"Why Do We Always Have to Say We're Sorry?"

Proske, Matthias

doi:10.2753/eue1056-4934440302

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Thinking with her remark, guilt could be the factor that is out of control, a looming threat of potential accusation, even if it is not mentioned explicitly. This resonates with Proske's () results about the underlying discourse of guilt in history classes. According to his study, teenage students reacted to the topic Holocaust as though they were being accused, even though nothing remotely similar to an accusation was formulated.…”

Section: Concerns In Cologne: the Holocaust Can And The Holocaust Shouldsupporting

confidence: 76%

“…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 2012). Many research participants did not feel personally connected with the German past, but they are, as has also been found by other researchers (Assmann 2006;Moses 2007;Proske 2012), intimately familiar with the discourse of German guilt.…”

mentioning

confidence: 85%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

Krieg¹

2015

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Holocaust, a significant moral principle for contemporary Germany, is embedded in a politically and emotionally charged discourse of remembering and forgetting. German politicians and young German adults often perceive the Holocaust as a threat associated with guilt, and call it Totschlag‐Argument, killer‐phrase, or Keule, bludgeon. This paper analyses how the Holocaust is endowed with agency, and how demands to control its powers are aligned with this. Some young German adults used this narrative practice to position themselves in the German memory discourse, while others criticised it. This paper argues that agency attribution contributes to the mechanisms of forgetting by reducing the complexities of social and historical entanglements.

show abstract

Section: Concerns In Cologne: the Holocaust Can And The Holocaust Shouldsupporting

confidence: 76%

mentioning

confidence: 85%

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

Krieg¹

2015

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…When von Weizsäcker in 1985 talked about guilt as a strictly individual category and said that “our young people are not responsible for what happened over forty years ago, but they are responsible for the historical consequences”, it became a way for evading the guilt question by replacing it with a more diffuse and less personal notion of responsibility (see Proske, :54). Such responsibility was interpreted by the students in this study as the act of remembering and was disconnected from any sense of responsibility for German complicity.…”

Section: Conclusion: Reuniting Guilt and Responsibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Guilt(y) Today? What Some German Youths Say After Virtual Encounters with Shoah Survivors

Morgan

2018

J Historical Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Against the theoretical background that sketches Biblical, legal, historical, psychological and biographical perspectives on guilt, this article examines the mental models that some German youths have in relation to the experiences told by Shoah survivors. Ethnographic descriptions and discourse analytical interpretations of these models are based on six participants’ responses to video‐graphed interviews with Shoah survivors. These responses were video‐recorded during a public presentation that the youths gave in a German small‐town in honour of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Results indicate that attitudes to the crimes of the Shoah consist largely of formulaic recitations of commonly‐adopted discourses that separate guilt from responsibility and silence the crimes in multiple, subtle ways. To balance this, some counter‐examples are provided from other German contexts. The article ends by offering pointers towards appropriate ways of being responsible.

show abstract

“…In addition, key leaders from several source countries of these immigrants and refugees have been quoted as denying the Holocaust and expressing explicitly anti-Semitic sentiments (Porat, 2013). The increasing distance of memory for native-born German students paired with tensions from students who may have been previously educated in countries which deny the very existence of the Holocaust requires a culturally relevant, sensitive, and inclusive approach to Holocaust education that is lacking in many of Germany's schools (Proske, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocaust Education in Germany: Ensuring relevance and meaning in an increasingly diverse community

Vitale

Clothey

2019

FIRE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's 'open-door' policy towards the recent wave of migrants and refugees to Europe shows promise for expanding the workforce and increasing diversity, yet opens up some significant cultural and religious differences. Although the government has created programs to aid in their transition, little attention has been paid to how school curriculum, particularly education on the Holocaust, is presented to students for whom the event lacks personal, religious, or social relevance or who may have been taught that it is a fabrication. This study focuses on how classroom material presents the rise of National Socialism and the Holocaust through a document analysis of curriculum materials from a Gymnasium in Hamburg, Germany. Results show that even at the highest level of the education system, students are not being presented with the material in a way that draws relevance to the present day nor fosters meaning for recent immigrants. For the Holocaust, which is both a significant historical event and a critical lesson in the importance of universal human rights, effective education is imperative in order to combat present global trends of radicalism and intolerance.

show abstract

"Why Do We Always Have to Say We're Sorry?"

Cited by 10 publications

References 6 publications

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

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

Guilt(y) Today? What Some German Youths Say After Virtual Encounters with Shoah Survivors

Holocaust Education in Germany: Ensuring relevance and meaning in an increasingly diverse community

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About