Education After Auschwitz in a United Germany

Empirical and Normative Foundations of Holocaust education: Bringing research and advocacy into dialogue

“…These implicit comparisons become increasingly important as Holocaust education spreads into societies that are more distant from the Holocaust itself. The lack of a direct link to the Holocaust in many parts of the world means that its relevance must be established, interpreted, and argued; these processes of comparison and of meaning-making are key elements in the universalization and globalization of Holocaust education (Macgilchrist and Cristophe 2011;Meseth 2012). Even in contexts in Europe such as Scotland, educators are finding some less direct connections to the Holocaust (Cowan, this issue).…”

“…Even in contexts in Europe such as Scotland, educators are finding some less direct connections to the Holocaust (Cowan, this issue). The universalization of the Holocaust, such as the picture that developed in Germany after reunification as the two former halves of the country tried to reconcile and combine their different approaches to the Holocaust into a new perspective (Meseth 2012), can pave the way for avoiding the local dynamics and particulars of the Holocaust.…”

“…Together with Gross's observations on the matter, we are better positioned to establish the common features of Holocaust narration in the region across many decades and political shifts, while also honing in on the local variations that appear in particular contexts. These trends within Central and Eastern Europe can then be linked to global trends, including the periodization proposed for Israel by Gross (2010) and Meseth's (2012) excellent comparison of the former East and West Germany. These trends in turn can be indexed to the global textbook changes documented by Bromley and Russell (2010).…”

‘It's a realTotschlag-Argument’: the attribution of agency to the Holocaust among contemporary young German adults in a discourse of remembering and forgetting

“…And according to Rosenthal's (: 13) study, anxieties, obstructed family communication and other psychological implications are visible in third‐generation descendants of Nazi perpetrators and accomplices. On the other hand, the life‐worlds of contemporary young German adults are far away from National Socialism, and studies frequently report their lack of interest in the subject, or a refusal to deal with it (Meseth ). Many research participants did not feel personally connected with the German past, but they are, as has also been found by other researchers (Assmann ; Moses ; Proske ), intimately familiar with the discourse of German guilt.…”

“…The 1968 students’ revolts were a breach in this silence, with students publicly holding their parents’ generation accountable for the Third Reich (Olick and Levy : 929). During the 1970s, movies and autobiographies further opened up the memory discourse (Wiedmer : 4), which became more established during the 1980s, and was renegotiated in the 1990s after the reunification between East and West Germany (Wiedmer : 88; Meseth : 14). Debates about the heritage of National Socialism still occupy the German public today.…”