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Teachers drop the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims

Andronicus Comnenus

Or, considering that the people involved are supposed to be history teachers, they could even go back and read a proper academic book on the subject. If they really wanted to push the boat out, they could (shock horror) even take a look at the original source material.

OK, now you're just being silly :p:

That just debunks the notion that the government has dropped the subject completely, I don't recall anyone in this debate having said anything like that. Indeed, the topic was started to call attention to it being dropped by some teachers, which is something that is evidently true.

Reply 83

TheThirdMan

1

Strikes me as a bit pathetic to judge a paper based on its reporting 70 years ago.

Well they were opposed to the women's right movements in the early 20th century, then they were anti-semitic inter-war and now it's immigrants. They're a paper fuelled by hate. That's what i judge them on.

Reply 84

London Prophet

17

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6563429.stm

"in England, teaching children about the Holocaust is compulsory"

Reply 85

lamenter

12

The only thing about the holocaust that offends me is that fact that it focuses 100% on the jews killed. What about the gypsies or the many others killed?

_jackofdiamonds

what next - "World War II dropped from syllabus incase pupils whose beliefs include nazism are offended."

We're touchy about that subject. It was a bad spot in our history. No need to rub it in our faces in every history lesson.

/sarcasm

Reply 86

pharmgirl

12

It should also focus on the persecution of gays in the holocaust. But G-d forbid any teacher should be seen to "promote homosexuality".

As an aside. Maybe the reticence of teachers is to do with the stance that was taken at the time of the war by Haj Amin al Husseini, the Palestinian Mufti of Jerusalem. This might cause a few classroom squabbles.

Reply 87

Melancholy

20

The only thing about the holocaust that offends me is that fact that it focuses 100% on the jews killed. What about the gypsies or the many others killed?

That's not true. My course covers Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, Communists, Handicapped, Trade Unions, political prisoners, etc. However the fact remains that it was largely the Jews that were killed. Hitler had a notable hatred of the Jews ever since he was denied entry to his art course. The Jews are mentioned in Mein Kampf. Some Nazi leaders believed that the Jews had magical pixie powers, such was the amount of propaganda within Germany.

Reply 88

SweetLikeChocolate

9

I agree with The Myth Leader, in my school we have learnt about eugenics and the persecution of disabled and handicapped people.
The other day, my school linked up with two other schools in the US and we talked to some Holocaust survivors via videolink. One was a liberator and he said that there are still many people who deny the Holocaust ever existed and that "we are here to tell you that it did exist, and we won't be around in the next 10 years so it's up to your generation to inform others that there was a Holocaust"
It makes me really angry when teenagers don't know what the Holocaust is, hence why it should still be taught in schools.

Reply 89

lamenter

12

The_Myth Leader

That's not true. My course covers Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, Communists, Handicapped, Trade Unions, political prisoners, etc. However the fact remains that it was largely the Jews that were killed. Hitler had a notable hatred of the Jews ever since he was denied entry to his art course. The Jews are mentioned in Mein Kampf. Some Nazi leaders believed that the Jews had magical pixie powers, such was the amount of propaganda within Germany.

All we learnt about in my school was about the jews. They went into great details to tell us how they were captured and sent to concentration camps. I didn't even know that other people got killed until i saw it by accident on the History Channel. I personally think that is stupid. Jews were the biggest group killed but the fact that they are focused on means that 5 million others are ignored.

Reply 90

Agent Smith

11

I can't help the fact that your course was inaccurate; as far as I'm aware, by far the majority do deal with the non-Jewish victims as well. In fact, given the political purges of the 1930s and the relationship of the Reich with the Church, it would be difficult not to refer to them.

Reply 91

Thud

OP

17

there's the minor issue of lebensraum too... :rolleyes:

Reply 92

Agent Smith

11

That's not really to do with the Holocaust as much as providing the excuse for invading countries to the East of Germany.

Point.

lamenter

All we learnt about in my school was about the jews. They went into great details to tell us how they were captured and sent to concentration camps. I didn't even know that other people got killed until i saw it by accident on the History Channel. I personally think that is stupid. Jews were the biggest group killed but the fact that they are focused on means that 5 million others are ignored.