When the real horrors of the Holocaust became know at the end of WW2, the world was astounded, the mantra "never again" became a catch cry and Germany tried, in many respects valiantly and decently, to "repair" what it had wrought so terribly during the Nazi era.
Over the years the Germans have not only solidly and materially supported the State of Israel, but it has paid reparations to victims of the Holocaust and openly made efforts not to hide from the populace the horrendous actions of the Nazis.
It is therefore more than troubling to read this report in Haaretz:
"German schools are failing in educating students about the Holocaust, a new study by a political education center has found, as German youth, who one historian said use the word "Jew" as a common curse in daily discourse, are increasingly distant from the suffering of the victims of Nazism.
According to a study commissioned by the Federal Agency for Civic Education, a political education center known by its German acronym BPB, history courses no longer manage to teach Germany's younger generation of the horrors of the Nazis.
In the report, which appeared in the German educational magazine Focus-Shula, teachers are quoted as saying that they are having trouble impressing upon school children the horrors of the Holocaust, and have stated that their tools for teaching about the Shoah are not effective.
"The entire time we stood before the crematoriums of Auschwitz, the students took more interest in the types of pipes used to pump in the lethal Zyklon B gas, and not the fate of the Nazis victims," a teacher was quoted as saying.
In their words, this generation's students are less sensitive to the horrors of the Holocaust than any before."
Time for action is obviously called for.
Over the years the Germans have not only solidly and materially supported the State of Israel, but it has paid reparations to victims of the Holocaust and openly made efforts not to hide from the populace the horrendous actions of the Nazis.
It is therefore more than troubling to read this report in Haaretz:
"German schools are failing in educating students about the Holocaust, a new study by a political education center has found, as German youth, who one historian said use the word "Jew" as a common curse in daily discourse, are increasingly distant from the suffering of the victims of Nazism.
According to a study commissioned by the Federal Agency for Civic Education, a political education center known by its German acronym BPB, history courses no longer manage to teach Germany's younger generation of the horrors of the Nazis.
In the report, which appeared in the German educational magazine Focus-Shula, teachers are quoted as saying that they are having trouble impressing upon school children the horrors of the Holocaust, and have stated that their tools for teaching about the Shoah are not effective.
"The entire time we stood before the crematoriums of Auschwitz, the students took more interest in the types of pipes used to pump in the lethal Zyklon B gas, and not the fate of the Nazis victims," a teacher was quoted as saying.
In their words, this generation's students are less sensitive to the horrors of the Holocaust than any before."
Time for action is obviously called for.
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