How to Face the Truth

SUMMARY

Truthfulness may seem to be on the decline when you keep track of daily lies that are discovered in politics, recruitment, social media, schools, etc. Reasons are aplenty for why people don't speak the truth. These are good starting points to understand the triggers for past human action in order to learn from them moving forward.

Germany's holocaust education is a powerful case study for courageously counteracting denial and distortion of truth. Our guest, German embassy head of mission Laura Oexle, will talk about the beginnings and learnings from the holocaust education. As a parent, she will also share her strategies and tips to educating her children in truthfulness: 

1. We have to open up the discussion on the holocaust because in the end it's about values and human rights.

2. Do not compromise on historical accuracy and truthfulness.

3. Truth is crucial when it comes to justice to be delivered in a society.

4.  There is no use of hiding the past from the younger generation as they have the internet as an alternative resource.

5.  Equip the children with critical thinking skills to spot the difference between misinformation and facts.

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:
If you read the news, if you are very active in social media, perhaps you might realize that truthfulness may seem to be on the decline. If you keep track of the daily lies that are discovered in politics, recruitment, social media or schools, you will realize that  reasons are really aplenty for why people don't speak the truth. These are good starting points to understand the reasons why they are doing that so that we can move forward in order to come up with to have more around us or inside of us.

Germany's holocaust education is a powerful case study for courageously counteracting denial and distortion of the truth. Our guest German embassy's head of mission Laura Oexle will talk about the beginnings and the learnings from the holocaust education. Moreover, as a parent she will also share her strategies and her tips to educating her children in truthfulness.

For context on the choice of this topic now: in June my friends and I they agreed to watch the 1961 film Judgement at Nuremberg. It has been in my wish list of films to watch as I teach ethics. I never had really had the time to watch the film although I've read so much about it and I was very curious about how Germany is tackling those years of the holocaust, how they're facing it. Some German visitors told a friend of mine who also watched the film with me that Germany has actually a holocaust education for a number of years now. I got really interested in to learn from Germany's experience

Avic: Laura, could you please describe to us the holocaust education in Germany?

Laura: Yes, of course. Before we start describing the holocaust education, we have to be at the same page what this is really about. It's about understanding what happened in Germany between 1933 and 1945. It is about understanding how Hitler came into power, how could that happen. It is also about naming the perpetrators and most importantly naming the victims, to understand what happened to them, who were the victims. We know that it was mainly targeted at the Jewish population in Europe but there were also Roma and Santi peoples, Slavs, homosexuals targeted and political enemies. They were marginalized, they were imprisoned and eventually they were killed. And there were six million Jews in Europe, around two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe were victims and killed in a genocide and this became known as the holocaust.

So this is what holocaust education is: first, it is really to equip students and children with this knowledge and so that we are all at the same page but then as there is also something beyond that. It's really about historical consciousness and empathy but then it's about empowering our students and empowering them in their development of a democratic attitude and empowering them to make the right decisions and to make informed decisions based on their past.

I would like to to mention two studies here to just explain how relevant this topic still is or how relevant it is to rethink holocaust education all the time and to optimize it and improve it because as you might all know racism is quite widespread in Europe but especially also in Germany. And I read that one-fifth of the German population were themselves or have reported to be victims of racism in Germany and half of the German population -about 50 percent - have witnessed incidents of racism so this is one thing. And then if we look at education specifically we know from a survey of the Korber foundation-  this very shocking number - that around 40 percent of the german students between 14 to 17 didn't know what Auschwitz was about, and I mean this is really concerning and this really led to a new impetus or gave a new impetus in Germany, in the German parliament, and also in German politics to rethink holocaust education in Germany.

And of course we have a long history of holocaust education and it actually started right away right after the end of World War II. There was some kind of pressure of the allies to de-nazify and to re-educate the German population so we had this impetus from outside first. And of course in the beginning there was probably not everywhere an internal motivation to deal with the German past which was so immediate at that time. And then the Cold War happened and there was this divergence because Germany was split in the eastern and in the western part. And this is also something interesting actually to look at -how different the two Germanys actually dealt with holocaust education at that time.

West Germany actually focused on the constitutional values and it was really about the credibility of the Federal Republic of Germany as a free and democratic state and they of course immediately introduced the federal system of education. So we are also see different developments depending on which area you look at and of course there were setbacks in Western Germany and then i think it was in 1992 when holocaust education was really made a requirement as i said before that every German student will have a holocaust education in their curriculum so no student leaves the school without having dealt with holocaust in their education.

And then just maybe a sentence on Eastern Germany. This is already before of course 1992 so the focus was a bit different there. It was really focused on anti-fascism. It was focused on the collective rather than the individual so there was not really a discussion between generations as we saw it in West Germany that the kids asked their parents and their grandparents about their roles during the Nazi regime but there was no confrontation with the individual past then as i said it has been after their reunification. Really the system also have been unified and i think there's quite an elaborate strategy of how holistic holocaust education should take place with unified goals and unified methods and a stress on memorial sites, on witnesses on museums and archives.

I think this is maybe the basics that we should be aware. 

Avic: Thank you very much, that is really like a summary of all the antecedents of the holocaust education. So it really is like an alarming situation.

Laura: It is. I think the strategy really is and this has been successful that there is no German student who leaves school without having been educated about the holocaust. So this is the baseline and then of course we have a federal system in our educational sector so all the 16 different federal states of Germany of course have their own ways of dealing with holocaust education. But in the end the baseline is every student learns a lot about holocaust starting from grade 8 and all the way until they they leave school and of course there are common goals and and a common understanding of what we actually want with our holocaust education in Germany.

Avic: As a student, did you go through that process that there was less of that education and then afterwards when you were in school there were more initiative on that, like what did you experience as a student?

Laura: Actually for myself I think I enjoyed quite a holistic and quite an extensive holocaust education at school. We also started around grade 8 and in our history classes this was really the focus grade eight, grade nine, grade ten. I think there was hardly anything but this topic that was covered in our history classes and I think it was being dealt with in a very good way so students actually didn't get bored but rather got really interested into the topic asking themselves or we asked ourselves the questions like how could this happen, what can we do in the future to make this never happen again. And it was not only in our textbooks and teachers telling us about about Germany’s past and about the holocaust. It was also about going to museums, visiting memorials but then also visiting a concentration camp which was really, really impressive like sadly impressive for all of us. And there we also met with contemporary witnesses- people who were survivors of that very concentration camp. In my case it was a concentration camp in Bavaria in Dachau and these are really memories that I still have very clearly in my mind even though it's quite a few years ago that we talked to these persons who experienced the worst things you can ever imagine and who have the courage to go there again and talk to students about what they have experienced.

And then you started introducing the topic with movies and there are many, many very good educational movies about the holocaust, not only documentaries but also movies that are actually just interesting to watch and also some that are more  for students at a younger age- not too brutal but still making students and and even children understand what happened at that time and and how people Jews especially were affected by the Nazi regime in Germany.

Avic: That's good I actually heard about a particular film since you have mentioned movies. Of course I watched Schindler's List and one other film that I forgot. But recently I noted that there's still that effort to look into all the films and to see how accurate they are so is there a constant effort to go through all of this multimedia which I think is appealing to the young generation but still there must be a care to know which is accurate.

Laura: I don't know this specific case but I can imagine and  it's quite clear that there is this trade-off between artistic freedom of course when we talk about movies and of course historical accuracy. But I think that regarding the holocaust we really have to be historically accurate and we cannot tolerate content that especially like minimizes what happened at that time. So I think especially in this case we have to be correct and we have to teach our kids  really about the truth.

Avic: Very good. And you mentioned also that you listened to some survivors, to some people who have experienced (the holocaust). And I think really in terms of education that really it can sometimes be for some students much more memorable than being there in the structures, in the camps and not seeing anyone who actually experienced this. So that's why in education storytelling is really, really effective. But my concern right now is  by the time your children have reached an age and being there I don't know, would there still be survivors at that age? Somehow I've read that there's a concern that the ones who have suffered this probably will be gone and and  what could be  the alternative to listen to these stories, to actual people?

Laura: Yeah I think this is exactly the crucial point and this is really the question that  educators and also  politicians ask themselves because we are really at the crossroads now that they are unfortunately less and less contemporary witnesses because we talk about the period as I said between 1933 and 1945. And I think there are many, many good initiatives of how to deal with this of course natural development and I mean other countries face it as well with like historical periods that are so far in the past that there are no more survivors and no more contemporary victims and I think modern technology really offers a lot of options. I've heard about museums which really collects a lot of video content at the moment  really archiving all the details that these witnesses  can share or can still share and even to make it interactive tools. I mean many things are possible  with modern technologies so I think technology really plays an important role in keeping these memories alive. And as of now there are still contemporary witnesses who talk about what they have experienced during holocaust and there are lots of initiatives going on to really preserve  their memories.

This is one thing and then also I mean we have to also look at the second or the third generation of especially of holocaust with victims who can of course talk from also a very personal perspective about their family history. So this is also something that's being done at the moment. And then of course holocaust education started right away, right after World War II and  so there is already a lot being preserved in our museums, in our archives, in monuments  that people can visit. And all the concentration camps actually have been turned into a memorial site so all is still there and I know it cannot replace meeting an actual contemporary witness but this is probably as close as we can get.

Avic: And in terms of funding how do how do these museums, the ones who are in charge of archives and everything, how do they get those finances to to keep operating and keep getting new materials?

Laura: That sector it's clearly public funding and as I said there is really a big momentum to keep holocaust education on the curricula to optimize it, to improve it, to also adapt it to these challenges that we had just discussed. And also of course there are private initiatives- there are also many private museums for instance of families who have been victims of the Nazi regime who want to preserve their family history. And so it's definitely a mix but definitely  there is a a lot of public funding available in Germany for preserving the memory and making the holocaust and the Nazi regime not forget.

Avic: It's very good that in terms of financing the initiative is really coming from the government, really something to learn from. Do you have some impact statistics? Somehow you mentioned something like one-fifth of the population do not know about the holocaust.

Laura: No this was a study conducted in 2018 by the Korber Foundation and it was really about a holocaust education and  there was this number that everybody in Germany at that time was really shocked about. The number was that 40 percent of students between 14 and 17 years of age I think were not aware what the Auschwitz concentration camp was or that Auschwitz was a concentration camp. And I mean of course this is very shocking but we also had to take a closer look  at the statistics because as I said before  the baseline is no German student leaves school  without having been educated about the holocaust but starting from grade 8. So some of those who were interviewed in the study  probably were younger than grade eight when they started nthe interview - 14 year olds  so they have not been through this formal part of their education yet. But still it's a concerning it's an alarming number and of course I think we will talk about this later but there is not only the role of the school but also the role of the families, the role of the state so I think a holocaust education is not it's mainly but it's not only about formal education at school.

Avic: What improvements are foreseen in the near future in terms of this initiative of the holocaust education?

Laura: Well we have discussed a couple of challenges already. So we really have this challenge of  having less and less  contemporary witnesses. The memory gets more distant as we move ahead I mean that that's a natural thing so we do have to find a replacement for this direct contact and these direct conversations  with holocaust survivors. And as I said before this is quite challenging because also when I think back about my education and this was really the conversation that left a lasting impression on me and I remember many, many of my friends actually started crying because it was just so unbelievable what  these persons- the holocaust survivors that we met told us about their experience and their families experience. So this is something hard to replace and as I said we need to move ahead with technological solutions to this and of course also finding other ways and just providing a very holistic stance towards holocaust education.

And then of course we also talked about this before that there is an increase of rightist, of extremist tendencies in our societies and especially on social media and on the internet you can find misinformation, disinformation, anti-semitic rhetoric that needs to be countered and also here there is of course a strategy how to deal with it. But as you can imagine it's quite difficult and it's quite hard to really  deal with  all the single bits and pieces of this and misinformation that are out there on the internet.

And then lastly another challenge I would like to to mention and to discuss is. A positive development of course is Germany is becoming more and more diverse also in the student body.  This is due to migration into Germany and  it's a real opportunity of course but it also poses challenges in terms of  for instance holocaust education since you have a diverse classroom of persons of many different backgrounds but also with different national identities so not necessarily all the students in the classroom have this German identity. And and some of the students may have different  ways of having dealt with their own pasts but also with like holocaust education in the past. So we really have to of course stick to the goal of making students understand what happened, who were the perpetrators, and of course who were the victims, and what happened to them. But we also have to open up the discussion and have an honest conversation about cultural and religious diversity ,about tolerance, about non-violence, about human rights, and about democracy. And I think this is the common denominator and this is one of the goals of holocaust education in Germany to really give the students the knowledge of course but also empower them to think critically and to learn from the past and learn about what it means for a society to have experienced such cruel past, such a genocide like the holocaust that happened.

Avic: Yeah you mentioned two things that I took note of really the challenge of fighting anti-semitism (because recently if the ones who didn't believe in the vaccine could put their information and the ones who believed in the vaccine could fight with their own information and then each one fighting with little arguments and sometimes it's just the algorithm of Facebook who could be the winner in really pushing what the others are really interested to look at) I mean the algorithm is also one key player I think in this effort to fight  anti-semitism. And then the other challenge that is very interesting that you really have a diverse school population. If I have a class of half Germans and the rest are from all over the world, it really is quite challenging to engage the non-Germans to be interested in this but I think there will come in the civic  responsibility- we're part of one world. What happened to Germany, what happened to the Jews also affects me as a Filipino because we're one race, one children of God really. That is another challenge for teachers to bring up their the children's civic responsibility or inclusiveness or diversity right? So for me as an educator I really sympathize with the teachers who are in front of all of this diverse group and then teaching holocaust education. The others could be bored about it as it doesn't affect them right?

Laura: Yeah yeah it's really a challenge to teach it in a way that everybody  you know understands what this is about and how important this is and really learns from it and can relate to it. But as you said then we have to open this discussion up because in the end it's about values and human rights.

Avic: Right. Now that you mentioned values let's go to my other question for you as a parent. How useful is the holocaust education in educating your children in being courageous to face the truth, to accept the truth, not to deny it.

Laura: I have to say that I’m really happy to know that I will send my my children to a German school and that I can be sure they will be educated about this period of German history. They will be equipped with the means and the skills to actually understand it and then also learn from it and so I think this is really something very important and this is something I can be or I am personally very happy about that I don't have to worry about this because it will be taken care of by the state or by the school. And as I said I mean it's about understanding what happened and who were the victims but it's also about  equipping my kids with the right skills to critical thinking but of course the right to historical truth, to historical accuracy. And  this is something that sounds maybe a bit trivial or people might wonder why would this be important but I think it's really crucial if we want our kids to to be empowered as citizens living in a democratic society. Truth is actually crucial when it comes to justice to be delivered in a society. It is about inclusiveness especially if you live in in Germany still with victims of the Nazi regime.  You cannot just not talk about it. You have to face the truth. And I see it as a basic right and I’m happy that it is somehow being taken care of professionally with a curriculum that is quite clear in its goals and objectives.

Avic: So you would  somehow delegate to the school and would not really tackle holocaust at the age younger than the eighth grade? Like what age is eighth grade?

Laura: Eighth grade is probably like 15 years in Germany. But no this is not what I wanted to say. I just wanted to say that I think in a way it's being taken care of. But I think the holocaust is so present in Germany that if my kids grow up in Germany which they will or at least they will spend a lot of time there it will be a topic much earlier than  eighth grade and then of course the parents come in and other institutions or the state also because it's quite visible in Germany. We have all these memorials. If you just think about the holocaust memorial which is close to the Brandenburg gate in Germany it's huge I think it's 4.5 acres in the heart of berlin. I can really not miss it basically and I’m sure that my kids will ask me about what that is, why are these stones there, what do they stand for. And of course if we go there with our kids we have to tell them that it's actually not a playground where they can run around and you know have a lot of fun. They can of course use the space but they should also be aware of of what it means and that there might be also persons there who even have been victims of the Nazi regime. So it's also about respect to the place.

And then  I don't know if you have heard about the stumbling blocks we call it Stolpersteine in Germany. So in every German city you would find these golden stones on the ground.

Avic:  Yes I've heard that.

Laura: All these stones have a name on it of a victim of the Nazi regime and some more information about it. And I’m sure that even if we go back to Berlin now my kids will already see this and will ask about what it is or why it's golden or why it's there. And I think it's then in the responsibility of the parents to find a way of course to talk about the horrors without horrifying the kids. And to be honest I still have a couple of of months or maybe even years left before I have to to take up this challenge and I will probably read a little bit about it before or inform like get a sense of how to explain that to your kids. And I mean these are just two examples of how we get in touch with our past and how present and visible it is.

And also going to museums. There are great exhibitions in Germany especially focusing on kids and as I said not horrifying them but still give them some of the basics and their understanding of what German history is about. So I think there are many ways and there is lots of material so so we would just have to  search on the internet and might get loads of inspiration and inputs of how to deal with that also already at a younger age and outside the school.

Avic: Yeah I can imagine the challenge for every parent. Are there other challenges in terms of truthfulness in the German society that you're preparing to form your kids in or is it really already the huge thing about truthfulness?

Laura: No I mean of course as you just in your initial statement introduced that there are lots of facets of untruthfulness in our society since it starts like you know with minimal lies or just you know making your CV look nicer. But of course I think we shouldn't mix up these two things. One is really about historical accuracy and truthfulness in our dealing with our history and this is something that is not to be compromised on. So this is something we have to be very clear and we have to be very steadfast in you know teaching nothing but the truth. But then of course there are other political challenges,  lots of misinformation going on the internet. I mean if we look at the Russian war in Ukraine  the sheer amounts of misinformation that can be found on the internet, it's actually very hard to deal with that and it's very hard to counter this with facts and with the truth.  And I mean this is just one other example of many especially political topics where we find lots of myths especially on the internet. And here I think if we look at our kids and if we look at education I mean we cannot hide this from our kids and our kids will eventually go on the internet and get in touch with us. So we should really equip our kids with the skills to make a difference between misinformation and facts, to really give them the skills of critical thinking, of questioning what they are reading, of checking the sources, of double checking the sources. So I think there is just this sheer amount of mis-information on the internet that it's really about the way we really have to to get to take a step back and really deal empower our kids to deal with it. And  we cannot you know counter every single bit and piece of disinformation on the internet. This is one thing.

And the other thing is really teaching about the values and the core values and give them,  give our kids this type of education that they really can make a difference between what is wrong and what is right, what is human.

Avic: Very good. Teally it's a challenge like we're not living in our grandparents' world. This is really different times- very ,very challenging, very difficult in terms of educating the younger generation. And really all my prayers and support for all the parents out there.

And thank you very much for distinguishing really the importance of okay I've mentioned other enhancement, other euphemisms, other ways to whitewash the truth but this is really huge - the historical accuracy. Thank you for that.

Would you have other tips or strategies to propose about educating the children in truthfulness?

Laura: Yes yes  well maybe just the strategy that we have discussed in the beginning: that actually it's not only learning from textbooks and listening to the teacher but it's exactly about going out of the classroom, experience different historical sites, visit monuments, and of course I mean the most valuable thing here is to have these personal encounters with contemporary witnesses, with their families, with the second or third generation of victims of such horrors. And so I think this is really crucial. And then if the society is not ready yet, it's really about documenting, collecting the information, it's about archiving just to give future generations the possibility to deal with their future because it's just so important for their identity and it's actually I think basic human right-  this right to information and historical accuracy

Avic: Thank you very much for your time, Laura, I really appreciate the effort the time the presence and really the sharing of all your insights as a citizen as a parent to this topic on truthfulness especially using Germany’s holocaust education as a case study.

Laura: Thank you very much, it's a pleasure to talk to you.