Hey Germans This Video was fill with surprising facts that i never knew about, feel free to share whatever extra history regarding WWII from the Germans perspective. Thank you for watching! click this link to add German videos to playlist on RU-vid so that i can react to whatever German videos you would love to see me react to. ru-vid.com/group/PLXhs9SvQ0metWyVtXwK7sQ8mTsgYAa1Bf&jct=_giRaSTESqry1O3zaDeVAwJdp6skxA
Depending on age and family documentation, almost everyone could also provide (semi) private information. About grandfathers/great-grandfathers who happily, voluntarily joined the Nazi party, who donned their uniforms full of conviction; Grandmothers/great-grandmothers who proudly mentioned their "Mother's Cross" in silver (The requirements for awarding the Mother's Cross of Honor corresponded to the NS ideology. Accordingly, a woman could only receive the Mother's Cross if: a) the parents of the children were of "German blood" and "hereditable", b) the mother was worthy of the award (i.e. “hereditally healthy”, “decent” and “morally impeccable”), c) the children were born alive. The classification of the cross of honor followed the statutes of the order at the time and was designed in three stages. So the mother could: third level ("Bronze") if she had four or five children, received second level ("silver") if she had six or seven children, first level ("Gold") if she had eight or more children.) Or also about grandmothers/great-grandmothers who, as widows, tried to flee their region* and dressed up as old women because they otherwise feared rape by (particularly) Russian soldiers. Grandmothers/mothers who, as children after the war, were happy about a slice of bread with jam for their birthday. Or grandfathers/fathers who, as small children during the war, lay almost alone in the hospital for a year with burns. * Withdrawal of the population (escape) was only allowed if the Gauleiter or Mayor ordered it, all those who left the region beforehand were considered traitors.
My comment on your previous video reacting to Nalf, which had me battle my dyslexia for a couple of exhausting hours to tell my very personal perspective, may be aplicable here aswell. I tried to explain in it, why i think the german society as a whole, and therefore the school curiculum, is tasked with preserving the memory and preventing repetition of the atrocities in order to grant a significant part of the population the possibility to leave dark spots in their individual histories behind.
They did not find his remains. Vanished. Gone. No DNA - nothing. Russians kept a skull for many years which was claimed to be his, but turned out to be of a female body in the end ... No remains. No evidence. It's as easy as that.
100 %! People talking about the Russian war on Ukraine in social media often do not understand this special aspect about it and the pain and devestating tragic it represents for germans.
Absolutely! I believe that it is particularly hard to understand specifically to Germans with their education about their history that countries like Russia (maybe no surprise here), Hungary, Poland, Turkey or nowadays even the USA (Trump!) choose a path to nationalism and totalitarianism out of the own free will of a major part of their people.
having learned all this in school and seeing that the left is doing the same thing the nazis did back then is pretty hard. if you speak up against the indoctrination of children and censoring all opposing sources you get cancled.
we in Germany learn really all about WWII. When i was in 11 grade i had the upportunity to talk to 2 survivers of the Holocaust. My Heart crashed listenting to their Storys (not only Story, their life). Its important to learn all of this horrific time and we all have the responsibility that this will never never ever happen again. We in Germany are aware how important this is
@@pfichtner01 true, and think its more important than ever right now. So much countries with rising far right Parties…no, this rassism shit, hate against humans must stop right now.
@@cloudinee lol, the most fascist group in Germany BY FAR is the ANTIFA. Same is true in many other countries - the most fascist and extremist groups are those who claim they are for diversity. But you soon realize how they react to you if you have a different opinion than this group. Then the hate and the fury against you are heavy and the fire is lit to burn the heretic who dares to voice another opinion...
Alas you only are presented "Nazis bad", but you are not taught to be independent thinkers and really understand the principles behind the Nazi brain washing. Sadly the past 15 years have very clearly shown that the majority of you haven't learned a bit since 1945.
About responsibility: I'd assume (or at least hope) that the majority of my fellow germans agree, that we, the people that didn't live in that time, are not responsible or at guilt for the atrocities of the nazi-regime. BUT we DO have a responsibility to make sure this NEVER happens again. And for that reason we must keep teaching this in schools. As the famous saying goes: "He who forgets his past is doomed to repeat it" And yes, Hitler shot himself before the allies had the chance
people somehow forgot or dont know the left can do the same. because the left is doing pretty much the same thing and people are supporting it. we are going down the same path again just not with the right wing but the left this time.
I agree with the responsibilities of us and all that will come after us. We cannot let crimes like this happen ever again. But it makes me also desperate. That we are allready again at roughly 10% people who are not able to see that they get instrumentalised by humanhaters again.
@@AkselGAL the green and the left currently are doing what the nazis did back in the 30s its not the afd thats the problem currently. Its the current government. And if you have learned anything from The past you know that if people are unhappy and disappointed from their government they tend to vote for the extremes. Thats what’s happening right now. The current government admitted publicly to not give a fck about what the population of their own country want so the people turn to the only party that says we do the things you want and fix this mess. Same as it happened with the nazis. But the current government is responsible for that not the population.
I have never seen such a great attitude from any other countries like Germany before. Not even Japan. German pride will be restored through self reflection rather than wealth and military power. 👌I have learned alot since living in Germany. Thank you for sharing.
Japan got the Problem that their Was bombed with nuke bombs. So lot of Japanese people think they are the victims. Of course that's not wrong, however japan did a lot of bad things too back then
"Not even Japan"? Japan is VERY far from acknowledging their atrocities all over Asia. Most Americans know little more than Pearl Harbor and the atomic bomb. And most of Japan like to focus on the latter.
I was genuinely surprised (I'd say even a bit shocked) by your reaction about the Hitler's self-termination. I think I've never met anyone who doesn't know that. I can't even process that info and I'd really like to know what you were taught about in your school.
So true.When I ( german) visitied the US, people asked me whether I came from Germany by bus, if Hitler was stiil alive ( 1989) if we had electricity and toilet paper
As a German I can agree, the NS Regime and WW2 are discussed in great detail. We watched horrific movies and went to a concentration camp in Highschool, reading books like ‚Die Welle‘ is also Common. They really focus on teaching how propaganda works and how facism was able to develop among millions average Germans. I think it’s necessary because we learned critical thinking and how to identity signs of extremism and hidden propaganda. But yeah I would never say I am patriotic or proud of being German because instead of a culture we carry shame as a history, i don’t really feel connected to my Country in an emotional cultural way. but I guess you could call it appreciation of how privileged I am to be socially, medically and financially secured by the Government if I ever needed it. So yeah I am definitely happy to be German :) Fun Fact: Nevertheless when it comes to Sports, there is definitely a German mentality and community. The only time you will see Germany Flags on Houses and Cars is during Big World Championships haha besides that it would be totally weird to have German Flags everywhere
As a fellow German, I think it's a good thing to not be patriotic, why should anyone be proud of a country? But I also think we have a "positive" culture, classical literature and stuff and special food and drinks, depending on the region where you live. In bavaria, they have the Oktoberfest culture (some of them seem to find that positive 😉), here in Hesse we have our Bembel with Äppler, etc.
So basically the guilt trip that you don't have anything to do with because in all likelihood you were not an adult in 1945, makes you a sheep for the globalists who are the Nazis of today. Because you still haven't learned to think for yourself. Congratulations.
Our kind of education leads to funny behavior from the view of other countires. I saw a german man reacting to health care in the U. S., together with other guys from different countries. In the end of the video all of the guys were supposed to wave little flags of their countries. The geman guy said slightly confused, "I am german, we don't wave flags!" waving it awkwardly. I did so feel it and the contrast to the other guys was hilarious...😂
Oh, they do. When there is the World Cup. Other than that the Germans have been brain washed to hate their country and themselves, to pave the way for the self destruction led by the Greens we are seeing RIGHT NOW!
When we went to a concentration camp with the school...on the bus on the way back was a really weird, quiet, thoughtful atmosphere. Almost no one said a word...but I think thats how it should be, to reflect the visit and think about it.
Same here as we visited Dachau. i noticed, the teachers are really aware of how this might effect us. And they did a great job talking to us and explain
yeah that doesnt work with every class. some of my classmates behaved pretty childish. impersonating hitler while we were inside the camp etc. sadly no teacher or authority saw it.
Don't know how you feeled. When I visited "Neuengamme", which was a "forced labor" concentration camp, not a death camp. Also lots of people died there, the pain, the suffering, despair, it feeled like an invisible cloud still present. It is a memory that never fades with me.
At my school WWII was everywhere in 10th Grade. We covered the subject in History class, German class, Religion class , even in Art and Music Classes, so in fact we were confronted every day with WWII in school, which was crazy and sometimes way too much. We also went to concentration camps. That was 2015/16 when all those fugitives from Syria and around came to Germany (which was covered in politics class) which was making it so much more real. Because some of them shared their story with us and it was just heavy to realise that war didn't end with WWII but that it is very much going on over the world. The worst part for me was going home after school and have to listen to my racist father, knowing everything he says is wrong and bad but not daring to speak up because he was abusive. I felt so much under inner pressure that year my grades dropped completly and didnt dare to speak one word at home. School shaped my moral view that year so much. I'm very happy we learn so much about it at school now, because my father clearly didn't or he would have realised that those fugitives are not so different from his own family who were war fugitives themselves.
Education about WW2 is really formative and detailed here in Germany. This includes not only theory, but most of the students have also visited a concentration camp memorial. In my region we were also at old fortifications on the German-French border. There is also further educational work beyond the school and the processing of this time continues. For example, the federal state of Saarland published a list of victims of Action T4 (a mass murder of physical, mental and psychological disabilities in 1940 and 1941) in its borders just a few years ago. It is also almost impossible to turn on a German history channel without catching a Nazi documentary. (Today, Hitlers [insert something banal here] - with Guido Knopp) There are also days of remembrance, such as January 27th, the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust; April 7, Jewish Holocaust Remembrance Day; and November 9th, the day commemorating the November pogroms of 1938. On these days, there are always people who walk through the city with buckets, sponges and polish to clean and polish the Stolpersteine (stumbling stones).
Boah, Guido Knopp ... And a long, long barrage of "good germans" interviewed ... At least we owe him the "World War Three"-Mockumentary I watch every year on third of october ...
As a German, I can say that this is very true. I was shocked when I saw how big the German Empire actually became and how successful it was. In school, I didn't see a map. We learned mainly only about Poland, the Soviet Union and France. And yes, Hitler committed suicide.
@@christiansaenscheidt9056 Also an eine Karte von all den besetzten Gebieten kann ich mich halt wirklich nicht erinnert und über Afrika oder so haben wir ja gar nicht geredet
We had lenghts of teachings about Africa..... and loads of maps.... (Gymnasium in Southern Germany, maybe it depends on the Bundesland and the school form.)
There is a very nice saying which summarizes my personal experience history classes in Germany: "It is not your fault that the world is as it is. But it would be your fault if it stayed like this" Sometimes it was hard for me in history classes, because especially WWII is a major topic there. Besides the bare facts that were presented and had to be studied extensivly, we've been shown a lot of documentaries or movies that were gutt wrenching for the most part. I was happy when I left school for work not to deal with that on a regular basis any longer, but at the same time I am really greatful that it was such a big topic at school. It is important to know why things happened in order to not repeat the same mistakes again.
We actually complained at one point that we also want to discuss literature not related to Weimar Republic and WW2. I had read about 20 such novels, bevore I "met" Goethe. (And then we did enless Goethe stuff and complained again :) Literature, politics and history classes together really covered everything so that that even a bad student like me understood a big chunk of the dynamics. In hindsight they did a great job.
Haha, I feel you! I got so sick of it, I wanted to learn OTHER history.And what really annoyed me was that hostory and politics always seemed to end with the end of WWII, like, we never really talked about much that happened afterwards (I went to school in the 80s to mid 90s), and somehow anything after WWII is a pretty much a blank. But it has given me a very healthy dislike of nationalism and patriotism, and at the same time an appreciation of living in modern Germany. I don't feel guilty, but responsible about that time period and will do my personal best to prevent it from ever happening again. Edited to add: Another thing that many non Germans don't seem to understand: I cannot remember a time when I did not know what Nazis were and how much Germany messed up, that is how early they teach us. They talk about it to very young kids, which is good.
Also, Religion and Biology at least in my case (NRW in the 90s) covered Nazi Ideology and replacement-religion, esoterism etc.; even in english we learned about the "Blitz" and occupation time with an american novel from that era. There was literally no semester from 7th grade on where it wasn`t present in at least one subject in some way.
8:00 That was not always so. If you would go back about 40 to 50 years, you would encounter many senior teachers prone to avoid some topics and instead letting their 10th grade pupils make presentations about the different campaigns (if the pupils were interested, the literature and sources would however often point them to the truth behind - the atrocities one the one hand, and the internal conflicts on the other hand. One example: The general leading the Africa campaign - which target was to relieve the Italian ally in Libya - was Erwin Rommel who ordered in the end a retreat against Hitler's general order, but instead of getting punished for it, he got the command over the defense efforts in France (and was wounded in the first days of the allied invasion by an airstrike). Most of his staff took part in the failed conspiracy to remove Hitler at the 20th of July 1944, and he was listed by them as candidate for the Interim Presidency - which was the reason he was forced to commit suicide in spite of not participating in the conspiracy himself. The conspirators in France had already detained the SS troops, but faltered at the news of Hitler not being dead, and some of them released the SS officers, who then in turn arrested them. Another example are reports of the regular army participating in atrocities, while the public at that time still believed that those atrocities were "only" the doing of the SS.) 10:35 Yesterday the public broadcasting service ARD replayed the 2004 documentary feature "The Downfall" at prime time (8:15 pm - 10:40 pm) which narrates the story of Hitler's last days from the perspective of a young secretary, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 77th Academy Awards (see the reference at 12:04). On 30 April 1945 Hitler administered poison to his dog Blondi, bode farewell to the bunker staff, and committed suicide by gunshot, while Eva Braun took (willingly or not) cyanide. In this testament he dismissed his deputy Heinrich Himmler (who had organized the Holocaust) for all posts because he had heard of Himmler's unauthorized attempts to get an understanding with the Western Allies against Stalin. Instead propaganda minister Joseph Göbbels assumed the chancellorship, but committed also suicide one day later (together with his wife Magda, after she had administered cyanide to their six children). Heinrich Himmler was detained and arrested by British forces, but managed to keep a hidden potassium cyanide pill on himself and committed suicide at 21 May 1945. Herman Göring, war fighter pilot in WW I, since 1935 commander-in-chief of the German Air Force, since 1936 also responsible for the economic Four Year Plans (which aimed to prepare the economy for the war), had sent a telegram from the headquarters in Berchtesgaden on 23 April 1945 asking if Hitler was still capable of acting and that he would take over command if he got no answer. Hitler removed him from office and ordered his arrest by the SS, which released him after Hitler's suicide. He drove to Salzburg and surrendered to US Forces on 7 May 1945, one day before the unconditional capitulation of the German Army. He became the highest ranking defendant at the Nuremberg trials and was sentenced to death, but committed suicide by potassium cyanide the night before the scheduled execution. After Hitler's suicide became known, many lower Nazi functionaries also committed suicide, while others fled the country. 12:35 The "sense of collective responsibility" is not a "sense of collective guilt", at least not anymore. It does not focus on the past, but on the future: The responsibility of "never again", and of fighting against totalitarianism and fascism, which is shared by the majority of Germans (about 4 to 5 out of 6) nowadays. Expecting a pledge of allegiance to a flag (or educating children to do so) is in German experience typical for totalitarian regimes, the Nazis as well as the Communists in the GDR - as a German you can simply not trust people propagating such a behavior. Many Germans see themselves however as "constitutional patriots", showing pride in the current democratic constitution, which puts human dignity and human rights in the front - but that same attitude means not to pledge allegiance to some colors or a piece of cloth or a single political party.
One Thing i love about Germany and some of the other EU countries, is the fact that they are not trying to hide the past, the horrendous acts the country has done, but they also show the good things. When i went to school, we were taught about other countries ofc, but also about the past of Germany and how things went down, when we were not around. We learned about "The good, the Bad, the ugly" in proper manner during school. I don't feel guilt of being german, there is nothing we can do to change the past, but we can strife to do better and not repeat history. It is important to learn from the past so that you will never repeat the same mistakes, aswell as being inspired by the good deeds. I have witnessed some countries who do NOT teach the past, or if they do then it is not accurate and/or they leave out a ton of truths. It's sad to see... A friend of mine who back then went to high school in USA was boasting how "pure" their country is, and that they never did "horrendous things" ... I then said two words to him: "Manhattan project"... he had NO idea what that was....
Not only Hitler commited suicide on April 30. 1945 in Berlin in the Bunker he took Eva Braun with him who he married on the same day... also Göbbels and his wife commited suicide as well but even in those last moments they were still that ruthless that Göbbel´s wife poisoned her 6 kids (age 12, 11, 9, 8, 7, 4) as well...then she went playing cards...after that she went to bed and poisoned herself as well on April 30. 1945..Göbbels took his life with poison the next day on May 1. 1945....and the next day on May 2. 1945 the Russians took over whole Berlin and the war was over. Yes it were the Russians who ended WW2 actually.
Hitler also killed his 2 dogs before killing himelf. And all of Hilter's great-nephews had made a pact never to have children so that Hilter's genes die out.
"Yes it were the Russians who ended WW2 actually." It was the Allies together, not Russia alone, they would never have managed in their military condition (=Stalin's purge). the usa supplied russia with communications equipment. 1/3 of the russian military fleet was american. UK, France and USA attacked Germany from the West, forcing Germany into a 2 front war. Without that, the Russians would not have been able to get within a meter of Germany. I always find so incredibly disrespectful to the Allies. By the way, Russia is also to blame for the start of the war, which is always too easy to forget. And then we must not forget that all the victorious powers wanted to divide Germany among themselves so that there would no longer be a Germany. The USA alone stood up for the German people and took Germany under its protection. It promoted and believed in the country. Germany owes its eternal gratitude to the USA. By the way, after the war, the USA did not subjugate Germany like Russia... see GDR
This "anecdote" is based during the war - so not absolutely in the context of this video. I'm half German, half British (German mother, British father - military - I was born in 1948). I learn't as a youngster that during the war, my youngest aunt was still at school. She told us that the teacher asked all the pupils to tell what their families spoke about at dinner time. My grandfather had nothing good to say about the Nazis and my aunt told her teacher. A few days later he was arrested and sent to a concentration camp - luckily it was the end of the war and the US soldiers released him among all the other prisoners still alive. My aunt, when older, never got over what she had done to her father - not sure whether the orders of schoolteachers were ever spoken about .....
Yeah my family has similar stories to tell! One of them is: we had hidden Jewish in our House, living in the attic (it's even with a bathroom 😅). So they ask in school, what did the pupils do on weekend every Monday! And for a few weeks my grandmother was ask a second question, who ate with you! Luckily she was smart enough to tell them... Only with my family, but it was clear something came out and they investigated even in school! Over night the Jewish needed to go, and that was good... Only hours later the ss came and searched the house but couldn't find anyone anymore and my family survived.
As children (we were born in the 60s) we also wondered why so many people looked the other way. But then an elderly neighbour told us how many of these fanatics were guarding the people. ..." you learn to keep your mouth shut when you see the SS kicking in your neighbour's front door at 2 o'clock in the morning because he didn't hang out a flag"...
my grandmother was born in 1920 and she had a jewish grandmother who converted to christianity. she was already dead when the nazis came to power, but my grandmother was so afraid of what would happen if the wrong people found out about it, she never told anybody, not even my mother (who was born after the war). in fact my mom was only told about it by her aunt after my grandmother died at the age of 90
A lot of people don't know or tend to forget that this was called a Terror Regime. There is a story about a comedian from a town in nothern NRW. He told jokes about Hitler in his little show. People warned him that he acted reckless, but he waved them aside with a smile and said: Mister Hitler is a man of humor, he will understand a few jokes.' A week later some SS soldiers watched his show. They dragged him out on the street. After he got terribly beaten up with a pipe they left the comedian there and told him, he wouldn't be able to tell jokes about the Führer without teeth.
Well done Giobozz!👍 I appreciate your more mature approach to deep dive into these not-so-simple issues. Many of your RU-vid colleagues avoid these topics because they fear they could offend us Germans, or because they simply do not dare to address these topics to us Germans because they do not know how we could react. Well, we even welcome explaining our point of view on the subject. So, no fear- jusk ask for it. On the subject of school: I myself have been taught this topic for several years at school. And it' was not just limited to history classes. The topic was treated interdisciplinary. In history the historical facts were explained to us, in politics the political background and consequences. In Geography the Geopolitical facts and consequences. In the German lessons, literature like mentioned in the video had a big part. And last but not least in the art lessons, in which Nazi art and terms such as "entartete Kunst", wich translates to something like "degenerate art" were dealt with. Many students have visited a concentration camp with their class. So did I and I have to say this hit me hard, because everything suddenly went from being a story from the history book to a tangible reality. And yes, as befits a true coward, Hitler committed suicide to avoid capture by Russian troops when the situation in Berlin became hopeless. Thanks for your reaction to the topic!
Same here in South Germany! We even had a few battles discussed and based on timeline, were the Germans have invaded other countries and the new borders! Which was mentioned in the video... are often not taught (Maybe) anymore, bc i went to school in the 80s😅. My great grandfather died in the war and all of my grandparents lived through it, survived the war and imprisonment! In my childhood I had the opportunity to ask them directly, what it was for them during this time, how they felt and what they had to endure! Very insightful, way more than everything school taught me! We all ended up crying in the end!
Im german and never realised that apparently other nations learn about specific battles. We never ever talked about one. Only about what the guy in the video said.
I was thinking about something while I listened - I'm always fascinated when I hear about US-American parents and groups wanting to ban books and movies, or just history lessons, because the truth of war and all that might be too upsetting for the poor little fragile minds. Meanwhile, I think the first time we watched "The Wave" was when we were twelve. Animated movies like Animal Farm, Watership Down, or When the Wind Blows were shown on TV in the afternoon and considered suitable for children (I know, those aren't WW2 related, but they do have heavy, serious themes that mean to challenge the viewer). We were in 9th grade when Schindler's List was released in Germany, so, 14-16 years old. Our teachers talked with us about the movie and firmly recommended everyone goes and watches it because it's important. So we did. And yes, it was shattering and much more impactful than just reading about the events in school. And that got me curious for a moment and I had to look up something. Schindler's List is r-rated in the US and considered an adult movie?! SERIOUSLY?!? It's rated 12+ in Germany. Stop coddling kids, folks. They're smarter than you give them credit for and watching/reading things that intellectually and emotionally challenge them is a good thing. Working through sad emotions is a good and very healthy, important thing. Lessons and empathy need to be taught and learned, not told. If you keep sanitizing the world for them, you don't get to complain when your kids grow up to be confused and overwhelmed by the raw version of life that is out there (and I'm not just looking at the US, I noticed that this trend is slowly creeping into parenting styles here, too). You don't get to complain when your teenager or young adult child doesn't understand the world and can't handle the challenges that come at them. If you refuse to let your child learn about the sad and dark sides of life, you don't get to judge when they need a therapist later to equip them with the tools to handle life. It's your fault because you refused to equip them when they were in your care. Now go and read the real Little Mermaid fairy tale to them with the actual ending and do the work-part of parenting and walk them through it so they'll be better equipped to handle heavy emotions and facts when you show them Schindler's List as a teen. God, this actually really irritates me. Schindler's List. One of the most important movies, R-rated. That's just shameful.
As a German I would love to see other countries to reflect the own history more objectively. Some Germans are getting tired being reminded of their "shame", but as an antinationalist I can't hear that one anymore. It is getting worse in other countries as well and it shows, one of the deep problems in the world is nationalism. And if you still want to be proud of your country, my dear Germans, then be proud of it for being so reflective.
It's great that you are dealing with this issue. Thank you very much! As a German, it is exactly this aspect -- the unadorned communication of German history -- that I'm proud of.
I am actually shoked, that it is unknown, that Hitler shot himself in the head. He poisened his dog, shot his wife Eva, and then killed himself. Bevore that, he made sure, there was ehnough gasoline available to burn their corpses afterwards in the backyard of the bunker. The half burnt corpses were found by the russian . In my state, Baden Württemberg, it was mandatory, not just learn about this part of our History ( in higher grades), but also the visit of a Concentration Camp, and the bunkers of the maginot line, the huge french defence line during the war. There are also many Third Reich documentories on TV.They don't just show pure facts, but also the involvement of certain Industries, Hitlers privat life, the women of the regime, and many more , so it shows, the triviale side of the whole regime, and how normal people came to be a part of it. ❤ From Germany.
I wouldn't be surprised if the US teaches their children that some "heoic US soldiers" have killed Hitler. Maybe somebody like the RL Captain America .. lol.
9:40 About the idea of "good" and "bad" in German citizens of that times. Yes, that's one major point of focus for my personal teaching of NS history. I always try to include in my teaching how normal people can be seduced to following murderous ideologies. I try to find historical sources which demonstrate these mechanisms; not to somehow excuse the people of that time (i.e. the generation of my own grand parents!), but to make my students understand that they always have to be careful not to be seduced and drawn into terrible ideologies. This only works by comparing the historical development with present day dangers, i.e. our own, modern fascist political movements. And yes, as a German teacher I can do such things. The law regulates that I can represent my own personal stance as long as I represent the constitutional principles and as long as I do not advertise a biased position towards positions in the limits of this scope. Even my principal is not allowed to interfere with my teaching as long as I follow these rules.
I am from Germany too. While I applaud the idea to teach the seducing mechanism of certain political group dynamics I find it rather disturbing that you seem to see no problem in influencing ur kids with ur personal political agenda. Maybe I misunderstood what u wrote, but this is of course not a legit way of teaching. It is called indoctrination. Btw, did u discuss the recent Corona time in that context? It was an exellent contemporary example of how these mentioned group dynamics work: how perfectly decent people suddenly single out a group and hit on them.
@@juanzulu1318 My "political agenda" is the democratic foundation of our constitution. Not only is there no problem with teaching these principles to students, it is my goddamn duty by law.
@@neleabels then why do you mention that you teach ur "personal stance" if it is nothing more than teaching the concept of our constitution? No teacher, just like journalists, should inject tbeir personal political view into their job. If they do then they try influence by exploiting their position of power - and this is definately not their job, neither that of journalists nor that of teachers.
Same here in Denmark every thing is in including info about the 12000 danish men who joined Hitlers army. i have both resistens fighters and traitors in my heritage.
Hey, just found your channel and I like how open to learning you are. Some channels I can recommend (without having looked at your previous videos) are Blackforest Family, My merry messy life and Feli from Germany.
We all know to take yt videos about other cultures with a grain of salt and doubt, but as a German I can safely say: THAT IS EXACTLY HOW I (and my peers) WERE TOUGHT IN SCHOOL. Whoever did their research on this video must have been a national ;) Otherwise I really can't explain it!
I used to live in Göttingen for a while. On one of the crossroads, there stands a base of the memorial to the German soldiers fallen in the East-Africa. This was the German colony, where one of the most genocidal war against the native Herero tribe took place. Under the historical plaque, there stands a newer plaque, explaining the atrocities and stating, that once there was a steel eagle on the base. The eagle was then decapitated by Germans themselves, its body kept in the local museum, while its head was sent to the descendants of Herero.
I went to school in Rhineland-Palatinate (Southwestern Germany) from 1994 to 2006. In the last three or four years of High School we not only learned about WW2 and the Holocaust in history class but visited sites of Jewish heritage with our religion teacher, like a synagoge in a nearby village (which is now a carpenter workshop, where mainly caskets are made) and a former women's bathhouse to learn about the Jewish faith and which part it played in our local society before the Holocaust and the fate of certain people from that community. A few years later we also visited a concentration camp in Northern France. In German class we read a novel by a Dutch author about a boy who gets confronted with racism for the first time. And our drama class performed a play about a neonazi. Many students didn't understand why we had to talk so much about the Nazis and racism, but I think the older we got the more we understood the importance. Maybe it also felt pretty far away because we lived in a rural area and we didn't come in touch with racism that much. To be honest, we were pretty racist. It's easy to tell jokes about people of other religion, nationality and/or ethnicity when you don't know any personally and all you hear are stereotypes. I don't know if students in more multicultural city schools think different about their curriculum regarding those matters.
13:00 Pledge of allegiance. Yes. We Germans are incredibly touchy about any expression of patriotic sentiment. Personally, I think that this is a good thing because it protects us from falling prey to feel good nationalism. We don't like these sentiments. And that's a good thing because we know where they can lead to...
10:33 And people wonder how come that some Americans when they meet a German person they ask if Hitler is still alive. The one detail that U.S. schools forgot to teach :/
NEVER AGAIN!!! Best regards from Germany ;) In school I believe the first time I was confronted with Nazi war crimes was when I was in 5th grade and we visited a concentration camp and we all saw the horrible images that our grandparents produced. So obviously back at home I talked to my grandfather because he was first on the eastern front and then on the western front and after the war 8 years in a russian gulag prison because he was pretty decent sniper in the stalingrad period and escaped the russian prison after he was caputered ad made t back to germany and was deported back to russia after they found him in the west. I talked to him. he was actually a farmer or of a farmers famiyl and to be honest. He showed me a lot of pictures of his "travels" to other countries. For a kid he made it seem like it was really jsut travel. He cried a lot though and the days haunted him every night my mother said. As a young kid I did not really understand why. He was a really really great grandfatehr and an amzing father to two kids after he came back from the war. I hope people outside of Germany can understand that there is always a human behind any soldier. I wish the Nazis knew that there is a story behind every human. Its horrible horrible things that are ot to be excused.
Vienna/Austria here: It was a large part of history classes at school. We actually also saw a Nurenberg Process documentary in school at age 15, our class also made a trip to the concentration camp in Mauthausen and they also showed us a documentary about 500 fleeing inmates of a concentration camp in Austria that were hunted down „Mühlviertler rabbit hunt“. Besides the regular history classes about WW II these were the most impressive happenings that I remember untill today. Knowing that we all had that education here, I really cannot bring myself to understand how it is possible that right wing fashistoid parties get so many votes at the moment. Their main voters are under 50y, male . We all had the same extensive history classes about WW II, antisemitisme, rising of the nazi party, its main players etc etc
I can tell you as a German Pupil (Grade 7) I was devastated having to watch ( it was mandatory) and learn all those gruesome things that happened. I felt sick to the core learning about the Konzentrationslager. Looking back I was way too young to be confronted with all the violent terrible things that happened. We had to visit Dachau and I was so overwhelmed imagining all the pain and sorrow of the Jews that I threw up and had to leave.
Yeah ww2 was such an important topic at my school. But nothing comes close to having survivors visit us and talk about the Holocaust. I'll never forget that.
Overheard two old ladies in Germany, in an exhibition closely connected to the topic. Lady one: " The Americans were so nice. They gave us chocolate." Lady two: " Yeah, they also raped us, so there is that." I did major in history. Nobody ever talked about that side. Ever. So while we're grateful for the US joining the war and helping to end it, it s not all cookies and candy.
And yet, one should not argue one-sidedly, only to thus portray Russia as the good guys. EVERY warring party has desecrated and pillage and brand. BUT one must also mention... without the USA today's Germany would not exist. R.I.P. George C. Marshall
@@TommiBrem but he is right. The difference is how crimes are dealt with. As far as I know the US army sanctioned such crimes while the Russian s didnt. That is the ethical difference which is relevant.
@@dumontxt9813 Without the USA plus every other country that fought Germany and then helped Germany. The US likes to paint itself as THE saviour, while it is one of many.
So I'm German, I grew up in Germany too And to be honest, we don't need an extra streaming service for Nazis in Germany beforehand Dennis are two TV stations that seem to have practically specialized in this And to deliver exactly this content, namely N24 and NTV
I am sooo sure, you would like "History of the entire world, I guess" by Bill Wurtz. Great video for more like a generall jingly history lesson. Would love seeing you react to it
Sometimes I felt we had too much on school about WWII and Holocost (in the 80s). It begann in the 7th grade till 10th grade. 4 years long, not only in history class, also german literature and other subjects. I wish I had learned anything about Vietnam or Cambodia or so.
Same thing here. 4 years of WWll in school. When I graduated I realized how uneducated I actually was when it came to history. But at least we knew everything about Hitler and Nazi-Germany 🤷
Funny that he didn't mention the almost obligatory KZ visit. Very often, German students in the higher classes are taken on a school fiel trip to one of the KZ memorials, the most prominent, but inaccesible one being Ausschwitz. But even if the school doesn't go full out on such an extensive field trip, I'd wager that about 90% of German students visit some sort of Nazi museum. Our class went to an old Gestapo headquarters in Cologne- they showed us the old cells, with hundreds of inscriptions etched into the walls by the prisoners. It was all original and it was heartbreaking. They also showed us the execution room. It left a deep impression on me. What I mean to say, excursions such as this are very common in German schools and probably a pretty much standard part of the curriculum.
That Thumbnail. Oof. At this point it feels like the U.S didn't learn anything from our failures and are headed that same direction. At least they feel more authoritarian than ever... .
Absolutely to both of you. I wish Americans had better opportunity to own their own history's failures. After watching American politics for about a decade now there seems to be little to no way to openly discuss and improve on issues like racism, personal liberties , health care, identity and so much more. Open discussion has been replaced by tribalism, Strawmen and echochambers.
US do teach shit. Sry but its this way. They not even teach what happened to the Natives if theire country. The US Allways have to be glorious and good. Thats how this country runs. The Politics over there, together with this.... i dont know how to call them... peopl. ALLWAYS need to rewrites History so the US comes out as the Hreo. THIS.. is for me something im realy worried about. Cause if you cannot stand to your errors, then youre a coward. ^^ And we all know what cowards become when you give em power. Hitler was a good example
@@ralfsstuff Now imagine what an absolute ignorance about history and loads of weaponry can cause. Even if Putin is currently on the spotlight, I wouldn't be surprised that a new Hitler comes from the US.
Back in the 80th when I went to hight school, some of our teachers were teenagers at the end of the war. As we study this thing, they would spend time to tell us they personal story. Even if they actually were our math physics or what ever teacher.
I was born in 1967, my parents were born shortly after the war. I learned early on what it means to be German. When I was 18, I spent two weeks in Paris. In the metro, an elderly lady spat in my face and insulted me. She had recognised me as a German. A year later I was in Brighton, UK. At the supermarket checkout, an old man hit me on the back with his umbrella and started swearing. I had been speaking German with a friend. In Copenhagen, a waiter refused to serve my family because Germans didn't deserve it, he said. A friend of mine abroad always says she's from Austria. That makes things easier, she says. I was held liable for the things my grandparents had done as teenagers. I always felt that was a burden. Germans are probably the only people in the world who reject themselves as a nation. As a result of my experiences I studied history and politics at the University of Hamburg. My focus was on the Republic of Weimar and the German resistance (German resistance and their plans for Europe).
We covered WWII for many years in school. But one thing I´ll never forget was the talk of a survivor of a concentration camp in front of the class. No matter who sits there no matter the ethnicity or religion. If that person tells you how they were locked up as children, lost their families, were branded and watch people systematically be starved and worked to death... all you see is a person who went through hell on earth.
There is a misunderstanding even between friends in terms of fundamental values. Many say that to punish holocaust denial infringes upon free speech. That is correct, BUT, the reason is only that such as a holocaust denial is an infringement of Article1 in the German constitution "human dignity shall be inviolable...". And the punishable denial of a holocaust comes simply from the fact, that if you tell a family member of a victim from that time straight in the face that their far relatives were not killed in the holocaust you can as well spit them in their face. Nobody gets punished for asking reasonable questions regarding such a topic. I defend the priority of dignity over free speech any day.
I disagree. Freedom of speech ist THE single most important part of a democracy. It is the"holy grail". Those who dare to touch it must have extremely good reasons. The mention law in Germany is clearly a local exception granted to our history. Yes, there are arguments for it as u mentioned. But this issue is by far not that simple as u make it.
@@juanzulu1318 I agree, for democracy freedom of speech is indeed the most important thing, but not the single most important thing. A society is not only democracy, and democracy in itself is much more complicated as most of us see it. Maybe my post above did not do justice to the complexity of the topic, yet i stand to the statement that i value dignity higher as it includes freedom of speech but also draws a reasonable line where speech cannot justified just with the argument it must be free to protect democracy. Social peace and the ability to reason with one and another is another aspect that is very important for democracy. Sure, its difficult at times to find the right measurement, but what is not difficult in a large society with millions of people? I think starting with dignity and allow anyone to be protected from harassment and such things is a good start. And what does it mean actually that the German law is somewhat an anomaly? The way i see it, the western allies had quite some influence on the nation building after ww2 in Germany. Would it be unreasonable to assume that the way it went on would be kind of a good example you could take a look at? of course i am aware that every country has its own necessities, I just don't think that the way it is handled in the German constitution must be something exclusive for Germans only, that is just nuts.
@@madrooky1398 i understand what you mean and basically I agree. The problem I see with "dignity" is that it is an extremely vague word which bears the danger of creating a card blanc for limiting free speech - and thus democracy. The only country worth living in is the one in which ur deepest feeling can be hurt by words. This sounds like a contradiction - but not if you think it through. Germany is in so far an exception as our society was the root of national socialism and after the war it was still in the heads of many people. In face of such a situation I understand the idea of making it criminal to officially deny the facts of the holocaust. However, the idea of allowing the state to decide what is the truth and then make it even criminal to officially say the opposite is an extremely dangerous one.
@@juanzulu1318 I see your point and i totally agree, and that is why i think it is even more important to talk about it, and not solely focus and get lost over free speech alone. I am sure you have at least a grasp on what is going on in the US and around FOX News. This is kind of the other side of the problem, when news networks that are crucial to negotiate the democratic process have no decency at all and undermine the process unpunished. Fox is being sued over and over i don't know for how long and how many times for their lies, and it did not matter since they could justify their lies and desinformation with "its just an opinion", and now they are getting dismantled but because of financial interests. This is insane and the irony is unbelievable, that they get sued by the deliverer of voting machines... In German i would say "da haben so einige den Schuss nicht gehört..." So in that light, i also ask the question what is free speech worth if democracy is being torn apart and made disfunctional because there are no rules that at least hold the crucial backbone accountable, which is the media in general. And that is in my eyes one of the other so important pillars of democracy, the link between the people and the representatives. If that is broken it does not matter if the ballots open every four years, and you can see how that plays out in the "greatest democracy" with only two parties in power. Even there are actually around 50 which in total only get something around measly one percent votes. The US is basically for decades already a plutocracy and the media did a damn good job in polarizing the society to a point that a moron like Trump was actually President and then got replaced from a pool of, what was it 16 democratic candidates, by the oldest possible. (But i kinda like Biden, honestly) I mean how desperately broken must a country be for that to happen, that a guy gets elected because he is wealthy enough to buy his way through all the instances with a campaign full of bull crap... Even Putin seems kinda legit in comparison, with a big portion of sarcasm...^^ I mean that is a loaded story and a comment section is not enough to unwrap what is happening, so excuse me if i am simplifying. Then on the other hand, at least to me, dignity does not mean you cant be insulted. But there is a difference between insult and hurt feelings and serious harassment and things that have a lasting impact on ones entire life. It is also a part of human live to have emotions and to let them out, and to be able to do that is also part of a dignified life. And as far as i know the German law also respects that. So if a person in emotional distress is only able to express himself by profanity his speech is very much protected. And then, this is my personal interpretation, people that act in public have a higher responsibility. And by that i don't mean that speech should be limited from the get go, but the consequences for the broadcasted messages and the intention behind it should be seen much more critical than of a regular person on the street. For that matter a person like Trump would have seen trial several times just for the damage he did by his negligent or even reckless public performance because he is undermining the right to be taken serious by all American citizen and violates the dignity of basically 300+ million people, and the office itself. I mean that just as an example, and i am aware that can sound kinda silly. But in all seriousness, what many forget is that in a democracy politicians are servants not the ones in power. And with that i actually look more at the electorate rather than the politicians. This is then where the next crucial pillar comes to play, education. And i mean in general but also specifically about the responsibility of a voter that comes with the power of his choice and what it means to negotiate with the rest of the population through the media. Democracy is everything but a reliable institution, its an idea and a movement that needs constant attention otherwise it dies off. You know what i mean, do you? We don't "have" democracy, we live it or we don't. And that can only work of course if we can freely speak our minds, there is absolutely no doubt about that. But unlike for a regular citizen, for people in this negotiation process, the people that actually hand out the power after the fact, need some sort of responsibility of which they have to abide to otherwise this whole thing is doomed to fail. Media networks are bought, narratives are brought in, entire populations gently steered towards a fluffy idea someone with the pocket money in the back ground thought was a good thing. Or something like Trump happens, Hail Twittler. And i am sure you know as good as i do, that part of what made this possible is that many people are just done with the status quo. Because everyone knows how fucked up it is, more or less, depending on the country. So yeah, i am all for freedom of speech, in the framework of this complex idea that dignity does not necessarily mean a life in peace and respect from everyone, but a life with fundamental human rights that cant be violated. And all state authority shall be used to make that happen. Perhaps i am an idiot and got that whole thing wrong, but that is how understand this concept and the value of it seems obvious. And just by the way, Article 1 of the Grundgesetz actually has nothing to do with Holocaust denial, there are several German laws that come together, one of them is § 189 of the criminal code, which basically simply says: "Whoever disparages the memory of a deceased person shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or by a fine." So if you tell in public that all the six million Jews were not killed by lunatic Nazis you basically violate this one law millions of times. And what about the rest, what was it, in total something up to 80million dead, our entire country of today. And then there is the question how they all died instead. I mean, against all historical evidence how should a halfway reasonable case look like... i cant even imagine... There you see it again, the public narrative especially abroad is so distorted that it even feeds back to us and if we are not careful we forget our own laws... Which i did, to be honest. When i wrote the first comment i was not factually aware that these things a separate legal issues for which you can be punished for a number understandable reasons. As much as a living person should be protected against defamation so should be the dead... Jews or not. And as far as i understand the whole matter, if you have a case to make that does not just consist of a load of bull crap, nobody can limit your right to bring it up. But of course sensitivities regarding Jews in Germany are another thing, which i personally not always agree with. Damn, i hope this was not too much text and i wish you a nice Sunday. 🖖
I'm German and I was taught in school about the different phases of World War II and the conquests of Germany. But I think that it is not really necessary to study this in depth and in detail. This sequence of military successes and failures is really rather trivial. More important is how the Nazis came to power, what means of propaganda they used, and what worldview was behind their actions.
Never forget the time in school visiting a concentration camp memorial site. While singing on the bus on the way there to total silence by reading and walking along endless lists of names and watching a schocking film of mountains of dead bodies. Afterwards the question...and know guess who did this. Never forget the crack in the heart and the deadly silence on the way home on the bus. And tons of documtaries over the years to come. There is good and bad in every country and in each of all of us. Stopp all wars to prevent the young generations to come to have go through such devestating experiences. Enough examples of madness are already given. The past can't be changed but the present can be lived peacefully for the better future to come.
I am German and I can say that this video puts it quite well. I had to read Anne Frank's Diary in grade 8 (I was 13) and in the following 2 years we talked about WWII or related themes in Politics (everyday racism, prejudice etc), History and German classes during my time on the middle-school. I had to endure this "Bunkerkunde" (="bunker-lore") a second time during my 3 years on high-school which was very tiring as it was very dry compared to the more lively teachings from middle-school: My teacher there gave us old writings of everyday people so we could see how they felt and she even encouraged us to talk to our grandparents if they wanted to share some memories so we would get prime information. The whole "interprete this text and sum up arguments on why XXX is bad" was just ..... ugh..... And the books in my German class I had to read were so boring, which did not help at all. But I still think it is necessary. I only wish they would fix the double "Bunkerkunde" for people like me who first went to middle and then high-school.
12:23 Yeah. Guilt vs. responsibility. This is indeed problematic. My own school teaching in the 80s was about guilt. We were supposed to feel guilty. I do not see it that way - I am not guilty, because I did not decide to make Hitler a dictator nor do I bear responsibility for the terrible crimes of the Third Reich. But as a German historian and a German history teacher and a German, I do very much bear responsibility. It is very much my business to see that this part of our history will never happen again.
I remember, when the movie "Der Untergang" was in the german cinemas, there were many old people in Cinema, people who experienced the time of World War II.
Your video just popped up in my feed, so I can't resist to add my sauce to the discussion. I emigrated to Germany in 2003 to pursue my Ph.D. While now I don't own a TV (a shocker!) at that time and the next 10 years I did- and as a consequence I consumed a lot of it. Now, I like history and have paid a lot of attention to it in school, and so I learned about WWII, but it was actually in Germany that i got to know about it in much more detail. I had the feeling that all TV channels wanted to make sure that nobody forgets what actually happened during WWII and this was presented in a very factual unbiased way, like: look, this is what happened in Auschwitz, or look this is what the Wehrmacht did in Russia... If not every day, then definitely every second or third day there was a documentary about it on TV or in the printed media (I love the weekly Der Spiegel)
For me, as a German, learning about the world wars has always been horrifying. Because of the nazis, a symbol of luck has turned into something no one wants to see anymore, only bringing back bad memories. We still regularly dig out old bombs that were once dropped on the cities, fearing that they explode. Not to mention the generational trauma -- fleeing from home, abandoning everything, fearing not immediate death but the torture of their loved ones and the destruction of their home. And after the war ended, the horror didn’t end for the people. There was still the tight grasp of the Russians looming over the east, and the west being ignorant of what happened beyond the wall. No one I know likes to speak about the war, and there is no pride in being a war veteran, because what one witnesses in war violently kills a soft part in your heart. There are also stories of people fleeing from the east: swimming for more than 24 hours through the sea, using a hot-air ballon to fly over the boarder by night, using some less guarded place to get through the “wall”... People talk so calmly, yet every time I hear them speak, my heart is up in my throat with fear.
Yepp, Hitler and his long time fiancée and just married wife Eva Braun (they married shortly before midnight on April 29th, 1945), both committed suicide in the Führerbunker in Berlin when it was obvious it was only hours, possibly a day, until the Soviets would storm the building. They died on April 30th, 1945, only eight days before the capitulation of Germany. Hitler probably shot first Eva Braun, then himself. To obscure if he had fled, escaped, or committed suicide he had ordered his subordinates to burn both his and Eva Braun's corpses with gasoline in the backyard outside the bunker. The badly burnt corpses were however pretty clearly identified as Hitler and Braun by their teeth. There are however hundreds of convoluted conspiracy theories from multiple suicide methods such as poisoning, how and who shot whom, a coup de grace by his servant Linge, or even going so far as to claim body doubles had been killed and both Hitler and Eva had escaped... the list is almost endless. It seems however very, very likely (as close to certainty) that it actually WAS Hitler and Eva who were found dead in the tiny room in the bunker, carried to the garden of the Bunker and burned there. Just enough uncertainty to fuel the crazy ideas of some nutjobs out there. As a side note, the propaganda minister Josef Goebbels, his wife Magda, also committed suicide, as well as poisoning their five young daughters, and their nine year old son. These however were definite and validated.
A novel that is not mentioned here is "The Wave" - it's actually a good book. Basically a teacher sets up an organization that is sort of based on the Nazi regime to show this could happen again. And it's very interesting to see the group dyamics - friend- and partnerships being torn to pieces. There is also afilm based on the book. About history lessons go.. I rememeber from my time in school that we sort of had WW2 in history class like every 2 years And in 11th grade (that was 1994) we had to do an interview with aperson involved in WW2. That was one of the most intense things I ever had to do for school. I made two a) my grandfather who was 15 when the war ended but was at the polish front as a 13 year old boy and saw his 15 year old brother die there and was barely able to get back home himself. Funnily enough, oncehe started getting dementia later in life he started speaking polish (something we all never knew he coould do) b) an old neigbour of mine, who was in the marine and served in a uboat. The things he told me about being forced to stay underwater and not even being able to flush a toilet for hours/days because that could have given your position away and led to being killed... After that I went to Laboe - there is a memorial for the loast uboats in both wars (from all sides) and it was so chilling to be walking through this "hallway" seeing all the lost boats and the names of the crew. Still gives me chills to thik about it. Like Uboat 1- 59 all lost - 60 got through, 61-80 all sunk again. Yes, we get a lot of this, I still think we get enough other historic lessons as well. I graduated on the french revolution (which also was like 6 month subject wise) and I know our teacher was very keen on British history (I can name all kings and queens of england in order of their reign - still) But WW2 is such an important part of our history. It's importantwe never forget and make sure this can not happen again. Sadly in the last years there is more racism back ere, again.
I'd suggest looking up the Nuremberg Trials if you want to know more about the immediate aftermath. And if you haven't done so yet, watch 'history of the entire world, I guess'
what I often like to say in regards to the youth's "responsibility for the Holocaust" is: We're not responsible for our past, but we are responsible for our future. Thus we do not feel guilt for a crime we did not commit, but we are responsible to assure that it will not be repeated.
I'm German, and I want to clearify: I don't judge that you didn't knew, Hitler commited suicide. But I'm curious: what did you think happened with him after WWII? 🤔
i think it's important to know that germans nowadays don't feel responsible for the past but the future, i think that sometimes gets misinterpreted. no one born after the war feels responsible for that time, that would be ridiculous. but we did learn our lesson and are trying to make sure something like that doesn't happen again. i think what germans might be taught better than many other nations is that the people who made ww2 happen are the same as we are today, they had the same brains, we're not any smarter than them. so we have to be careful, and with we i don't just mean germans but humanity in general. i feel like in some countries it's taught in a way that creates a big distance between us and history so many people think "oh this could never happen nowadays" but that's not true, it absolutely could if we don't work against it
I would like t add that the whole way history is taught in german class rooms - including the didactic method - is aimed ad learning about WWII. History is taught usually from the 6. or 7. grade onwards and up to the 12. or 13. grade. It often starts with antiquity - Romans, Germanic tribes, Celts and so on - and goes then through the middle ages (Charlemagne, Investiture Controversy, the HRE, the development of free cities,...) and the modern era (Protestantism, 30-year-war, french revolution and napoleonic era, German revolution of 1848 and Unification of 1871, WW1, Weimar Republic and finally WW2). Also, it is taught like in what I only can describe a helix shape. So, students would start in grade 7 with Antiquity, go through all the mentioned topics in a way that is prepared for their age (around 14 years old) for the next 2-3 years. After that, they would start again either in Antiquity or somewhere further down the line (often they start again at the french revolution). During all that time, teachers put no value on learning by heart of dates, names or famous battles or something like that. Instead, students learn from their first day in a history class to analyse and interpret historic sources and to place them into historic context. In this way, when they reach WW2 in grade 11, 12 or 13, they know by heart how exactly you have to read excerpts of e.g. Hitlers "Mein Kampf" or how to analyse german propaganda from WW2. I study history at the university and sometimes my fellow students from other EU countries know a lot of historic facts, dates, names and so on, but they struggle when they have to keep primary sources apart from secondary ones - and in Germany usually everyone in some way learns this stuff.
It is also generally frowned upon when someone draws the hakenkreuz or does smth other nazi related. Im very glad that almost everyone in germany will come up to you and tell them to stop.
I'm sure you can google it, but yes, Hitler killed himself. Probably for multiple reasons such as pride, not getting judged by others, madness, disbelief, not wanting to face his enemies, cowardice... Him and a few other leaders ended their lives (and partly that of their children) on their own terms, so to say. The other big figures of the Nazi regime faced the "Nuremberg trials" and got executed after being found guilty for... well... everything. The thing about learning about WWII in school in Germany is that it starts quite early. I think the first time I heard about it was in 5th grade in german class, reading a book about a little jewish boy in Germany who had to hide... and ultimately died. It was called "back then it was Friedrich" and it implied that next time, it could be anyone else, if this repeats. To this day, this book has left a deep impression. And it goes on like that, throughout the years, not always in history class. You always circle back around to the subject of WWII from different angles and as you grow older, with more understanding. But at some point, you know... you've kind of had enough of it. After school I was tired of hearing about it. That's probably the only risk of analysing a single subject as thoroughly as we do WWII: people get tired and annoyed by it.
I live in Germany. Going to the nearest tram stop (about 200 metres / yd away) I pass two sets of Stolpersteine which are brass plates set into the sidewalk indicating where Jews, Roma, socialists or gay / lesbian victims of the Nazis lived. At the railway station - we have a memorial in the shape of two school desks which were used as the station was a deportation point for the holocaust.
I'm from Munich, Germany, and we actually not only learned a lot about the Weimarer Republic (the republic that was overthrown by Hitler and his goons), but also the early years of the Third Reich and and all of the atrocities that happened before and during WWII (Hitler actually was never officially elected into the office of Chancellor by a majority of the votes and his reign as the dictator of Germany started in 1933, not with WWII in 1939). We also visited 2 concentration camps with out class, one in Dachau and one during our exchange with Polish students in Majdanek. The latter one was really awful but also important to witness. We saw actual human skulls, human gold teeth, human ashes of the victims of the Nazi terror, aswell as entering a rebuilt gas chamber - haunting !
What a very important take-away is from german history classes in schools is the fact that i am not guilty. I did not commit these crimes, my grandfathers did. The legacy is not guilt, the legacy is to help that such a thing never happens again. That would also help very much to alleviate the process of the american society reconcile with itself concerning slavery. Of course the situation is much more tense in the US as it was in germany as there is still structural racism and other problems that persist to this day. Another very important lesson to be learned was for me the scepticism against tribalism, which also includes fandom of the german soccer team (see Disclaimer below). Being a fan or a patriot always puts a layer over the true nature of everyone, which is they are humans. As a patriot i create an in-group and and out-group and it is vital to distinct these two in a way that justifies my preference for my in-group. Next thing you know is that you start to dislike the "others" and bingbangboom you end up with racism or xenophobia. That is also why germans schools put such an emphasis on humanism. Teaching pupils what it means to be a human and that we all share the same problems that come with the "human condition". Adopting this is an exquisite antidote to tribalism, racism or xenophobia of any kind. Disclaimer : I would advise to always watch videos with Simon Whistler with an extensive grain of salt. Again, in this video, there were already substantial errors and poorly researched facts in it that are simply false. In the introduction he misrepresented the "de-nacification" which we know for a long time now, did not work any where near as good or smooth as the americans would want to believe. Also the german "economic wonder" was less of a wonder then germans always wish to believe. Both are simply myths that were debunked decades ago. I just did the easiest things and blocked all his channels as i have not seen a single video from him that had not at least one false/debunked myth/fact in it that i could spot immediately just from the top of my head. Not to think of all the false facts that i just did not spot because i would have to check them first. All this leads to misreprentations in his videos or even false conclusions like the little tangent on the soccer team. He did not even notice at the very end that he might have gotten de-nacification simply wrong. It did not work in iraq because it never worked the way they claimed in germany. Germany suffered a completely own political crisis in the late 60s and early 70s as a direct result of the failed de-nacification, including even a militant domestic terrorist group.
The Holocaust is 80-100 years ago and still today many german scool class visit the places of the "Konzentrationslager" as scool trips so we can learn and remind what happend and care for it never to happen again.
As a german i can say this theme is often disscussed in history. I can recite it in my sleep. At this point i would not be opposed to more warried history lessons. Alas some of my fellow germans didnt have enough of those lessons.
I think it's normal that history classes focus on your own history and those of the countries close to you. I learned a lot about WWII in class and also from my grandfathers who sometimes cried when they were thinking about that time and how family members died and so on. Would be interesting for me to see a reaction on American history.
Really Good Video! As a german i didnt had the second world war yet in history but im looking forward to.Its really interesting to hear a american opinion to this. My great-grandfather was a "Obersturmführer" Of the Waffen-SS but so the second world war is also a bit personal to me in my family we did already talk about it but we werent able to find out more about the dark past of our family.
As you asked for the German perspective on WWII. I found that video of a surviving German soldier very interesting: "The German Perspective of WW2 | Memoirs Of WWII #49" (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RT4_XUYEgrk.html)
How the US would teach WWII if they had been germany: Our god-sent ruler had a vision of grandeur that he wanted to share with the whole world. The rest of the world could not grasp the concept and although we were the best country in the world with the best people, all the others ganged up on us and beat us, because they were jealous of our greatness.
From my personal experience having a German spouse and a lot of German friends they are being thought a lot in schools about WW2 but what they did in Poland to the polish civilian population is not spoken in a lot of detail. Like yeah they know bad things happened there but for example they didn’t know what warsaw uprising was. They do not know about public executions of randomly rounded up civilians or forced deportations to Germany for slave labor.
i was born 1978 in east germany - and generally i would say, we learned about the german part of WWII in europe in great detail (and the heroic the red army liberating us) but the asian part of WWII was mostly untouched (pearl harbour and the atomic bombs where mentioned but japanese invasion into china and other places not really) - so a long time WWII felt like a european thing
On Hitlers suicide The Downfall - Der Untergang - is a historically very accurate movie. The main act did a horrific job in portyaing this as accurately as possible. including the first Soviet Red Army in the Berlin HQ bunker.
I agree, this was an excellent video. I wish Americans would get off their "exceptional" high horse and learn from Germany how the patches of evil in national history should be treated. This was very well done. Thank you! Having once attended "sensitivity" training, my main understanding of opposition to CRT is that is not well taught, and simply makes problems worse. People are caught up in a human mass hysteria today that vilifies the polar opposite side of all the issues. Combining the teaching strategies mentioned in this video with facts noted by Dr. Thomas Sowell would help many feel inspired to do better, not reach out and bash someone.
Watch "Die Brücke" (The Bridge). It is an anti-war film I watcht in school about the meaningles defence of a bridge in the end of WWII by students, who had to serve, because there was nobody left to fight. Geatings from Berlin.
11:05 The question of liberation vs. occupation. German history teaching is always about the question how our history history is reflected in present day discussion. Therefore the interpretation of the German defeat in 1945 is also part of history classes. We look at our own national discussion whether the end of the war is "defeat" or "liberation", read contemporary political speeches and encourage our students to form their own, informed opinion.
I hated repeating ww2 crazy SIX times in school! I wished we learned about international history and cultures instead. Misunderstanding is the root of conflicts. For example we just had sad 6 weeks about other worldreligions in schoolyear 8. It does NOT help, to keep telling us over and over again, how evil we were.... To prevent such things to happen again, we need to learn more about each other, their reasons, their way of living, culture, history, backstory..... Greetings from Germany.
One Important thing to know is that there are some works (mostly in german) that tackle the "success" of the Entnazifizierung rather critically because it wasnt super successful and the aftermath leads to systematic problems in our military, policforce and other government agencies in Germany wich can be kind of compert to systematic racism in America. And we still have a huge problem with Neonazis and also a lot of rightwing extrmism till today in this country
As for Hitler's suicide (which is factual): I recommend you to watch German movie DER UNTERGANG (THE FALL) as mentioned by Simon Whistler in the video. I also strongly recommend: - DIE BRÜCKE (THE BRIDGE) by Bernhard Wicki from the late 1950s - Edgar Reitz' series HEIMAT (HOMELAND) from the 1980s - DIE MÖRDER SIND UNTER UNS (THE MURDERERS ARE AMONGST US) by Wolfgang Staudte from 1946, which is the first attempt to cope with whatever happened before in a movie - strangely enough, CABARET with Liza Minelli gives a good reflection of the atmosphere in Berlin shortly before the nazis came to power.
There are two issues with the way the Third Reich (Nazi regime) is taught in school: (a) the main focus on Nazi atrocities and the evilness of their doing (b) it is too much emphasized that this is a single event in history and not comparable to other things. It would be better to discuss how they gained power, who collaborated and why, who warned about this. And the biggest issue: Which techniques did they use to secure power. This would be quite informative on today's racist and fascist movements and how they gain dominance in political discussions. Also missing is: How to spot this in advance and what to do about it.
I'm married to a German. It is known that his father father was fond of the Nazis. His father was born 1925 and you could tell from his sentences from time to time how racist his education was. And some of this sentences came also from my husband from time to time - it is really embarassing, but also a sign of how deeply a negative infiltration can get
As a german i always found it very interesting while being taught history that we where in a way told how many germans have been in the resitance (everybodys forfathers seamingly had been on "the good side"). I personally believe that if we really want something like that to never happen again we should look at the consequences this part of history still has, p.e. why people that flee from other countrys have a right to stay in germany and why it is so dangerous that so many people currently want to limit this rights also how the current rise of popularism is so f*** dangerous and how this led to the nazi regim in the past. I think it should be made more clear. Also there are these people daring to say in public this is taught to make us feel guilty - putting the parallels to modern germany might shut them up. And by this I certainly do NOT mean that the gouverment is trying to install laws to protect the environment which is largely made ridiculous by the media or people confusing 'freedom of speach' with being rude to minorities. No i mean nationalistic tendencies (why on earth should i be 'proud' to be german? I did nothing besides being born by germans) or wanting to support modern day dictators....
We didn't start with the Weimar Republic but with WW I and especially the end. One of the reasons why the WR (Weimar Republic) failed was that the military always claimed that the war was lost because democracy was weak (at the end of WW I the German Kaiser abdicated and the first republic was proclaimed) . In the history books this is called the "stab in the back legend". Because of this and the consequences of WW I, the WR didn't really have a chance, and then there was the world economic crisis, which made everything worse again. And yes, Hitler committed suicide because he didn't want to fall into Allied hands. It was actually supposed to be cremated, but that didn't quite work out. Goebbels and his wife also committed suicide and killed their children beforehand.
Yes Hitler commited suicide while he ordered the rest of his army (in a last desperate attempt they even called 13-14 year olds to the weapons - most of them were most fanatic in their attempt to stop loosing the war, because of their youth and them having been indoctrinated since birth!) to keep fighting and shoot their comrades merciless when they tried to flee or attemped to surrender. A great uncle of mine was shot by a minor a few days after the war was over on his way home for leaving his troopes. If the information of the end of the war was not yet known to the youth or if he simlpy didn't care was never known to our family...
10:30 On April 30th, 1945 to be precise, 10 years after his birthday while the Soviets were closing in on his bunker and more and more of his entourage went AWOL. The guy even married his long-time girlfriend Eva Braun just before both took a Cyanide Pill. Adding to that, Hitler also shot himself in the head. There's a good movie I can recommend dealing with that topic: "Der Untergang" (Downfall in English) starring Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler. But seriously: How did you not know that? I always thought the Nazis and WW2 was the least most Americans knew about our country and Hitler's suicide is probably the most pivotal moment in all of it. By taking his own life he (probably involuntarily) denied any likely attempt by other Nazis to turn him into a martyr. Furthermore it also took many Germans out of it and made them realize they fell for a lie and were just wasting their lives for an uncaring regime that brought the wrath of the entire world to their shores.
7:55 The reason why the development of the war, as is concentrated upon in military history, is not so much a focus of school teaching is not really, that we feel that the early exploits of the offensive would be "encouraging" for our students. An in-depth analysis of the military development would show that the Wehrmacht offensive was in itself an attempt to win loot which was needed to stabilise the German economy. And that the German expansion was also part of the Nazi "Lebensraum", "living space" ideology and cannot be separated from the exterminationist aspects of German warfare. I could teach that without problems and would be in no conflict with my bosses or school boards. That these aspects are not so much in focus of teaching is mainly because we history teachers have so little time to teach such a big area. We concentrate on the civil aspects of Nazi dictatorship. In class and as the curriculum demands, the war is relevant for as as it expresses the exterminationist elements of Nazi ideology: mass shooting of Jews and extermination of all kinds of "ideological enemies" as a means of warfare.
Hitler shot himself and Eva Braun in his bunker just before germany declared defeat. In fact: In the place where I live (saxony [eastern germany]) we do spend 2 whole yrs of history lessons just about what's happend during the weimarer republic and in WWII. Hitler also tried to gain power with a coup in 1923. It was pretty much like the capital riots a few yrs ago. While he was sitting in prison afther that he wrote "mein Kampf". We also learn about the dark side of our so called heroes back then. For example Sophie and Hans Scholl where both in the so called "Hitler Jugend" (Hitlers youth or something like that) before they realised what's happening in this country. Staufenberg wanted to kill hiter in order to become the next fuhrer.
Having gone though this, I am overall in favour of how it's done. Certainly keeping the focus on the descent into totalitarianism and the atrocities of the nazi regime is the correct choice. In terms of collective responsibility, while the part of it that still applies to us young people is to fight any reemergence, it depends on the teacher how well this is done, as it can - especially in combination of how much time is spent on the subject of this period in history - make teenagers feel sick of the subject and even evoke rebellious counterinstincts. Lastly, the approach also has its weaknesses. Apart from how it isn't immune to biases such as the Clean Wehrmacht Myth, it also ignores valid criticisms of the allies, such as the bombings that were explicitly aimed at the civilian population or the mass rape committed especially by GIs and the Red Army against German civilian women. Still, it could be much worse.
Ooooh yeah not exactly fun times in history class. We went to 3former KZ Buchenwald on a school trip. I have to say the atmosphere on the grounds was bone chilling. Even our most obnoxious students shut the hell up and were quiet. Its not nice but we all have to keep the reminders to prevent history from repeating itself. I personally got the impression as a student that we should feel ashamed to call ourselves Germans. But that's me. My grandma who was born in the twenties also told me of how the Nazis terrorised anyone who did not turn a blind eye and went along with them. Some of the stories from the comments were familiar. Also is it just me or did those kids during pledge (12:57) look like their doing the "Hitler-Gruß"
I always took issue with how or rather where we tackle this topic. I never liked that after years of learning about history in a way that simply focuses on facts and the way events and eras where connected, you suddenly focus on the morality of a singular era for the majority of higher school. This also leads to topics like the Cold War never really being talked about, even tho many students now won’t inform themselves about it on their own. I think analyzing and understanding the horrible flaws of Nazi ideology and further learning about things like how propaganda works etc. Should be done in a expanded ethics class that is mandatory and universal, and that is also finally eliminating the option of taking catholic or evangelical religion classes over ethics, wich I believe to be antiquated and a relict of a time where organized religion actually mattered to s majority of people.
