Why is Hitler vilified more than Stalin? Stalin starved to death between 5 and 7 million people, mostly farmers. Some put the figure at 10 million. Hitler exterminated approximately 6 million Jews. Ideology and intent of Hitler to exterminate Jews, an identifiable ideology for observers at the time even without social media to spread the word? If Stalin had come out and said he was going to get rid of the farmers that he hated then would that have been an identifiable ideology? If it was known that Stalin closed the curtains on his train so his family couldn't see the starving (he really did this) would that make a difference to how he is remembered? And then there was Pol Pot who eliminated 3 million in Cambodia through starvation, murder and torture. And Ho Chi Minh, numbers dead not finalised or agreed even decades later.
People say on Holocaust Day in January each year "this must never be forgotten". Of course it shouldn't but it will be. I know that is a controversial thing to say because I see each year on blogs people being adamant that it will never be forgotten. I shake my head at their naivity. The Nazi hunters will all be dead. Mengele, the Angel of Death, will be forgotten and people will stare at those who expect others to remember. As the years go by it becomes more and more a memory for only the older generation. If you talk to young people today there is a kind of a blank face. They've heard of it, like it is remembering something they hear old people talking about and then someone amongst them will mutter something about the Middle East.
Blogs give a lot away about distorted memories people have even of our generation. For instance many bloggers wouldn't want to know that Kennedy probably made a lot of mistakes over Vietnam and would prefer to erase anything bad about him. They would be happy to have mistakes of Trump or Johnson highlighted but not those of Starmer or Biden. Johnson was a very weak PM as was Cameron, Theresa May was the worst PM ever and a liar from beginning to end who attended church each Sunday and prayed for forgiveness I assume.
When all my generation are dead Hitler and Stalin will be confined to the history books along with Waterloo, the Spanish Armada, the Armenian Genocide, Nelson, the Balkans Wars of the 1990s, the Srebrenica Genocide and many many more.
I was listening to Rear Admiral Chris Perry yesterday. He is now retired. He was asked to report to the Government on defence strategies but was unable to get any of his recommendations past the civil servants who are the conduit to the PM. They didn't approve of what he said. So he has joined Reform. If Reform were to win the election and form a Reform government they would not be able to change anything unless they change the role and force of the civil servants formal advice to government.
Human memory has always been selective, both on a collective and an individual basis. Here in Germany, no young person who has been going to school in this country can show a blank face when someone talks about the Holocaust, as it is part of the curriculum not only in History as the obvious subject, but also in Ethics (for those who do not attend Religious Education), German and Gemeinschaftskunde (I don't know whether there is an exact equivalent name for this subject, teaching about politics and society). Classes go on trips to memorials at the places of former concentration camps and to museums. In other words, there is no way they can NOT know about it.
ReplyDeleteBut, as we see time and time again, throughout human history our species has not learned NOT to commit atrocities against each other, given enough power and motivation.
The Holocaust is part of the curriculum taught to 13/14 year olds with a stand alone heading that is probably partly destructive in itself instead of coming under the "history" umbrella. I do not know whether any comparisons are made to other atrocities, for instance, as pointed out in my post. The level of competence of teaching of it is just like any other subject and depends upon the teacher himself/herself. I know that some schools here go to visit Auschwitz for a fact because in our local press a school was reported where pupils had "stolen" artifacts from the victims personal belongings on display and had been stopped on leaving and thought it was something of a game. However in many many schools the attention given to history may still result in a quick shrug of shoulders and moving on to something else. Standards of education in Britain are often low to poor aiming for the lowest common denominator and the Baccalaureate exam has now been dropped in the British schools that offered it. This exam was far more broad in education than our narrow specialist subjects of A level which means that as soon as you choose your 3 A level subjects everything else is dropped. When I was a university admissions officer the International Baccalaureate was far more respected than A levels. I met a woman on a course recently who informed the class that her son (now in his 40s incidentally) considered the Holocaust 'an exaggeration'.
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