This is a guest blog post by Ryan Cascardo. Ryan is a graduate student at the Seton Hall School of Diplomacy and International Relations. His specializations are Latin America and the Caribbean and International Organizations. His interests include the functional roles of the multilateral community, human rights advocacy, and migration and refugee issues.
On Thursday, 26 January 2017, DPI/NGO held a briefing on “Holocaust Remembrance: Educating against Extremism, Building a Better Future”.
Moderator:
Ms. Kimberly Mann, Chief of the Education Outreach Section, Department of Public Information, United Nations
Panelists:
Dr. Steven Luckert, Curator of the Permanent Exhibition at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Professor Jaimey Fisher, PhD, Professor of German and Cinema and Digital Media at the University of California, Davis and Director of the Davis Humanities Institute
Mr. Thomas Schieb, Minister Plenipotentiary, Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations
Ms. Virginie Ladisch, Head of the Children and Youth programme at the International Center for Transitional Justice
Ms. Gillian Kitley, Senior Officer and Head of Office of the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect
Several of the panelists discussed not only what has been done to memorialize the victims of the Holocaust, but the Nazi’s rise to power, the role education played in the spread of Nazi propaganda, and the importance of education of the Holocaust for present and future generations. Dr. Luckert noted that many of the problems of the 1930s in Europe are not exclusive to that period, some still exist presently. He cited a study highlighting the grim reality of children having difficulty distinguishing between real and fake news, which can lead to the spread and acceptance of propaganda. He also advocated for the “critical” consumption of information. He, like the other panelists, stressed the importance of the role of education to counter fake news and other forms of propaganda. There is currently an initiative against propaganda sponsored by the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Dr. Luckert posited the question of how the Nazis rose to political power in Germany, when only a handful of years earlier, their party was essentially considered outlandish and perhaps even a pariah party. He pointed out that voters ignored the racism of the Nazis and voted for other parts of the party platform. Their logo of the swastika, was a helpful logo which not only distinguished their party, but also used the colors of an older version of the German flag to emphasize party strength. Much like many political parties of today, the Nazis targeted their messages toward particular audiences. While this practice is highly common today, it was a new type of political advertising in the 1930s. The Nazi party was a relatively youthful party, Hitler and his top advisors were all under 50, and appealed to young people. The Nazis presented a vision of a strong, unified German people, only the Jews were not considered true Germans by the Nazis. Dr. Luckert ended his remarks by highlighting the dangers of propaganda in Nazi Germany and modern times.
Professor Fisher opined on the importance of education in Nazi Germany and the denazification of Germany after the war. During WWII Germany’s school system was fraught with propaganda and misinformation. After WWII, the Allied countries wanted to eradicate Nazi propaganda by making it illegal and ‘de-educating’ the German populace. The de-Nazification in the German education system took place between 1945 and 1949. The official US policy was to de-educate the German population then re-educate them during that time. Also during that time there were measures taken to ensure teachers in Germany would not teach Nazi propaganda in their classrooms or demonstrate views which were sympathetic towards the Nazis. To achieve this, rigorous questionnaires were submitted to then-current teachers about their political stances and ideas, as well as going through extensive interviews.
Because of these proceedings many teachers were removed from the German education system altogether. Which left the German education system wanting for instructors, at a time in the post-WWII era the average teacher to student ratio was 1-70 per classroom. Additionally, a more democratic view of school was made the norm. Students were encouraged to get involved with their student body governments, teachers encouraged debates in class, and new school clubs were formed. Mr. Schieb explained that the need for Holocaust education was paramount in Germany, not only in history classes, but in other aspects of education as well. German premier Angela Merkel has stated the need for Germany to come to terms with its own past. Mr. Schieb went on to claim that places of remembrance of the Holocaust in Germany were not enough to prevent future atrocities from occurring. He too emphasized the importance of education in extensively covering the Holocaust, in areas of politics, human rights, biology, and other areas outside of history class.
Mr. Schieb also made clear that the stories of those that survived the Holocaust should not be lost to history. He expressed with urgency the need for the testimonials of such people to be recorded for posterity, so once the survivors have passed on people can still have an oral history of the Holocaust atrocities. The culture of remembrance of the Holocaust is critical for it not to be repeated. Ms. Ladisch then discussed how her work with youth in post-conflict situations or post atrocities and she too emphasized the grand role of education in those types of situations. She stressed the need for “civic education” and the ability for young people to move from their harsh pasts to respectful futures, and that education was the key to doing that.
Ms. Kitley discussed the need to combat religious and political extremism, and stated whether extremism appears to be political or not, it does have political objectives. History does indeed repeat itself, so even the slightest instance of divisive discourse should not be normalized. Groups of people should not be allowed to be publicly marginalized. Again, education is a recurring theme, as Ms. Kitley highlighted the utmost importance of not only scholarly education, but also education at home- creating an accepting environment, and teaching children to be open-minded. She also stated that education should be based on the international human rights framework and that teaching critical thinking in schools is essential to preventing discrimination. She closed by saying that we all have a responsibility to not let extremism become normalized.
-Ryan Cascardo