Niko Lamprecht, head of Germany’s History Teachers’ Association (VGD), told the paper that educators are encountering “growing resistance” when lessons turn to National Socialism and the Holocaust.
“Many students show a marked reluctance to engage with this chapter of our past,” he said.
The VGD and the German Historians’ Association (VHD) warned that family and cultural influences play a decisive role in shaping young people’s attitudes.
Calls to “let go” of the Nazi era are becoming more common and risk eroding awareness of the regime’s crimes, the groups said in a joint statement.
“In the wake of Hamas’s October attack on Israel and the Israeli military response in Gaza, denying or trivializing the murder of Jews is no longer confined to schools with high numbers of pupils from migrant backgrounds,” the statement added.
“Indifference, ignorance and fake news provide fertile ground for such attitudes.”
With the last eyewitnesses to Nazi rule now in their nineties, historians fear collective memory is fading and the atrocities of the era are being downplayed or relativized.
The VGD and VHD urged federal and state authorities to reinforce Holocaust education, expand teacher‑training programs and ensure up‑to‑date classroom materials.
“Eighty years after the war, keeping the facts straight is harder than ever—but that makes the task all the more urgent,” Lamprecht said.
(jh)
Source: PAP