Protagonists The Holocaust in textbooks

1 protagonists

1.1 perpetrators
1.2 victims
1.3 other protagonists
1.4 individual complexity

protagonists
perpetrators

perpetrators referred ‘nazis’, ‘germans’ , ‘fascists’. individuals commonly named include hitler, himmler, heydrich, höss , eichmann. striking extent hitlercentrism pervades textbook narratives of holocaust, hitler functioning moral repository event, embodied in portraits of hitler, excerpts mein kampf , attribution of sole responsibility hitler in such phrases, found in russian textbooks, ‘hitlerian aggression’ or ‘policy of hitler-germany’. contrast, textbooks in france , germany marginalize role of hitler in favour of explanation of event result of plural causes.

victims

victims named jews , ‘gypsies’ in textbooks countries, while other groups of victims, such slavs, people disabilities, political opponents , homosexuals, named less frequently. other categories of victims named, example, ‘black victims’ or ‘black people’ in south african, rwandan , indian textbooks. generic references ‘inner enemy’ (in 1 russian textbook) or so-called ‘inferior’ or ‘undesirable’ ‘people’ (in chinese, russian , uruguyan textbooks) detract specificity of nazi ideology, while references jewish victims ‘opponents’ (in côte d’ivoire, example) may mislead readers believing jews resisted or posed threat national socialist regime , therefore legitimate target of repression. few textbooks depict jewish life before 1933 or after 1945 (germany 1 example of country textbooks do); textbooks therefore largely present jews voiceless victims , objects of perpetrators’ volition. textbook authors in countries regularly define victims in terms of national groups (as poles, ukrainians , russians in russian textbooks, example) or nationalize jewish identity in terms of ‘polish’and ‘european’ (in chinese textbooks), or ‘ukrainian’ , ‘hungarian’ jews (in french textbooks). numbers of victims named in textbooks approximately half countries surveyed; of these figures accurate, although several textbooks draw attention not overall numbers of jewish victims, numbers of war victims (as in russian textbooks), , numbers of victims of specific nations or of specific camps. images of destroyed cities of hiroshima , dresden in french textbooks or of victims of apartheid in south africa or of chinese people during japanese invasion of 1937 extend scope of victims of other atrocities.

other protagonists

other protagonists include members of resistance, rescuers of persecuted, allies, , local individuals named proper names, such janusz korczak in polish textbooks. few bystanders or collaborators feature in textbooks.

individual complexity

the general distinction between active , passive protagonists, underscored use of passive mode in several textbooks, highlights dichotomy fails acknowledge day-to-day responsibilities , decisions protagonists such kurt gerstein or members of sonderkommando (presented in polish , german textbooks respectively) faced. moreover, focus on concentration , extermination camps places of systematic persecution , murder detracts details of lives of individuals @ stages of holocaust , complex relationships between individuals, between individuals , groups, , between 1 group , another. gender roles , relations during holocaust, embodied in different treatment of male , female prisoners or in behaviour of female camp guards, addressed in none of textbooks in sample; anne frank and/or homosexual victims mentioned in textbooks, albeit without reference gender roles , relations.