[D Letouzey]

This "Holocaust fatigue" has been described in the French medias :
http://www.goethe.de...er/frwalser.htm
I have also read on the controversy about an exhibition on War crime.

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As Historians what we should be pointing out to our pupils perhaps is the fact that the Holocaust of the 1940s was only unique in its scale and that this was a reflection of its place in time rather than its location in central Europe.

Unique in its scale ?
I should continue to make the difference between the Dreyfus Affair and the planned Destruction of the European Jews : there has been a long term antisemitism, but as an history teacher, I have to focus on why so many where killed between 1940 and 1945.
This debate has been renewed by the creation of a Holocaust Memorial Day (in French, which has added "how to prevent new genocide" - “Journée de la mémoire de l’Holocauste et de la prévention des crimes contre l’humanité »
http://www.ac-nancy-...TML/memoire.htm

In French, I have tried to summarize the main issues of this essential teaching :
http://dletouzey.fre...eda/enshoah.htm
http://dletouzey.fre...da/enshoah2.htm
One of my main sources is Georges Bensoussan (Centre de Documentation Juive contemporaine) who made 2 conferences for the Cercle d’étude de la déportation et de la Shoah
mai 2000 : http://aphgcaen.free.../bensoussan.htm
déc 2002 : http://aphgcaen.free...bensoussan2.htm

I shall set 4 POV : human, historical, political, teaching

Human :
Being French, I have met mainly people who suffered nazi policy :
- in my family, one uncle escaped death between Norway and Germany ; my father should have gone for the STO, but as many “jeunes réfractaires”, he refused to go and had to hide himself for several months.
- At school, we had several survivors’s testimonies : Simon Igel had been deportee at AuschwitzIII (Monowitz), Jacques Geindre was sentenced to death in 1944, near Lyon, and that’s miracle if he still lives.
I have accompanied survivors in Auschwitz, in Birkenau, in Mauthausen.
Most of these men and women do make the difference between young germans (or austrians), and those who choose to help the nazi regime.
http://aphgcaen.free.fr/cercle.htm


Historiography :
until 1972, french history was dominated by a gaullist or a communist view : for them,the Vichy regime was a puppet goverment, all French had resisted against the german occupation.
A film, “Le chagrin et la pitié”, a book (Robert Paxton, La France de Vichy) set an opposite view : for them, all French had searched accomodation and were nazi auxiliaries.

We have also to be cautious about the victimisation tendancy, frequent in the recent historiography.


Politics :
This history has strong political commitments, in France, in Europe, in the Middle-East.
In French, Maurice Kriegel studied « Trois mémoires de la shoah : Etats-Unis, Israël, France » (à propos du livre de Peter Novick, " L’Holocauste dans la vie américaine ") in Le Débat 117, nov-déc 2001. This paper should be translated and be online. Just a small point from this paper : in Washington, there is an Holocaust Memorial, but no afro-american or indian memorials.

In 1987, Le Pen tried to help “les assassins de la mémoire”, -those who want to believe nobody was killed in Birkenau,- using the word “detail” about the Holocaust (13/09/1987).
http://www.anti-rev....92b/part-6.html

Now, France is shown by Bushists and by Sharon as an antisemitic country. Sharon ‘s french followers try to “stigmatiser” all those who think that another policy is possible in Palestine.
Of course, it is impossible to ask people from Algeria or Marocco to support his policy.

In Israel, this history is totally linked to politics. Claude Lanzmann who made Shoah has also made a film in praise of Tsahal. Some of those who escaped the Holocaust have fought in 1948 against Palestinians (Naqba – Nakbah)


Education :
- Simple facts, first : in France, the history of the second world war was taught in Terminale, at the beginning of the last year in lycee.
From this year on, it will be taught in première, in may or … in june.
Most survivors of WW2 are worried by this change.

Then, it is difficult to spent more than 2 hours studying The Destruction of the European Jews
In a 1965 textbook, there was only 9 lines on this subject…
Of course, “to compensate”, there is a Memorial day in January…


3 arguments, to end this long message :

- I agree that Holocaust teaching is an historical task .
But can we avoid teaching moral judgement ?
I do agree also about studying democratic or authoritarian characters.
I think we need time to try and explain how a country, a generation choose a dictator and his racist policy.
In France, now, most of our pupils read Primo Levi, either for his insight view of the nazi camps, and for the pages where he tries to explain, but not to “understand” nazi racism.
http://hgtice.free.fr/peda/bac03cd.htm

- We have also to teach the Algerian war of independence.
Some French soldiers were torturers.
But historians don't forget that, at that time, a strong French minority fought this policy and these methods.
http://www.usfca.edu...erm/algeria.htm

As an historian, I insist both on the "general, social, cultural, political context", and on the individual behaviors who lead to these crimes.
What is frightening, is to read George Steiner : Music concerts did not stop during nazis crimes. Culture cannot protect us from a genocide.

- For me, nazism was a pathology of nationalist ideology.
In a way, the building of a united and democrat Europe was and is the BEST answer to this pathology.
But only if we don’t teach a mythological european history, trying to forget that our countries wanted to rule the continent, and that they used violence and wars to achieve it.
And if we bear on mind that the recent success of right wing politics in many countries, the triumph of a liberal economic policy may question some of us.

This post has been edited by D Letouzey: 31 December 2003 - 08:33 AM

[Dan Moorhouse]

For those of you able to read German, Ulrike has done as suggested by John Simkin and posted in his mother tongue on the international forum. This is available in the Deutsch section of the International forum.

[UlrikeSchuhFricke]

I am astonished that so many colleagues replied to my posting.
For me teaching the Holocaust is the most important and most challenging topic because it shows what human beings are capable of - good and bad.
And I agree to my French colleague that the Holocaust is not only unique because of the sheer number of people brutally murdered but unique in human history so far. It was the first planned attempt to extinguish a people, a culture with the means of industrial production. I do not want to compare the Holocaust to any other genocide because this means for me "belittleing" what really happened. And I want to make my pupils understand that the Holocaust was not the only and first attempt of genocide but that it was without precedent in its complete lack of any morality and that the ones actively involved in it felt no constraint and killed indiscriminately without any feelings of pity and regret. And this is another thing which I want to make my pupils see that ordinary people like you and me and not psychopaths murdered on a daily basis and till today do not show any signs of feeling guilty. Most of those who were put on trial for the things they had done did not confess guilty; on the contrary many saw themselves as victims of the German system of justice (there is an interesting German documentary about women on duty in the concentration camps and one of the most brutal torturers and killers complained bitterly about being in prison).
And I think it is important to show the pupils how easy it is to manipulate people still today; there is a very interesting experiment called "Blue Eyed" which shows this. I think it is based on a British experiment and shows how easily even grown-ups can be turned into people who start hating abusing others because some have blue eyes others have not. The novels "The Wave" and the "War of the Classes" fictionalize similar sociological experiments in the USA.
On the one hand I agree with the point that anti-semitism has a long tradition in European history and that every nation has its fair share of discrimination against the Jews but on the other hand the Holocaust was very different from the traditional forms as it was based on race and racism and not on religion. You might have heard of Edith Stein; she was born a Jew but converted to Catholicism and joined a convent but she too was murdered. And I think it is important to make this difference and its consequences clear. A Jew in former times could save his/her life by converting but this did not help him/her in Nazi Germany. Many Jews in Germany were completely assimilated and lived like their Christain neighbour but this did not save them.
I have never tried to use some of Primo Levi's texts in my lessons but I think it might be worth while trying as the texts offer information and give an insight into what Auschwitz really must have been. Primo Levi's story also is a good example that the Holocaust or better its effects on the victims did not end with 1945, which is yet another important point for the pupils to see and understand.
I agree that it is necessary to teach this topic as objectively as any other topic, but there must be more than historical facts. It might be due to my teaching Politics as well that teaching the Holocaust for me is part of teaching citizenship: to make my pupils see and understand (and hopefully act accordingly)that democracy and Human Rights must be protected - not only on a political or even global level but every day and e.g. in school: no bullying, no derogatory remarks, no sniggering when someone makes a mistake etc.
I am not sure if school and education can do something against the rise of Neo-Nazism. The problem is that those who join know exactly what happened in Germany and they support those ideas and movements because they want another Holocaust, this time not only directed against the Jews but nearly every ethnic minority. As I said I do not know if or how much education and teaching the Holocaust can help against these movements but the lesson I learnt from that particular time of German history is that I must do my best to not let such a thing happen again and I do not want to be blamed (as I blamed my parents and their whole generation) of not having done anything against another rise of barbarism.
"For me, nazism was a pathology of nationalist ideology.
In a way, the building of a united and democrat Europe was and is the BEST answer to this pathology.
But only if we don’t teach a mythological european history, trying to forget that our countries wanted to dominated the continent, and that they used violence and wars.
And if we bear on mind that the recent success of right wing politics in many countries, the triumph of a liberal economic policy may question some of us. "
I wholeheartedly agree with this.

[D Letouzey]

- Many thanks to Ulrike fort starting this discussion, and for his last message.
You may read Primo Levi, If this a man, 1976 addendum :
"How do you explain nazis' hate against Jews ?"
http://hgtice.free.f...cd.htm#extraits

Who can find, on the net, the full question 7, in english, or in italian ?
http://digilander.li.../gglibri-00.htm

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Racism of course is not a german problem or indeed a European problem

Andy,
I may distinguish between nationalism and racism.
Hitler used the first to came to power.

This is why I did refer to Europe : we are not preparing for the next "european civil war"
(I use it in a general meaning, not in Ernst Nolte 's view).
That 's a big difference with our "arrière-grand-parents".

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It is very difficult to manipulate critical thinkers

If only you could be right !!!
In France also, history teachers pretend to teach "critical thinking".
But your may know that in France, we have had a 21 april 2002...

Happy 2004
Daniel

This post has been edited by D Letouzey: 17 January 2004 - 09:21 AM

[UlrikeSchuhFricke]

I think that I share some of Daniel's scepticism concerning "critical thinkers" but I also share Andy's view because trying to teach and encourage pupils to question rules. laws our teaching seems to be the only way to strengthen democracy and Human Rights.
France did have the elections and the LePen affair but the outcry and demonstartions which followed (late, but better late than never) also spoke a very clear language.

[D Letouzey]

Le Nouvel Observateur has just publish a Hors série magazine on "La mémoire de la Shoah".

Nothing on Internet, yet.
http://www.nouvelobs..._43/index2.html

But an important question : Holocaust history with (Philippe Mesnard) or without images (Claude Lanzmann) ?

In 2004, we may discuss this issue, if you agree.
Daniel

[Dan Moorhouse]

In the talk that prompted me to start this thread the issue of image usage was raised. It is a very important area to discuss. In my first year or two as a teacher I used lots of images that now I wouldn't use. Some of the images were quite horrific, both still photos and moving picture. I'm not sure what I gained from using these images, other than a short sharp shock for a few children. Now I tend to make use of a wider range of images but limit the number of 'graphic' images that are used.

[John]

Dan - Why do you limit the content of Holocaust pictures? What benefits does this have over showing graphic pictures?

This post has been edited by John: 01 January 2004 - 05:14 AM

[Dan Moorhouse]

John, on Jan 1 2004, 05:14 AM, said:

Dan - Why do you limit the content of Holocaust pictures?  What benefits does this have over showing graphic pictures?

Its not limited, I've broadend the types of images used. As a result the proportion of graphic images used is much much lower than it was when I first started teaching. I'm not sure of the benefits of using so many graphic images. Students are so used to seeing images of death in films now that showing them images of dead people, even on such a large scale, really no major effect. I got the feeing with my students that they really were just taking the images for granted and not appreciating the fact that they were real. Now I go for an approach that looks at the development of anti-semitic policies and consequently the images used relate to things such as Kristallnacht, ghetto's, badges etc. I do still include some images that are fairly graphic, but I can't see the need to make a class watch 30 minutes of 'Camps of Death' or whatever graphic video when the same point can be made as effectively in 30 seconds with a carefully selected set of photographs and sources.

[UlrikeSchuhFricke]

Quote

I'm not sure of the benefits of using so many graphic images. Students are so used to seeing images of death in films now that showing them images of dead people, even on such a large scale, really no major effect. I got the feeing with my students that they really were just taking the images for granted and not appreciating the fact that they were real. Now I go for an approach that looks at the development of anti-semitic policies and consequently the images used relate to things such as Kristallnacht, ghetto's, badges etc. I do still include some images that are fairly graphic, but I can't see the need to make a class watch 30 minutes of 'Camps of Death' or whatever graphic video when the same point can be made as effectively in 30 seconds with a carefully selected set of photographs and sources.

I agree with that and I have made the experience that texts e.g. testimonies given by witnesses or defendants during the important trials (like the Auschwitz trial at the beginning of the 60's in Frankfurt) are more impressive and moving; texts give the mind the possibilities to form its own images of the atrocities and horrors faced by the prisoners; the same goes for letters written by people in prison waiting for their execution.

This post has been edited by Dan Moorhouse: 01 January 2004 - 11:32 PM

[Dan Lyndon]

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I'm not sure what I gained from using these images, other than a short sharp shock for a few children

I totally agree, Dan. I am now much more wary of showing the 'gore factor', particularly in the all boys school that I teach in. I remember vividly a conversation, earlier this year, with one of my yr 9 students who was looking at images of soldiers killed in the First World War. He said he was 'bored' by seeing this kind of picture and reeled of the different films/tv programs/adverts/playstation games etc where he was exposed to this. The blatant description did shock me, but actually did not surprise me. I guess this links in with the idea of Holocaust fatigue already discussed.
Last year I used images from the children's camp at Auschwitz which led into a far more interesting and valuable discussion about living through the Holocaust rather than focusing on the numbers murdered / the Nazi killing machine. I also use personal accounts (members of my family were Holocaust survivors or anti-fascists) to bring home the real nature of the experience, although this is a double edged sword - I don't particularly identify myself as Jewish and that is unfortunately the key factor that most of my students dwell on.

[D Letouzey]

Holocaust and Images

2 remarks :
- If this text needs some corrections, let me know. I shall edit it.
- My students are 17 or 18. This may be important to understand this message.


Several issues :
- How were these images made ?
- What sense may they have today, where images are everywhere ?
- What should be the best strategy for teaching the holocaust ?

1 – From a French view, part of the debate can rely on the comparison between 2 main films :
Nuit & Brouillard (Alain Resnais) vs Shoah (Claude Lanzmann).
http://dletouzey.free.fr/resnais.htm

NB was made in 1956. In it, German camps are seen mainly as jails for political “resistants” who have fought the nazi rule in their country. No direct mention of the destruction of the European Jews by Hitler and the nazis.
Shoah was made later (1985), at a time when the killing of the European Jews was no longer « a detail ».
During 9 hours Lanzmann filmed witnesses and survivors of this destruction of men. He had that nazis wanted also to destroy all traces of the jewish life.
But he refused to use archive images. For him, only words could express this man-made horror.

For 20 years, French teachers have been using mainly Nuit & Brouillard. It was easier to get it, the film was far shorter than the original 9 hours of Shoah. The shorter version of Shoah,in DVD, needs nore than 3 hours.

Another question : how can films deal with the Holocaust memory ?
2 recent examples :
In Schindler ‘s list, Speilberg shows only showers, not gaz chambers.
Benigni ‘ La vita e bella have set other questions.

2 - Images and Webpages
In 2001, I went to Auschwitz with some survivors.
http://picasaweb.goo.../Auschwitz2001#

What logic guided me in my choice of 30 images ?
First, to think of these men and these women : Raphael, Renée, Yvette, Jacques, Maurice.
Then to differentiate Auschwitz I and Birkenau.
The last one suggests the conflict between polish and jewish memories :
the small israeli flags were put, the same day, by young israelians
http://dletouzey.fre...rs/monument.jpg

All these photos are in color, except one about hungarian Jews.

F Ghesquier and C Krajewski have made another website :
http://home.nordnet....quier/cadre.htm


3 - Images and the historians

Several questions, for the historians :
Who made the images we may use :
- the german tortioners ?
- the deportees (we know some examples in Birkenau, or in Mauthausen) ?
Mauthausen images where shown during the trials of the nazis.
In justice, can an image be used as a legal point ?

But most images were made after the opening of the camps :
That was the case in Bergen, where Sydney Berstein took advice from Alfred Hitchcock and from Peter Tanner.
He used a long “plan-sequence”, to avoided cut and montage.
Some of these images, showing the “mechanic” burial of the corpses had a reverse effect, and were not shown for some years.
Some Russian films were made just after the opening of the camps.

2 sources, among others :
. http://www.holocaust...uhmmmguides.htm
11 . Be sensitive to appropriate written and audio-visual content
. H-Holcaust (H-Net) http://www.h-net.org/~holoweb/


- 4th and last question : what role the images may play in teaching ?

I have used several minutes from a really good documentary from George Stevens (D-Day to Berlin).
The sequence showing the american soldiers arriving in Dachau is short, but very effective.
Normally, these images are not used apart from texts and other sources, from photos taken in 2001 in Birkenau… For me, they show both what horror did the american soldiers discovered in 1945, and how they reacted when some kapos tried to hide themselves among the survivors !!

Some psycho-analysts say there may be, in theses images,
a « fascination pour l’horreur ».
But as an historian, we must contextualise.
Death representations have totally change in our modern societies.
(in french, Christian de Cacqueray « La mort confisquée : essai sur le déclin des rites funéraires »
We have also to teach the difference between today and the past, between facts and fictions.

The last time I used these images in a video, it was just before a jewish survivor came to tell his own “life” in Auschwitz-Monowitz.
But some years ahead, as history teachers, we shall be let alone to teach what a politician and his racial system did to destroy millions of men.

This post has been edited by D Letouzey: 17 January 2010 - 12:52 PM

[Dan Lyndon]

I was wondering what plans people have been making to commemorate this years Holocaust Memorial Day on January 29th - the theme this year is about the genocide in Rwanda as it is the tenth anniversary - you can find details here;

http://www.holocaust...ion/tmemory.asp