after the end of apartheid, South Africa asked the German government for advice and support in coming to terms with South Africa's past? Germany is one of the most experienced states when it comes to a complete and honest coming to terms with the past
I take my hat off to Germany, it takes a lot of humility to accept the very grave mistakes that your own people made. sadly in North America we are still so arrogant we try to down play the deep racism we have. In Canada where I live there are only a small handful of people who even realize that Canada was just as heavy into slavery as the US, but because Canada was still a British colony in 1838 they had to sort of end slavery. but that doesn't mean they treated blacks any better than slaves. And what they did to the native population is absolutely shameful. Even now like the States the history of their treatment of anyone who was in general not a white protestant is never really discussed as Nazis and South African Apartheid. In North America we have practiced very much the same thing we just hide it really well by criticizing others so we don't have to look at ourselves in the mirror.
In my opinion one can not be blamed for what his/her ancestors did, nor can you take credit for any of their achievements. You are not them. But we do have a responsability to teach and learn about it, to make sure it doesnt ever happen again. I think very few countries have dealth with their dark past as well as Germany. Japan for example deals with it quite differently, ... in a way that they dont deal with it at all. As a westerner It is shocking how little they know and what they know is often just plain wrong, they werent to blame is the general idea. So hats off to the Germans, it takes balls to admit mistakes and set things right. Greetz from little Belgium✌️❤️
I'm from Austria and I agree with most of what she said. I am glad that my history teacher also dove into how other minorities were affected as well as jewish victims of the holocaust.
I cryed in the 11th grade, we visit ausschwitz in poland......it was hard. I am glad that this topic is omnipresent. Sally Perel was in my school too. sadly he died this year. he talked about that he was a jewish boy but was in the Hitler Youth to cover it. I liked it that the schools not only talks about stuff but make trips and bring survivors to talk about it. it is one thing to see a documatary or read about it. but if an old man or woman talks about it even the hardest guys gets emotional. and that is the point
3:37 Up to the present day, trials on murders in the concentration camps are still taking place, the defendants are often over 90 years old by now, but were either able to hide from justice by fleeing abroad for years or lived unmolested in Germany for decades under false identities.
I think the main difference between German and US education is the ultimate goal. In Germany, education doesn't necessarily mean to teach kids as much knowledge as possible, but rather to teach them critical thinking and give them the skills to make their own educated opinions based on research and facts. Parents, political parties or other interest groups have no say whatsoever in curriculums. Whereas in the US, curriculums are heavily impacted by (and fought over) between churches, Democrats and Republicans. Ultimately, you are teaching kids to become patriotic and not very critical citizens, whereas in Germany we WANT critical and uncomfortable citizens.
I am over 50 years old from Germany and at school I learned a lot about the ww II period. We've also covered slavery in the United States, and I still remember Langston Hughes' "I, Too" (1932). "Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed. I, too, am America." Many of my favorite American actors are people of color and I am deeply ashamed that we still have these problems in the 20th century. Just as deeply as about our past. Because we have relected our past, we are more open to others. We should not forget that we are all human beings. With the same blood, the same pain and the same worries. What we all want is to grow old in peace and give our children a better life.
I‘m 52 and from Northrhine-Westfalia. The topic was omnipresent. But I also learnt, that the course of the war is simply unimportant info compared with the facts about how hate was generated, how discrimination started, intensified and lead to the killing of millions. What should knowledge about this or that battle teach me - in view of the collapse of all civilisational standards before?
Thank you for reacting to this one. I agree. We have to know where we come from. To understand why we are where and how we are now. Did you learn about the Native Americans and the colonialisation of their land more than about slavery?
In our younger generation which I was born in social media generation (2000) we did not really go into detailed with native American history. All I remember learning about trail of tears native was forced to move to west out of their homeland by the Europeans and the different laws. I taught myself about the Thanksgiving part since my school did not teach me. Some of native America history was erased in America or hidden from us that why we don't know much about it.
First and foremost, congrats to this lady for her thorough study and comprehensive academic writing. This film taught me a lot about Germany that I didn't know before and inspired me to travel, eat their food, and even learn a little of their language. However, America's foreign policy is such a great thing, serving as a brilliant beacon and pinnacle for democracy across the world. This also demonstrates how hypocritical the American government is in light of events in America. Consider doing all of this lovely work in Germany but doing absolutely nothing locally in terms of slavery and systemic oppression of Black people and other minority groups. Which, in my opinion, is a part of American culture and history. They must improve, as does my own nation, Nigeria. With the Nigerian government's relentless suppression of the Igbo people. This is still visible now and has even resurfaced with our 2023 general elections. which have been plagued by several irregularities, including voter suppression promoted by government agencies. At this moment, we all need to learn from the Germans. Governments, in my opinion, should openly apologise for unfortunate events in the past, enable healing to occur, and implement policies that honestly address our history in order to construct a better, brighter future for growth.
As a Finn in my fifties, my opinion is that as a nation Finland has very little guilt for World War II, even though we were Germany's allies in the continuation war.Things are not always as black or white as the winners want to write in the history books. After the Soviet Union attacked Finland, the majority of countries considered it unfair, but only in words and did not help Finland in any way. Without German help in the continuation war, we might have been occupied by the Soviet Union(the enemy of the enemy is kind of a friend). Personally, many soldiers did not feel guilty when fighting against a superior enemy, while some thought that the enemy was also human and that caused the feeling of guilt for the rest of their lives. In today's Russia, the distortion of history and the huge propaganda machine have already caused tens of thousands of deaths. Putler uses exactly the same methods as the Nazis.
I think that knowing all the battles and tactics is not that important. More important is how the war started and how something as the holocaust could happen.
i do agree in the US they need to keep teaching about slavery and all the conversations i lately see about the dark past of the US it is alway slavery as topic but i never hear anything about the treatment of the original population of the country, they deserve recognition also. im dutch and i think we should have been taught about slavery in our past. in my time this never was a subject in my school and i think that is bad.
Actually - I am born late 50ties my parents were always taking about. They had an age difference of 13 years and so the view was different. My father was only the latest year in war before he was in a german school. My mother was a girl on the parents farm. It’s breathtaking what they told. My father was an US POV and made friends with a black GI and he was told by him the US will give the POV to the Russians. He knew that would be horrific and he decided to escape. The GI was furious about the exchange to the Russians because they also knew how terrible the Russians treated POV in Sibiria/Russia. He really escaped and struggled along from the north east of germany to Austria - a wild story. He wouldn’t not go through Czecheslovakia although his mother was Czech - he knew if the Czech would find out he has a german father - they would killed him, because it was allowed to kill germans by anyone by the czech Benesh Decrets. I could tell and tell it was horrible as a child to listen and in school they said always we as child’s were also guilty. Love from Austria 🇦🇹
As a 57 yo German I remember a famous quote from the German philosopher Georg Friedrich Hegel who lived from 1770 to 1831: "the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history". Modern day Germany is desperately trying to prove him wrong by making sure that past, recent and future Germans were/are educated about this atrocity of modern history. It is my strong belief that information about the holocaust should be taught around the globe to raise awareness what members of the human race are capable of doing to one another and thus prevent it from happening again. Not to demonize Germans but to enlighten and educate. Even the ancient Romans came up with the sentence "homo hominis lupus - man is man's wolf". It took over 2.000 years to see that simple sentence come to horrible life on an industrial scale. It mustn't happen again, ever!
Even today, perpetrators, whether directly involved or indirect/complicity, are brought to justice even if they are 99 or older. It's all about justice then, life imprisonment would be more of a joke at that old age. What I'm also interested in, what do you learn in history class about your history as far as slavery or the civil war is concerned.
We are taught slavery, Post-Slavery South era (Jim Crow laws,etc.),about the Civil Rights Movement, and some achievements & important people. If we wanted to learn more, we had to choose African American history as an elective. The curriculum has changed a lot since we were in school.
Even as a French, our history lesson, from middle to high school had too much focus on WW2 and germany. a bit of WW1 and cold war here and there but i really think there was more relevant topic to study. i mean when i went to middle school (97 kid btw) the yugoslav and irak war were just 7 years ago but we barely talk about it. middle east was forgotten from our history lesson, the only exception being the israeli-palestinian conflict but everything concerning irak, koweit, egypt etc were brushed aside pretty quicly. all the topic where the role of France was fairly questionable like the colonisation in North Africa/indochina/etc, were forgotten too. its nearly 200 years of our history and aside from a bit of Algeria war, we never talk about the rest. Like did you know that there was 4 years of civil war, nearly ethnic war in French new caledonia in the 80s. there were assassination, murder, hostage taking and a lot of crazy shit happening, it was a full on "indepedance war". yet i learned of it way later, after my graduation, when i was searching through old INA archive. i mean i'm all for the "we shoud learn ww2, nazi germany, vichy etc to never repeat those mistake" but it seem a bit hypocritical when the education system turn a blind eye to similar event that at the time were just 20-30 years ago.
In sweden I learned about germany and the third reich early on in school. Even met a survivor, that was a meaningful meeting. That said there are subjects not discussed in Sweden and its role in the second world war.
when I was in the 10th grade in a concentration camp that was one of the worst moments for me that I even cried and had to go out because it had become too much for me...
History should not be sugar coated or re-written at all. I also feel that sometimes too much time is spend on certain parts of history and not enough on other parts of history. We should also remember that yes it was Jews who were the vast majority of people killed but there were others killed in the camps as well.
As a regular traveller to the us (1 to 2 times a year to the south) , I can say that a lot of white people still have to understand that they are not guilty but have a responsibility to make it better and acknowledge that there is a problem
What I personally find important for me: Learning from the past, taking it serious and beeing responsible for never let this happen again - but not feeling guilty. As I was born many many years after WW2, of course I am not guilty. This makes me even more upset, that in some countries (I do not want to name them) I was often called "the nazi guy", in one even spit on. Looks like ALL have to learn from the past...
I feel your pain everyday,am a foreigner in an African country and am also African but the way we are being blamed for everything going wrong here is depressing.
Respect yall so much for saying you would focus on Germany even though we know reparations for another horribly phase in human history deserves similar attention
Teaching about the Holocaust is importand, but: Germany also had colonies and, as a former colonial power, is responsible, among other crimes, for the genocide of the Herero in Southwest Africa (today: Namibia). Colonial crimes were in fact overshadowed by the Holocaust for a long time - probably because the industrial mass murder of millions of Jews, homosexuals, Romani, political opponents, disabled people, etc. is unprecedented, while colonial atrocities are "quite normal" for all colonial powers. Luckily that's about to change, returning the Benin bronzes to Nigeria and reparations to Namibia are a start. More steps in this direction must follow!
I also understand why there was silence in the years after the war. Many jobs were done by women because there were no men. Everything was destroyed. When things went uphill in the 50s, nobody wanted to hear about the bad things at first. One must also remember that many men in captivity died after the war ended. As I understand it, there wasn't enough manpower to replace all of the Nazis and there were so many involved that it would be a never-ending process.
What i do not like about the whole topic is the following: Although the holocaust was terrible and cruel (industrialized extermination), genocides are not a thing exclusive to Germany. Just put some research in how many Natives were slaughtered by the American govt as well as American civilians who even were receiving a bounty for indian scalps. Did the US ever pay reparations for this? Is it a topic in schools? I knew an american expat here in Germany whos Great-Grandfather made a living out of hunting Natives.
In the Netherlands we have those stones to to remember victims of the haulecaust.. But we have stones like that in the streets for hour slavery history …..
What about our responsibility for the native Americans *), what about our responsibility for slavery. Wouldn´t it be a good thing if we would have covered our history in a similar way? Sadly - these topics are too politicized, meanwhile. *) when - mostly white - citizens tell other people, to leave, ´cause this isn´t their home country!
I like you guys. I think you have to tell youre children an granchildren never to forget what happend. So don´t forget the past and don´t repeat the past. I am a little bit dissapointed that the usa never regred something. They are always the good and didn´t do no bad things. This is not true. But as an patriot you will allways say, everything was right. The kids should be taught about MeLy in Vietnam or other warcrimes. The people in the usa think that they are the only good ones in the world. But they are not different than the others.
we in Switzerland didn't learn a lot about the WWI and WWII. As you might know Switzerland did business with Nazi Germany, that means sent military goods/weapons and got payments in jewish assets.
if african Holocaust was talked about more as is the jewish Holocaust people might have more heart for africans twenty millions congolese died on the hands of the belgians thats one of the african country there is 54 countries in africa
For me it's poor and no excuse to say "it's so long ago", because the past is forming the future. For me it's a shame that u (people of colour)don't learn about Ur past. For me it sounds like u are accepted but no Part of the society. Thank u for this reaction and greetings from germany❤
swastik is a sacred symbol in buddhism , hinduism and jainism . so it is not swastik but hakenkreuz , a christian symbol as hitler was not practising eastern faiths but western ones
The Hakenkreuz was created by the Nazis so it really is just a symbol of national socialism. It is of Germanic origin though as it is based on the Sonnenrad (sun wheel), a Germanic symbol for luck and victory. But there is no connection to Christianity whatsoever.
@@KaushalRaj-wg5gc to be fair that symbol is very easy to create and it poped up in a lot of culture in different time. I think Wikipedia has a list were it was used.
As a German, I totally agree with your point: "Teach it brutally honestly, without sugar coating."
Become sensitive to any propaganda - do not blindly trust politicians - think for yourself - vote - demonstrate against wrong ways. We can´t change the past, but we can build the future.
But also don't punish the people of modern day for the actions of their ancestors/countrymen. This is something that many Germans are tired of. Being told that you suck and don't deserve respect because of the actions of your grandfather(s) is harmful to society.
@@Geralt_harvey3784 that isnt happening in reality though. I was always Open about my german familys side involvement ( Great Grand father was a big wig) never caught any flak because people in general judge you for who you are and how you express yourself rather than your ancestors actions.
And - please - don't ever let a nationalistic government happen again! In Germany and everywhere!
We
³
Hi, im Alex from germany. I love what you do 😀
@@I31R0 Depens how much indoctrination happend from gand and parents met a couple of pople that were way more radical against me as a german in North America and Europe
Thank you for understanding the point on denying the holocaust. So many Americans, immediately say that this would be against their freedom of speech. By denying or down playing the horrors of that time, one takes away the dignity and the honor of those who survived and of the families of the victims. I like that in Germany, your right of freedom (of speech, opinion, etc.) is restricted the moment, the rights and dignity of other people is infringed by one's actions or speech. Therefore denial or disrespect is not an opinion that can be published without consequences.
Don't say sorry about compairing that topic with your experiences. That is what history and/or learning about other cultures is about. When we don't ask what these things have to do with ourselves, learning about that is useless. When history is just a strange story from far away, it has not much more to it, than reading lord of the rings, or watching star wars. Only the connection of history or other cultures with our own reality let us really learn. Not just the facts, but also the meaning behind the facts. And than we can agree or disagree and find our path to the future
💯
About the term brown teacher:Brown was the color of the uniforms of the NSDAP and the SA. That is why contemporaries at the time described the ideology and supporters of National Socialism as brown. In today's language, brown sentiment means a right-wing extremist, mostly neo-Nazi attitude.
just another fact: did you know that after the end of apartheid, South Africa asked the German government for advice and support in coming to terms with South Africa's past? Germany is one of the most experienced states when it comes to a complete and honest coming to terms with the past
I take my hat off to Germany, it takes a lot of humility to accept the very grave mistakes that your own people made. sadly in North America we are still so arrogant we try to down play the deep racism we have. In Canada where I live there are only a small handful of people who even realize that Canada was just as heavy into slavery as the US, but because Canada was still a British colony in 1838 they had to sort of end slavery. but that doesn't mean they treated blacks any better than slaves. And what they did to the native population is absolutely shameful. Even now like the States the history of their treatment of anyone who was in general not a white protestant is never really discussed as Nazis and South African Apartheid. In North America we have practiced very much the same thing we just hide it really well by criticizing others so we don't have to look at ourselves in the mirror.
In my opinion one can not be blamed for what his/her ancestors did, nor can you take credit for any of their achievements. You are not them. But we do have a responsability to teach and learn about it, to make sure it doesnt ever happen again. I think very few countries have dealth with their dark past as well as Germany. Japan for example deals with it quite differently, ... in a way that they dont deal with it at all. As a westerner It is shocking how little they know and what they know is often just plain wrong, they werent to blame is the general idea. So hats off to the Germans, it takes balls to admit mistakes and set things right. Greetz from little Belgium✌️❤️
I wholeheartedly agree.
Well it's not just Japan there are other countries like America that don't teach certain parts of theur history because they look evil
I'm from Austria and I agree with most of what she said. I am glad that my history teacher also dove into how other minorities were affected as well as jewish victims of the holocaust.
I cryed in the 11th grade, we visit ausschwitz in poland......it was hard. I am glad that this topic is omnipresent. Sally Perel was in my school too. sadly he died this year. he talked about that he was a jewish boy but was in the Hitler Youth to cover it. I liked it that the schools not only talks about stuff but make trips and bring survivors to talk about it. it is one thing to see a documatary or read about it. but if an old man or woman talks about it even the hardest guys gets emotional. and that is the point
3:37 Up to the present day, trials on murders in the concentration camps are still taking place, the defendants are often over 90 years old by now, but were either able to hide from justice by fleeing abroad for years or lived unmolested in Germany for decades under false identities.
I think the main difference between German and US education is the ultimate goal. In Germany, education doesn't necessarily mean to teach kids as much knowledge as possible, but rather to teach them critical thinking and give them the skills to make their own educated opinions based on research and facts. Parents, political parties or other interest groups have no say whatsoever in curriculums. Whereas in the US, curriculums are heavily impacted by (and fought over) between churches, Democrats and Republicans. Ultimately, you are teaching kids to become patriotic and not very critical citizens, whereas in Germany we WANT critical and uncomfortable citizens.
History can Not be forgotten. This and other horrific past acts can't be repeated.
I am over 50 years old from Germany and at school I learned a lot about the ww II period. We've also covered slavery in the United States, and I still remember Langston Hughes' "I, Too" (1932).
"Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed. I, too, am America."
Many of my favorite American actors are people of color and I am deeply ashamed that we still have these problems in the 20th century. Just as deeply as about our past. Because we have relected our past, we are more open to others. We should not forget that we are all human beings. With the same blood, the same pain and the same worries.
What we all want is to grow old in peace and give our children a better life.
I‘m 52 and from Northrhine-Westfalia. The topic was omnipresent. But I also learnt, that the course of the war is simply unimportant info compared with the facts about how hate was generated, how discrimination started, intensified and lead to the killing of millions. What should knowledge about this or that battle teach me - in view of the collapse of all civilisational standards before?
Thank you for reacting to this one.
I agree. We have to know where we come from. To understand why we are where and how we are now.
Did you learn about the Native Americans and the colonialisation of their land more than about slavery?
I only remember learning about Thanksgiving, but it was not the full truth.
In our younger generation which I was born in social media generation (2000) we did not really go into detailed with native American history. All I remember learning about trail of tears native was forced to move to west out of their homeland by the Europeans and the different laws. I taught myself about the Thanksgiving part since my school did not teach me. Some of native America history was erased in America or hidden from us that why we don't know much about it.
First and foremost, congrats to this lady for her thorough study and comprehensive academic writing. This film taught me a lot about Germany that I didn't know before and inspired me to travel, eat their food, and even learn a little of their language. However, America's foreign policy is such a great thing, serving as a brilliant beacon and pinnacle for democracy across the world. This also demonstrates how hypocritical the American government is in light of events in America. Consider doing all of this lovely work in Germany but doing absolutely nothing locally in terms of slavery and systemic oppression of Black people and other minority groups. Which, in my opinion, is a part of American culture and history.
They must improve, as does my own nation, Nigeria. With the Nigerian government's relentless suppression of the Igbo people. This is still visible now and has even resurfaced with our 2023 general elections. which have been plagued by several irregularities, including voter suppression promoted by government agencies. At this moment, we all need to learn from the Germans. Governments, in my opinion, should openly apologise for unfortunate events in the past, enable healing to occur, and implement policies that honestly address our history in order to construct a better, brighter future for growth.
As a Finn in my fifties, my opinion is that as a nation Finland has very little guilt for World War II, even though we were Germany's allies in the continuation war.Things are not always as black or white as the winners want to write in the history books. After the Soviet Union attacked Finland, the majority of countries considered it unfair, but only in words and did not help Finland in any way. Without German help in the continuation war, we might have been occupied by the Soviet Union(the enemy of the enemy is kind of a friend). Personally, many soldiers did not feel guilty when fighting against a superior enemy, while some thought that the enemy was also human and that caused the feeling of guilt for the rest of their lives. In today's Russia, the distortion of history and the huge propaganda machine have already caused tens of thousands of deaths. Putler uses exactly the same methods as the Nazis.
I think that knowing all the battles and tactics is not that important. More important is how the war started and how something as the holocaust could happen.
i do agree in the US they need to keep teaching about slavery and all the conversations i lately see about the dark past of the US it is alway slavery as topic but i never hear anything about the treatment of the original population of the country, they deserve recognition also. im dutch and i think we should have been taught about slavery in our past. in my time this never was a subject in my school and i think that is bad.
Actually - I am born late 50ties my parents were always taking about. They had an age difference of 13 years and so the view was different. My father was only the latest year in war before he was in a german school. My mother was a girl on the parents farm.
It’s breathtaking what they told.
My father was an US POV and made friends with a black GI and he was told by him the US will give the POV to the Russians. He knew that would be horrific and he decided to escape. The GI was furious about the exchange to the Russians because they also knew how terrible the Russians treated POV in Sibiria/Russia. He really escaped and struggled along from the north east of germany to Austria - a wild story.
He wouldn’t not go through Czecheslovakia although his mother was Czech - he knew if the Czech would find out he has a german father - they would killed him, because it was allowed to kill germans by anyone by the czech Benesh Decrets.
I could tell and tell it was horrible as a child to listen and in school they said always we as child’s were also guilty.
Love from Austria 🇦🇹
Thank you for sharing. We’re glad you were able to learn the truth.
As a 57 yo German I remember a famous quote from the German philosopher Georg Friedrich Hegel who lived from 1770 to 1831: "the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history". Modern day Germany is desperately trying to prove him wrong by making sure that past, recent and future Germans were/are educated about this atrocity of modern history.
It is my strong belief that information about the holocaust should be taught around the globe to raise awareness what members of the human race are capable of doing to one another and thus prevent it from happening again. Not to demonize Germans but to enlighten and educate. Even the ancient Romans came up with the sentence "homo hominis lupus - man is man's wolf". It took over 2.000 years to see that simple sentence come to horrible life on an industrial scale. It mustn't happen again, ever!
So glad you're reacting to this video
In school in the US you would not only have to learn about slavery but also what happened to the native people. Do you have?
Even today, perpetrators, whether directly involved or indirect/complicity, are brought to justice even if they are 99 or older. It's all about justice then, life imprisonment would be more of a joke at that old age. What I'm also interested in, what do you learn in history class about your history as far as slavery or the civil war is concerned.
We are taught slavery, Post-Slavery South era (Jim Crow laws,etc.),about the Civil Rights Movement, and some achievements & important people. If we wanted to learn more, we had to choose African American history as an elective. The curriculum has changed a lot since we were in school.
Even as a French, our history lesson, from middle to high school had too much focus on WW2 and germany. a bit of WW1 and cold war here and there but i really think there was more relevant topic to study. i mean when i went to middle school (97 kid btw) the yugoslav and irak war were just 7 years ago but we barely talk about it. middle east was forgotten from our history lesson, the only exception being the israeli-palestinian conflict but everything concerning irak, koweit, egypt etc were brushed aside pretty quicly.
all the topic where the role of France was fairly questionable like the colonisation in North Africa/indochina/etc, were forgotten too. its nearly 200 years of our history and aside from a bit of Algeria war, we never talk about the rest.
Like did you know that there was 4 years of civil war, nearly ethnic war in French new caledonia in the 80s. there were assassination, murder, hostage taking and a lot of crazy shit happening, it was a full on "indepedance war". yet i learned of it way later, after my graduation, when i was searching through old INA archive.
i mean i'm all for the "we shoud learn ww2, nazi germany, vichy etc to never repeat those mistake" but it seem a bit hypocritical when the education system turn a blind eye to similar event that at the time were just 20-30 years ago.
In sweden I learned about germany and the third reich early on in school. Even met a survivor, that was a meaningful meeting. That said there are subjects not discussed in Sweden and its role in the second world war.
In Portugal we talk and learn all of it in school. I believe all europeans know about WWII
when I was in the 10th grade in a concentration camp that was one of the worst moments for me that I even cried and had to go out because it had become too much for me...
extremely informative! thank-you family
History should not be sugar coated or re-written at all. I also feel that sometimes too much time is spend on certain parts of history and not enough on other parts of history. We should also remember that yes it was Jews who were the vast majority of people killed but there were others killed in the camps as well.
As a regular traveller to the us (1 to 2 times a year to the south) , I can say that a lot of white people still have to understand that they are not guilty but have a responsibility to make it better and acknowledge that there is a problem
What I personally find important for me: Learning from the past, taking it serious and beeing responsible for never let this happen again - but not feeling guilty. As I was born many many years after WW2, of course I am not guilty.
This makes me even more upset, that in some countries (I do not want to name them) I was often called "the nazi guy", in one even spit on.
Looks like ALL have to learn from the past...
I feel your pain everyday,am a foreigner in an African country and am also African but the way we are being blamed for everything going wrong here is depressing.
you are wonderfull people (!)
Greetings from Heidelberg/germany
we have German friend, age 60 and she still is offended is someone jokes about jews.
Respect yall so much for saying you would focus on Germany even though we know reparations for another horribly phase in human history deserves similar attention
BTW: what did you learn in school about the Vietnam War?🤔
Teaching about the Holocaust is importand, but: Germany also had colonies and, as a former colonial power, is responsible, among other crimes, for the genocide of the Herero in Southwest Africa (today: Namibia).
Colonial crimes were in fact overshadowed by the Holocaust for a long time - probably because the industrial mass murder of millions of Jews, homosexuals, Romani, political opponents, disabled people, etc. is unprecedented, while colonial atrocities are "quite normal" for all colonial powers.
Luckily that's about to change, returning the Benin bronzes to Nigeria and reparations to Namibia are a start. More steps in this direction must follow!
I also understand why there was silence in the years after the war. Many jobs were done by women because there were no men. Everything was destroyed. When things went uphill in the 50s, nobody wanted to hear about the bad things at first. One must also remember that many men in captivity died after the war ended. As I understand it, there wasn't enough manpower to replace all of the Nazis and there were so many involved that it would be a never-ending process.
My experience of young Germans is that they know everything that happend, and they feel a deep generational guilt.
Danke! Greetings from Germany!
Why didn't your school visit Plantations? it's cool they went to Germany but weird they mostly ignored signs of slavery there.
🤷🏽♀️
What i do not like about the whole topic is the following:
Although the holocaust was terrible and cruel (industrialized extermination), genocides are not a thing exclusive to Germany. Just put some research in how many Natives were slaughtered by the American govt as well as American civilians who even were receiving a bounty for indian scalps. Did the US ever pay reparations for this? Is it a topic in schools?
I knew an american expat here in Germany whos Great-Grandfather made a living out of hunting Natives.
you guys are gonna have to come visit wuppertal, we have the worlds first suspension railways and lots of histrical things too
In the Netherlands we have those stones to to remember victims of the haulecaust..
But we have stones like that in the streets for hour slavery history …..
What about our responsibility for the native Americans *), what about our responsibility for slavery.
Wouldn´t it be a good thing if we would have covered our history in a similar way?
Sadly - these topics are too politicized, meanwhile.
*) when - mostly white - citizens tell other people, to leave, ´cause this isn´t their home country!
I like you guys. I think you have to tell youre children an granchildren never to forget what happend. So don´t forget the past and don´t repeat the past. I am a little bit dissapointed that the usa never regred something. They are always the good and didn´t do no bad things. This is not true. But as an patriot you will allways say, everything was right. The kids should be taught about MeLy in Vietnam or other warcrimes. The people in the usa think that they are the only good ones in the world. But they are not different than the others.
we in Switzerland didn't learn a lot about the WWI and WWII. As you might know Switzerland did business with Nazi Germany, that means sent military goods/weapons and got payments in jewish assets.
if african Holocaust was talked about more as is the jewish Holocaust people might have more heart for africans twenty millions congolese died on the hands of the belgians thats one of the african country there is 54 countries in africa
What makes you think that people would not have a heart for Africans?
@@matthiasklopke161 did you get the point
Yes. Yes we do.
At the end, the sad truth is that justice is might makes right.
For me it's poor and no excuse to say "it's so long ago", because the past is forming the future. For me it's a shame that u (people of colour)don't learn about Ur past. For me it sounds like u are accepted but no Part of the society. Thank u for this reaction and greetings from germany❤
swastik is a sacred symbol in buddhism , hinduism and jainism . so it is not swastik but hakenkreuz , a christian symbol as hitler was not practising eastern faiths but western ones
The Hakenkreuz was created by the Nazis so it really is just a symbol of national socialism. It is of Germanic origin though as it is based on the Sonnenrad (sun wheel), a Germanic symbol for luck and victory. But there is no connection to Christianity whatsoever.
@@hansschwanz7696 using the name swastik itself shows how west wants to malign other's cultural symbols
@@KaushalRaj-wg5gc to be fair that symbol is very easy to create and it poped up in a lot of culture in different time. I think Wikipedia has a list were it was used.