Abstract
The Holocaust has become such a universal reference point that even contemporary Chinese writers “who live thousands of miles from the place of Nazi brutality and possess only scanty knowledge of the details of the Holocaust, came to call their horrendous experiences during the Cultural Revolution ‘the ten-year Holocaust’”.
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Notes
- 1.
In this context I want to shortly refer to the Historians’ Controversy (Evans, 1987) reverberating a debate reaching into present times calling the uniqueness of the Holocaust into question given the alleged comparability of genocides and other atrocities in world history. See for example in Moses (2004). Regardless of the positioning of this paper in line of thought that the Holocaust was unique in human history, its focus of German-Israeli relations makes it all the more unique.
- 2.
This refers mainly to West Germany due to the nature of which the Holocaust was dealt with in the German Democratic Republic by “blaming a few high ranking capitalists for the crimes in order to deviate attention away from questions about German guilt and individual involvement in Nazi crimes.” (Walther 2019, p. 272). Nevertheless, the view that the Holocaust has been only taboo in the GDR has been contested. Dahn (2019) claims that in light of a vast array of film productions with the topic Holocaust and Auschwitz it an untenable argument that the Holocaust was only a taboo in the GDR. And the Federal Republic of Germany (FDR) and the GDR (GDR) took very different approaches to the relations with Israel. The GDR was of the opinion that the debt was settled by the reparations paid to the Soviet Union. Up to 1971 there was not a single official contact between both states. The GDR clearly sided with the Arab states in the following years which led the Foreign Office in Jerusalem to practice outmost reservation when dealing with the GDR. (Streppelhoff 2010).
- 3.
All translations unless otherwise indicated are done by me.
- 4.
Amir (2018) identified four different modes of traumatic testimony, which for further research can shine a light how the different Thought Styles of learners are related to the four modes as laid out by Amir.
- 5.
As described by a Member of Knesset Shaul Yaholom in May 2001 (Sheffi, 2004).
- 6.
The authors of the study state a margin of error of 3.16 percent.
- 7.
The comparison of prices between cottage cheese in Germany and Israel caused public outcry on social media and whether it was “worth” it to move to Berlin given it was the capital of the Third Reich.
- 8.
The Cakemaker is another example of the dichotomies relating to heteronormativity, religiosity and individualism being portrayed on screen as “ambiguous tale of desire, displacement and dissimulation” (Engelberg, 2019, p. 1) unfolds revolving around the city of Berlin.
- 9.
This applies also to the German side where more research is needed on how the Holocaust is taught to different groups within the German society.
- 10.
The ones now called “Mizrahim” include descendants of Babylonian Jews from modern Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan, Syrian Jews, Yemenite Jews, Georgian Jews, Mountain Jews from Dagestan and Azerbaijan, Persian Jews from Iran, Bukharan Jews from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Sometimes the term Mizrahim is also applied to descendants of Maghrebi Jews and Sephardi Jews, who had lived in North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco).
- 11.
This paper focuses on the efforts of German cultural policy. Analyzing the differences between German, Austrian and Swiss politics could worthy of a different research endeavor, especially considering the special Swiss role.
- 12.
https://embassies.gov.il/berlin/Relations/Pages/Staedtepartnerschaften.aspx, accessed on Jan 18, 2020.
- 13.
I am aware that this recollection of diplomatic German-Israeli relations is a highly condensed and simplified account of over 70 years of history and political relations, and yet it is necessary to inform the reader of the broader influences that might have dictated cultural policy.
- 14.
It is somewhat telling of that time for the Germans to distance themselves from perpetrators which can be seen here also in the anonymizing term: “in the name of the German people”
- 15.
Please see Hünseler (1990) for argumentation of Arab States against reparation agreements.
- 16.
The struggle for the term Palestinian is as complicated as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself. For an overview from the shift from “I am a Palestinian” by Golda Meir (1999) to Barak’s statement (1999) “we are sorry for their suffering” see Kampf (2012).
- 17.
A picture of Helmut Schmidt in Wehrmacht uniform that is on display in the German army university of Hamburg caused a public debate on Schmidt’s personal involvement and also on extremism in the German armed forces in general. Without going into further detail, the Wehrmacht biography of this very popular German chancellor still leads to more questions than it gives answers.
- 18.
This quote is attributed to the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Israel must be “wiped off the map” and that attacks orchestrated by Palestinians would destroy it as reported by the New York Times (2005). The Iranian president never used these exact words, but the press agencies spread this faulty translation, what he said was: “in rezhim-e eshghalgar bayad az safhe-ye ruzgar mahv shaved” which translates as “Dieses Besatzerregime muss von den Seiten der Geschichte (wörtlich: Zeiten) verschwinden.”
- 19.
A correspondence between the German embassy and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs gives a good overview of existing funding opportunities for Israelis: https://mfa.gov.il/MFAHEB/GeneralInfo/Documents/info_letter_milgo_Germany2013-1.pdf.
- 20.
This term is crucial for understanding the zeitgeist of the new German republic. Newer studies show that it was not really an economic miracle helping the German economy to thrive but the reduced overproduction that had been installed by the Nazi regime that had fed the war industry and home front.
- 21.
This is a highly-charged Nazi term, however, it is used in the original article and it highlights how the German language of the 1990s, and also today, struggles to use a more neutral vocabulary toward Jews.
- 22.
This is rather a small sample, however, given that very little research exists and the research can be classified in line with action research with a suggested sample size of 30–50 (Morse & Field, 1996), the results are relevant. All the percentages were rounded.
- 23.
One could also argue that the anti-Semitism has always been there, but it seems easier to address the issue if it can be attributed to a group of foreigners constituting the other than dealing with it per se as a problem that the German society as we had had for years.
- 24.
The term “Anti-Semitism” was also used by Gur-Ze’ev and McLaren (2010) to describe “new anti-Semitism with its post-colonialist educational agenda on the other” (p.132).
- 25.
This feeling of anger is highly problematic. It plays in the hand of right-wing extremists and Holocaust deniers calling for a cultural change toward “Ent-Schuldigung.” (Un-apologizing). This was a campaign on YouTube initiated by Nikolai Nerling, a former teacher that was suspended on the grounds of Holocaust denial, he and his followers no longer want to apologize for what happened in German history but instead wanting to rid Germany of the inherited guilt and more importantly of the responsibility that comes with it. Holocaust education is facing new challenges when antisemitism comes in new disguises.
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Hermann-Cohen, MP. (2021). Theoretical Implications. In: Holocaust and Conceptions of German(y) by Israeli learners of German (DAF). Holocaust Education – Historisches Lernen – Menschenrechtsbildung. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-34212-8_2
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