Today I sit with my German friend Anne to chat about what she learned in school in Berlin about World War II and the holocaust and such. Podcast style sit and chat! Well kinda. 🙂 This is a lil different than my usual style, which usually means the algorithm will not love me, but I thought it’d be interesting so I’m making it anyway; welcome to my channel haha.
Anne: https://instagram.com/anne.png
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We learned also that we kind of invented the atomic bomb and that’s another of Shame Sor I’m wait you what well that oh Einstein like set the scene World War II is a topic that came up in my US history class pretty much every other year I
Mean in America it makes sense back toback World War Champs however in Germany they’re taught about the war very differently and I thought it’d be interesting if I had my German friend here on to chat about what exactly it’s like growing up in Germany and learning about World War II the Holocaust and
Whatnot so hello Ann where are you from hello I’m from Berlin so would you say Berlin is like the most or least German of all the areas yeah uh actually it’s the least German place it’s like a little island within Germany there’s so many English-speaking people in Berlin comparatively yeah that’s true interest
So you grew up in Berlin went to school in Berlin yeah but I think my growing up was still very like German speaking I went to and this is a disclaimer in general I went to a Christian private school in Berlin really well off and I
Can just speak from my own experience in what I learned at that school but yeah it was a very German growing up I’d say so one of the things that we learn a lot about a big focus of World War II at least from my experience growing up in
The US was a lot about Adolf we learned a lot about Adolf Hitler like a lot of the focuses on like what why did he do this it was obviously it’s a lot about the Nazis but a huge amount is understanding Adolf and from my understanding there isn’t as much of a
Focus on Adolf I feel like it’s the opposite in a way like you don’t want to create a kind of personality cult around someone who’s like in fact I would like to compare it almost to Voldemort in that it’s like he who shall not be named
Not even like saying his name in a way I feel like there’s so much shame connected to the whole topic that the name like if someone says it you’re a bit like oh really yeah but you still have to learn oh it’s just not the focus
In school I suppose the focus is more like Nazis and NS time in general but not not so much about him as a person obvious obviously that’s part of the of the whole history mhm but there’s yeah he’s not the main focus at least for
What what it was like for me in terms of what I had to learn in school I know in fifth grade we learned about the Holocaust by reading a book called Number the Stars which was about a Danish family that when Germany Nazi Germany invaded Denmark they tried to
Like find the Jewish people that were hiding and they tried to smuggle some Jews away but it was our first like introduction to Nazi Germany and World War II that was fifth grade around age 11 what what would you say is rough timeline for when you possibly learned
About that type of stuff I mean it’s hard to remember anything from like primary school anyway but I think we weren’t confronted with the subject just yet so oh interesting it we start uh High School in well I started High School in year five and I think that’s
When it first came up as well I think that’s when we started having history class and then as you said like I think it kind of came up every year every other year oh really um I felt like I was constantly learning about world I and how bad everything was and yeah the
Whole of History seemed to be about that is there a big shame element involved absolutely I think that’s a extremely omnipresent theme in German Society is this kind of like shame and that’s just instilled in all of us do you feel like World War II is something that most
People would feel comfortable about talking as adults as well definitely I I mean it’s it’s a big topic of conversation we all feel this like need to I mean actually we have this like remember culture in culture that we it’s important to keep talking about it as not to forget and I personally
Actually think that our generation is still quite connected in a way with the whole thing emotionally speaking because our parents if you imagine a whole class of students and all of our parents were basically not us grandparents sorry like I’m sorry but our grandparents might not
Like that’s just a fact like if you have a class of 30 people maybe some of them weren’t but everyone has grandparents and great-grandparents who firsthand experienced this and so we’re quite connected to it and I have the feeling that the generations now coming up they’re going to start to be more and
More disconnected so I’m personally wondering how this whole like remembrance culture is going to affect the younger Generations yeah well that’s something that I think about in terms of the way that the UK and the way that America teaches usually World War history is we just really like going on
About it about like oh we won the war it’s amazing we won the war but there’s so much more to history now we’ve had so many years in between then obviously we should be learning about these things lest we repeat them mhm but I wonder if the generations after us and then after
Them will put as huge an emphasis on that perhaps it’s much more of a emotional thing because we’re personally connected to it we feel that we have some kind of personal responsibility not to repeat those mistakes uh at least in my kind of bubble you know I mean there’s also like right-wing extremism
Populism on the rise in Germany unfortunately but um yeah that stands in opposition to this very present culture of remembering did you guys have to read an Frank’s diary I think that was on the curriculum for some schools I personally didn’t which is a shame I was named
After Anne Frank actually really yeah my dad’s name is Frank and so my name’s an so when my mom would call us she’ be like an Frank that’s weird I I find that very strange it is really weird so you didn’t have to read it though but that’s part of a popular
Curriculum yeah definitely because I think that’s something where I feel like most US schools have an Frank’s diary as a requisite you have it’s like the easiest way of broaching the Holocaust in eighth grade roughly is when I did it in my school district uh in the news
Recently it’s being pulled from a lot of school districts do you know the reason enlighten me because of uh its pornography what well there are bits of it in which an specifically talks about like I didn’t know that the like vagina had an alter in inner lobia and I’ve
Been and so because it’s discussing a woman’s body that’s pornographic in the US in which everyone is well conservative parties are just super scared of anything possible okay well you could just scratch that bit and leave in the historically relevant bits no that would be making too much sense
That would make way too much sense well I mean I definitely remember that we talked about the fact that it exists and what it kind of contains in her story but we didn’t read it as like firsthand no did you read any specific books on the Holocaust that you had to like read
Through cuz there I’m done we read those two and that was pretty much it I don’t now that you say it I don’t actually remember reading any like books I think we just like had history books you know like that are made for students in a certain year and they would tell you
What happened but no like actual sources maybe like pamphlets that like the Nazis would distribute I don’t know that kind of stuff interesting that is firsthand do you feel like the shame sl guilt about World War II is taught to you or is it just kind of comes with a
Territory of having to learn about what happen so much it’s definitely taught but not only in school I feel like it’s almost instilled In You by Society in general like you kind of come into class already feeling like that will be the angle yeah like that will be the angle
Because everywhere you go like especially in Berlin it was really nice being able to also go to a lot of museums and historic sites like you know the Holocaust and Memorial in Berlin and all those things and so you grow up already with all of that like info kind
Of around you and you go into history class already knowing that the main emotion is going to be shame yeah and that just kind of perpetuates itself throughout the years of learning about all the things that we did wrong yeah cuz I’ve seen online that uh it’s quite
A debate whether or not you get taught it too much but then again some people think it’s just Relentless in German School supposedly as you keep having to learn about this and it’s like to the point where you’re just I get it I’m upset but at the end when they become
Adults a lot of Germans kind of feel like well I wouldn’t have wanted less considering all the alt-right people that are currently growing that’s exactly how I feel I I actually remember a certain point in school where I was like we have it on the curriculum again
This year you’re nine you’re 10 you’re like I get it you know when you’re a teenager you also kind of feel like okay I I got it but now that I’m an adult I’m so glad also to have people around me everyone understanding just the importance of it all isn’t also
Holocaust denial illegal in Germany that’s true it’s very interesting because we have freedom of speech obviously guaranteed by the Constitution note so we’ve got freedom of speech um and but what does that mean then if you’re not actually like not to be the extra American angle but say we’re free
To say anything you want as long as it’s not on this laundry list of things no okay so the Constitution says that the freedom of speech can only be limited by general laws and a general law means that it cannot forbid a certain opinion and there is one single exception to
This which is Nazi opinions and this obviously went up all the way to the federal constitutional Court who decided that it is built into our Constitution and built into whatever this says against the wording of General law we will’ll just interpret it widely because the Constitution was built as like a
Counter to make sure this doesn’t happen a counter proposal to exactly the rule that we had before we like made this constitution to make sure that exactly this would not happen again and so this kind of stands completely on a different it’s a different thing opposition to the
Nazi party fascinating so you’re kind of that is literally The Only Exception is like no Nazi so like a popular argument that’s made in conservative circles in the UK and America is usually slippery slope argument do you feel like that argument can be made of what are Nazi
Opinions or fascist is it just nais it would be hard to get there because in the end it’s very clearly defined what okay it’s clearly I mean that is relating to the second world war and the National Socialist like there’s no room for interpretation there is there no no
You’re right well some people will try usually yeah okay that’s true when I went to Berlin last time I took a day trip to Dresden and when I went to Dresden I was surprised that I saw swastika type things like just written on and I went oh that’s H wow I didn’t
Think that would be a thing then I found out Dresden is one of the most parts of Germany unfortunately actually it’s mainly the former gdr States so like zon Turing br B that have problems withes right-wing populism mhm clearly not to do with the education well actually there was a case of
Teachers who taught anti-nazi MH to students you know like the the the normal thing that we discussed sure sure sure and they were kind of bullied out of the school um and so there that just happened a couple months ago in Germany wow um because the
I don’t know the school said or the the the parents of the kids were offended by this like two leftwing approach to anti-nazi education yeah so I don’t think you could be two leftwing it’s a very binary system of like you’re either Pro or anti-nazi it’s not like oh he he
Hates the Nazis too much I don’t think there’s a too much though you know yeah well I mean the the IFD you know that new kind of rightwing populist party is on the rise in those lenda in those countries in fortunately so I find that from my uh education there’s not really
A big distinction between Germans in the war and it’s like we were at war with Germany yes Nazi Germany but there’s not as much a distinction between Germany and Nazis Germans and Nazis I’m assuming you guys are taught not just that it’s Germans as in all of you but the
Specific Nazi party of the Germans right um actually I feel like this is a bit of a problem I have a feeling that we were taught that there was this kind of big group of people like a very indistinct like massive people of Nazis and then the war was
Over and there was the denaz ification and now nobody was Nazis anymore and for me that was the only thing that I didn’t like about the about the education that I got really understanding that everyone was almost everyone except for those who were like in direct like opposition
Which weren’t many people that all of Germany was responsible for letting this happen and that after the war it wasn’t just gone like it was like an intrinsic problem like a societal structural problem that to be honest we still haven’t really like removed from the core of the bones
Of the society and so to differentiate between Germans and Nazis it I mean that’s a it’s a tricky question how do you teach that to kids but yeah especially it’s like it was your grandpa yeah and that’s the thing that is exactly the thing but at least
In my family that was always like handled really openly to say like yeah you’re not your granddad but his brother was like you know he was in the Nazi party and for reasons that maybe you can’t blame him for in the end like he needed to
Survive he needed to feed his family and we all like to say that oh back in the day I wouldn’t have joined the Nazi party but it’s kind of like if you really think about it honestly you can see now populism On The Rise yeah that makes sense uh you talked
A bit about densification which is something we don’t really learn much about in at least from my experience from my Us world history course we learned that we came in we kicked them Nazis out and then we just went why did you kick them out we we just we fixed it
What do you mean we just we won we then went we’ll just take a bit of Berlin and then we off back to America to you know build microwaves and fridges beautiful well I that’s the whole problem so what is denif for the audience what is
Denazification I don’t I mean in the end what they’re trying to do is like remove Nazis from positions of power okay okay so well maybe it is true that the Nazi party wasn’t officially in power anymore in the Parliament I mean if you look at the
Fact that all of the courts were filled with Nazi judges and where do you find the same number of non-nazi judges to put into those offices where do you find in the administration and all the Ministries how do you Den naify cuz everyone was wrapped up thousands of people so it’s
It’s Up For Debate how successful that all was it I mean how can you just say oh we’ve got a new Constitution and now everyone will not be Nazis anymore I mean kind of worked in a way I mean definitely there’s not Nazi rule in Germany anymore one sentence at the end
Of the history book will be like oh and then you know the what do you call them so the Russians the American oh the axis and the Allies yeah exactly do you learn about that type of stuff we do I me because it’s interesting living in
Berlin you can like draw a nice little map and see oh this part was then ruled by the Americans and the British and the French and then you know we learn about that too okay but almost in a way that’s too fun we it’s like look at this map
This was a French part this was a British part what so did you have to learn a lot about the US’s involvement like in World War II no what that’s the whole thing we learned obviously you didn’t learn about us saving you from yourselves I think so the main part that
I remember learning about was actually what happened in Germany kind of leading up to and during the war so like all the laws that were passed against Jewish people and the Holocaust and and yeah exactly that like how it must have been between like 1933 and 1945 being in Berlin specifically like
Yeah with with all the laws making it impossible for uh for Jewish people and other minorities to literally just survive in the city and do things uh a huge aspect of World War II education for us is all the battles we have to like be like this year dday we came on
In we fought the Nazis here and then here and then do you have to learn about a lot of the battles and things no not at all maybe it’s just I think a lot of it with the education depends on the teacher that you have sure what their angle is what their like
Interest is I guess like what they put the focus on and we didn’t learn about the war at all like it all starts with the blitz Creek and Poland I was about to say Blitz Creek it’s got to be taught that’s that’s the first thing and then obviously there were like some atom
Bombs and then there were there were some atom bombs boom boom we win [Laughter] oh so did you learn about the Pacific Theater sorry that’s what it’s called did you uh the Pacific Theater is the part of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean like with Japan after
We killed the Nazis oh you killed all the Nazis after we finished the job yeah you did the deification yeah the US just yeah we just did it which we didn’t even kill Hitler he did it himself oh true but yeah so we we’re taught most of the
Stuff about Europe and then we have like one chapter where it’s like yeah also we dropped a couple bombs on Japan I think the focus in the German education is not at all about the Warfare but more about kind of the ideology and the way that it
Actually worked in Germany like what was it like living in a country that was at War and what about all the discrimination and how did that start how we how can we prevent that from happening again it’s more about the ideological side of things I think that
Makes way more sense because the way that uh we were taught specifically is so such a huge focus on the Warfare and like here are the type of tanks and the airplanes and the superiority and the numbers and the battles and it gets really into the data but not actually
Talking about the the Crux of it all yeah like what are you fighting for like why are they dropping those bombs we just got Pearl harbored and then we went all right fine do you learn about Pearl Harbor though rings a bell I mean this makes sense I’m I’m
Just saying it’s it’s uh so it’s literally the US was basically funding and trying to help out in World War II without being involved and then when Japan bombed uh Hawaii we were like well Japan signed a contract with Germany so I guess it’s Nazi kicking time yeah yeah
Well we don’t really learn about any of that we have like the Allies come in and then why are they allies oh because they’ve kind of fought together against Germany for us it was really focused on just like Nazi ideology in Germany and the Warfare not so interesting fascinating that’s actually the most
Interesting thing I get out of this is the the lack of details I I wish we had less of a focus on just dates and numbers and more about IDE olog like what can we learn out of this besides like don’t be a Nazi because the way
That World War II and the Holocaust Nazism and such is taught differently in both countries do you feel like the way that they teach patriotism and nationalism in Germany would be grossly different to how they teach it in the US they just don’t teach it at all it’s not
A thing what do you mean teach well well sorry it’s called uh we I feel like the US literally looked at Nazi Germany’s book and went that’s good let’s try and Implement that level of propaganda so we do do things such as the pledge of allegiance to the flag every single
Morning in school which is bizarre considering in Germany there’s a relationship where people are very proud to be German but in a way that’s not like well but not like that you know what I mean me maybe it’s because I’m from Berlin where we don’t really feel
That German I I think generally around Germany there’s more a sense of local patriotism so like local patriotism okay where you’re like I would say I’m from Berlin and I’m pretty proud to be from Berlin cuz I like the place and that’s where I feel at home and you know but I
Saying I’m German is almost like if someone asked me where I’m from I’d always say I’m from Berlin and not I’m from Germany and to it’s similar to saying I’m European you’re like well that’s a big area I I think it’s more that people have shame connected to
Being German like we don’t really sing our Anthem we don’t when do you sing The Anthem football that’s it just for football well maybe other sports too I don’t know well England sings the national anthem at some sporting events and then at the pub if you’re really
Drunk no I don’t know does that happen I I’ve never heard the English national anthem of but yeah we will sing the US national anthem any chance we can it was implemented into all sports things to drum up patriotism and nationalism oh we just don’t have that no having the
German flag on something just feels wrong I remember moving to England and seeing like the Union Jack the flag on like a cotton of milk because it’s like this is from the UK i’ be like oh you’ve got your flag on there it’s like there’s Flags around people have like I don’t
Know just as decoration we don’t do that we don’t the Union Jack H sorry it’s the the Union flag has way less negative connotations here because it’s more of the unity of the four countries but usually stereotypically if someone has like a uh St George’s cross which is the
English flag that’s usually the same Vibe we were like oh I see sometimes because if someone in Germany has a German flag like hanging from their balcony or like in front of their house you’ll be like Not Tourist May the same thing but it’s in the US I
Don’t know if you’ve ever been to like the Deep South but you I’ve driven through like Mississippi and Alabama and it’s like every single house has like a perfectly constructed flag waving which is also lit at all hours of the night because legally it is written into a
Flag code that if you do not pull the flag down at sundown it needs to be properly lit so that it can be seen waving above your house and isn’t it also a crime to burn it yeah well no this is now in basically there’s a
Freedom of speech so you have the right to protest and burn the flag but it was also against the law to desecrate it and I learned in Scouts that if any part of the flag ever touches the ground when you’re pulling it down it needs to be cremated essentially in an honorable
Way okay yeah God Bless America sorry oh say can you see see you know the American one I also know the German oh you know the German one I did a Meetup when I used to do meetups way back in the day when I went to Berlin and I thought it was
Really interesting how just talking about certain things about World War II people’s eyes just they get they take it extremely seriously it was almost as if they had done it themselves these like 17-year-old fans they were like sense of shame that I mean yeah yeah very interesting whereas I feel like just
From my upbring in the US it’s such a pride of things that we didn’t necessarily do or our dad’s dads might have been involved in it but is it really a sense of Pride to been part of a World War I mean sure you won but like
It it’s just an all over loss for everyone isn’t it we’re not really taught about it like that we’re taught about it as in it’s a huge win for America for us it was just everyone’s a loser maybe that’s why like maybe it’s cuz you lost you’re like we didn’t lose everyone
Lost whereas we’re like we won suck it so yeah I think it’s just a very pacifist way of being taught like the war was just terrible for every will you just focus on like yeah all the lives lost American Pride is so strong but it’s also weak it’s like strong facing very superficial
Level because we’re very proud because everything that we’ve been taught about it but we haven’t been taught everything so it’s this weird sense of false pride and you should be so proud of your country that you will allow people to burn the flag because it’s their right as opposed to being upset because
Someone kneels for the national anthem so it’s like a very shallow Pride you don’t have any pride pride I think we just really see our place in the world also we see that other people look at us as the ones who started both world wars
And sure like we might be a bit proud of having great cars and whatever else might come from Germany I don’t know like some nice inventions that we’ve had but in like a more cultural way the way that we feel within like the world is very apologetic interesting I also find
That Germans are always the number one people I see whenever I travel any anywhere else and they’re always speaking German but then no one that’s German that recognizes German ever they pretend they don’t know each other yeah like we were just on the tube and German
Girl and I’m just like okay no I mean I was de dropping she was talking about speaking German or something yeah she was German on the train in England speaking about speaking Germans yeah no but it’s I do have that feeling that when you’re abroad and you see other
Germans you don’t necessarily want to be like connecting with them it’s there’s not a sense of Pride or cohesion within like oh the Germans amazing see that’s I am cuz I’m like oh I can speak that language is let me give it a shot if I heard Americans when I’m when I’m
Traveling I don’t know I feel like there’s more we can connect with in America I’m like oh we have the same upbringing of like TV shows and things that culturally we were taught and I feel like there’s more of a culture America has a stronger uh binding
Culture I guess you could say yeah also like there’s just within Germany as I said like there’s just this like local patriotism that for me as like a Berliner I don’t necessarily feel like I have so much in common with bavarians like I mean we’re still both German like
It’s all good like it’s all friendly but I wouldn’t yeah but they speak Bish so you’re like I don’t really care I consider myself a Londoner very strongly but I’ve I’ve lived in London I’ve and London’s so different than the rest of the UK that the relationship between my
Experience in London versus someone’s experience in like North shopshire probably very different so like I don’t know how much we can relate besides the fact that we both like Gregs Maybe everyone does we learned also that we kind of invented the atomic bomb and that’s another of Shame Sor I’m wait you
What well that Einstein like set the scene have you seen Oppenheimer though I did I think it’s just part of like us wanting to take all the blame in that case you know it’s like oh well we made it possible was so sorry like so you literally taught you made the atom bomb
Kind of yeah well not made the atom bomb but that Einstein who was he even yeah he was he was German but because he was also Jewish yeah so he had to immigrate to Switzerland right and then the us but uh wow uh we learned that like we were
Just basically the cause of all evil in the world fascinating I was going to talk about interesting Warfare bits but I that’s things you weren’t have been taught like the hidden cities that we made as in like at one point uh England made like a fake City like with where they had
Lights turning on every night even though there was no one living there to trick the bombers into thinking that was a town we learned a lot about what it was like living in Berlin during the war and all the like underground shelters that people would have to go to and then you
Know what what it must have been like being in those shelters having like the the sounds that told you that you had to go like underground and you know people kind of just sitting there all night and having to bond and tell stories and did you have to learn about carrots being
Really good for your eyesight yeah we did that’s a big thing in Germany carrots eat eat your carrots but you know why that’s taught cuz it’s not true oh my god do you not know the answer to this because that’s really fun um I listen to a podcast about this it’s
About World War II and is the English had invented radar and we didn’t want the Nazis to know so we spread propaganda that British are just eating tons of carrots and it made their eyes better so we could see all the planes and so we were hoping the Nazis would be
Like Oh we must eat more kotan I did didn’t tell you that we literally learn 50% of our 10th grade year just talking about World War II just talking about battles like just talking about the buildup the war the D-Day it’s literally 90 days of our school year in 10th Grade
It’s interesting because I looked at the curriculum and basically it doesn’t say in a lot of detail the topics that should be covered I mean it says like na history it’s just about just The Vibes no but it’s more like what should the method be what should the kids learn
Like what kind of ideas should be instilled in them rather than teach them about this Warfare tactic and that atomic bomb how did I not bring up did you have to visit a holocaust like in concentration camp we didn’t I wow I thought that was going to be a thing I
Definitely it is a thing and classes go on like school trips I don’t know why we didn’t cuz we visited the Holocaust Museum uh in New York and in Philadelphia I think during two different years we went to the museum there’s like a there’s a really good
Museum in Berlin that’s also like really really terrifying and I remember it having a big impact on me like I remember one thing that there was like a kid suitcase and that was all they had and like I don’t know it just really got to me and that so that had a similar
Effect maybe but people say like going to the actual camps is different yeah I’ve never done it but I know that there’s so many in Germany that are left up to not forget so that’s like school trip yeah uh my teacher just loved taking us to the school trip uh to the
Cinema the cinema we went to the cinema every every time we would just get the projector taken out you got to go to a cinema to the IMAX to watch Oppenheimer and be like we made this bomb yeah and we’re sorry yeah no I just I I was just thinking about
When I went to New Zealand to do an exchange I saw that really other countries treated treat this topic in a very different way people just make jokes and like I Hitler at me and really like really just they had no sensitivity to the topic and they just thought it
Was funny and I like as like a 14-year-old already I was like completely unacceptable like for us that’s like no go it’s criminal it’s terrible as in like new zealanders kiwis would just they’re like oh we had a German exchange student before and we know something about Germany do you
Still have Hitler like what about him oh my God and then they would like draw swas Stiers and stuff and for me like I remember I was when I was when I was a kid I was at the playground and I saw like in one of the uh play ground like
Bits like a slide or something there was swastika draw drawn there and I went to my mom I was like look what that is we have to like call the authorities like that’s how we feel so scandalous there were loads of swastikas like it’s always playground equipment cuz kids are like
This is a bad symbol I’m going to draw it on a slide he was a kid yeah I think that’s a thing in the US as well but definitely not in Germany I suppose no wow I mean surely there are kids who love to do that just because they want
To be defiant but it’s like Voldemort it’s like the signs the words the topic is like broached in a very responsible manner I make gerny puns in this video that I had to cut because they were offensive I’m so sorry some of my jokes work some don’t Deutch
Land does your brain operate just in puns when your German father dies and he wants to be cremated do you do it in Bavaria cuz you have have to buy earn how many of these do you have I just came up with that really that’s not bad I was just cycling
Through different words that I could split syllables on buy earn buy earn perfect lovely yes can you can you list all the 16 lenda no interesting yeah I don’t know too many it’s like if you tried to name all 50 states I could no you couldn’t I tried it once and I could
I got 51 aren’t there 52 that’s how I know you can’t cuz there’s 50 52 States Puerto Rico is a I thought they were 52 there’s 50 have you lost some in the in Rec no we only gained them Lord anyway uh thank you very much an for coming on having this little
Conversation uh I’d love to hear from you if you’re from Germany and you had a different experience tell us about uh what your education was like if it was a little bit different than an’s or a little bit similar and also if you’re an American or UK person if the things that
I talked about definitely rang true in terms of like a lot of War tactics less ideology might be different in England as I didn’t go to school here but just thought it’d be interesting to hear from your thoughts I’ll be heting my favorites in the comments anyway thank
You guys very much for watching and hopefully I’ll see you on my channel next Sunday Al Fe to Sayan chiao chow chow A choose chy chicy is gross that’s more gross than amazing oh are we already filming yeah well you filming this whole thing even the reming
Yeah I didn’t film that ring oh God oh God I’m also a bit worried that you might want this video to be funny but I have no sense of humor when it comes to Nazis that’s actually part of the video Germans do not have a sense of humor in
General but especially about the Nazis I’m not going to say you’re wrong they don’t even look for the jokes they do not see them coming Nazi oh not see them okay
42 Comments
If you wanna chat about this vid or anything I'll be streaming on twitch right now while editing some Berlin photography I've taken 🙂 https://twitch.tv/evanedinger
An education system that teaches people based upon ethnicity to feal guilty for something their ancestors did, is sort of fascist if you ask me?
Western civilization has never been more fascist and it's the left in America that are pushing the "guilt trip" here.
They're pushing it through the universities and through Wall Street in the public/private partnership. It's textbook fascism.
Nobody is banning Anne Frank😂 And if it’s anyone denying the holocaust it’s your leftist Palestine supporting buddies.
You’re kinda of self hating American. But I will give you credit at least you left the country you seem to hate so much. By the way Germany declared war on the United States you don’t really know your history very well do you.
My father, being Polish, fought for Germany at the start of the war and the Free Poles in the 8th army when he escaped in France. He told me that I mustn't hate Germans but hate Nazis as they killed our family.
The thing about the A bomb… technically it was the germans that invented it… a lot of the people in the US that made the bomb was of german decent.
The battle for Britain was lost by Germany. They invaded Russia, over extended. USA jumped in at the end of the War. The battles with Japan were where the US really changed/helped the world.
Seems like your college failed you since you don’t know anything regarding ww2. But it also shows you are a leftist, due to your comments on having porn like books in young kids schools, so that is understandable as those schools usually push wokism vs information.
Education in UK very much more aligns to the US version. What I would say is the formal written down stuff in UK is much more prescriptive that most other European countries where individual educators get more freedom to explore and how. So the UK has set ideas, aspects, points in history and specific details as prescribed further by exam content. Social ideas and thinking is not very much pushed.
Very good description of Union Vs St George flag difference. However, that applies in England only. In other areas, such as Scotland, the union flag has both negative conatations to do with personal beliefs on subjication, Toryism, and independence. But it both seperatly and slightly co-joined has religious issues around Catholicism Vs Protestantism. Using a Union flag in Scotland, at all, is very much making potentially inflammatory stance on religion, monarchy, and control/imperialism/empire.
Simply put, you don't use a union flag in Scotland as an organisation, business, or individual, unless you are making a statement of one or another (unless a public building required to have it by law)
What I don´t understand is why the people are forced to remember and to not make the same mistakes when it was the leaders that were failing at the time and that was the whole reason why Hitler came up in the first place. The people were actually in quite not so good situation after WW1. The people were just voting for what they considered the best for themselves as working class and being in the Great Depression and also punished for the WW1 it had this as effect. The people could never have known what he was going to do in the future. Now populism exists even in America and in many other countries also extremism. Its very clear that most people haven´t learned from anything at all, but the point is nobody ever said that the problem was populism of right winged. Because right winged has been leading more often without people in camps, the same for populism. America on the other hand has been quite active in fighting wars in the Middle East. I don´t hear much about why that happened in the first place.
That's funny. Banning nazism using nazi principles.
Freedom of speech means there are no limits on speech. There is no such thing in today's world unfortunately.
What peoples issue REALLY is doesnt have to do with speech, It has to do with the desire for freedom from consequence. Which is an impossibility because natural laws don't care about your feelings.
Life is easier now than it has ever been. Comfort has made mankind weak. Mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically, every metric.
I find it to be a little gross how the United States romanticizes war. I've been to the WWI museum in KC, and its essentially broken into 2 halves. The first half paints is about before the Unite States entered the war and how bleak and horrible it was… then you get to the second half and its literally lit differently and it absolutely glorifies the war and what the Unite States role in the war.
One of the most prominent Germans to work on the A-bomb was Enrico Fermi. Right???
Great video. The most interesting thread is how quashing "Nationalism" advanced German local-patriotism. This also happened post-WWII within Japan where schoolchildren celebrate regional historical heritage. Local-patriotism is of interest to me in the US, as my family were the first whites (German-speaking Amish) to move into an "Indian" trading community nearly 300 years ago. The history since in my region (not a large city) is known officially, but not widely. The greatest event being the "trail of tears" when a huge number of family members were deported to Oklahoma. I digress.
Two anthropological connections: One is that while Nationalism is a nebulous sense that fosters fascism, and has little to no tangible value outside of wartimes, regional heritage contains many good things, and is always physically manifest in architecture, art, places, and people. Two, advanced societies globally are suffering terribly under the thumb of capitalism in many ways, one being the similitude of experience with global consumerism. "Local-patriotism" which is the instilling of connection to region heritage does, when these connections are to good things, improve your self-perception, well-being, and participation in society.
On the other side, Anne commented that someone with German flags hanging out from the balcony was probably a Nazi (and you said "tourist", or more likely meant 'for tourists'). You later discussed the Deep South (of USA) where people put flags out (and I assumed you were going to say "rebel" flags) and had to light them at night. First, when I grew up 90s churches and schools all had flags and many who didn't take them down also didn't light them at night. Certainly many homes didn't. Second, the places where this Nationalist sentiment runs are the same places that people do have their alt-flag (which is legal, unlike the crooked cross in Germany). I'M NOT saying all the flags in the deep south are whispering something, but that it is the SAME THING as the German flag wavers Anne mentioned. This thing IS NATIONALISM, and it does feed fascism, which is nominally only top-down control of a society. It is the independent subordinate component which does not need to adapt, to fit fascism. Fascism is not itself evil, but historically it is more capable of great evil than messy democracy with its freedom of speech. Fascism becomes weak in much less than a single generation, as free thinking is not taught and great minds are not cultivated through recognition into advisor roles. Eventually, the dictator becomes an island of thought, such as Xi Jinping, who has a SERIES OF BOOKS which attest this very circumstance. What he says therein means much less than their mere existence. Finally, Erich Fromm delivered a powerful condemnation of Nationalism, in his book "Escape from Freedom". (It has a slightly different title in the UK publishing) Its a mark of freedom anywhere this book is not banned.
God damn i love German girls. Those eyes!
Good lord shes my type.
This guy is almost insulting on many levels!
Wrong , it’s a pride for freedom. We fought evil .
As a Gen X Canadian I grew up hearing stories from my Oma & Opa who had fled soviet occupation to Canada in 1951. Grandpa Jack, however, rarely spoke of his war experience or the blitz, though I knew he disliked blue Christmas lights. What I find the most interesting in this video is that confluence of personal perspective, education and cultural filter that we all carry with us.
Part of the Canadian perspective on the war is how seriously most of us take Remembrance Day, November 11. Most schools prepare a few lessons around this event, and the ceremonies at the Cenotaph are well attended. The mood is always somber and reflective, never bombastic. I felt that my son was not getting enough instruction on the events, so I gave him a copy of Maus. We also know about the internment camp in our area -not the same, but not fair either.
I was surprised that Ann never mentioned the Soviets as part of her story, though they absolutely annihilated Berlin and had such a profound influence on the city post war. Those were the horror stories I grew up with, and I still remember East Berlin from a visit when I was 10. The atomic bomb responsibility was interesting too; German scientists had more to do with the moon landings than Fat Man & Little Boy!
I was less surprised to see Evan's impressions. Battles, triumphs and 'our team won' is what sticks in the mind of a young mans mind. I can relate, but I've learned much beyond this from personal curiosity and many excellent YouTube channels: shoutout to the Time Ghost Army!
All the same, I was a touch disappointed in his "USA won the war" attitude (somewhat exaggerated I'm sure). Hitler declaring war on the USA was one of his dumbest mistakes!
One of the more disturbing things I've seen are the German migrants who came to Canada without the de-Nazification. For example, one of my neighbours (here in Canada) who immigrated in the '70s still clung to these beliefs: photo of Hitler on the wall, listened to his collections of 'lessons from the leader' every day. I don't think this was an isolated incident, he was just too dumb to hide it.
Thank you for the interesting video, well done!
We learned about Operation Paperclip in California schools. Also in the movie The Right Stuff, there's a scene where one of the German scientists tells NASA and the president that "our Germans are better than their Germans" referring to the Soviet Union-American space race.
Mmm I do wonder what Americans are taught. Certainly they helped to win, but they didn't win WWII single handed.
It was a British scientist who first came up with the theory and took it to America
Flags are bullshit.
Einstein was a theoretical phycisist. He couldn't have made a bomb in a million years.
I am interested in hearing what the other two "states" are. 🤔
Nazi Germany learned how to do effective propaganda and discriminatory laws by studying how the US did it to African Americans. That isn't taught to us in school here in the US. We have to have a reckoning with that.
The way he threw conservatives under the bus for Anne frank as a corno, thats not the scenario they are angry about, it's more so the same gender crap
Older American here. I was educated in New York public schools during the 60’s & early 70’s. I’m sorry to hear that so many people seemed to have received such a limited education regarding the events leading up to & including the WW2 era.
We probably started being introduced to serious history topics around 5th grade [age 10]. Once we reached grade 7, junior high school, we had fairly extensive history courses, every semester. We had courses in American & world history.
We focused on the significant events that occurred in the various time periods & regions of the world. Students were required to have 6 full years, grades 7-12, [12 full semesters] of history classes.
It was a British and Irish physicist, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, respectively, who first split the atom to confirm Einstein's theory. Cockcroft was born in 1897 and served on the Western front during World War I. That's how the atom bomb came about
“We have free speech except if you have this opinion” that’s not free speech….
Arrogance and lies are easily visible whenever the American speaks ,it ruins the video ,reality is systematically denied ,it is also denied the role of Russia .Also America lies a lot in almost everything he speaks .
Frankly, Germans are lucky they get to teach history at ALL. How such a people weren’t scattered to the winds and their gross, guttural language and culture dissolved is beyond me. Universal enemy of the world for a century and somehow they’re still around.
Baffles me.
I was taught about certain battles in my Ohio school, but as a University student, we studied the people of the time. The atrocities of the Holocaust. We went more into the social lessons from the war, and the aftermath leading to Stalin, the Wall, etc. My dad was older (50 when I was born) and was a WWII vet. My uncle was a medic. His stories were very different than bland history books. No offense to your friend, but he thought Germany should have been given to the Jewish people.
Actually the Germans came very close to inventing the abomb the resistance sunk a ferry caring heavy water to the research location where the other components were if they had not started to lose at that time they may have been 1st. As to every one being a Nazi my best friends father was in the SS I once asked him how he could be part of it as he seemed a nice guy. His answer was this "As a teenager I saw all the aggression most felt against the french for the treaty of Versi as it made life very bad food and fuel shortages. And then many groups promised to make things better people felt desperate When the Nazis came to power they brought jobs and national pride seemed like a good thing then slowly it just turned bad, one day they came said you need to join the army you can join the regular troops or the SS. the regular troops got poorer foods and equipment, the SS got nice new shiny boots better cloths and food. The war had just started so there was no bad press about the ss you had to chose of go to jail so SS seemed like the best choice. He never liked politics and had no desire for war but much like the draft it was what it was. I was left with the thought evil can creep up on you even if it seems like a good thing at the time. As I watch marxisim grow in the US I feel the same concern
As a Swede our education is somewhere in between the US & German version. We are taught a fair amount about history/dates/warfare and quite a lot about ideology. We even have a little slice of shame because we didn't fight on the Allied side and allowed German troops to pass through Sweden to Norway. We were in fact cooperating with the Allies covertly but the government had a tough balancing act because many Swedes wanted to join our brother nation Finland which would have landed us with the Axis on Germany's side.
The scientists, engineers, mathematicians, theorists, industrialists and others whose many years of hard work led to the building of the atomic bomb were from many (mainly western) countries. It was German scientists who first split the atom but German scientists were only scratching the surface of what was involved in the manufacturing and deployment of a nuclear weapon. Germany wasn’t even close to building a nuclear bomb by the war’s end. I would have thought that German history students would have been better educated about such an important subject. Especially as Berlin would have been a target for a nuclear weapon had WW2 gone on for much longer.
LoL What crap… Germany did not invent the A Bomb and thank God or gods or whatever what crap … sorry Heisenberg could have …(being a former Physics Student ) but also Einstein … fled to the US ..sorry and I have a former German partner from Wedding Berlin and have three half German Irish boys so.. .What eh … sorry you never invented the A bomb I think I need to move my kids from here if they are learning this crap . TO BALANCE This point unlike the UK … you dont get an Empire by being NICE you discuss it ..the British are not taught about "how they got an Empire"
YES Brandenberg … just outside Berlin… not a nice place… technically Tesla factory is in Brandenberg ..
And Dear Evan you country pinched Von Braun ..to give you rockets ..overlooking his …"party alignment" PS Im Irish so I or my country owns a lot to the US so dont take it personal but just have to comment ..when it suited ..nazis were forgiven… if they could give something to the US and elsewhere..
1) In the US my education had equal focus on the Holocaust, the WWII major battles, and the political/economic setup from WWI into WWII.
2) While the shame aspect is not as large as in Germany, we get "It happened somewhere, everyone everywhere must take personally responsible to prevent it from happening again.". I expect it to still be taught long into the future for that reason alone.
3) We did not learn enough about the domestic German experience. Those paying attention might wonder why the Nazi party had so many members and why they were able to stay in control, but we don't learn about that side. I think there are lessons from that we should be learning.
Born in 1990, grew up in eastern NC. My experience in education regarding WW2/ US History was pretty different than this guy’s. I don’t really remember any of the US “glorification” it sounds like here. We had the pledge in the mornings and whatnot, but that’s about where it stopped. We learned important dates and important events, but most of my memories of learning about it was discussing the effects of the Holocaust, why Japan attacked, when and how the war ended, that sort of thing and then I just remember the class moving in to Reconstruction when everyone came home. Don’t recall it being framed that we were world saviors or anything, and we were made to understand that it was not a positive thing. Is this guy older than he looks? His framing sounds how it would maybe have been taught when my dad was in school
They're partly right. German commie Klaus Fuchs worked on the US a-bomb project, funneling much of the research to Stalin. The German Nazis tried to warn America, which was run by liberal Democrats at the time. The rest is history.