Forgetting Hitler

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A number of teachers complain that they have little institutional support to deal with racism in the classroom. Frustrated and under pressure, some gloss over the subject, simply excuse some students from participation, or even cancel classes on the topic. This sends a dangerous message, not only reinforcing the students' prejudice but also telling the kids that they are not full-fledged members of German society.

'It is wrong to tell Muslims that this doesn't concern them. It is necessary to be aware of history, of mankind,' Turkish-born Sanem Kleff told me. Kleff was a middle-school teacher in Berlin for 20 years and is now director of School Without Racism, an alliance of public schools in Berlin. She thinks what is going on is part of a larger failure: 'Most of these teachers are not prepared to handle the issue of Islamism. They don't know enough about it. But if teachers don't do it, there are a lot of Islamist organizations that have their arms open.'

Excerpted from Guilt & Pleasure (Spring 2007), a quarterly magazine that grapples with questions of Jewish identity, community, and meaning. Subscriptions: $24.95/yr. (4 issues) from Box 23026, Jackson, MS 39225; www.guiltandpleasure.com.

Want more? Read the rest of Utne Reader's September / October package on history:

• History Lessons
  What we're taught and what's ignored
  by Keith Goetzman
• Can We Handle the Truth?
  America's selective memory and massacres long since forgotten
  by Howard Zinn, from the book A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
• In the Trenches
  A powerful war poem teaches history--and humility
  by Patrick Hicks, from Florida Review

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